Michigan Music: Local Spins on WYCE, Sounds of the Zoo

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Today, check out two showcases of local and regional music: The weekly Local Spins on WYCE radio show podcast and photos from this week’s Sounds of the Zoo festival in Kalamazoo.

Featured by Local Spins and Sounds of the Zoo: Jazz fusion’s Pocket Watch played Kalamazoo this week. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)

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Over its first five days, it’s unfurled sets by young, new and emerging acts such as Pocket Watch and Sophia McIntosh & The Sages, and given established West Michigan artists such as Last Gasp Collective, Jake Kershaw, Desmond Jones, Carrie McFerrin and Hannah Rose Graves a platform to continue showcasing their compelling music.

And when Dixon’s Violin, Avalon Cutts-Jones, Full Cord, Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds and Patty PerShayla & The Mayhaps help fire up the final day of Kalamazoo’s free 2023 Sounds of the Zoo festival at Bronson Park on Sunday, they’ll add their musical magic to the 50-plus acts that will have performed at about a dozen locations around Kalamazoo.

Last Gasp Collecive: Performing at Bronson Park on Friday. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)

Focused on Michigan music — and mostly talent from West Michigan — the second annual Sounds of the Zoo festival continues at Bronson Park today (Saturday) and Sunday, with several busking stations spotlighting other performers around town. Get the preview and a schedule at Local Spins here.

Dozens of those acts also have been spotlighted for Local Spins on WYCE — a show that’s debuted new tracks by more than 450 Michigan artists over the past year alone, including the aforementioned Avalon Cutts-Jones, whose latest single, “You & Me, Me & You,” made its on-air debut for this week’s edition of the show on WYCE (88.1) and online at wyce.org.

This week’s podcast also features new tracks by Jesse Ray & The Carolina Catfish (whose new album was released on Friday, with a tour kickoff show at Billy’s Lounge), Eric O’Daly (who plays Midtown in Grand Rapids with an all-star band on Saturday night), Rachel Brooke (with a Friday show at Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill), Simply in Time (part of a huge lineup of West Michigan bands playing Park Theatre’s Parktoberfest fundraiser on Saturday), Izubel (who plays an album-release show at Midtown on Oct. 29), Whorled (part of Friday’s kickoff to the Music in the Heights series in Grand Rapids’ Alger Heights neighborhood) and Silent Spirit (which released its new electronic music album earlier this month).

(If you didn’t donate to WYCE as part of this week’s special Fall Fund Drive, please consider doing so now by contributing online at wyce.org.)

Listen to the show podcast here and scroll down for photos by Chelsea Whitaker and Derek Ketchum from Days 4 and 5 of this week’s Sounds of the Zoo shows, including Jake Kershaw and False Atlas at Rugger’s Up and Under, and Pocket Watch, Caelan Cardello Trio and Jenna Mammina at KNAC, and Great Lakes Brass, Last Gasp Collective, La Furia Del Ritmo and Desmond Jones at Bronson Park.

PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (9/29/23)