detroit punks

	© motorcityrocks.com
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 unless they 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. --Ryan Sult	© motorcityrocks.com
	© motorcityrocks.com
	© motorcityrocks.com
	© motorcityrocks.com
all images © motorcityrocks.com :: all rights reserved