Ferndale Library Recommends: Jeff's Bands to See in Hamtramck for Blowout

The Ferndale Public Library is a venue for this year's Metro Times Blowout, which will feature 200 local bands performing at 20 venues spread between three hip towns: Detroit tonight, Hamtramck on Friday and Saturday, and Ferndale from May 2-4.

So, I thought I'd skim through our excellent and wide-sampling Local Music Collection here at the library and pick out the albums of five bands you can see this weekend down in Hamtramck. 

[Read: 2013 Blowout Music Festival Schedule Released]

Jeff's recommendations

Child Bite – Fantastic Gusts of Blood
CD - Child Bite
Friday - 4/26 at the Polish National Alliance
Listen: Child Bite - "Banana Gorgon"

Gnarly, noisy, almost a post-modernist's heavy metal spit and fire cooled with freewheeling pop-ballad hooks and quirky, cryptic lyrics about mythological creatures. Their live show crosses Where The Wild Things Are with Dante's Inferno with a bit more extra saliva, fire and brimstone dashed in.

Pink Lightning - Happy To Be Here
CD - Pink Lightning
Friday - 4/26 at Whiskey in the Jar 

This band was born on the streets of Eastern Market – literally, with a wash-tub bass and an accordion, cribbing and mutating indie-punk interpretations of gypsy romps and rock-tinged rag. Now they're a fully functioning dance-rock outfit, theatrical, ebullient and endearing.

Timothy Monger State Park - (Timothy Monger's New Britton Sound)
CD - Monger, Timothy
Friday - 4/26 at Small's Bar
Listen: Timothy Monger - "The Classics" 

That reedy, nasal Rust Belt accent never sounded so rich and regal – like a warm, soft, summer breeze coming in through the verdant green leaves of the cherry blossoms. Monger's music is like a cool glass of lemonade inside an old colonial home's cellar retro-fitted into a cleared out space for barn dances, waltzes and rock-n-roll-reverent folk jamborees.  

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor - Self Titled 
CD - Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor
Saturday - 4/27 at Whiskey in the Jar

Post-grunge, slow-grinded blues brooders. A bit more blue collar than the average trippy/druggy/psychedelic rockers with a keen sense for layered atmospheric compositions. Dark, cerebral, intricately arranged blues-ballads belted with lots of fiery, raspy gusto over ominous-thunder beats and swampy bass grooves. 

Oscillating Fan Club - Feverish Dreams
CD - Oscillating Fan Club
Saturday - 4/27 at Small's Bar

Ferndale's pride and joy in the squirrely Brit-pop and weirdly-weird psyche-rock. Put your party hat on...

[Listen: Oscillating Fan Club - "Suburban Lovers of the Undead"]

If you go

• What: 16th annual Metro Times Blowout.
• When: April 25, Detroit; April 26-27, Hamtramck; May 2-4, Ferndale. Music starts around 9 p.m. (list of venues).
• Where: Venues in Detroit, Hamtramck (full line-up) and Ferndale (full line-up).
• What else: Wristbands/tickets available here.