Dutch Pink

No. 10 | Dutch Pink Lady Luck Motel Suite (New Fortune)
Dustin Leslie’s vocals are throaty and gorgeous, beautifully backed by Aja Sardis and Serene Arena, resulting in a sound that’s reminiscent of early Seger or Tom Waits — even a little Leonard Cohen. - Metro Times

Congratulations to this week’s Band of the Week – Dutch Pink. Tune in all week long to hear tracks from this week’s featured band!

Simply put, Dutch Pink is a damn fine rock-n-roll outfit. The band’s sound has been described as “a twisted-indie fed take on American roots music.” (Metro Times) and “equally balladeers of the bleak, blunt and gothic as they are weavers of hypnotic minor-key-lingering blues.” (Real Detroit Weekly)

Dutch Pink was originally comprised of Dustin Charles Leslie on guitar/piano/organ/vocals, David Iannuzzi on drums, and Clyde Mashinter on bass guitar. The fall of 2010 saw the addition of Joel “Jelly Roll” McCune on lead guitar. The following summer, the band added the hypnotic vocals of Serene Arena and the soul driven voice of Aja Sardis (formerly of the internationally renowned Detroit Women) to round out a “Damned fine and formidable sextet.” (Detroit Free Press). Kevin Tuczek took over the drumming duties in the winter of 2012.

With several releases to its credit, Dutch Pink’s music and live performances run the gamut. As Chris Handyside from the Metro Times explained, the band is “wildly diverse, you never know what you’ll get at a Dutch Pink show.”

The band’s sixth release, an LP titled “Lady Luck Motel Suite,” came out on Nov. 23, 2013. You can check Dutch Pink out on their website. Congratulations! - Radio Opie

In addition to our top 25, we included a “KEEP ON YOUR RADAR 2014″ List

Feral Ground
SIAS
Dutch Pink
Jay Daniel
Golf Clap
Phantasmagoria
Codine - Detroit Sounds Like This

Join fellow Michigan craft beer lovers at Louie's Sports Tavern on Saturday, Sept. 21 from 2-11pm to help raise money for the Lapeer County Hockey Association.

The View Brew Fest will feature more than 20 Michigan breweries and the chefs have prepared a special craft beer-paired menu. The festival will take place both indoors and outdoors at Louie's. Entertainment will also be provided throughout the day with DJs and live bands, including Detroit favorites Dutch Pink, who will be playing at 8:45.

"Craft beer in Michigan has grown so much over the years, that it is truly something of which we as Michiganders can be so proud. I have only great things to say about the quality of beer these brewers are pushing out," says Jen Zeeman, Louie's general manager.

"At Louie's Sports Tavern, I have really made it a goal to bring as much craft beer into the bar as possible whether on draft or in bottles,” Zeeman says. “The intention was to provide this area with a place that carries an exceptional selection of as many delicious microbrews as possible. That is what the View Brew Fest is doing too - bringing the deliciousness of Michigan microbrews to Lapeer!"

Attendees will be able to sample beers from Arcadia, Atwater, Bell's Brewery, Dragonmead, Greenbush Brewing Co., Griffin Claw, J.K.'s Scrumpy (cider), Jolly Pumpkin, Keewenaw Brewing Company, Kuhnhenn Brewing Co., Latitude 42 Brewing Company, Mt. Pleasant Brewing Co., New Holland Brewing, North Peak Brewing Company, OddSide Ales, Perrin Brewing, Right Brain Brewery, Rochester Mills Beer Co., Saugatuck Brewing Co., Schmohz Brewing, Short's Brewing Company, The Hideout, and Tri-City Brewing.

Purchase advance tickets online for $15 ($60 for VIP access) at www.mihomepaper.com/viewbrewfest. Admission is $25 at the door. The event is 21+.

Louie's Sports Tavern
3301 Davison Rd.
Lapeer, MI 48446
810-667-1500
www.louiessportstavern.com - HOUR Detroit

Groovebox Detroit's top songs of 2012, Dutch Pink is #1 with "Lady Luck Motel Suite." - Groovebox Detroit

Groovebox Detroit's top songs of 2012, Dutch Pink is #1 with "Lady Luck Motel Suite." - Groovebox Detroit

by Ryan A. Bunch
Published: 07/24/2013

The Laws of physics tell us that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, it should come as little surprise that as the music industry continues to die an insufferable death (and some would say it’s already dead), elsewhere, there are those out there not quite trying to resuscitate it, but instead giving new life in its place. Once such entity is Detroit’s Groovebox Studios. For the past several years, Groovebox (or GBS) has been re-inventing the wheel for how bands record and release music. A high-tech studio fashioned behind an unassuming door in the vast former warehouse space-cum-hub of creativity known as The Russell Industrial Center on Detroit’s north side, GBS has a simple mission: One Band, One Room, One Take, Live and Raw from Detroit.

So, what is GBS? Is it a label? A production company? A management company? To all of those questions, yes and no. GBS primarily intends to serve as a point of contact for bands looking to take the next step, the chief takeaway being professionally recorded, albeit raw and soulful, recordings and music videos. Too, it’s a team or a family for artists to join that offers direction, advice, opportunity for growth, and a company that simply provides needed services, from recording to mixing to social media planning. All that, and much more, actually.

In fact, in its ongoing intent to serve its artists, GBS recently scored a connection with North Star Media, a music publishing firm that could mean solid distribution and wider acknowledgement for those who choose to record with GBS in the future. Typically a service that can cost tens of thousands of dollars for bands to get access to, North Star Media places music on TV, in movies, and in commercials. Artists on the GBS roster, after completing their recording session, will have their music hand-delivered to North Star reps free of charge.

It's a complex mission to explain though, so, who better to turn to than the company’s co-founer, Jeff “Fuzzy” Wenzel, a musician, producer, and one of the thoughtful masterminds behind re-inventing how musicians interact with their audience and continue to grow in the wake of the industry’s hey-day. We were pleased to speak with Jeff via email in the interview below.

Detroit has long-been an innovator for trends in the nation. Given the city’s recent phoenix-like rebirth, Groovebox studios seems poised among a handful of movements and collectives in the city to again lead a shift in how we move about our daily lives, this time through music.

For more information on exactly how GBS functions and what its services are, interested artists should review the FAQ page on the GBS website: grooveboxstudios.com/faq

For photos, videos, and more information about GBS sessions, visit grooveboxstudios.com

For those who don't know, can you explain what GBS is, how it works?

In a sentence and maybe the simplest terms, GBS is a fan-funded content platform for regional artists. What this means is we have created a platform were we can record artists' music and professionally produce tracks and videos that are financed entirely by the artists support system (fans) and by music enthusiasts alike.


From growing up in rural southern Michigan, how did you end up with this space in Detroit?

Detroit is the most logical choice for anyone trying to create art in today's climate and culture. Low rent, very little rules, grassroots vibe and tons and tons of space.


You've recorded a slew of bands at this point, who are some of the more notable that you've worked with?

Iamdynamite is always top of the list and also Francis Dunnery (Robert Plant's guitarist) was also a real memorable session. But really, almost every session has unforgettable moments and that is what GBS tries to capture.


Do you have any sessions that stand out as favorites?

All of our artists are standouts and each session is memorable because they are so different. If I had to pick a few that ring loud, I'd say Dutch Pink, Ryan Dillaha, Detroit Love Muscle, Brae, Julie Haven and The Beggars.



GBS recently forged a new partnership with North Star Media, what does this mean for your work, and for the acts you'll work with in the future?

Each and every artist that works with GBS receives very friendly, hand delivered, finished and professional content from their GBS session, which is also supplied to NSM for possible placement on TV, in Movies or commercials. When I was playing in my band the Sugar People, we paid close to $10k to a very well known entertainment lawyer to secure this same deal with NSM. GBS has managed to open the door so that our musicians and bands can now just walk in and get their music heard.




