A Partially-Witnessed History of Michigan Power Pop (Part 2)
Guest Post: Ryan Allen (+ Curated Michigan Power Pop Playlist)
This two part series was original published in Remember The Lightning—A Guitar Pop Journal, Volume 4, the final installment of our sadly defunct print zine series, in 2024.
DID YOU MISS PART ONE? 👉🏻🔗 You can find it RIGHT HERE.
The Scene That Never Was (Part 2)
A Partially-Witnessed History of Michigan Power Pop
By Ryan Allen
Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground: 2000-2010
Perhaps the Fletcher Pratt couldn’t make said fire because it was being fueled by someone else. Admittedly, I’ve written about 10 billion words (just guessing!) without mentioning “The Jack White of It All.” But the time has come. If we’re going to talk Michigan guitar music, we have to talk about Detroit’s garage rock boom going into the early 2000s.
By the turn of the Millennium, the music industry was basically losing its damn mind. Teen pop was huge, pop punk and emo began to land on MTV, Fred Durst was still around, and pretty much any local band that could scrape together a few hundred bucks could release a CD. Traditional rock wasn’t selling, so marketing execs did their best to create a “rock revival,” pushing bands like the Strokes, the Vines, and the Hives. They struck gold when they found a face for the whole thing: Detroit-native Jack White and his band with his “sister” Meg called the White Stripes.
Similar to my statement about the Stooges and MC5, I’m not here to educate you on the history of Jack White and the White Stripes. That’s been done. But what I am here to do is describe the musical climate in Detroit and Michigan around this time, and how many of the Mitten State’s best bands were impacted by the seemingly overnight ascension of the Von Bondies, the Demolition Dollrods, the Go, the Sights, and more.
I reached out to Dave Shettler, former drummer of Moods For Moderns, one of Detroit’s best power pop groups of the early 2000s, to ask him about this weird line in the sand that was being drawn between the garage bands and, well, everybody else.
“I remember being at a party in Woodbridge [Note: A neighborhood in Detroit where lots of Detroit rockers lived on the cheap] talking shit and saying ELO was the greatest band, had the best records, etc…and everyone was just like, ‘No way, man, it’s either the Stooges or the MC5,’” Shettler said.
He went on to say that: “Jack White lit me up one night when I was DJing on a Sunday at the Garden Bowl [Note: Part of the Majestic Theater complex, home of the famous Magic Stick, and another regular gathering place for Detroit rockers to drink cheap beer]. He didn’t like my vibe: 19, wearing sunglasses and playing T. Rex and ELO at The Garden Bowl? Boxed my ears pretty bad, so there wasn’t a good vibe from that scene.”
Beyond The Garage Gates
While the leather-clad Detroit garage rockers looked great in NME and certainly captured the attention of starved rock fans across the globe, a parallel path was being carved out for more melodic pop-leaning bands to coexist across the state.
For many bands living outside of the garage gates, this was probably a frustrating time in some respects, but for my money, it was also one of the most fruitful and exciting times to be a band from Michigan—no matter the sound.
Weir, who had graduated from Spindle at this point and started a new, similarly-minded band in Tiny Steps (with whom I played drums for the first couple of years) recalled that it “was pretty electric” around that time.
“Even though Tiny Steps clearly didn’t fit into the garage thing, we were able to play meaningful shows and have a great time. The whole city had bands going seemingly 24/7, and it was awesome. It didn’t matter where you went there was always a friendly face, and 50/50 chance of catching some excellent music, genre be damned. I was just glad to be there.”
For power pop specifically, there were tons of releases coming out of the state, including Listen Up! by the Brendan Benson-affiliated Mood Elevator, the jangle-forward Low To The Ground by Waxwings (lead by Dean Fertita, who now plays with Queens of the Stone Age, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather), the Sloan-y Loud and Clear by Moods for Moderns, the Cheap Trick-esque Light Em Up by the Fags (featuring John Speck of Hoarse), and The Handbag Memoirs EP by the baroque pop band Pas/Cal. Include other bands like the Beatles-inspired the Singles, the Motown-ish pop of Ann Arbor’s Saturday Looks Good To Me, the intelligent indie of the Recital and New Grenada, the polished pop of the Prime Ministers and Starling Electric, the new wave-y Nice Device, and the ragtag sounds of Porchsleeper, Lansing’s Cheap Girls, and the OffRamps, and all of a sudden, yeah, it seemed like there was maybe a scene for guitar pop around here after all.
By the end of the decade, my mid-2000s band Thunderbirds Are Now! (we were doing a post-punk, Devo-kind of thing) had basically run its course, and I had moved on to a new band. In 2007, I teamed up with Cleveland-expat Liz Wittman (who was playing with the twee-ish but still power-poppy Kiddo) and started Friendly Foes. Somewhat sheepishly, I have to acknowledge that if there was a power pop scene, at least in Detroit, Friendly Foes were at the center of it…but writing about your own thing is weird, so I’ll leave that to Nick Piunti.
