The Iowa City Jazz Festival and Firecracker 500 take over Iowa City this weekend, but late July also promises some legendary performances. Read about the shows and sample the bands after the jump.
A.C. Hawley
A.C. Hawley is around town. He rides a red bike. If you need him, he's reachable.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Live Music Preview: June 5-17
If your first thought when seeing this headliner’s name was the children’s band that Jenna tried to break up during 30 Rock, you wouldn’t be alone. Luckily, the real Woggles are much cooler than their fake namesakes. Hailing from Atlanta, the quartet recalls the thrashing, trashing spirit of The Milkshakes, The Mummies and other garage rock royalty. While you have an idea of what they sound like, The Woggles separate themselves with their incendiary live show.
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Tallest Man on Earth heads to the Englert on June 4
I’ll start with addressing the obvious point: Kristian Mattson is not the tallest man on Earth. While he is only of average height, Mattson’s shadow looms large. Armed with one acoustic guitar, slight backup instrumentation and a powerful voice, Mattson’s music channels the spirit of folk legends Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie as well as a modern pop sensibility.
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They Might Be Giants returning to Iowa City on June 2
Are you a child of the 1970s? 1980s? 1960s? Do you like science? Have you watched a cartoon in the past 20 years? Did you ever watch Malcolm in the Middle? If you can answer ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, you probably know who They Might Be Giants are.
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Live Music Preview: May 8-13
The month of May has come, and, while this means nothing for the various working stiffs in Iowa City, it does signal one of my favorite times of the year: the exodus of most of the undergrads and the summer slowdown. Everyone’s more relaxed, restaurants don’t have lines and I get free reign of Brothers […]
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Acid Mothers Temple to play Gabe’s May 1
Acid Mothers Temple started in 1997. Founder and guitarist Kawabata Makoto organized some jams with local musicians that were interested in composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, progressive rock and krautrock (read: Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream). Liking what came out, they dubbed themselves Acid Mother’s Temple and released an album. By 1998, the apostrophe was dropped and the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. came into existence.
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Live Music Preview: April 9-15
With the presence of bands like Foo Fighters and Nickelback, some might say that rock and roll is dying if not dead. On the contrary, I would argue that these bands are not rock and roll. Sure, they look like rock and roll bands with their tattoos and guitars, but they are missing the most important aspect of rocking: swagger. You can’t be rock and roll if you give a fuck. There are bands that embody the rock and roll ethos such as TV Ghost and Guitar Wolf, who have both always ripped first, not caring about whether they were liked or not.
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The Tube: Why the classics?
Although people nowadays don’t delve into its past as actively as before, film is a medium with a past that is acknowledged and cherished. If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be any effort by people like Martin Scorsese to preserve and re-release films that could be lost to time like the Australian outback film Wake in Fright.
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On The Beat: Old school’s back in session
By the time that you are reading this column, the annual Mission Creek Festival will be less than a month away, a sign that spring is beginning to rear its head and musicians are getting back on the road. This is a benefit to everyone and means that many artists with a wide variety of backgrounds and approaches to music will be making visits over the coming weeks.
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The Tube: Saying goodbye to 30 Rock
2006 saw the debut of two series that built their plots around the behind-the-scenes action of shows with disturbing similarities to Saturday Night Live. The first was Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Following the success of Sorkin’s The West Wing, and with a cast that included Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and D.L. Hughley, this show looked like a sure bet. The second show was 30 Rock.
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On the Beat: Paul Collins, Menomena and more in Iowa City
The next couple of weeks offer a diverse lineup of shows. There are remarkable rockers who influenced the sound of groups like Blondie while they were in their prime. There will also be shape-shifting indie rockers who continue to mature and grow as musicians, along with a trio of former rockers who have become one of the country’s major electronic dance music draws.
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The Tube: The Price of Choice
In the first installment of a two-part series on a la carte television, A.C. Hawley asks if viewers can expect to save money by moving away from traditional cable packages and toward purchasing individual channels online. At the beginning of this year, Internet and business circles buzzed with discussion about a new television project being […]
