Equal parts sweat and excitement hang thick in the air after a full day of performances at the 80/35 music fest. It’s July 8, 2023, and it’s Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops’ festival afterparty at The LiFt in Des Moines.
Album Reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Munk Rivers — ‘Practice Room’ EP
Most of the press around Des Moines band Munk Rivers mentions their self-declared genre “yearncore.” While obviously somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it speaks to the very human emotions that weave through the lyrics of lead singer and frontperson Charlotte Judkins. Siblings Charlotte and Tucker Judkins started performing as Munk Rivers last summer after they relocated to Des […]
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Album Review: The House Flies — ‘Mannequin Deposit’
Mannequin Deposit by The House Flies My favorite time of year is here: cool autumn air, hoodies, bonfires, long-sleeve band T-shirts and of course, Halloween. While you can catch me in all black clothes most any time of the year, spooky season is the time of year I feel most at home. That feeling requires […]
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Album Review: Chrash — ‘Music for the Next Scene’
In a recent email from Chris Bernat, guitarist and vocalist for Quad Cities band Chrash, said, “We are all very pleased with the cover shot featuring a big shiner on my right eye.” The week the band was scheduled to do the photoshoot for the album artwork for their latest album, Bernat had a pretty […]
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Album Review: AGED & Malik Grey — ‘Ferment & Rot’
ferment & rot promo medley by aged By the time “Reactivated,” the first track on Ferment & Rot by Des Moines-based producer AGED and Georgia rapper Malik Grey, is over, you will only have a vague sense of what awaits you for the remainder of the 20-minute project. The production starts out with lo-fi bass […]
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Album Review: Fishbait — ‘Fishbait’
For many, fishing brings to mind a whole lot of casting, sitting and waiting — a favorite of grandpas and teenagers alike. But for Fishbait, fishing is gnarly, bloody, sewage-filled and above all, slimy. That’s the general message of their self-titled (and fittingly fish-themed) debut album: Bodies of water, whether bathtub or ocean, are forces […]
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Album Review: Jim Swim — ‘Unruly Automatons’ EP
Unruly Automatons by Jim Swim I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started up “Creature,” the first track on Jim’s Swim’s Unruly Automatons. Keyboard chords stutter as if a DJ is warming up a crab scratch. A drum loop kicks in that would feel at home in a Metal Fingers Special […]
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Album Review: Big Begonias — ‘In Bloom’
Gabrielle Kouri’s tune-wrangling—her quirky lyrics and distinctive compositions—have long been long admired in Eastern Iowa folk music circles.
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Album Review: Dope Walker — ‘Heavy Revelations’
Heavy Revelations by Dope Walker The lineup of Dope Walker is an unlikely cross-section of members from Minnesota and Iowa: Aaron “Lazerbeak” Mader from the Twin Cities hip-hop collective Doomtree; Lee County, Iowa folk mainstay William Elliot Whitmore; Mike Schulte from Iowa juggernaut The Pork Tornadoes; Joel Anderson from ft (The Shadow Government); Jeff Allen, […]
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Album Review: Keenan Crow — ‘Ambient Anachronism’ EP
Ambient Anachronisms by Keenan Crow Ambient Anachronism is the first solo EP by Des Moines-based musician and activist Keenan Crow, perhaps best known as the director of policy and advocacy at One Iowa, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization. In other words, you can assume Crow has a front-row seat to the special kind of buffoonery […]
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Album Review: Run Dog — ‘The Big Room EP’
The Big Room by Run Dog Joel Sires slides into my DMs, “You gotta check this band out. Run Dog from CF. Unreal. So fully realized.” High praise from someone I consider to be one of Eastern Iowa’s great songwriters. I wasted no time checking out the quartet, who released their debut four-song EP The […]
