Alibi Thursdays at the Elbow Room (Ypsilanti, MI)

Words By Stevie Tee

If you think that it costs $25 or more to see professional class, internationally touring DJs you have been misled by the current generation of rock star DJs. Far from the fabled lost city of rave that is Detroit and just outside of the cultural vibrancies of Ann Arbor, every Thursday at the Elbow Room in Ypsilanti, MI the Alibi Crew puts on a show that is free before 11 PM or only 2 or 3 bucks any time after. Don’t let the price tag fool you; some of the finest Drum ‘n’ Bass and Jungle mixing in the entire country is going down. That’s right. Ypsilanti, Michigan’s most notorious local band dive bar puts on free music that packs clubs and festival crowds in Europe, Canada and other electronic music centric regions. Let’s talk about some of the artists involved who make up the Alibi Crew.


Some of the resident artists in the Alibi Crew include MC Teddy and DJs Sinistarr and The Vanisher. The Vanisher is a drum ‘n’ bass and jungle DJ and producer who often warms up the audience. The Vanisher has been on many other line ups all over Ann Arbor and Detroit at drum ‘n’ bass, dubstep and other bass-oriented electronic music shows. MC Teddy is the man with the microphone running around the bar all night. Teddy will find his way into Vanisher’s and Sinistarr’s sets very organically, sometimes delivering verses from in the audience. His MC skills really bring an authentic Jungle sound to the whole evening’s performances and he’s also very likely to introduce himself to you if you run into him throughout the course of the evening. This brings us to one remaining name, DJ Sinistarr. This Michigan-native has had Hospital Records and Metalheadz among his label affiliates, has been interviewed for BBC radio, played Detroit Electronic Music Festival this year and has put out original tracks on a laundry list of different labels. He’s been mixing anywhere from clubs to friend’s house parties for the last ten years or maybe more and it definitely shows when you go watch this man mix vinyl. He also focuses on Drum ‘n’ Bass and Jungle, but his sets will often encompass more 2-step, garage and hip-hop rhythms or tracks. Deep, heavy, polyrhythmic and syncopated beyond all normal recognition are words that describe Sinistarr’s sound and how his sound is different from most Drum ‘n’ Bass DJs these days. We’ll be interviewing Sinistarr soon and hopefully getting an exclusive mix. This Thursday will host special guest local DJ Tailor Hawkins.



Sinistarr’s Mix for DrumnbassTV Podcast

Sinistarr’s Soundcloud Page

Vanisher Facebook Page

New mix from Tailor Hawkins