I rightfully spend a lot of time and effort writing about the various bands and shows that I’m lucky enough to see around this great city.  However, it’s also time to give credit to some of those people and establishments that also make this entire music scene possible and in the last couple of weeks there have been two very notable events:  the opening of Pure Vinyl Detroit and the annual WDET benefit at Jac’s 313. 

Even though Detroit certainly has its share of independent music stores where you can easily spend an afternoon searching through stacks of old records – I was thrilled to hear about the opening of Pure Detroit Vinyl in the Fisher Building.  A store dedicated to only Detroit music on vinyl and it’s located right in the heart of the city in one of the most enduring symbols of the Motor City.  There was a very cool grand opening party held right at the store recently and I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours searching through vinyl by Detroit artists ranging from Motown to the MC5.  You just need to check the place out - and the party featured the Gore Gore Girls and the Elevations.  Thanks to the photography of Walter Wasacz - you can see what you may have missed on a Thursday evening.

The WDET benefit is for a great cause - they actually play music by Detroit artists without having it approved by some corporate weenie in NYC or LA.  Other than the "local music" hours in 89X or the WRIF - you're not very likely to hear Bootsey X or Terror at the Opera on your radio.  Twenty five years ago Cinecyde was singing about "Gutless Radio" and things haven't changed one bit.  I was thrilled to hang out at Jac's and listen to a variety of music created by local artists such as Esquire and support WDET. 

It's easy to forget that the local independent music stores and WDET are the glue that often holds our music scene together and I sure plan to support these institutions - if you've bothered to read through this so far - you should too !!!!!