The HG crew (founder Nobu, Wataru, Nori, Ken, Aki, and Stephan) pay Berry Gordy a housecall…

With just a day and a half to show the HYSTERIC GLAMOUR crew the ins and outs of street life in the rotten apple, aka: DETROIT ROCK CITY (my murderous hometown), I had my work cut out for me last week when we all traveled to Motown on a photographic scouting mission from hell. Weaving our way through the city’s bombed-out streets in a series of close calls, near misses, and disbelieving stares from the locals, we managed to beat the clock and take in some of the city’s most iconic blights sights in record time and live to tell the tale. HAVE A LOOK:DOWNTOWN:

This is as pretty as it gets. It’s all downhill from here…

The iconic “Spirit of Detroit” statue. Who that guy is and what he’s doing in Detroit has always baffled me…

Detroit’s homage to fisting: Hometown hero Joe Louis is memorialized in this waterfront sculpture that had white residents protesting that it was an icon of “black power” when it debuted in the 1980s…

AMAZE & Barry McGee left their mark on Detroit’s new MoCA…

DETROIT ROCK CITY:

Heading off to Ann Arbor, we caught up with the inventor of punk guitar, the legendary Ron Asheton of The Stooges for a nite of BBQ and tall tales of debaucherous days gone by…

Scrapbook time: Ron through the ages…

OG Grande Ballroom flyer advertising the “Psychedelic Stooges”…

Gal pal Dara spends loads of time attending their menagerie, including this psychedelic new addition…

Next up, we hit the site of the former Grande Ballroom, Detroit’s version of the Fillmore and ground zero for the Detroit rock scene in the ’60s…

Back door man: Nobu hangs backstage…

TIKI TIME:

Few people are aware that Detroit is still home to perhaps the most period perfect time-capsule tiki bar, Chin Tiki, that hasn’t been touched inside since it’s closure in the mid-’70s (except to film Eminem’s “8 Mile” movie, that is)…

BLACKLITE BOWLING:

No trip to the D would be complete without a trip to the Garden Bowl on Woodward Ave for a midnite round of rock ‘n’ roll blacklite bowling…

HG has big balls: Nori, Nobu, Wataru, Ken, and Aki put their hands on em…

Aki winds up for the kill…

Bowling by moonlite…

HG Graphic designer Stephan Jay-Rayon is a master ball handler…

THE WASTELAND:

Detroit’s tiny downtown center is densely populated (Monday—Friday, that is) but the rest of the outlying urban area is host to an uncountable slew of abandoned structures, including more destroyed 19th century mansions than you could imagine…

Detroit’s version of Grand Central Station, this 15 story ruin is now a testament to the city’s decayed state…

This is what you call a “Detroit Master Suite”…

THE DETROIT SOUND:

This is where it all started…

Every single vintage Motown song was recorded on the first floor of the Motown house that’s like a time capsule from the mid-1960s inside…

DETROIT WHEELS:

Pimp Whips…

And hoopties. There’s not much in between…

ICONIC EATS:

No trip would be complete without a stop at Lafayette Coney Island…

For the greasiest grub…

Known to man…

MEMORY LANE:

In the Motor City, it doesn’t get more OG than this corner. The white building in question is the Ford Model T factory still in its original state…

ART FOR THE PEOPLE:

Few cities are so dilapidated that entire neighborhoods can be taken over and turned into an interactive art environment, but that’s just what Detroit artist Tyree Guyton did with his Heidelberg Project…

LIFESTYLE:

Life is cheap in the D. Not a bad deal, $7,500 bucks and 15 years to run over your enemy?…

OG SPOTS:

You find crazy shit in Detroit pawn shops, especially Sam’s…

Nobu and Wataru trade in some HG gear for $…

White Stripes, anyone?…

Parking in style…

What other city is so run down that you can park your car in a former ballroom???…

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