You've been a musician yourself for much of your life. How does your experience in that regard play in to how you approach GBS?

GBS was built by musicians who ha - Toledo.com

Pig & Whiskey in Downtown Ferndale: Savory treats from local restaurants and caterers like Detroit BBQ Company, Slows, Vinsetta Garage and Union Woodshop will have pork and more for sale. Wet your whistle with whisky from a variety of brands, local and national. Musical highlights are the Ill Itches (3 p.m. today), Dutch Pink (5:30 tonight) and the Beggars (7:50 p.m. Sun.). metrotimes.com/pigandwhiskey - The Detroit News

Pig & Whiskey in Downtown Ferndale: Savory treats from local restaurants and caterers like Detroit BBQ Company, Slows, Vinsetta Garage and Union Woodshop will have pork and more for sale. Wet your whistle with whisky from a variety of brands, local and national. Musical highlights are the Ill Itches (3 p.m. today), Dutch Pink (5:30 tonight) and the Beggars (7:50 p.m. Sun.). metrotimes.com/pigandwhiskey
- The Detroit News

DUTCH PINK TO RECORD LIVE ALBUM AT CLIFF BELLS JAN. 31st, FEB 7th
On the heels of their successful release of "Times New Roman" in the summer of 2010, Dutch Pink is getting ready to record a live album at Cliff Bell's on Monday, January 31st and again on Monday, February 7th in collaboration with the Loco Gnosis Collective. Dutch Pink has recently added to their original line-up (Dustin Charles Leslie, David Iannuzzi, and Clyde Mashinter) lead guitarist Joel "Jelly Roll" McCune and drummer Scottie Stone. Dutch Pink's music has been described as "A twisted indie-fed take on American roots music" (MT 2008) and also "raw, eclectic, and sometimes savage alt-folk" (Detroit Free Press 2007).
The show will feature an opening set of new, unreleased material written since the addition of Stone and McCune and then a second set of Dutch Pink standards.
Doors for both shows open at 7pm. Show begins at 8pm.
The door cost is $7.
Free digital downloads of completed live album for all in attendance.
Opening act: Weird Beards.
- Motor City Blog

Fourth, Dutch Pink is playing with DUENDE! at the amazing Cadieux Cafe on the eastside.

If you think Detroit is boring you’re insane.
- The Urbane Life

The Ferndale quartet Dutch Pink never takes the easy route.

This is a band that makes sure every show is a happening, having hosted multiple mobile performances via busloads of gear and audience members to handfuls of venues.

This band spent months of long nights rehearsing to learn two dozen new songs, purposely kept hidden from any of its booked live performances in 2010, so it could record these songs, unheard by any ear, onto a live double album recorded at Cliff Bell's on a snow-smothered pair of bitterly cold Monday evenings in downtown Detroit.

"Getting ready for that was like boot camp," said singer/pianist/guitarist Dustin Leslie.

Drummer Scottie Stone considers his first live show to have been "trial by fire," having to gird himself after a night of no sleep for the band's six-hour, dawn-to-noon performances upon the steps of Cobo Hall for the Detroit Marathon, out in the blustery chilled October air.

The band, formed by Leslie and bassist Clyde Mashinter in 2004 with their lifelong friend and co-founder drummer Dave Iannuzzi, added Stone and guitarist Joel McCune, who, between the two of them combined, perform in six other bands between them.

"Everything is bigger, better and," Leslie nods with raised eyebrows, "surprisingly easier. The songs are stronger because there's a new kind of depth to them. They're more of a tapestry or have more layers."

At an initiating rehearsal for Stone, Mashinter recalled whispering into his ear, "This is what I'm feeling about where we could go, but don't let anybody know when we go through it."

Midway through, Mashinter said, Leslie turned and looked, widened eyes, at the two. "I knew it then, yep, this is the band!" said Mashinter, who works at the the Emory.

"The goal is to retool songs in such a way that you can retool them every time you play it and still maintain the structure," McCune said.

McCune, a secret-weapon six stringer who characteristically finger-picks his signature blend of psychedelic noodling and raucous bluesy shreds, said he enjoys playing in multiple bands (his current other half is Ferndale's Duende). Vintage shoppers might spot him at Regeneration on the border of Pleasant Ridge.

"I get noisy or gentle or melodic in both bands, but maybe in Dutch Pink, I play slide or fake a pedal steel and get more airy, while I get more raucous or psychedelic in Duende," he said.

"Each band makes the other band stronger," he said.

"If I wasn't in so many bands," said Stone, who also plays in Ferndale's Pupils and Eleanora, "I'd drive the one band I was in completely insane. I just have so many things and styles that I love and like to employ musically. It fits me."

Leslie, who neighbors can find tending the bar at Sakana, said this band wouldn't work without these four distinct personalities, talents and energies.

He credits McCune for partly motivating him to move back to Detroit to start this band. Leslie had moved to Phoenix in 2001 and took Iannuzzi's advice to see the touring band The Hypno-Twists because he thought they would appeal to Leslie's homesick reverence for inimitable Detroit rock 'n' roll. The Hypno-Twists' lead guitarist was McCune, and, it so happened, the Hypno-Twists' biggest fan was Jeff Howitt — another momentary Phoenix settler, who would later form Duende and finally introduce Leslie and McCune in '07.

Leslie said he is able to experiment with the expression this "four-piece" provides, which he said is a blessing for him since his talents are rooted in the written word. (Dutch Pink once translated Shakespeare's sonnets, word for word, into their own realms of gritty blues-rock).

"The songs felt brand-new; I relearned my parts, having not to play as much. So I didn't rush lyrics, I could rethink my vocal delivery. Ballad-y, singer-songwriter-y piano song transitions into a rock 'n' roll song."

Performing (and recording) live at Cliff Bell's, a jazz bar in Detroit's Fox Town area, was a formative moment for the band. All the members felt electrified by the night, not only seeing their friends (a "jeans and a T-shirt" crowd) come out, dedicatedly, dressed to the nines in suits and gowns, but also experiencing the emotion of charging through these songs they'd formed.

The performers said they felt they were on the verge of tears. Mashinter said audience members came up to him — "and these were dudes you'd think wouldn't even cry at their mom's funerals" — to say a certain song brought on tears.

"That validated all of our hard work," Mashinter said.

The band has enough material to record what would be its fourth LP. Dutch Pink released its second LP, Times New Roman, in the spring of 2010, while the Cliff Bell's concert album, currently being mixed and mastered, will be its third proper album. The goal is to enter the studio in late autumn and release its Cliff Bell's songs on double vinyl around New Year 2012.

