Two Steppin in the Shower by Katie and the Honky Tonks You only need to watch Cedar Falls band Katie and the Honky Tonks cover Loretta Lynn’s 1973 smash “Rated […]
Michael Roeder
Michael Roeder is a self-proclaimed “music savant.” When he’s not writing for Little Village he blogs at playbsides.com.
Album Review: Subatlantic — ‘Say It Again’
Say It Again by Subatlantic Quad Cities band Subatlantic’s new album Say It Again opens with a sparsely arranged synth/guitar/vocal thematic overture titled “Fate” asking, “What would you say if […]
Album Review: Histo — ‘JGDC’
JGDC by histo A near-fatal lung infection gave multi-instrumentalist Donald Curtis a sense of urgency to follow his passions for music and form Histo, according to the band’s bio. The […]
Album Review: Sylvee & the Sea — ‘The Less I Needed the Better I Felt’
The Less I Needed the Better I Felt by Pieta Brown Pieta Brown says time she spent in Tucson and the friends she made there sparked a music career. These […]
Video premiere: Halfloves, ‘Hospice’
“Try to imagine what it must be like to go to sleep and never wake up …” — Alan Watts On Halfloves’ first new single since June of 2021’s bouncy […]
Album Review: Elizabeth Moen — ‘Wherever You Aren’t’
Wherever You Aren't by Elizabeth Moen When Elizabeth Moen and her band rolled into the AudioTree Studios in Chicago in mid-December 2019, she had just wrapped up a whirlwind back-to-back […]
Album Review and Q&A: Allegra Hernandez — ‘Gift Exchange’
Musician, guitarist and educator Allegra Hernandez returned to Des Moines in 2018 after their stint at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota was cut short when the […]
Album Review: Mr. Softheart (formerly Hex Girls) — “Caravaggio”/“Flower of Tomorrow”
“I suppose the new direction is another pandemic story,” Nick Fisher offers as the impetus for the recent pivot of the band formerly known as Hex Girls. “I had begun […]
Album Review and Q&A: Alex Ramsey — ‘Bonsai’
Bonsai by Alex Ramsey Alex Ramsey has been a mainstay of the collective of Eastern Iowa’s folk and country blues community, either as a member of the Pines (who seem […]
Album Review: Hex Girls — ‘Pop Fluff’
Pop Fluff by Hex Girls In typically warped Hex Girls humor, the back of the 10” vinyl version of Hex Girls’ new EP Pop Fluff shows a taxonomic chart with […]
Video Premiere: The Hollowmen, “Need It Most”
The music scene in Iowa in the ’80s was vibrant. Inspired by similar regional scenes nationwide, bands across the state were springing from their garages, basements and practice spaces ready […]
Album Review: David Huckfelt — ‘Room Enough, Time Enough’
David Huckfelt’s 2021 Room Enough, Time Enough gets its title from the name the Navajo used to describe their ancestral homeland, near where Huckfelt recorded the album in Tucson, Arizona. […]