The Making of Detroit Punks
Royal Oak, Mich. — A sleazy Royal Oak motel, cheap beer flowing from cans and kegs and decades worth of Detroit rock elite, makes for one smashing film. This is the premise behind Ivan Suvanjieff’s new rock-umentary Detroit Punks.
When you hear a film about the Detroit rock scene is in production, the 
first reaction is “ah, some enterprising filmmaker is jumping on the hype of Detroit’s hot bands, found Detroit on a Michigan map at the Beverly Hills Public Library and looks to cash in.” Well, this does NOT describe Ivan Suvanjieff (a.k.a) Mark J. Norton. Back in the day, when he went by the name Norton, Ivan was an associate editor of Detroit-based Creem magazine, and the lead singer of legendary Detroit band The Ramrods. Though the band was only together for about a year in the late 70’s, the group’s legacy lives on in the sound of many of today’s hot Detroit bands.
Word spread quickly around the Motor City that Suvanjieff would be holed up in a
Royal Oak motel room conducting three solid days of interviews Ivan personally invited Motorcityrocks to sit in on the fun. Detroit’s hottest acts showed up, consumed a rather impressive amount of alcohol and told stories of camaraderie and rock & roll at places such as Bookie’s Club 870, the Red Carpet and the Gold Dollar. Who exactly stopped by? While we were there, which was only a fraction of the time, we chatted with Bobby Harlow of The Go, Mick Collins and the rest of The Dirtbombs, Maribel Restrepo of the Detroit Cobras, Jeff Meier of Rocket 455 and the Detroit Cobras, Tim Vulgar of the Clone Defects, legendary producer Jim Diamond and John Brannon of Negative Approach and Easy Action.
The production team could not have more Detroit street credibility were to add Joe Louis and Rosa Parks. The producers include Jerry Peterson (a.k.a. Jerry Vile) of Orbit magazine, Paul Zimmerman, former editor of the notorious 70′s punk zine White Noise and Gary Reichel from another legendary Detroit band, Cinecyde. From the current generation of Detroit rockers, Suvanjieff tagged Joe Burdick from The Dirtys and Tom Potter from Bantam Rooster and Detroit’s hottest new export the Detroit City Council, to be production assistants.
The wonderful world of VHS is filled with lots of lame movies about rock stars and
rock scenes. However, this Detroit rock-umentary will be different. Detroiter’s understand the White Stripes didn’t appear out of thin air. Behind Jack and Meg is one of the most tightly knit and oldest artistic communities ever produced. Finally someone will tell the world how it happened.
Hollywood, CA. — Following three grueling days of interviews at a Royal Oak motel, Detroit Punks’ director Ivan Suvanjieff and his production team packed their bags and headed for the hills… the Hollywood Hills, that is. Camped out in a hotel behind Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Suvanjieff spoke candidly with Detroit legends, and folks who knew all about punk rock before the term “punk rock” was born.
Speaking of Detroit legends, the hands-down highlight was his interview with Wayne Kramer. The MC5 guitarist recalled his youth growing up in Detroit city, 
the formation of the now legendary Motor City Five and the group’s aggressive and uncompromising political stance. He went on to explain how the MC5‘s radical views got them shunned from the music industry. He also talked about his descent into drug addiction and his sentence in federal prison after being nabbed in a cocaine conspiracy. Unlike most rockers with similar stories, Kramer’s tale does not end with an overdose in a cheap motel or lifelong prison sentence. The Wayne Kramer of 2003 runs a successful record label (Muscletone Records) and rocks as hard as ever. While in LA, the MCR crew caught his show at the Baked Potato and was awed by the Detroit guitar hero who sounds even better than the MC5 records we have been playing for years. Recently ranked in Rolling Stones’ 100 greatest guitarists of all time along with former band mate Fred “Sonic” Smith, Kramer still knows how to handle the ax. Kramer was joined on stage by Bill Gould (Faith No More), among others. Producer Paul Zimmerman was holding court at the other end of the club, riffing wicked with Don Was and Creem publisher Robert Matheu.
