earMUSICAlice Cooper‘s new musical homage to his former hometown of Detroit, The Breadcrumbs EP, was released today. The six-track collection features guest appearances by notable Motor City musicians like ex-Grand Funk Railroad singer/guitarist Mark Farner, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels drummer Johnny “Bee” Badanjek and Dirtbombs frontman Mick Collins.
Breadcrumbs includes covers of “East Side Story,” by Bob Seger‘s early band The Last Heard, as well as The MC5’s “Sister Anne,” Suzi Quatro‘s “Your Mama Won’t Like Me,” and a track combining the Detroit Wheels hit “Devil with a Blue Dress On” and “Chains of Love,” a 1967 tune by local soul singer J.J. Barnes that The Dirtbombs also recorded.
In addition, the EP features an updated version of the 2003 Cooper tune “Detroit City,” and a brand-new original song called “Go Man Go.”
Cooper premiered a lyric video for “Detroit City 2020” on Thursday. The gritty tune celebrates Detroit and its musical legacy, name-checking such artists as Seger, Iggy Pop, The MC5, Ted Nugent, Quatro and newer Motor City acts such as Kid Rock, Eminem and Insane Clown Posse.
Earlier this week, Alice’s rendition of the 1966 Seger tune “East Side Story” premiered on Billboard.com.
Explaining what inspired him to record the EP, Cooper tells Billboard, “[Y]ou take the bottom of all [my] songs and they’re all guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll songs, which is what I associate as the Detroit sound. I wanted to use all Detroit players and songs either about Detroit or written by [Detroit musicians].”
Alice says the EP gives fans a preview of the sound of his upcoming studio album, which is due out next year.
The Breadcrumbs EP is available digitally and as a limited-edition 10-inch vinyl disc.
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