This week, I spun just some of my favorite songs released by artists based around metro Detroit and all across the state of Michigan. Emphasis on some, hah! Because there’s just so many to choose from and, for me, so difficult to narrow it down, but I did my best.

I’ve been covering the local music scene for 20 years, and more than eight of those years have been here on WDET. Each year I’ve found myself giving a similarly-worded year-end appraisal: more and more (and more) amazing music keeps coming out of Detroit! Music that is engaging, experimental, impressively produced, catchy-as-hell, and frankly, inspirational!

Spin the episode above to hear more of my thoughts, and look below to find a list of my top 10 favorite songs of the year!

Fav Songs of 2025!

1.) The Bloodletting – Phabies

2.) Jesse – Danny VanZandt

3.) The Middle – Na Bonsai

4.) Fearless & The Pure – Elisabeth Pixley-Fink

5.) Black Cat Operator – Rogue Satellites

6.) Wildflower – Nancy Friday

7.) Fast Food Napkin – Low Phase

8.) Looks Like We’re Alive – Spencer LaJoye

9.) Do It All – The City Lines

10.) Anymore – Mirror Mask

And stay tuned for two more episodes of MI Local in the year of 2025: 

Tuesday, Dec. 23: Highlighting original holiday music by local artists, plus in-studio guests include members of local rock groups Strange Witch and The City Lines, both of whom will perform original Christmas music and a classic cover!

Tuesday, Dec. 30: I’ll run through a bunch of great songs released during the year of 2025 that I nearly missed, plus in-studio guests Emily Rose and Audra Kubat will hang out to perform some original songs live, as well as a cover of Auld Lang Syne!

Happy New Year & Happy Holidays! Thanks for listening!

This week on MI Local, we ran through some of the latest releases by artists based all around metro Detroit and southeast Michigan, including the dream-pop duo, Bluhm, and the garage-goth six-piece known as Mirror Mask!

We also caught back up with the latest from singer/songwriter Corazon Szell, an Ann Arbor-based artist who was recently featured at WDET’s Sounds Like Detroit Showcase in August, at Batch Brewing! The aforementioned Mirror Mask has a show coming up next week at the Magic Stick with Protomartyr, and we also looked around to other notable shows happening, including one at the Ghost Light with the alt-folk indie-rock group Burning Ponies.

Our in-studio guests this week included singer-songwriter and poet Drew Bardo, who recently released the blues-funk fusion track “Wicker Boa.” Bardo has been around the music scene for a couple decades, with a range of previous projects and collaborations, but his recent release marks a return from a roughly five-year long hiatus!

While in the studio, Bardo talked about the latest album he’s been working on, an upcoming single that and music video that he’s dropping this Friday. We wrapped up our segment with Bardo performing another new song, “A Fool’s Dream,” live with Ella Kulik on violin and backing vocals.

My other in-studio guest this week was Stacey MacLeod, one-half of the “punk”-rock duo known as Dear Darkness!  I put punk in quotes because that subject comes up during our interview. This dynamic duo of musicians, singers and visual artists have a new album, “Gold, Guns, and More”, out this weekend, with a release party on Friday night at the High Dive in Hamtramck.

While drummer and vocalist Michelle Thibodeau couldn’t make it in, MacLeod and I chatted about the group’s origin, their unique sound, and we checked out the title track from the album, which was inspired by strip malls. After that, MacLeod treated us to a special live performance of her original Christmas song, “At The Mall.”

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

• “Slow Rewind” – Bluhm
• “Anymore” – Mirror Mask
• “Don’t Make Me Cry” – Barelyon
• “Meet Me On Mars” – North Ingalls & Corazon Szell
• “Good Friends” – The Burning Ponies
• “Wicker Boa” – Drew Bardo
• “A Fool’s Dream” – Drew Bardo & Ella Kulik, live in WDET Studios
• “Gold, Guns, & More” – Dear Darkness
• “At The Mall” – Stacey MacLeod (Dear Darkness), live in WDET Studios

Tis the time of year for giving thanks, and we want to thank everyone out there who’s been tuning in to all of the local music shows featured during the evening hours on WDET, including (and particularly?) MI Local!

This week, we meet more of the unique personalities and creative minds behind the music coming out of metro Detroit, including the retro rock ‘n’ rollers known as Lyons Lane, and the mesmerizingly melodic alt-folk vibes of Jeffrey Jablonski, which means we ALSO had the opportunity to exclusively premiere some new songs!

Now, the night before Thanksgiving is notoriously known as “the busiest bar night of the year.” To the tons of folks home for the holidays who may or may not be lucky enough to not be saddled with turkey-duty at the break of dawn: this means that pretty much every local venue in town is hosting a great lineup of local music, from former MI Local guests Power Moonroof performing at UFO Bar, to WDET favorites like Deadbeat Beat at the Outer Limits Lounge!

