The music of Michigan is composed of many different genres. The city of Detroit has been one of the most musically influential and innovative cities for the past 50 years, whether in Michigan or anywhere else in the United States. Impressively, for 48 straight years (1959–2007) a greater Michigan-area artist has produced a chart-topping recording. Michigan is perhaps best known for three developments: early punk rock, Motown, and techno.
Naked Raygun is an American punk rock band that formed in Chicago in 1980. The band was active from 1980 to 1992, along with reunion shows in 1997, and since 2006.
The Detroit Cobras are an American garage rock band from Detroit, Michigan, which was formed in 1994 by guitarist Steve Shaw, guitarist Mary Ramirez, bassist Jeff Meier, drummer Vic Hill, and singer Rachel Nagy. The group was later known for a constantly changing assortment of musicians. Rachel Nagy died on January 14, 2022.
Gang Green are an American punk rock band originally from Braintree, Massachusetts. Chris Doherty (guitar), Bill Manley (bass) and Mike Dean (drums) started the band in 1980 and broke up in 1983. Doherty reformed Gang Green the following year, and the band experienced numerous lineup changes until its dissolution for the second time in 1992. Doherty has been the band's only constant member and has kept Gang Green active from 2005 onwards. The band was influential in the formation of the East Coast hardcore punk scene, and went on to become one of the forerunners of crossover thrash and speed metal in the late 1980s.
Violent Apathy is an American hardcore band that formed in March 1981 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States, and sparked the Kalamazoo hardcore scene. The original band was three high school friends from Jackson, Michigan along with Eliot Rachman, another WMU student who hailed from East Lansing. Rachman had worked on the 1980 United States Census in Lansing, MI with members of The Fix and the original publishers of Touch and Go magazine. He introduced the other members of the band to the then very new music of the Fix, the Necros, and Negative Approach, and all three bands provided a great deal of support and encouragement to VA.
The Tossers are an American six-piece Celtic punk band from Chicago, Illinois, United States, formed in July 1993. They have toured with Murphy's Law, Streetlight Manifesto, Catch 22, Dropkick Murphys, The Reverend Horton Heat, Flogging Molly, Street Dogs, Clutch, Sick of it All and Mastodon. They opened for The Pogues in New York City on St. Patrick's Day in 2007. The Tossers were honored to play the Kennedy Center in May 2016.
Louis David Cennamo is an English bass guitarist, whose lengthy career has included extensive recording and touring with a number of important British rock/blues/progressive bands.
The Pleasure Seekers was a 1960s-era, all-female rock band from Detroit, Michigan. The band morphed into Cradle, changing direction musically. They are known due in large part to the later prominence of band member Suzi Quatro.
Scott Avery Boman is an American Libertarian politician from Michigan. He has consistently earned among the top votes of any third-party candidate in every Michigan election from 2000 through 2018. He was chair of the Libertarian Party of Michigan in 2006. Described by MIRS as a Libertarian Party standard-bearer, he has been a candidate in every state-wide partisan election since 1994, until successfully running for the Detroit office of Community Advisory Council in 2020.
Spite was an American hardcore punk band formed in Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S. and was a part of the Michigan hardcore scene. It was made up of members from other regional bands who participated in the hardcore music communities inside and outside the region. Vocalist Scott Boman became an area libertarian politician and media personality.
The Fix was an early 1980s hardcore punk band from Lansing, Michigan, and one of the first bands to be signed to Touch and Go Records.
Spys4Darwin were an American rock supergroup formed in Seattle, Washington in 2001. The short-lived project featured members from Seattle-based groups Queensrÿche and Alice in Chains as well as the frontman of Detroit, Michigan-based group Sponge. Spys4Darwin began with guitarist Chris DeGarmo and drummer Sean Kinney, two friends who had both recently performed with Jerry Cantrell during his solo tour. They were soon joined by bassist Mike Inez and vocalist Vin Dombroski, and began jamming at Binge Studios, an abandoned paint factory in Seattle. The project marked DeGarmo's first creative work since departing from his long-held position in Queensrÿche in 1998.
Luther Kent is an American blues singer based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Kent is known for a big soulful voice and his big horn-based group Luther Kent & Trick Bag that mixed swinging blues with New Orleans R&B. Kent now hosts a show that comes on Saturdays on WBRH called Luther's House Party.
The Doughboys are an American rock band from Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, who were active in the mid-1960s, and re-formed in 2000. They have been active ever since, and have cut three albums of newly recorded material since their reunion.
The 2012 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 6, 2012, alongside the 2012 United States presidential election, other elections to the United States Senate in other states, as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Detroit, Michigan, is a major center in the United States for the creation and performance of music, and is best known for three developments: Motown, early punk rock, and techno.
Kevin Smith is an American composer, arranger, producer, vocalist and keyboardist who is Chicago-based. He is a current member of the rhythm and blues band known as the Chicago Catz.
All Rise is the second full-length album recorded by Chicago punk rock band Naked Raygun in 1985 and released on LP by Homestead Records in 1986. When Quarterstick Records re-released all of Naked Raygun's early albums in the late 90s, two bonus tracks were added to the CD album.
The Bad Livers were an American band from Austin, Texas, United States, whose inventive musical style defied attempts to categorize them according to existing genres. Their influences included bluegrass, folk, punk, and other musical styles. The original lineup, formed in 1990, included Danny Barnes on banjo, guitar and resonator guitar, Mark Rubin on upright bass and tuba, and Ralph White III on fiddle and accordion. Barnes composed the majority of the group's original songs. When White left the group at the end of 1996, he was briefly replaced by Bob Grant on mandolin and guitar. Barnes and Rubin then continued to perform and record as a duo until unofficially dissolving the band in 2000. The band has neither toured nor recorded since then, but Barnes and Rubin have played a few live shows with Grant in 2008, 2009, and 2014.
Mike Mangione is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and percussionist. He currently leads the band Mike Mangione & The Kin, an orchestral folk group, with his brother, Tom Mangione. Tom plays electric guitar. The band calls both Chicago and Milwaukee their home since members split the cities. American Songwriter magazine gave four stars for his release, Red-Winged Blackbird Man.
