Local Albums: January 2010 – Zachary Lint Aka Coolzey has taken time off from home renovation and starring in zombie movies, to drop another CD of profound silliness. Or silly profundity–I’m not quite sure. Full disclosure: I’ve done some post production and mastering work for Zack in the past. But hey if you want someone [...]

John Schlotfelt reviews “Heaven Knows,” by The Woes, who will visit the Mill this Saturday night to play with Shame Train and The Lonelyhearts

Download printer-friendly PDF of the Festival Guide
Flip through the official festival guide for Mission Creek Midwest, 2010 – included as an insert in our March issue.

Features, March 2010 – Sure, an open mic is like a box of chocolates, but Monday night at the Mill is my favorite lime cream-centered, caramel pecan toffee of a weekly free music night in Iowa City.
Since 1981, Open Mic with J. Knight has been an Iowa City institution, a place where up-and-coming talent shares [...]

I forgot to post this, and Matt beat me to the punch posting video from the live show at the Java House Feb 19.
RENE HELL
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
http://www.cornwarning.com/xfer/2010-02-190-ReneHell-WetHair/2010-02-19-ReneHell.mp3
WET HAIR
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
http://www.cornwarning.com/xfer/2010-02-190-ReneHell-WetHair/2010-02-19-WetHair.mp3
VIEW VIDEO OF RENE HELL
VIEW VIDEO OF WET HAIR

There are few musicians whose music is as polarizing as Autechre. It would be one thing if they were resolutely in the experimental music camp. The avant-garde have their audience, who embrace abstraction and difficulty, and revel in sound only marginally less random than brownian motion. But Autechre occupies a strange middle ground [...]

Yet another statement in support of the First Amendment and the Bijou’s right to bare skin
Ah, Valentine’s Day, the Hallmark-approved day to celebrate love in all its many forms. Well, not all, if you’re the University of Iowa’s Tom Rocklin. Rocklin recently decided to cancel the Bijou Theatre’s showing of the 3-D camp porn classic [...]

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Marlo Eggplant

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Rene Hell

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Tape

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Mountains

Experimental concerts, like Monday night’s show at the Picador, are good for, if nothing else, watching the way compositions are constructed. Monday’s bill presented a wide swath of musical [...]

The Java House has been branching out into having more live performances of late, and a week after a wonderfully raucous show at the Mill, Kate (of Lipstick Homicide & Boo Hoos) and Sam (of Miracles of God & SLW & the Boo Hoos) did an acoustic show. Pictures by the lovely and talented [...]

CD Reviews: February 2010 – Mountains recorded it’s third release, Choral, in front of a live audience with minimal overdubs added later for effect or layering. And despite the trappings of their genre (ambient), the record feels live, not stately. The Brooklyn-based duo pays attention to the listener, quietly adding elements like a fog descending [...]