If you're looking to have a raucous, family-friendly good time this weekend, head to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit to learn what lamellaphones, rubberazzers and sliding raunch-oboes are -- and get the chance to make your own.
MOCAD will be extra festive on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. when the Family Hootenanny brings their seasonal Holiday Hootenanny to the museum. A group of bands with members of all ages will perform while kids and their parents make all sorts of crafts.
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Ismael "Bandolero" Duran will perform Latin American music with his nephew, and folk band -- a super group with members from the Volebeats, Slumber Party and other local bands -- the Seedsmens to the World will play. As a holiday bonus, the Aprons promise to perform a cover of the LEGO Spongebob song "Don't Be a Jerk -- It's Christmas." A new classic?
The Family Hootenanny was started by April Boyle and Chris Handyside in 2001, and ever since they've been organizing events with music for and by families.
Boyle came up with idea after seeing a kid-oriented show in Chicago with local musicians, she told Handmade Detroit. "When I had kids I still wanted to be around good music but there really wasn't a lot going on for families."
"II was inspired to bring something like that to Detroit."
MOCAD entices kids to the museum every third Sunday of the month with a variety of programming that aims to include all ages.
"We encourage the kids to run around and obnoxiously jam with the band," said MOCAD's Public Programs Coordinator Ben Hernandez.
On Sunday, kids can make several different experimental instruments from recycled and everyday materials, using ideas from the appropriately-titled book Funny Noises for the Connoisseur.
"We try to make the activities things where the kids can't necessarily do them on their own, where their parents are pushed into making things with them," Hernandez said.
When not crafting or jamming, families can see the two exhibitions on display in the galleries through Dec. 30, "barely there Part II" and "Considering a Plot (Dig for Victory)."