Tonight, I’m shouting out a lineup over at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti, featuring the alt-country indie-rockers Cowgirl: we kicked off the show with their song “How on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Speaking of Ypsilanti, we also heard from that town’s eminent indie-folk singer/songwriter, Matt Jones, with his new single “All My Stars,” from his forthcoming album, “The Good Life,” out on Dec. 12. Other new tracks include Kalamazoo-based songwriter Spencer LaJoye’s “Looks Like We’re Alive” and Detroit-based lo-fi duo The Long Stairs with “Running Cold.”

Mark Leo, the lead singer of the rock ‘n’ roll outfit known as Lyons Lane, stopped by the studio to premiere a new single, “Emma’s Addiction.” 

Leo spoke with me about his lifelong love of melodic rock ‘n’ roll and classic pop, as well as the development of this project with collaborator Tomcat Thompson. Leo, along with Thompson and saxophonist Matthew Stevens, treated WDET listeners to a live in-studio performance, covering “Love Potion No. 9.” Lyons Lane’s next show is on Dec. 13, at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. 

Jeffrey Jabolnski, a Detroit-based alt-folk singer-songwriter, also came by the studio to hang out for an interview and live performance.

Jablonsky’s been writing and recording for years, and has been performing live around the scene for more than a decade. He also hosts the Ghost Light Sessions residency on the last Wednesday of each month this year and Wednesday will be the last show of the year for that series.

Jablonski let us premiere a new song while also treating listeners to a live in-studio performance, accompanied as a trio with acoustic guitar and wind instruments.

Joining Jablonski is Matthew Beyer (saxophone), Leslie Wacker (clarinet) and Todd McNulty (drums); McNulty, it should be noted, while not pictured below, actually performed with both Jablonski and, on the spot, sat in with Lyons Lane to add percussion to their set too! Always a fun time on MI Local!

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

Check the playlist below and listen to the episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.

• “Who Else” – Cowgirl
• “Running Cold” – The Long Stairs
• “All My Stars” – Matt Jones & the Reconstruction
• “Looks Like We’re Alive” – Spencer LaJoye
• “Something About You” – Premium Rat
• “Babytalk” – Lyons Lane
• “Love Potion No. 9” – Lyons Lane (live in WDET Studios)
• “Emma’s Addiction” – Lyons Lane
• “Tula” – Jeffrey Jablonski
• “Side By Side” – Jeffrey Jablonski

This week on MI Local, we checked out three new albums by, of course, local artists, including the indie rock trio Idle Ray with “Airports”, Panda House with their self-titled EP coming out on Dec. 12, and indie-singer-songwriter Jesse Shepherd Bates, with “Extra Texture”—the latter has a release party this Saturday at the Lexington!

We also heard some Midwest emo/post-punk rock from the trio known as Marcus the Apex Predator, and the latest from the versatile producer Eddie Logix.

Our in-studio guests included Kristin Lyn from Ladyship Warship! Lyn is the drummer and vocalist from the husband-wife rock duo that also features Eric Myers on guitar, but as we note in our interview, more often than not it’s a Mandocello! Lyn talked about Ladyship Warship’s most recent album, “Lacrimosus Intolerantem,” as well as the two new music videos that they’ll be releasing, with one dropping Thursday ahead of their show on Thanksgiving night, Nov. 27 at the Outer Limits Lounge.

Sonic Smut, meanwhile, are a “loud” psychedelic rock trio who have a new album out next weekend, “Eye Bleach.” We sampled some of their invigorating new tracks before the trio successfully adapted one of their gnarly/groovy guitar/keyboard based tracks into a pared back acoustic version!

You can see Sonic Smut perform live next Friday, Nov. 28, at the Paris Bar as a part of a dual album release with The Idiot Kids, who are releasing their next album, “Instants.” Idiot Kids, led by Jon-Mikal Bartee, have been in-studio guests on a couple occasions prior; we spun one of their new songs, “Mr. E.”

Full tracklist below! Check it out and listen to the media player above for two weeks after it airs.

• “Memories Burn (Whenever You Dream)” – Idle Ray
• “M.M.M.” – Jesse Shepherd-Bates
• “Overexposure” – Panda House
• “Plenty & Shine” – Marcus the Apex Predator
• “Sun of Elizabeth” – Eddie Logix
• “Death By Nostalgia” – Sonic Smut
• “Freakquency” – Sonic Smut
• “Good Ones” – Ladyship Warship
• “Marks The Spot” – Ladyship Warship
• “The Only Way Out is Through” – Ladyship Warship

This is an extended interview from MI Local, with WDET music host Jeff Milo interviewing Traverse City-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist folk artist Laurel Premo, about her new album, ‘Laments,’ and the series of forthcoming videos for each of the four songs.

Premo is a lifelong admiration for American traditional folk styles with orchestral elements and Nordic arrangements.

She has been writing, arranging, and touring internationally since 2009. In 2021, she released “Golden Loam,” her first album as a proper solo-artist.

On Halloween, she released the poignant EP, “Laments”—four orchestral folk pieces as odes of griefwork, exploring the possibility of grief being an ecstatic act that helps connect oneself with the tremendous energy and love that leads to these immense feelings, with a focus on how this love and loss is all about the deep connections we’ve forged.

The first video, “Laments,” premiered recently, and more will be on the way soon.