“When I first heard Born Radical by Friendly Foes I was blown away. I had to find out more about this band, and I became quite a fan.”
Thanks, Nick!
The other reason I’m including this is because out of Piunti’s fandom, we also became friends and collaborators. And it was through that friendship and collaboration that opened a window into the next decade and a half of a handful of Michigan artists doing their best to keep the Midwestern power pop flame alive.
Born Radical: 2010-Now
We’re now in the homestretch of this epic journey into Michigan music history, and if you’ve made it this far—holy shit, you’re a bigger nerd than I thought.
By 2010, Friendly Foes had packed things in, after one record and a few EPs. I loved playing in that band, but my attempts to regain or surpass the same “success” Thunderbirds Are Now! had in the previous decade—with a completely different sound, mind you—never really materialized. (We did get one really nice Pitchfork review, though!) Rather than be discouraged, I turned my focus towards continuing to write songs in the same vein as the Foes, and in 2011 put out my first solo record, called Ryan Allen & His Extra Arms. I played all of the basic instruments on the record (bass, drums, guitar, vocals) and then had guests come in and play things I couldn’t like cello, keys, sax, and more (hence the “Extra Arms” part of the name).
Around the same time, the Michigan pop scene had evolved into a mixture of old and new faces making new sounds. The early part of the decade saw stellar releases by bands such as the Belly-ish Betty Cooper; II, by the local super group Copper Thieves (which imagines what the first Rick Springfield album would have sounded like if it was recorded by Thin Lizzy); Chris Richards, Andy Reed, and Keith Klingensmith’s the Legal Matters (of which Hotpress said, “Fans of the Rubinoos, Fountains of Wayne and Matthew Sweet will savor every note”); the Kinks-meets-GBV style rock of the High Strung’s 13th album ¿Posible O’ Imposible?; and a handful of heavy pop records by a band I played in called Destroy This Place (imagine Fugazi covering the Replacements).
Hooky Bands From All Ends Of The State
As the decade sprawled on, hooky bands from all ends of the state were producing diverse and high-quality records. The list is too long, but it has to include: South Dakota by Love Axe (a band that started in Mt. Pleasant, but then relocated to Oakland, CA, headed by my college roommate Chris Hatifield); the Big Lack EP by Ann Arbor’s fuzzy, Supedrag-esque Minihorse; The Electric Company by Caleb Dillon’s long-running Starling Electric (of which Pulp said, “[Dillon] still loves the Byrds’ riffs, the Zombies’ chamber-pop arrangements, the Beach Boys’ harmonies, and Guided By Voices’ maddeningly succinct lo-fi pop genius”); Swish by Lansing’s Hüsker Dü disciples the Plurals; Groan by early Teenage Fanclub-loving fans Singing Lungs (from Grand Rapids), and the jangle-heavy How Far by Deadbeat Beat (“You Lift Me Up” might be one of my favorite songs to ever come out of this state).
As the following decade kicked into gear, so did Michigan bands like the Pop Project, who finally released their nine-years-in-the-making opus Do Go On, Major Murphy out of Grand Rapids, who dropped Access (“In The Meantime” was one of my favorite songs of 2021), the Waiting for The Click EP by Lansing’s the Stick Arounds, and Mutt House by, well, Mutt House—headed by Teddy Roberts (the drummer of emo-leaning rock band Tigers Jaw), who gives Jellyfish a run for their money with layered vocals and bashed-out pop rock.
I should probably mention that somewhere amidst all of this (2017, to be exact) my solo project had morphed into the full-fledged band Extra Arms. So far we’ve made four high-energy, obnoxiously melodic records that I’m super proud of. In 2024 we released RADAR, and people have had some really nice things to say about it.
Which brings me back to my friendship with Piunti.
The Michigan Mafia
At some point, a few blog writers picked up on the fact that there’s a handful of Michigan dudes—we’ll call them “power pop lifers”—that are not only still carrying melodic rock’s torch, but seem to help one another in one way or another. This group has been dubbed “The Michigan Mafia,” and many of them I met through Piunti.