Dutch Pink performs with The Detroit Cobras, FAWN and Big M - Ferndale Patch

No, it won’t be the gravely and soulful sounds of Tom Waits or Joe Cocker you’ll be hearing from the second floor of The Berkley Front (3087 W. 12 Mile Rd.) on Friday night, but Dutch Pink, which will take the stage after 9 p.m. The Ferndale balladeers consist of Dustin Leslie on vocals, keyboards and guitar; Clyde Mashinter on bass; Scottie Stone and Dave Ianuzzi on drums; and Joel McCune on guitar. - Berkley Live

"The latest live LP issued by local label / collective Motor City Special is the perfect way to kicks things off this week. As the title clearly states, it is Recorded Live at PJ’s Lager House Detroit, and it is absolutely spectacular. Four of our fave live bands from the past couple of years rub shoulders and nobody lets anybody down. Bars of Gold are insane and ferocious. Dutch Pink are just as raucous in their own way, the schitzo blues rockers kicking ass won the two songs on this beautiful purple vinyl. Side features the Ruiners, and the sleave punks are doing what they do best – partying hard on a stage. Finally, the sadly-defunct Chapstik are at their sludgy, heavy-as-shit best. Hell of a record." - Metro Times

Anastasia Pantsios (1)
Benjamin Solis (1)
Bill Holdship (414)
Brett Callwood (310)
Brian Smith (135)
Bryant Franks (1)
Carleton S. Gholz (44)
Casey O'Neil (2)
Charles L. Latimer (30)
Chris Handyside (10)
Christine & Jacques Driscoll (1)
Corey Hall (22)
Curt Guyette (88)
Daniel Johnson (6)
Daniel Joyaux (14)
Dave Clements (7)
David Uberti (15)
Dennis Shea (10)
Don Was (1)
Doug Coombe (20)
Dylan Lawrence (9)
Eve Doster (28)
Guest Voice (8)
Hobey Echlin (1)
Jackie Rollin (1)
Jarrett Koral (1)
Jeff Meyers (21)
Jeff Milo (41)
Jennifer Bagwell (1)
Jennifer Paull (8)
Jim McFarlin (16)
Johnny Loftus (92)
Jonathan Cunningham (124)
Julia Fitzgerald (1)
Justin Rose (1)
Kahn Santori Davison (1)
Kelly Caldwell (8)
Kent Alexander (17)
Larry Gabriel (1)
Laura Witkowski (26)
Lee DeVito (8)
Maria Jewett (23)
Mark Braun (13)
Megan O'Neil (5)
Michael Jackman (59)
Michael Walton (5)
Michelle Styczynski (3)
Monty Luke (5)
MT Staff (2)
Nathan Phillips (9)
Noah Heinrich (1)
Patrick Higgins (3)
Pietro Truba (44)
Rachelle Damico (8)
Rebecca Mazzei (2)
Rob St. Mary (7)
Robert Guttersohn (4)
Ryan Felton (11)
Sallyann Price (2)
Sandra Svoboda (65)
Sarah Klein (1)
Scott Bragg (4)
Sharon Jacobs (2)
Simone Landon (8)
Travis Wright (67)
W. Kim Heron (156)
Walter Wasacz (30)



Music Blahg

Metro Times Blowout ends with a Bang: The Dirtbombs, Kim Fowley’s Psychedelic Dogs, The Hentchmen and more


March 4, 2012
By Rachelle Damico


Photo by: Brian Alesi

I could have kicked myself for walking in the Polish National Alliance Hall just as Jeecy and the Jungle finished their set. They were one of the bands I was looking forward to seeing most at Blowout. Virtually every person I bumped into from Metro Times was raving about how well they played. Their records bring me back to the greats of Detroit Motown.



Self-described party-rock band The Beggars are fun live. They paid tribute to Davy Jones with their version of The Monkees “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.” Charismatic singer Steven Davis pointed his bright orange microphone at the crowd while they sang and danced along.







"Dustin Leslie of Dutch Pink seduced the crowd with his raspy soul-infused voice. He alternated between keys and guitar. A full band, including two powerful backup singers, backed his rock ballads."
- Metro Times

"And Dutch Pink are dangerous now that they’ve got two formidable voices up front via their two female lead singers." - Metro Times

Elsewhere, Dutch Pink has evolved into a super-tight unit of blues-rock troubadours, with dual female vocals that add genuine class and clout. - Metro Times

Dutch Pink is good drinking music. Their name is a play on words that traces back to urine and though the music means different things to those who hear it – and the band members who make it – it is definitely gritty, grumpy, tough-guy rock n roll. Put their strong, yet lyrical chords and the raw passionate voice of Dustin Charles Leslie on vocals into the atmosphere of the Berkley Front on Friday, Nov. 25, and even the hardest blues could be gone after a cold beer and a couple good songs.

In the past eight years the band has grown from three to six members, has produced five albums, and done hundreds of shows together, including many at the Berkley Front.

“The folks at the Front have been very good to us over the years,” Leslie says. “Christian is a folk hero to us. We played our first show there in 2004. There is a lot of respect given to the musicians. Whenever we have bands coming in from out of town we always try and set something up there. We know it will be a good time and we can send them on their way with some money in their pocket.”

The six member-band is made up of Dustin Charles Leslie on vocals, guitar, piano and organ; Clyde Mashinter on bass guitar; Scotty Stone on drums; Joel “Jelly Roll” McCune on lead guitar; and Aja Sardis and Serene Arena on vocals. Leslie says “each new member was a natural fit,” and credited the addition of new members with the different sounds and ideas the band has explored over the years.

“Influence is another especially flighty and curious nomenclature,” Leslie says. “As of right now, it is most importantly the other members of the band. We are currently writing our sixth album. So directly the people sharing air in the basement impact direction, sounds, words, more than Beethoven. Likewise we all have a healthy respect and admiration for each other’s abilities and individual musical and personal accomplishments.”

When asked about the band’s name, Leslie gave insight into the many meanings Dutch Pink might have.

“It was better than Withagainst, our original name,” Leslie says. “It has been linked to the Tom Waits song, ‘Jockey Full of Bourbon,’ which we realized at the time. It is an anachronism for ‘Boxer’s Blood.’ It also is a familiar color. The word pink originally meant a yellow color. There is speculation, owing to its greenish yellow tone, that it is derived from the German word ‘pinkeln,’ translated in a dictionary of 1798 as ‘to piss, to make water.’ Dutch Pink is the color of my house in Ferndale. Our ode to big pink, etc. All meaning is derived from the reader, listener.”

To listen to Dutch Pink songs like “Good Work,” “Corn Palace Heirs,” and “Miss Bettie Page,” check them out on Myspace. They can also be heard on You Tube and their website, www.dutchpink.net. - Berkley Live

Dutch Pink is good drinking music. Their name is a play on words that traces back to urine and though the music means different things to those who hear it – and the band members who make it – it is definitely gritty, grumpy, tough-guy rock n roll. Put their strong, yet lyrical chords and the raw passionate voice of Dustin Charles Leslie on vocals into the atmosphere of the Berkley Front on Friday, Nov. 25, and even the hardest blues could be gone after a cold beer and a couple good songs.

In the past eight years the band has grown from three to six members, has produced five albums, and done hundreds of shows together, including many at the Berkley Front.

“The folks at the Front have been very good to us over the years,” Leslie says. “Christian is a folk hero to us. We played our first show there in 2004. There is a lot of respect given to the musicians. Whenever we have bands coming in from out of town we always try and set something up there. We know it will be a good time and we can send them on their way with some money in their pocket.”

The six member-band is made up of Dustin Charles Leslie on vocals, guitar, piano and organ; Clyde Mashinter on bass guitar; Scotty Stone on drums; Joel “Jelly Roll” McCune on lead guitar; and Aja Sardis and Serene Arena on vocals. Leslie says “each new member was a natural fit,” and credited the addition of new members with the different sounds and ideas the band has explored over the years.

“Influence is another especially flighty and curious nomenclature,” Leslie says. “As of right now, it is most importantly the other members of the band. We are currently writing our sixth album. So directly the people sharing air in the basement impact direction, sounds, words, more than Beethoven. Likewise we all have a healthy respect and admiration for each other’s abilities and individual musical and personal accomplishments.”

When asked about the band’s name, Leslie gave insight into the many meanings Dutch Pink might have.

“It was better than Withagainst, our original name,” Leslie says. “It has been linked to the Tom Waits song, ‘Jockey Full of Bourbon,’ which we realized at the time. It is an anachronism for ‘Boxer’s Blood.’ It also is a familiar color. The word pink originally meant a yellow color. There is speculation, owing to its greenish yellow tone, that it is derived from the German word ‘pinkeln,’ translated in a dictionary of 1798 as ‘to piss, to make water.’ Dutch Pink is the color of my house in Ferndale. Our ode to big pink, etc. All meaning is derived from the reader, listener.”

