The full-length debut from Emperors Club, Killer Companion, is a surprisingly opulent pop record. At its core, it is wiry and ready to rock, but with all the glorious harmonies, subtle keyboard lines and intertwining guitar work, the sonic palette is as rich as the emotional one.
John Schlotfelt
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Merchandise – Totale Nite
This isn’t a mistake. This is a review for Tampa buzz-band Merchandise in the “Local Albums” pages of Little Village. After heaps of accolades from the music press–NME and Pitchfork among others–the Florida trio went to Iowa City’s own Night-People to release their latest album, Totale Nite.
Posted inAlbum Reviews, Arts & Entertainment
Album Review: Foul Tip – Heaven Now
Reviewing the latest EP from Foul Tip is, well, sort of a challenge. The duo’s second release, Heaven Now, has a bit of an identity crisis. Four of the cuts on the cassette are propulsive, evocative chunks of post-punk and three of the tracks are goofy, but still mostly hard hitting. However, two of the songs are so successful, it really doesn’t bear mentioning the remaining five in such a short write-up.
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Album Review: Dana T – {Your Name}
The latest from Dana Telsrow (a.k.a. Dana T) is a six-song collection of mostly effective digital-baroque-funk (consider that genre term coined). The University of Iowa student has has enhanced his already dense compositions on {Your Name} with a horde of horn players whose work vacillates between classically inspired baroque-pop trills and funky blasts and stabs.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Janeane Garofalo interview
Janeane Garofalo began her stand-up career in 1985. In just over a quarter century, Garofalo has been many things to many people. She was one of the faces of the “alternative comedy” boom of the late-’80s and ’90s. If Winona Ryder’s dark and complex manic-pixie-dream-girl in a left-of-center romantic comedy needed a best friend with a biting wit and common sense: Garofalo.
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Album Review: Samuel Locke Ward – Major Surgery at Discount Rates
Major Surgery at Discount Rates finds Samuel Locke Ward in full power pop mode. After some eerie organ pulses, “Uninspired” leaps off the starting line.
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Album Review: Samuel Locke Ward – Panther Puss
For his second in a year-long series of monthly releases, Samuel Locke Ward has dipped back into more familiar territory. After the top-40-skewering electro-pop on his January release, 7 AM New Year’s Day, Locke Ward leans heavily on his trusty acoustic guitar and Casio keyboard for a 16-song collection of weirdo pop-ditties on Panther Puss.
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Album Review: Haunter- Perishing Road
The full-length debut, Perishing Road, from Haunter (a.k.a. Kyle Arthur Miller) is ideal for late nights, headphones and staring out at the frozen tundra. Miller’s new collection of ambient compositions rewards those who put in the time, with headphones bundled around the ears. Perishing Road is a feast of guitar drone interplay.
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Album Review: Alex Body – No Event
The title of Alex Body’s sixth release, No Event, is actually an apt description of my first impression of the album. After a string of increasingly better releases, No Event showcases a more confident artist, one willing to re-explore many of the sounds and textures that have comprised previous efforts. But the album is definitely a grower.
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Album Review – Megan Buick
Megan Buick’s self-titled album feels like the aural equivalent of Jan Svankmajer’s surreal, stop-motion film Alice—a fractured take on the Lewis Carroll classic. Svankmajer’s imaginative recreation of Wonderland constantly treads the fine line between delightfully imaginative and eerily unsettling; Buick’s lo-fi psychedelic folk embraces a similar duality.
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Album Review:Gem Jones – Exhaust
Gem Jones Exhaust (Night-People Records) gemjonesia.bandcamp.com The latest EP from Gem Jones, Exhaust, is a brief study in juxtaposition. At only 19 minutes, Jones milks Exhaust for every second; vacillating wildly between light-hearted pop romps and intense aural assaults. Yet Jones finds a nice balance, keeping the effervescent material exciting with kamikaze guitar attacks or […]
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Album Review: Samuel Locke Ward- 7 AM New Year’s Day
Samuel Locke Ward 7 AM New Year’s Day samuellockeward.bandcamp.com The normally prolific Samuel Locke Ward, no longer content with releasing two recordings per year, has embarked on an ambitious project: write, record and release an album each month for a year. On his first shot across the bow, 7 AM New Year’s Day, Locke Ward […]
