What if a radio show could almost feel as frenetically fresh as your Instagram feed? Welcome to MI Local: your one-stop shop for literally the latest in local music, particularly when a cavalcade of new releases comes tumbling into my inbox just in time for the show!

Pictured above, we have Mother Night, a new cinematic-sounding indie-rock quintet coming out of Ypsilanti; they have their debut full-length album, “Hungry Ghost,” out on Nov. 30, and we were able to premiere their lead single, “Looking Skyward,” before it even appeared on Bandcamp or iTunes (or elsewhere). Mother Night will perform an album release party next Saturday at the Dreamland Theatre in Ypsilanti.

One of my favorite new artists in town, Bluhm, recently released a full-length album, “Midnight Hill.” They were previously in-studio guests, earlier in the summer, where I interviewed vocalist and guitarist Claire Bluhm and multi-instrumentalist and producer Cameron John Marion. Bluhm will be releasing a new single, “Double Dream,” this Friday, but you can hear it — exclusively — on MI Local this week!

Singer-songwriter and music educator Audra Kubat will lead an impressive lineup of songwriters at this weekend’s “Friday Night Live,” at the DIA. Kubat is working on a follow-up to her 2019 album, “The Sliver and the Salve,” and (surprise) we were able to hear an unreleased track from this as-of-yet-untitled-follow-up, with a beautiful ballad titled “Hand and Leaf.”

But there’s more! Two local garage-pop trios, Zem and Prude Boys, are putting out a split EP, featuring three songs by each band. A digital release should be available on the internet any day now, but you can hear Zem’s “Finger,” and Prude Boys’ “Insane” on this week’s MI Local.

Plus, we heard the latest hip-hop track from happytree, the latest punk shredder from The Antibuddies, and a danceable electro-pop track from the project known as Haunted House!

• “Back N Forth” – happytree
• “EXT266” – Haunted House
• “Looking Skyward” – Mother Night
• “Imagine My Eyes” – Ronny Tibbs
• “Veterans Park Ice Arena” / “Arbor Oaks Park” – Timothy Monger
• “Double Dream” – Bluhm
• “New Forgetting” – Fred Thomas
• “First Place” – pia the band
• “Calloway” – Laurel Premo
• “Leaf and Hand” – Audra Kubat
• “Finger” – Zem
• “Insane” – Prude Boys
• “Verde” – Mooses
• “Mothman Live(s)” – The Antibuddies

This week, we’re listening to a lot of new music from talented Michigan-based singer-songwriters — kicking things off with a sweet, twangy and subtly profound alt-country ballad from Ann Arbor’s Lily Talmers, “The Big Idea.”

Also featured on this week’s MI Local is Grand Rapids-based singer-songwriter Spencer LaJoye, with a beautiful yet heartrending song titled “Death Drive.” LaJoye has even more new music coming out this Friday, ahead of their co-headlining performance at the Ark in Ann Arbor on Nov. 21.

But we had even more songwriters with recently-released tracks, including Alto-based Kyle Joe with “Take It Easy,” featuring Ypsilanti’s Kylee Phillips — catch Kyle Joe this Friday in Lake Orion at 20 Front Street.

I was able to bring WDET listeners exclusive premieres from local rock groups like Rose St. Germaine ahead of their 7-inch vinyl release coming up on Saturday night at The Congregation. We also played brand new music from local country-rockers Loose Koozies, who have an album release party set for Dec. 7 at the Outer Limits Lounge. Plus, local garage-pop duo Checker have a new EP out this week, capped off with a show at The Polka Dot in Hamtramck this Friday night.

But it also wasn’t just folk, and rock, we heard new hip-hop from George Montrelle and some lo-fi shoegaze from Overly Polite Tornadoes.

• The Big Idea – Lily Talmers
• Death Drive – Spencer LaJoye
• My Love – Cal In Red
• Skin Suit Serenade – Career Funeral
• Give Rise – George Montrelle
• Wobbly Wheel – Loose Koozies
• Too Long – Rose St. Germaine
• Potential New Apartment – The Plutophonics
• Wrong Things – Brother Elsey
• Slow Motion – Checker
• Take It Easy – Kyle Joe
• Something More, Something Else – Zach Peterson
• Slow It Down – Overly Polite Tornadoes
• Weekend Warrior – Venus In Spurs

Happy Halloween, everyone! This week, on MI Local, I dedicated the latter third of the show to play some songs that aren’t conventionally Halloween-themed, lyrically speaking, but they just have a certain vibe about them that feels frightfully fitted to the spooky season.