To listen to Dutch Pink songs like “Good Work,” “Corn Palace Heirs,” and “Miss Bettie Page,” check them out on Myspace. They can also be heard on You Tube and their website, www.dutchpink.net. - Berkley Live

Amidst all the drunks, carnival barkers, and children with barbecue sauce smeared across their faces, it was obvious: the 2011 Arts, Beats, and Eats–in its second year in Downtown Royal Oak–was a rousing success.

Yes, there were hiccups–besides those of the over-imbibers–but really, how can you prepare for gale force winds other than tie down your tents–ahem–and hope for the best?

Good grub, pretty people, and a couple of Meg White sightings smoking outside of Gusoline Alley later and I’m ready to name my best new music discovery of the Arts, Beats, and Eats: Dutch Pink.

I’d never seen them before. And they were good. Really good, in fact.

Part of the Loco Gnosis crew, Dutch Pink is a four piece whose singer bounces back and forth between guitar and piano. It’s dive bar music.

The singer, by the way, has a voice in the range of Tom Waits, Joe Cocker, Bob Seger, and insert growly voiced singer here ________ . Beyond that, guy’s a talented lyricist to boot, often using Detroit as his muse. Example:

I saw you walking out of Hannibal’s liquor store
Looking like you just stepped out of Lily’s back in 94’.
You still paint up your face like a Monet,
I always thought you’d sing yourself out of Detroit someday.

(Taken from “The Tin Whistle”)

I love wordy songwriters and this guys chews on lyrics like he chews on his vocal cords. And about that Tom Waits similarity anyhow. Yeah, it’s obvious. But so what? It sounds great. And he channels white R&B-tinged rockers like Joe Cocker and Bob Seger even more so at times. It’s gravelly and severe and works well in the context of the songs.

They put on a good show, drawing a larger and larger crowd as their set wore on. They impressed young hipsters and middle-aged biker guys alike, inspiring an impressive array of head-nodding and toe-tapping.

I would recommend you check them out the next chance you get. - The Urbane Life

Amidst all the drunks, carnival barkers, and children with barbecue sauce smeared across their faces, it was obvious: the 2011 Arts, Beats, and Eats–in its second year in Downtown Royal Oak–was a rousing success.

Yes, there were hiccups–besides those of the over-imbibers–but really, how can you prepare for gale force winds other than tie down your tents–ahem–and hope for the best?

Good grub, pretty people, and a couple of Meg White sightings smoking outside of Gusoline Alley later and I’m ready to name my best new music discovery of the Arts, Beats, and Eats: Dutch Pink.

I’d never seen them before. And they were good. Really good, in fact.

Part of the Loco Gnosis crew, Dutch Pink is a four piece whose singer bounces back and forth between guitar and piano. It’s dive bar music.

The singer, by the way, has a voice in the range of Tom Waits, Joe Cocker, Bob Seger, and insert growly voiced singer here ________ . Beyond that, guy’s a talented lyricist to boot, often using Detroit as his muse. Example:

I saw you walking out of Hannibal’s liquor store
Looking like you just stepped out of Lily’s back in 94’.
You still paint up your face like a Monet,
I always thought you’d sing yourself out of Detroit someday.

(Taken from “The Tin Whistle”)

I love wordy songwriters and this guys chews on lyrics like he chews on his vocal cords. And about that Tom Waits similarity anyhow. Yeah, it’s obvious. But so what? It sounds great. And he channels white R&B-tinged rockers like Joe Cocker and Bob Seger even more so at times. It’s gravelly and severe and works well in the context of the songs.

They put on a good show, drawing a larger and larger crowd as their set wore on. They impressed young hipsters and middle-aged biker guys alike, inspiring an impressive array of head-nodding and toe-tapping.

I would recommend you check them out the next chance you get. - The Urbane Life

“I remember talking to you a while ago,” drummer David Iannuzzi looks past me, down the bar to address his longtime friend, singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie, “and you were furious, actually, that we weren’t done with this album yet. You’d realized that that there was all of this hope, a new administration, the stimulus money, people thinking things are going to get better and you were like: No! We wrote this way back here, before!”

The pair, with bassist Clyde, make up Dutch Pink. Their batch of redemptive ballads, Times New Roman is, after a year and a half of hanging in limbo, finally being released (6/24 at the Magic Bag).

“We wrote this fucking album three years ago,” Leslie can’t restrain an amplified exclamation. “We wrote this when people started losing their jobs at the beginning of the recession, at the tail end of our own 30-month-long orgy of songwriting.”

As Clyde had pointed out earlier, the album title is allegorical of Detroit being the modern paradigm of the Roman Empire’s ruin. “And the only reason it’s coming out now is because we actually lost our jobs,” he clarifies with bemoaned irony.

It’s fitting that their third proper full length be pulsing with redemption and, yes, hope, as their journey has been one seemingly better explained as a calling rather than the typical thinly veiled swaggering seek for fame – their manner is more blue collar, humble and thick with a reverence for friends, family, community and tradition. There were no goals (outside of Clyde relishing that first-free-beer he downed at their first show) and there was no agenda (outside of never forcing anything and maintaining their decades-long vibe for mutual concern and support between them). What started as two kids (Leslie and Ianuzzi) meeting on the ice as part of a traveling junior hockey team and later drawing their fellow Troy Athens lacrosse teammate (Clyde) into their gang, flourished into a quintessentially (and endearing) thick as thieves affair that would solidify on completely non-musical affairs. Leslie and Ianuzzi have been linked for two dozen years – and have had Clyde as an ally for nearly 20. Each attended Michigan State, Ianuzzi for architecture, and his two mates respectively both for literature.

They each individually nourished and developed both a love for music and a talent for, respectively, bass (Clyde) and guitar (Leslie and Ianuzzi). But music, or starting a band was never really talked about.

One fateful February, in 2004, Leslie called up the two of them (individually at first, though he soon found out they were both at the bar together that night to receive his call). A friend of theirs was playing a show and needed an opening band, in 10 days. “We didn’t even have a drummer,” Ianuzzi recalls. “And, Dustin said, ‘Well, you’ll play the drums.”

Whether it wound up working out as well as they’d planned, that night, is up to historical interpretation – what matters is that it planted a deep seed of inspiration into all three of them. Suddenly, the brothers, the daytrippers, the drinking buddies, the close comrades had a whole new level of bonding to mine between them – and they became somewhat possessed by this new musical motivation, spurring them down a 15-month road of almost militaristically regimented rehearsing and writing, leading into recording sessions with Tempermill’s Tony Hamera that lead to their self-releasing of two LPs and an EP. And this, all throughout late 05 into early 07 when Ianuzzi was attending grad school in Ann Arbor, swinging over to Ferndale constantly for a backbreaking schedule of shows, most of them local to help establish their identity but even a few tours here and there out around the Midwest and even as far out as Los Angeles.

Indulging a bit of hyperbole, they were in great shape when summer 2008 rolled around. They contacted engineer Dan Currie for what would become the Times New Roman sessions; the laying down of songs they’d already had written and ready.

Strange though, that the offsetting moment for Times was the flooding of one rehearsal space (Dustin’s basement in early 08), while something like that could be seen as a set back (certainly, as it caused the destruction of a lot of their equipment) and yet, it increased their motivation 3-fold when they set up in a temporary space – whipping themselves along through a marathon of late nighters that created these latest gritty, cathartic arias, from the sanctimonious sway of the organ-led “Lora Lynn” to the melancholy minimalism and pedal-steel poignancy of “The Tin Whistle.”

But more set-backs followed that initial flood. Both Ianuzzi and Clyde lost their jobs. Money became a factor. Financing studio time or running around playing shows, touring or any other kind of suddenly-more-wallet-weighted decisions had to be closely scrutinized.