Who is in this mafia? Glad you asked: along with the aforementioned Piunti (who has carved out an impressive catalog of music made with his collaborators in the Complicated Men) and Chris Richards (who himself has released a number of great records with his band the Subtractions since 2009), you’ve got Andy Reed (who fronted the Haskel’s back in the day, is a Legal Matter, and produces tons of records at his home studio); Donny Brown (a great songwriter and ex-drummer of the Verve Pipe); Keith Klingensmith (another Legal Matter and purveyor of Futureman Records); Tom Curless (who formerly recorded as Your Gracious Host, and now fronts his band the 46%, and makes great pop in the vein of Tommy Keene); Todd Wicks (who, since the demise of the Prime Ministers, has made two ‘80s-rock inspired EPs with his band All Over The Shop that deserve your attention); Jeremy Porter (who after relocating downstate from up north in Marquette, has played with Chutes & Ladders—who opened for Green Day!—SlugBug, and the OffRamps, before starting Jeremy Porter and the Tucos in 2010); David Bierman (former Junk Monkey who is still making his Minneapolis heroes proud with his band David Beirman’s Overdrive), as well as bands Popular Creeps (also big Minneapolis punk fans), and Royal Scene (featuring former 19 Wheels guitarist Scott Owens, morphing a former Replacements cover band into one capable of writing tightly-wound originals).
These bands share members, production assistance, record labels, collaborate on songs, and occasionally play shows together. All live in Michigan, weirdly. I’m also a member of “The Michigan Mafia” and it’s really nice to be grouped in with folks who still believe that loud guitars, hooky melodies, bashing drums, and some clever lyrics can be the cure for what ails ya.
Small Giants: What’s Next?
Somewhere up there (many, many words ago) I essentially asked the question: “Does Michigan have a power pop ‘scene’?’” To be honest, all signs point to…maybe? Obviously, there’s a long line of bands from this state that believe in melody over all else, but as I peeled back layers of the onion, I never got a clear picture of it ever being a true scene. Instead, the real story is that in almost every era discussed, bands that could be considered power pop were integrated into a larger, genre-agnostic scene that featured bands of all kinds; power pop bands played with punk bands, classic rock bands, and—gasp!—even garage bands.
Alongside all of the power pop lifers that are still making new music (like the Happy Accidents’ Paul Einhaus, who has re-emerged and released the endearing and mesmerizing i drunk from a ditch in 2024), bands like Twin Deer (who come to power pop by way of Alvvays); Shadow Show (who make groovy, ‘60s pop with an avalanche of swirly harmonies); Danny VanZandt (who imagines what Weezer would sound like fronted by Stephen Malkmus); the that dog-y Pony and Heavenly Sweetheart (who I am claiming as “Michigan” due to being just across the Detroit River in Windsor, Canada); my brother Scott’s band Big Mess (who have returned from a long hiatus to release the brilliant Wilco/Beach Boys mash-up …from Sheldon Hall to Westland Mall); and the warm, fuzzed-out, GBV-esque sounds of Idle Ray (fronted by Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good to Me).
And I can’t leave out Liquid Mike, the Marquette band fronted by postal worker Mike Maple, whose undeniably catchy Weezer-meets-Guided by Voices anthems have landed them features in Rolling Stone, opening shifts on big-time tours with the Wonder Years, the Menzingers, and Joyce Manor, and a slot on the lineup for 2024’s Riot Fest in Chicago (headlined by Fall Out Boy, Beck, and fuckin’ Slayer, dude). Listen to any of the newest releases by these bands, and I think you’ll agree that Michigan power pop is in good hands, and something worth remembering for a long time to come.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published in 2024, just as Detroit-based power poppers Mod Lang were coming together. I’m sure they would have gotten a mention if their excellent debut album, Borrowed Time, was released. So, I’m giving them the final word. Cheers to the future of Michigan power pop in all of its forms, and thanks to Ryan for the amazing 2-part guest post! —S.W. Lauden]
Ryan Allen lives in the suburbs of Detroit and makes music with various outfits, including Extra Arms, Big Life, and Speed Circuit. He fancies himself a prolific songwriter ala Bob Pollard, except less talented, but also younger. Check out Ryan’s Substack interviews.
Looking for a place to start your Michigan power pop journey?
Ryan curated a “Michigan Power Pop” playlist on Spotify to get you going. Buckle up, and prepare to be smitten by some rock from the Mitten.
If I may be so bold (and if not, I apologize), I'd like to direct some of your attention to a Grand Rapids band called Shade55 - active on and off since the late 90s (evident by the dated numbers-in-the-name) and 'still a thing' - They're re-releasing an early EP in preparation for the upcoming LP (12 tracks+) which is being finished up and mixed now: www.shade55.com
"S55" is co-fronted by primary writer Jake Stevens. You can find Jake's solo tracks on Bandcamp, here:
https://jakestevens.bandcamp.com/music
Sorry to be forward and advertise/name drop, but... my personal opinion is that Jake and his works should be included in the MI-power pop conversation. I hope you'll all take a listen to the EP at least once, and maybe the LP too once it's released in the coming months.
SW & Ryan: If this is not a viable place for this post, I'm sorry & please delete if necessary.
I left Michigan many years ago, but I'm always curious about my old hometown's weirdly shifting, always vibrant, music scene. Thanks for the awesome overview!