Leading off that set is the theremin-centric soundscapes of Via Mardot, with a song called “Portals.” This is a slightly older song by the multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer, but you can follow her on Instagram and find more information about her latest album, Higher Higher Burning Fire.

Along with these “eerie-Halloweeny,” or, as I dubbed them, “…music to carve pumpkins to…,” I also played new music from Kalamazoo-based singer/songwriter Elisabeth Pixley-Fink and Detroit-based artist Na Bonsai. We were also to exclusively premiere new tracks from Ypsilanti singer-songwriter Chris DuPont and Detroit-based indie-rock band Speed Circuit, the latter of which has an album release party THIS SATURDAY at Bowlero Lanes Lounge!

I’m off next Tuesday, as NPR presents live coverage of the presidential election, but I’ll have another power-hour showcase of all-local music ready for you on Nov. 12 — Tune in!

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

This week, MI Local was packed with several exclusive premieres of new tracks by local artists, including Taylor DeRousse, with “Ruins,” and the duo known as Dirt Room with “Solar Hits.” I also gave listeners sneak previews of songs that aren’t released yet (but will be soon), including punk trio The Idiot Kids, with their cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” and the versatile rock band Rose St. Germaine, with their forthcoming 45 rpm vinyl release, “You’ll Always Love Me.”

I also had another in-studio guest this week! Detroit-based singer-songwriter Josie Palmer stopped by to talk about some of her recent releases, as well as premiere a new track, “Tuck Everlasting.” Palmer blends alt-folk and indie-rock to augment her subtle-yet-staggering vocal talents which wend their way into slow, swooning choruses that curl into catchy and dreamy melodies. Palmer’s new song, “Tuck Everlasting,” was inspired by the plot of the Natalie Babbitt book, and its film adaptation, regarding the difficult choice of forging one’s own path, particularly applied to breaking out of the cycle of emotional codependency in relationships.

Palmer’s father was a jazz musician who “could play every instrument,” and she quickly aspired to follow in his footsteps. Her parents eventually got Palmer her own guitar “because I kept dragging (my dad’s) guitar around the house as a kid, and banging it up.” After learning guitar, it was piano, then voice lessons, then violin, then youth symphonies and then “a lot of musical theater.”

So, with music being such a focal point of her life, I couldn’t resist asking Palmer what she loves most about it.

“It’s the closest thing we have to magic,” said Palmer, “that’s my best way to describe music.”

Palmer started releasing songs three years ago, but she’s actually been writing and composing for much of her life, in fact, aside from the “magic,” Palmer particularly loves the creative process.

“But I had a lot of inhibitions about releasing music, which is always in this headspace of feeling like I wasn’t allowed to, even though no one was saying that. So, it’s been nice in recent years, just writing more and feeling free to put it out in the world.”

Palmer is also in the band Vaega, a quintet which leans into dream-pop and shoegaze — with each member also having their own respective solo projects. Find Vaega’s recent singles here.

Josie Palmer will be performing live this Thursday Night at the Corktown Tavern.

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for Oct. 22, 2024

• “Ruins” – Taylor DeRousse
• “One Too Many Times” – Lauren Blackford
• “Big Sun” – Ingo Swann
• “The Enchanted Isles” – Deastro
• “Solar Hits” – Dirt Room
• “You’ll Always Love Me” – Rose St. Germaine
• “Talk To Me” – Neu Blume
• “Burn” – The Cult of Spaceskull
• “Paranoid” – The Idiot Kids
• “Tuck Everlasting” – Josie Palmer
• “REM” – Josie Palmer
• “Soft” – Vaega

This week on MI Local, I received another visit by a local artist/musician, so that they could personally share a new song with our listeners! R&B singer-songwriter C3 stopped by to premiere his latest song, “The Other Man,” which he spoke about during our interview.

“I really just wanted to write a record for the good guys,” C3 said. It’s about finding “a good-hearted individual” who can “protect you and love you, forever.”

It’s also a song that’s quite danceable, while also showcasing C3’s vocal talents.

Along with this premiere, we heard brand new music from Detroit rock trio Shadow Show, and Ypsilanti-based singer-songwriter Kylee Phillips. We also previewed WDET’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Horror Show II, hosted by Jon Moshier next weekend at the Cadieux Cafe.