“And, we were just beat, too, at that point,” Leslie recalls. “That’s 30-months of just non-stop 3-days-a-week of practices, six hour pract - Deep Cutz (Blog)

“I remember talking to you a while ago,” drummer David Iannuzzi looks past me, down the bar to address his longtime friend, singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie, “and you were furious, actually, that we weren’t done with this album yet. You’d realized that that there was all of this hope, a new administration, the stimulus money, people thinking things are going to get better and you were like: No! We wrote this way back here, before!”

The pair, with bassist Clyde, make up Dutch Pink. Their batch of redemptive ballads, Times New Roman is, after a year and a half of hanging in limbo, finally being released (6/24 at the Magic Bag).

“We wrote this fucking album three years ago,” Leslie can’t restrain an amplified exclamation. “We wrote this when people started losing their jobs at the beginning of the recession, at the tail end of our own 30-month-long orgy of songwriting.”

As Clyde had pointed out earlier, the album title is allegorical of Detroit being the modern paradigm of the Roman Empire’s ruin. “And the only reason it’s coming out now is because we actually lost our jobs,” he clarifies with bemoaned irony.

It’s fitting that their third proper full length be pulsing with redemption and, yes, hope, as their journey has been one seemingly better explained as a calling rather than the typical thinly veiled swaggering seek for fame – their manner is more blue collar, humble and thick with a reverence for friends, family, community and tradition. There were no goals (outside of Clyde relishing that first-free-beer he downed at their first show) and there was no agenda (outside of never forcing anything and maintaining their decades-long vibe for mutual concern and support between them). What started as two kids (Leslie and Ianuzzi) meeting on the ice as part of a traveling junior hockey team and later drawing their fellow Troy Athens lacrosse teammate (Clyde) into their gang, flourished into a quintessentially (and endearing) thick as thieves affair that would solidify on completely non-musical affairs. Leslie and Ianuzzi have been linked for two dozen years – and have had Clyde as an ally for nearly 20. Each attended Michigan State, Ianuzzi for architecture, and his two mates respectively both for literature.

They each individually nourished and developed both a love for music and a talent for, respectively, bass (Clyde) and guitar (Leslie and Ianuzzi). But music, or starting a band was never really talked about.

One fateful February, in 2004, Leslie called up the two of them (individually at first, though he soon found out they were both at the bar together that night to receive his call). A friend of theirs was playing a show and needed an opening band, in 10 days. “We didn’t even have a drummer,” Ianuzzi recalls. “And, Dustin said, ‘Well, you’ll play the drums.”

Whether it wound up working out as well as they’d planned, that night, is up to historical interpretation – what matters is that it planted a deep seed of inspiration into all three of them. Suddenly, the brothers, the daytrippers, the drinking buddies, the close comrades had a whole new level of bonding to mine between them – and they became somewhat possessed by this new musical motivation, spurring them down a 15-month road of almost militaristically regimented rehearsing and writing, leading into recording sessions with Tempermill’s Tony Hamera that lead to their self-releasing of two LPs and an EP. And this, all throughout late 05 into early 07 when Ianuzzi was attending grad school in Ann Arbor, swinging over to Ferndale constantly for a backbreaking schedule of shows, most of them local to help establish their identity but even a few tours here and there out around the Midwest and even as far out as Los Angeles.

Indulging a bit of hyperbole, they were in great shape when summer 2008 rolled around. They contacted engineer Dan Currie for what would become the Times New Roman sessions; the laying down of songs they’d already had written and ready.

Strange though, that the offsetting moment for Times was the flooding of one rehearsal space (Dustin’s basement in early 08), while something like that could be seen as a set back (certainly, as it caused the destruction of a lot of their equipment) and yet, it increased their motivation 3-fold when they set up in a temporary space – whipping themselves along through a marathon of late nighters that created these latest gritty, cathartic arias, from the sanctimonious sway of the organ-led “Lora Lynn” to the melancholy minimalism and pedal-steel poignancy of “The Tin Whistle.”

But more set-backs followed that initial flood. Both Ianuzzi and Clyde lost their jobs. Money became a factor. Financing studio time or running around playing shows, touring or any other kind of suddenly-more-wallet-weighted decisions had to be closely scrutinized.

“And, we were just beat, too, at that point,” Leslie recalls. “That’s 30-months of just non-stop 3-days-a-week of practices, six hour pract - Deep Cutz (Blog)

Dutch Pink's next venture

Wanna see and hear an album being made?

Dutch Pink has a new line up, (essentially) - and their focusing the components of its added vigor onto a live album.

Come lounge in the ambiance of Cliff Bell's and be apart of the process... and for you old fashioned, Folsom-type audience members, please remember: "don't say 'shit"... or anything like that, out loud..." - Deep Cutz (Blog)

I finally caught a full Dutch Pink set, after seeing only bits and pieces of them for way too long now. Of all the bands that played the Sounds & Spirits show last week, they were the ones people kept asking me about. Who was that? Where are these guys from? How come I’ve never seen them before? Is that Johnny Depp from Benny & Joon? Their version of “Deck The Halls” was probably the best performance I heard that night, and they closed last night’s set with it too. I only wish it available to steal somewhere.
I spent the first three songs of their set convincing someone to stop pre-judging and just listen. These guys seemed to be cursed with the “If you like Tom Waits, you’ll love Dutch Pink” line of thinking. Which wouldn’t really be a “curse,” except for the fact that most of their music sounds nothing like Tom Waits. Yes, the singer has a gravely/barky thing going. Some dude at Sounds & Spirits compared them to Man Man, who also have a gravely/barky thing going, and I almost punched him in the face. People just need a frame of reference for everything, I guess. Here’s one: Dutch Pink is pretty sweet.
I’m still kicking myself for not hopping on their CD Release Drunken Bus Tour in October, because these guys seem like an instant party. Or an instant interesting time, at least. They’ve got a show coming up in February with Silverghost, another band I still need to see a full set from. I think I’ll be there. Word is Dutch Pink will have a grand piano on stage. - Eat This City (Blog)

"As garage rock's moon wanes and electropop's moon waxes, Dutch Pink, a raw, alt-folky rock band is in the midst of making people take notice. Frontman Dustin Leslie's lyrics and vocal style are as erractic as his live performance, which usually consists of him jumping off of drummer David Iannuzzi's kick drum, or beating the crap out of a tambourine against a tine sign or any other scrap of metal lying around. The band, which also includes bassist Clyde Mashinter will celebrate the release of its new CD, "Idols and Infidels" Friday at the Magic Bag. - The Detroit Free Press

subbacultcha
by Keith N. Dusenberry

The fellas of Dutch Pink are at it again. Set to release their new record, an EP of songs based on famous writers’ sonnets entitled Six Little Songs Of Ourselves, DP are stepping up the promotion game just like we’ve come to expect from the Detroit-based band. The Tom Waits-ian trio will do an all-day “bus tour” mixing live performances, barbequing, a little bit of exercise (aka walking between two of the six total venues involved) and six other bands performing along with the men of the … hours.

Your very long (and entertaining) October 13 begins at 11 a.m. in the Woodward Avenue Brewers parking lot. There will be a little pre-partying (one imagines) and then the party will cruise over to the Old Miami for Oscillating Fan Club at 12:15 p.m. and DP at 1:15. Then it’s on to the Northern Lights Lounge at 2 for a 2:30 Jeremiah Bazely performance, followed — surprise! — by DP at 3:30.

The day continues on to Ether Aura and DP at The Belmont, then The Makebelieves (Athens, Ohio) and DP at the New Dodge, a walk next door to see Wingman and DP at the Painted Lady and then Duende! and DP back at the WAB. Whew! More info: myspace.com/withagainst | - Real Detroit Weekly

"Dutch Pink: Dustin Leslie and Clyde and David Iannuzzi launch of "Idols and Infidels" today. The Detroit based trio crafts eclectic, deliciously raw music fueled by throaty vocals and lyrics filled with angst." - The Detroit Free Press

DUTCH PINK

Who: David Iannuzzi, drums, guitar; Clyde, electric bass, upright bass; Dustin Leslie, guitar, piano, organ, vocals.

