Each week on MI Local, you’ll hear me refer to admittedly cryptic-sounding sub-genres, like for example, “post-punk” and “shoegaze.” Well, it’s all done in an attempt to give you, dear listener, a few stylistic and influential reference points for a particular local artist that I’m featuring on the show, like, say, the four-piece “rock” group known as Zastava.

The entire band joined me in studio, seen above, counter-clockwise: Cam Frank (bass), Arman Bonislawski (guitar), Ollie Elkus (drums) and Mateja Matic (guitar, vocals). While we chatted, we also shared an exclusive premiere of a new song, “Fences,” off of their upcoming full-length album, Buildings, which comes out this week, capped off by a release party happening this Friday night at Third Man Records here in Detroit.

Zastava was started by Matic and Bonislawski a little more than four years ago, tapping into a guitar-heavy, slightly brooding, slightly drone-y kinda sound that weaves deceptively catchy melodies into a maelstrom of distortion and heavy-hitting rhythms. Matic even admitted that these sort of catch-phrases sub-genres — such as post-punk, shoegaze or noise-rock — can nevertheless be helpful in a sort of shorthand-evocative way for curious listeners. Then again, Matic said, with a flair, you might just say that they’re “really into Sonic Youth” as far as a reference point.

WDET listeners were given a sneak-preview of “Fences” on MI Local this week, with two previous singles like “Truth” having been premiered on our air waves earlier in the spring. Buildings follows up a few previous singles and an EP the band released, which you can find on Bandcamp. They described Buildings as their first proper statement as a cohesive band, or “a maturation of all of our tastes coming together,” as Bonislawski said.

Notably, and you’ll have to listen closely, but the band described this as “the baseball song.” Fittingly, we were all kinda checking our phones between on-air sessions, to keep track of the concurrent Tigers game. As we left the studio, Bonislawski said that he forgot to say the one thing he had initially pre-scripted as an answer: that if he had one hope for the music of Zastava, it would be that some professional baseball player might some day use one of their songs as a “walk-up” song, to be played over the sound-system as they stride to the plate.

Along with my chat with Zastava, I premiered new music from the alt/indie-folk realm, including a song from The Kate Hinote Trio‘s new full-length album, Stowaways, with the song, “Brake Lights.” You can see The Kate Hinote Trio live next Thursday, June 19, at Chelsea Sounds and Sights at 6:30 p.m. We also checked out the song “Big Ol’ City” from Ann Arbor-based singer-songwriter Maddy Ringo‘s brand new full-length album, People of the Earth and Sea.

On the indie-rock side of things, we heard a new song from Idle Ray featuring Fred Thomas, and a disarmingly soulful ballad from Garrett Gillis.

We also played some tracks by artists you can catch at live shows happening around the region, including Elephant Den (June 21 at Ziggy’s), James Linck (June 14 at the Lager House), and Ronny Tibbs, who has a multi-faceted, multi-media music and film event happening at the Crofoot Ballroom on Saturday.

See the playlist below and listen to the episode on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

MI Local Playlist for May 13, 2025

• “Brake Lights” – The Kate Hinote Trio
• “Big Ol’ City” – Maddy Ringo
• “Hit The Ground Running” – Garrett Gillis
• “Quiet Cab” – Idle Ray
• “Catamaran” – Bear Vs. Shark
• “Apple” – Elephant Den
• “Pre” – James Linck
• “Love Is (Just) A Cruel Game” – Ronny Tibbs
• “Everywhere But Beside You” – Frontier Ruckus (live in WDET Studios, August 2024)
• “Pix” – Phased Out
• “Fences” – Zastava
• “Truth” – Zastava