Stream the whole show and you’ll also hear some great local tracks that capture a quintessentially autumnal vibe, including Kalamazoo-based artist Jordan Hamilton and Detroit’s own Zilched.

• “The Good Parts” – Kylee Phillips
• “Baba Yaga” – Shadow Show
• “The Other Man” – C3 (In-Studio Guest)
• “Graveyard Rockin'” – The 3-D Invisibles
• “The Morning After (The Monster Mash)” – Norcos Y Horchata
• “Dark Dance” – Detroit Riddim Crew
• “Mezcal” – Duende
• “Sun” – Windy & Carl
• “Like The Dead” – Carmel Liburdi
• “Halloween” – Misty Lyn & the Big Beautiful
• “Believe In” – Jordan Hamilton
• “Radio Tower Blues” – Raw Honey
• “Loveless” – Zilched

• “Different Animal” – The High Strung
• “Embankment” – Fred Thomas
• “Arcturus Beaming” – The Crane Wives
• “Gas Station Joe Jonas” – no problemo!
• “It’s Nice To Stand Outside” – Sunbather
• “Leto II Accepts the Sandtrout Onto His Body” – Olivia Kieffer
• “TV Star” – Mod Lang
• “The Box” – Deadbeat Beat
• “Thin Mirrors” – Low Phase
• “PTS” – Bivouac Cabs
• “Gold Lake” – Ki5 & Aviva Match
• “Morning Eyes” – The Morning Eyes
• “Mermaid” – Henry Walters
• “Where Are You Going” – Ally Evenson
• “To Say Goodbye” – May Erlewine
• “I’m A Fool” – Ménage Détroit

This week on MI Local, I welcome three local musicians to chat about football as well as music!

It turns out there’s actually a wide-ranging and very active fantasy football league comprised of metro Detroit musicians. Jesse Shepherd-Bates (Bad Magnets, Handgrenades) George Morris (Reggi Roomers, Handgrenades), and Jason Stollsteimer (formerly of The Von Bondies, Pony Show, and the Hounds Below), stopped by to talk about how their league started, how it all works, and why it’s proven to be a very satisfying way for friends and creative collaborators to stay in touch throughout the year(s).

Additional local bands represented in this league include The Beggars, Eck! Ronny Tibbs and Citizen Smile.

I also premiere new tracks from Josie Palmer (of the band Vaega), Rowan Niemisto and Tunde Olaniran — and take a look at the upcoming record release party by rock quintet The Hourlies.

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

• “Berlin Hair” – Twinn
• “Goldwine” – The Lasso & The Go Rounds
• “Dirt” – Josie Palmer
• “Wiser Man” – Rowan
• “Wishing Well” – Mike Ward
• “Too Bad” – Tunde Olaniran
• “The Falcon” – Brizzle
• “AC Tarot” – Cracked & Hooked
• “Starz” – Carjack
• “Under Your Skin” – The Hourlies
• “Magnetics” – Bad Magnets
• “Lovebird” – After Dark Amsuement Park
• “Chancer” – The Von Bondies

This week, we listened to three artists with ties to a unique Detroit-based music collective/record label, known as Underflow Records, including Quells, Big Mess, and Of House.

Adam Fitzgerald records a blend of indie rock, shoegaze, and dream pop under the moniker of Quells, and we featured that band’s latest single, “Ice Temple,” on MI Local. It was Fitzgerald who, several years ago, first founded Underflow Records as a collective that could support and celebrate a variety of independent artists around the metro area music scene, but when he first relocated to Edinburgh for a few years — then later to Colorado — he began inviting more and more artists that he met along the way to join the Underflow family, turning into an international label.

Underflow Records’ raison d’être is ultimately to show “a love for under-appreciated artists who deserve more attention,” and that includes Big Mess, a five-piece band born out of the Livonia suburbs that’s been together for more than a decade, featuring longtime friends and musicians Scott Allen, Rob Carden, Pat Carden, and Mike Carden, with Scott’s father Brad joining earlier this year. Big Mess makes a cinematic composite of swooning, contemplative baroque-pop, and we heard “‘I Am Loved’ By The Losers” from their latest album …from Sheldon Hall to Wonderland Mall.

Underflow has several other artists who have recently released new music, or are on the cusp of doing so, including Pesky Kid, Almost and more.

Meanwhile, just about five minutes into this week’s show, we received a visit from the incomparable Detroit-based R&B artist known as Bevlove, aka Beverly Johnson, who stopped by the studio to chat with us and premiere, in person, her brand new single, “Remember Me.”