What: Dutch Pink formed in 2004 for that most-classic reason: A friend offered them an opening slot, with the proverbial limited time to rehearse. The gig went so (literally) smashing that it took them two years and a name change to book another gig. But they came out of that period with an evocative moniker that matches an evocative sound, which Leslie likens to "Coming to in the midst of a wine-fed blackout with blood on your hands." Leslie's gravelly, carnival-barker vocals often feed comparisons to Tom Waits, but their sound's their own — a twisted indie-fed take on American roots music, a dash of cabaret, folk and good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. Wildly diverse, you really never know exactly what you'll get at a Dutch Pink show. Remember: This is the band that throws an annual bus tour-pub crawl, playing a full set at a handful of bars over the course of a night so that they can burn through their whole catalog of songs and styles (and tackle some extra-bandular jams as well).

Why: "To add ourselves and our work to a growing litany and tradition," says Leslie.

Where: Detroit.

Killer quote: "We expect to be found in the Tower Record bargain bin."

Life-changing records: Leslie: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde "because it was both spurious and literate. A perfect blend of tradition and Rimbaud's 'One must be absolutely modern.'" Clyde: "I got a Berenstain Bears picture disc and Michael Jackson's Thriller from K-Mart at the same time. One was worn out a year later; one collected dust." Ianuzzi: Pavement's Wowee Zowee

Essential listening: Dutch Pink EP 2006, Idols and Infidels LP 2007, Six Little Songs of Ourselves EP 2007 - Metro Times

Dutch Pink has been sculpting its baroque, barroom stomp sound since 2004, but it wasn't clear until 2007's Six Little Songs for Ourselves, a brief series of sonnets set to disconcerting melodies, what the band was capable of. More than anything, however, the EP was proof this Detroit trio could come out to play from under the cloud of Tom Waits. The band's latest, Times New Roman, is its most complete record yet. Written in the spring of 2008 and recorded with Dan Currie at "The Bunker," the 10-song set is rich in layers, with singer and lyricist Dustin Leslie's voice up front, his callous pronunciations cutting in clarity.

Wistful stanzas bounce between sparsely plucked chords on the opening title track, transforming into eclectic crashes over which Leslie spits his story. It's hopscotch and hangovers/ capricious cowards and barstool poets/ with the Byzantium blues at best/ are undertaken. This is all nighttime music, ballads for lit-fan drunkards with broken hearts, wild streaks, and wanderlust. "Corn Palace Heirs," opens with jangly piano sustained in voodoo mood. It's a ghostly narrative that tells of danger and sex, almost like a grimier take on the Traveling Wilburys' "Tweeter and the Monkey Man," substituting drugs, cops and junkies for Midwestern vixens, whiskey and nightmares. We travel from Tuscaloosa to Baton Rouge, from truck stops to fairs and Aesop's butcher.

The scarcity of "Jacquelyn," which sounds very impromptu, has a gem of lyric in You always be jaded/ I'll always be broke/ I don't mind if you don't. But it's a muddy dredge to the bitter end. Following up with "My Kind of Loser," the band shows that, at heart, they're a beautiful blues band. Slow and sweet, Leslie pushed his broken soul out as best he can. And he can. "Byzantine Blues" sees the band step back into the Detroit garage. Full of unruly swagger, this straight shot of rock 'n' roll sounds like it's meant to be heard live. "Dollhouse, MO" shows a different side of the Dutch Pink blues, the Screamin' Jay Hawkins thing. - Metro Times

"I remember talking to you a while ago," drummer David Iannuzzi looks past me, down the bar to address his longtime friend, singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie, "and you were furious, actually, that we weren't done with this album yet. You'd realized that there was all of this hope, a new administration, the stimulus money, people thinking things are going to get better and you were like, 'No! We wrote this way back here, before!'"

The pair, with bassist Clyde, make up Dutch Pink. Their batch of redemptive ballads, Times New Roman, is, after a year and a half of hanging in limbo, finally being released (6/24 at the Magic Bag).

"We wrote this fucking album three years ago," Leslie says, unable to restrain an amplified exclamation. "We wrote this when people started losing their jobs at the beginning of the recession, at the tail end of our own 30-month-long orgy of songwriting."

As Clyde had pointed out earlier, the album title is allegorical of Detroit being the modern paradigm of the Roman Empire's ruin. "And the only reason it's coming out now is because we actually lost our jobs," he clarifies with bemoaned irony.

The dynamics of Dutch Pink, and the heart each player exudes, are so much more nuanced because there is a thick bond of familial friendship between the players. After surviving a flooded rehearsal space and brief stints of unemployment, the band is finally releasing their third proper LP — and after seven years as a band (and two decades as friends), feeling rejuvenated and resolved. | RDW

Visit realdetroitweekly.com to read Milo's album review.

Dutch Pink Album Release w/ The Juliets & Faux Paws • 6/24, 8 p.m. • Magic Bag • 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale • themagicbag.com • $8
- Real Detroit Weekly

Without trying to compare, yet hearing the many influences within their surrounding sound, if you took the simplicity of Buddy Holly, the sincerity of Bob Dylan, the cleverness and strangness of Modest Mouse, and the soothing sounds of Tom Waits (just to name a few)...you would have what is known as Dutch Pink.

At the time, I was unaware of what to expect but with a name like Dutch Pink (which stems from lyrics in two different Tom Waits songs), I was also intrigued. The atmosphere and the unknown quickly drew my attention as the opening notes rang out. I was immediatly enthralled by the facial expressions and stage presence of the fearless leader, as the band commanded through like a thunder storm lighting up the midnight sky. The music drew me in, but the aura and the energy kept me wide eyed.

I have had the pleasure of experiencing this amazing band twice now, and I highly recommend that if the opportunity arises, do not pass it up. Dutch Pink is a force and a breath of fresh air for the Detroit music scene. The music is raw, true, honest and real, and these boys are ready to rock.

- SPC, 6/10/2006 - Archivist Records

Without trying to compare, yet hearing the many influences within their surrounding sound, if you took the simplicity of Buddy Holly, the sincerity of Bob Dylan, the cleverness and strangness of Modest Mouse, and the soothing sounds of Tom Waits (just to name a few)...you would have what is known as Dutch Pink.

At the time, I was unaware of what to expect but with a name like Dutch Pink (which stems from lyrics in two different Tom Waits songs), I was also intrigued. The atmosphere and the unknown quickly drew my attention as the opening notes rang out. I was immediatly enthralled by the facial expressions and stage presence of the fearless leader, as the band commanded through like a thunder storm lighting up the midnight sky. The music drew me in, but the aura and the energy kept me wide eyed.

I have had the pleasure of experiencing this amazing band twice now, and I highly recommend that if the opportunity arises, do not pass it up. Dutch Pink is a force and a breath of fresh air for the Detroit music scene. The music is raw, true, honest and real, and these boys are ready to rock.