While Wayne Kramer was Suvanjieff’s highest profile interviewee in this round, there were several others of interest as well. Coz Canler of the Romantics sat down to talk with Suvanjieff, as did Sirius Trixon (singer of the Motor City Bad Boys). Other interviews included David Keeps (writer and former manager of Destroy All Monsters), Rick Morris (drummer of The 27), Kirsten Rogoff (Algebra Mothers, Sillies), Dave Rice (Blind, L7), Steve McGuire (Traitors). Gregg Sutter, research assistant to Detroit author Elmore Leonard, was on hand to explain Detroit’s surf rock tie-in and recount tales of the 3-D Invisibles.
The Detroit Punks team has now conducted over 100 interviews and talked with
just about everyone who’s anyone in Detroit music. The impressive list of participants persuaded “The Dude” himself to officially sign on to the project. Jeff “The Dude” Dowd, the model for the Coen’s Brothers’ Jeff Lebowski in The Big Lebowski, will help produce Detroit Punks. While there is no word on the distribution of the film at this point, Suvanjieff has said that he hopes it can be a Detroit project from start to finish.
Beverly Hills, CA. –The Detroit Punks crew found themselves back in the sunshine for a second round of LA interviews at the end of January. Directors Ivan Suvanjieff and Dawn Gifford Engle sat down with prolific producer Don Was to discuss Detroit music, Don’s involvement with the late 70s punk scene, and tales of producing some of the world’s top acts.
Don Was, along with David Weiss are the ears & eyes of the sexy slinky beast that is Was (Not Was). Don is one of the world’s great producers, nabbing the Producer of the Year Grammy for his efforts in 1994. He’s produced world-class acts including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Carly Simon, Elton John… as well as local luminaries like the Pigs, and Mark J. Norton. In his interview, Don raved about the souped-up reformation of Was (Not Was), which played a gig at the Sundance Film Festival a few weeks ago. Motorcityrocks.com is hoping to see Was (Not Was) roll into Detroit soon!
The question motorcityrocks.com wants answered about this latest LA DETROIT PUNKS shoot is, “What were Don Was, Elmore Leonard, LORD OF THE RINGS’ producer Barrie Osborne, Megumi Fukasawa, Satoru Iseki, Michael Siegel, Gregg Sutter, Charles Hanna, Ivan Suvanjieff and Dawn Gifford Engle talking so intently about in the lounge of Beverly Hills Four Seasons on January 31st?” Stay tuned to this page for further developments….
Michael Davis, bass player of the MC5, rocked out in his DETROIT PUNKS interview. He described his life with the legenday group without rancor, in no uncertain terms, and with verve. Monsieur “Dubois” Davis, a gifted painter, also manned the bass for Destroy All Monsters in their endearingly wild and definitive days. Davis and his family recently relocated to LA from Tuscon. His work continues on… Davis’ MC5 bandmate – the sublime Wayne Kramer – provided an eye-gouging look into a buzzsaw of Detroit rock-based lore in a previous round of L.A. interviews.
Michael Rushlow of The Pigs / Rushlow-King Combo, and former Creem editor Dave DiMartino coughed up a few more Detroit rock hairballs. Rushlow mused about the Pigs when they toured with Don Was’ Traitors in the Motor City Revue (1978), and told stories of producer Paul Zimmerman’s not-quite-legendary White Noise Mansion. Dave DiMartino jawed on working at Creem Magazine and at A2′s School Kids Records, where he sold punk 45s to mega-diva Niagara, after a frustrating career as a hotdog salesman. The interview ended when Suvanjieff innocently asked about the demise of DiMartino’s legendary and long-lamented space-punk band the Pork Dukes. “Don’t ask me ’bout no drugged dolphins!” huffed a heated DiMartino as he hastily exited the interview.
Director Ivan Suvanjieff concluded the trip by stopping by LA rock
hangout The Troubador to check out The Sights and The Dirtbombs on January 31 .