You never know what might happen during a live MI Local segment. And, along with that, you’ll also get a variety of genres from across the local music scene, including classic garage from the Gories, contemporary punk from 208, and even some dazzling indie pop from Ypsilanti-based quartet Tanager.

MI Local Playlist for Sept. 24, 2024

• “Stay Away” – Little Visits
• “Someday” – Rory Moon
• “Remember Me” – Bevlove (+ in-studio interview)
• “Haunted” – Tanager
• “Undead” – The Microplastics
• “Paris From Tokyo” – Late
• “DUDE” – Say Something Kind
• “Jim Roll” – For You
• “Gories” – Cry Girl
• “208” – Tantrum
• “Quells” – Ice Temple
• “Big Mess” – I’m Loved (By The Losers)
• “Of House” – Heart About To Give Out

It’s a busy week for new releases when it comes to the Michigan music scene, particularly around the metro Detroit area!

Let’s start with the incomparable Flint-based musician/artist Tunde Olaniran, releasing their latest album, Chaotic Good, celebrated by a performance next Saturday, at the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids!

Too Bad by Tunde Olaniran

Meanwhile, Detroit-based electronic art-pop auteur My Brightest Diamond, aka Shara Nova, have released three new singles from her forthcoming album, Fight the Real Terror, which is out today!

We heard this song, “Safe House,” last week on MI Local.

Fight The Real Terror by My Brightest Diamond

Next, let’s bend our ears towards Kalamazoo to listen to an interesting new album featuring the versatile instrumental hip-hop producer known as The Lasso (aka Andy Catlin), paired up with the boundary-pushing indie-rock quartet known as The Go Rounds.

Catlin is a former member of The Go Rounds, which made this a natural collaboration. This new album by The Lasso (& The Go Rounds), released just yesterday, is titled Pedal Steel, and our favorite track from it is “Goldwine.”

PETAL STEEL by The Lasso, The Go Rounds

Back here in Detroit, a ’90s-vibed indie-rock quartet known as The Microplastics have released a catchy and dreamy little ballad that has just the right amount of spookiness to help us settle into some autumnal vibes; it’s called “Undead.”

Undead – Single by The Microplastics

Listen to “MI Local” with Jeff Milo every Tuesday from 9-10 p.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET.

This week on MI Local, I premiered several new songs by local artists, including indie-pop ballads from established groups like soundslikeotto and Reggi Roomers, plus a brand new dance track from a project fittingly called Dancepack.

But for the majority of the show, I directed a sonic spotlight toward two distinct music events scheduled this weekend featuring local artists, starting with Saturday’s Dally in the Alley performers Elephant Den and Olive and the Stoned Fruits.

This week’s in-studio guest is Justin Snyder, creative director for New Music Detroit — a local collective of musicians dedicated to performing groundbreaking musical works from late-20th century to the present day.

New Music Detroit was “founded by members of the DSO, almost 20 years ago,” Snyder said, “in order to fill a gap that they felt was missing in Detroit, which was bringing classical contemporary music to the city. We just wanted to be adventurous, and there’s an audience here for it. And this is year 17 for Strange Beautiful Music. We’ve done it before in different venues around the city, like warehouses, clubs [and] galleries.”

Snyder discussed the Strange Beautiful Music event, happening Saturday at Andy Arts in Detroit.

“Strange Beautiful Music is a smorgasbord of every type of music — and stuff that resists genre as well,” Snyder said. “We’ll have jazz, classical, techno…this year we have electronic music, art-pop, harp music and lots more.”

Strange Beautiful Music performers featured on MI Local include My Brightest Diamond, Ahya Simone and Dominant Hand. See the full lineup and ticket details here.

See the full playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the player at the top.

MI Local Playlist for Sept. 3, 2024

• “All of Last Year” – Elephant Den
• “Born Day” – Olive & the Stoned Fruits
• “Up Late” – Dancepack
• “The Bog Bodies” – Rabbitology
• “Cry Without Shame” – Kind Beast
• “Silence” – Reggi Roomers
• “Bright Blue” – soundslikeotto
• “Cruisin'” – Fishfly
• “When I Left” – The Stools
• “Re(VS)olution” – Na Bonsai
• “G-Force” – Serenemoon
• “Safe House” – My Brightest Diamond
• “Frostbite” – Ahya Simone
• “Before It Turns” – Dominant Hand and Bora Yoon