- SPC, 6/10/2006 - Archivist Records

11/22/06
This Saturday, November 25, 2006 Showtime Clothing will present Crud's Cruddy XMas at the Magic Stick. Now, if you look at the poster for this event, you will see Dutch Pink listed as one of the bands.
Why is it though that if you go to the official Magic Stick site there is no mention of them? Perhaps this is not of importance to any of you, but having seen Dutch Pink and meeting them on different occasions, I believe that they are one of the best bands in Detroit (and some of the nicest guys you will meet), and they deserve the respect of being listed on the venues webpage with the other bands that are playing. Sure they are not the headlining band, but in my opinion, they are the best band in the line-up. - Detroit Bazaar

11/22/06
This Saturday, November 25, 2006 Showtime Clothing will present Crud's Cruddy XMas at the Magic Stick. Now, if you look at the poster for this event, you will see Dutch Pink listed as one of the bands.
Why is it though that if you go to the official Magic Stick site there is no mention of them? Perhaps this is not of importance to any of you, but having seen Dutch Pink and meeting them on different occasions, I believe that they are one of the best bands in Detroit (and some of the nicest guys you will meet), and they deserve the respect of being listed on the venues webpage with the other bands that are playing. Sure they are not the headlining band, but in my opinion, they are the best band in the line-up. - Detroit Bazaar

You may not have read it, you may not have...but since I'm too damn lazy to type up a report of the bands I didn't care for at the Blowout - I'll let Ben do it. I have to agree with Ben that I wasn't too impressed either with the BLOWOUT this year. I tried to focus on bands I had never seen before, and was CONSTANTLY let down. I will say this much...at least I walked away being a new fan of The Cortez Brothers, Siddhartha and Dutch Pink. - fotogink

You may not have read it, you may not have...but since I'm too damn lazy to type up a report of the bands I didn't care for at the Blowout - I'll let Ben do it. I have to agree with Ben that I wasn't too impressed either with the BLOWOUT this year. I tried to focus on bands I had never seen before, and was CONSTANTLY let down. I will say this much...at least I walked away being a new fan of The Cortez Brothers, Siddhartha and Dutch Pink. - fotogink

"There was more discovery on Saturday. Detroit trio Dutch Pink drew on Tom Waits, Old 97s and maybe even the HBO series Carnivale for a set of rock 'n' roll with a bullwhip's sting...." - Metro Times

"There was more discovery on Saturday. Detroit trio Dutch Pink drew on Tom Waits, Old 97s and maybe even the HBO series Carnivale for a set of rock 'n' roll with a bullwhip's sting...." - Metro Times

Like a blend Tom Waits bathed in Detroit gristle - DUTCH PINK is more concerned with SOUND vs being HIP. See why. - fotogink

Like a blend Tom Waits bathed in Detroit gristle - DUTCH PINK is more concerned with SOUND vs being HIP. See why. - fotogink

"I'll bet that dude in the eye patch is loving this." The man said this to his friend during Dutch Pink's Saturday night set while gesturing to the eye patch-wearer nearby, his implication being that guys with eye patches love the band. Maybe; he really did seem to be enjoying himself. - Metro Times

"I'll bet that dude in the eye patch is loving this." The man said this to his friend during Dutch Pink's Saturday night set while gesturing to the eye patch-wearer nearby, his implication being that guys with eye patches love the band. Maybe; he really did seem to be enjoying himself. - Metro Times

"On Saturday I saw a band called Dutch Pink which apparently has been around while but I had never heard of or seen them before, I randomly choose to go to the Belmont on Saturday. I am glad I did pick this show because these guys were a nice surprise. Lead singer/guitar player Dustin Leslie looks like Johnny Depp circa Benny and Joon and sounds like Tom Waits. They blended many different musical styles and I never knew what was coming next. At one point I’m pretty sure a “no parking” sign was being played. Check these guys out if you are looking for something unique and want to see a good show." - MotorCityRocks.com

"On Saturday I saw a band called Dutch Pink which apparently has been around while but I had never heard of or seen them before, I randomly choose to go to the Belmont on Saturday. I am glad I did pick this show because these guys were a nice surprise. Lead singer/guitar player Dustin Leslie looks like Johnny Depp circa Benny and Joon and sounds like Tom Waits. They blended many different musical styles and I never knew what was coming next. At one point I’m pretty sure a “no parking” sign was being played. Check these guys out if you are looking for something unique and want to see a good show." - MotorCityRocks.com

Heard 'em live, and they sounded like Tom Waits after a few too many Red Bulls. You can't escape the comparison; lead singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie must gargle with gravel and sleep with a lit cigarette in his mouth. The band is sparse, harsh and noisy, pounding out jungle beats, Tim Burton movie soundtrack noises and crunchy guitars behind his creepy-cool delivery.

On CD, they take on different layers, and become even more intriguing. I heard shades of Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols and Lou Reed mixed in there with a touch of Rolling Stones. Lyrics run the gamut from the standard garage-rock "cars and pretty girls" stuff to nightmare-inducing: "The drag boys sing the ghetto/ falsetto and in tune/ As hound dog belching lepers on a stillborn afternoon..." I wouldn't call them a garage band; they're smarter and more literate than your average garage band, but they fit right into that scene.

Weirder still, and pretty damn ambitious: They're having not one, but FIVE CD release parties this Saturday, paving a trail of spilt whiskey and dust from downtown through Hamtramck and into Ferndale. Should be memorable, to say the least, and I hope they take some time off to recover from that madness. - The Detroit News

Heard 'em live, and they sounded like Tom Waits after a few too many Red Bulls. You can't escape the comparison; lead singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie must gargle with gravel and sleep with a lit cigarette in his mouth. The band is sparse, harsh and noisy, pounding out jungle beats, Tim Burton movie soundtrack noises and crunchy guitars behind his creepy-cool delivery.

On CD, they take on different layers, and become even more intriguing. I heard shades of Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols and Lou Reed mixed in there with a touch of Rolling Stones. Lyrics run the gamut from the standard garage-rock "cars and pretty girls" stuff to nightmare-inducing: "The drag boys sing the ghetto/ falsetto and in tune/ As hound dog belching lepers on a stillborn afternoon..." I wouldn't call them a garage band; they're smarter and more literate than your average garage band, but they fit right into that scene.

Weirder still, and pretty damn ambitious: They're having not one, but FIVE CD release parties this Saturday, paving a trail of spilt whiskey and dust from downtown through Hamtramck and into Ferndale. Should be memorable, to say the least, and I hope they take some time off to recover from that madness. - The Detroit News

By Keith N. Dusenberry
May 2, 2007, 21:43

Hedge Clippers & The New Dylan:
Dutch Pink

Any time someone writes or talks about Detroit trio Dutch Pink, a Tom Waits comparison always gets made. But singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie isn’t complaining.

“It’s not like they’re comparing us to somebody who’s not good,” he says. “[Waits] is a great songwriter — he writes songs, he writes great music — and he’s creative and he doesn’t do the same thing; he’s hard to pin down. So, maybe, to give us that label is like the ultimate compliment, like, ‘OK, the only person we can compare you with — you have a gruff voice and we don’t really know what you’re going to do next — so, you guys are like Tom Waits.’ Shit!”

“That’s like being, ‘the new Dylan,’” bassist Clyde interjects. “You can’t really be like, ‘I’m not the new Dylan! That’s a horrible thing to say! I can’t believe you’d say that to me!’ It’s like, ‘Thank you very much.’”

“Exactly,” Leslie affirms. “If you hear that and you think that, then that is fantastic. We’re obviously fans of his.” But there’s more to Dutch Pink than simple Waits aping. Sure, Leslie does a gravelly thing with his voice and the songs have that bizarre, Coney Island of the Mind mixed with whiskey feel, but the Dutch Pink boys are trying to do something new, too.

They recorded their new, debut full-length album, Idols & Infidels, with Tony Hamera at Tempermill Studios and spent a good deal of their studio time NOT playing their instruments — at least not traditional instruments. The openness to experimentation is a large part of the reason they chose Tempermill. “[Hamera] allows us to do the kinds of things we want to do,” Leslie says. “If we want to play chairs, then we play chairs. He opened up his utility closet for us. ... He’s got Martin guitars and all these great amps and he’s like, ‘You guys went straight for the utility closet!’”

“He started bringing stuff out for us,” Clyde recalls, “like, ‘This is gonna make a great noise!’”

“He got us hedge clippers and a serving tray and we’d bang on it,” Leslie continues. “We’d play the piano bench instead of the piano, those sorts of things.”

Dutch Pink weren’t always this experimental. They began three years ago under the moniker With Against in a progression that took them from, as Leslie puts it, “shitty to garage rock to, like, well, we actually can write songs now.” They changed their name around the time the new sound (and Leslie’s new vocal approach) started to solidify about two years ago.

It was an organic shift. “The music started evolving,” Leslie explains. “Our drummer, Dave Iannuzzi, he’s a guitar player — he wasn’t a drummer. He played drums because we had two guitar players and a bass player and we wanted to be in a band.” Leslie attributes a good deal of the band’s harmonious inner workings to Iannuzzi‘s six-string background, since the now-sticksman acts as the group’s primary arranger. “We have a pretty good way that we go about doing everything,” he says. “I write, say, 99 percent of the lyrics; Dave arranges a lot of the songs as they’re written — I come with the chord changes, progressions — and Clyde lays down the soul of it, like, gives it life. …

“It works well that way, it’s really good for us,” he continues. “And I think that breaking that up in any way would be fucked up. We at one time thought about adding another guitar player and ... maybe a piano player, but instead we bought our own organ and I taught myself how to play it, that sort of thing.”

Dutch Pink’s summer project will involve recording famous writers’ sonnets as full-on songs. “We’re doing it to experiment with a lot of new stuff that might end up on a full-length later,” Clyde says.

Does that mean the studio’s utility closet will see some action again? “Oh,” Leslie says, “absolutely.” | RDW

Dutch Pink CD release party • May 4 • Magic Bag - Real Detroit

By Keith N. Dusenberry
May 2, 2007, 21:43

Hedge Clippers & The New Dylan:
Dutch Pink

Any time someone writes or talks about Detroit trio Dutch Pink, a Tom Waits comparison always gets made. But singer/guitarist Dustin Leslie isn’t complaining.

“It’s not like they’re comparing us to somebody who’s not good,” he says. “[Waits] is a great songwriter — he writes songs, he writes great music — and he’s creative and he doesn’t do the same thing; he’s hard to pin down. So, maybe, to give us that label is like the ultimate compliment, like, ‘OK, the only person we can compare you with — you have a gruff voice and we don’t really know what you’re going to do next — so, you guys are like Tom Waits.’ Shit!”

“That’s like being, ‘the new Dylan,’” bassist Clyde interjects. “You can’t really be like, ‘I’m not the new Dylan! That’s a horrible thing to say! I can’t believe you’d say that to me!’ It’s like, ‘Thank you very much.’”

“Exactly,” Leslie affirms. “If you hear that and you think that, then that is fantastic. We’re obviously fans of his.” But there’s more to Dutch Pink than simple Waits aping. Sure, Leslie does a gravelly thing with his voice and the songs have that bizarre, Coney Island of the Mind mixed with whiskey feel, but the Dutch Pink boys are trying to do something new, too.

They recorded their new, debut full-length album, Idols & Infidels, with Tony Hamera at Tempermill Studios and spent a good deal of their studio time NOT playing their instruments — at least not traditional instruments. The openness to experimentation is a large part of the reason they chose Tempermill. “[Hamera] allows us to do the kinds of things we want to do,” Leslie says. “If we want to play chairs, then we play chairs. He opened up his utility closet for us. ... He’s got Martin guitars and all these great amps and he’s like, ‘You guys went straight for the utility closet!’”

“He started bringing stuff out for us,” Clyde recalls, “like, ‘This is gonna make a great noise!’”

“He got us hedge clippers and a serving tray and we’d bang on it,” Leslie continues. “We’d play the piano bench instead of the piano, those sorts of things.”

Dutch Pink weren’t always this experimental. They began three years ago under the moniker With Against in a progression that took them from, as Leslie puts it, “shitty to garage rock to, like, well, we actually can write songs now.” They changed their name around the time the new sound (and Leslie’s new vocal approach) started to solidify about two years ago.

It was an organic shift. “The music started evolving,” Leslie explains. “Our drummer, Dave Iannuzzi, he’s a guitar player — he wasn’t a drummer. He played drums because we had two guitar players and a bass player and we wanted to be in a band.” Leslie attributes a good deal of the band’s harmonious inner workings to Iannuzzi‘s six-string background, since the now-sticksman acts as the group’s primary arranger. “We have a pretty good way that we go about doing everything,” he says. “I write, say, 99 percent of the lyrics; Dave arranges a lot of the songs as they’re written — I come with the chord changes, progressions — and Clyde lays down the soul of it, like, gives it life. …

“It works well that way, it’s really good for us,” he continues. “And I think that breaking that up in any way would be fucked up. We at one time thought about adding another guitar player and ... maybe a piano player, but instead we bought our own organ and I taught myself how to play it, that sort of thing.”

Dutch Pink’s summer project will involve recording famous writers’ sonnets as full-on songs. “We’re doing it to experiment with a lot of new stuff that might end up on a full-length later,” Clyde says.

Does that mean the studio’s utility closet will see some action again? “Oh,” Leslie says, “absolutely.” | RDW

Dutch Pink CD release party • May 4 • Magic Bag - Real Detroit

DUTCH PINK - RIFF2's Detroit Band of The Month - April
Current mood: chipper
Category: Music

Yet another month and yet another great band is being spotlighted on RIFF2 as band of the month!


For the month of April, we've decided to showcase the band DUTCH PINK!


These guys have built up quite the following in the last few years (formerly known as WITH AGAINST) playing shows all over the place including the Belmont, Smalls, Arts Beats & Eats (for the RIFF2 stage), MetroTimes Blowout and even putting their own party bus together and playing guerilla type shows all over the Motor City while leaving a trail of empty shot glasses and new fans wherever they went!


They have a new cd coming out in the beginning of May… with a cd release show happening MAY 4th at The Magic Bag in Ferndale with The Grande Nationals and Jeremiah Bazely.


Tune in all month long as we frolic in April showers (snow showers unfortunately at the time of writing this) and the awesomeness that is DUTCH PINK!!!


Listen in on your HD radio at: 101.1 HD2
Or online at: www.riff2.com


For more info on DUTCH PINK, check out their MySpace page at:
www.myspace.com/withagainst


Additional info:
Artist Information

Instrumentation
David Iannuzzi- Drums, Guitar,
Clyde- Bass
Dustin Leslie - Guitar, Vox, Organ, Keyboards, Signs
- Riff 2

DUTCH PINK - RIFF2's Detroit Band of The Month - April
Current mood: chipper
Category: Music

Yet another month and yet another great band is being spotlighted on RIFF2 as band of the month!


For the month of April, we've decided to showcase the band DUTCH PINK!


These guys have built up quite the following in the last few years (formerly known as WITH AGAINST) playing shows all over the place including the Belmont, Smalls, Arts Beats & Eats (for the RIFF2 stage), MetroTimes Blowout and even putting their own party bus together and playing guerilla type shows all over the Motor City while leaving a trail of empty shot glasses and new fans wherever they went!


They have a new cd coming out in the beginning of May… with a cd release show happening MAY 4th at The Magic Bag in Ferndale with The Grande Nationals and Jeremiah Bazely.


Tune in all month long as we frolic in April showers (snow showers unfortunately at the time of writing this) and the awesomeness that is DUTCH PINK!!!


Listen in on your HD radio at: 101.1 HD2
Or online at: www.riff2.com


For more info on DUTCH PINK, check out their MySpace page at:
www.myspace.com/withagainst


Additional info:
Artist Information

Instrumentation
David Iannuzzi- Drums, Guitar,
Clyde- Bass
Dustin Leslie - Guitar, Vox, Organ, Keyboards, Signs
- Riff 2