Curtis Cross made his name–Black Milk–in Detroit, twisting the soul sounds of the previous generation around sharp, clean, bass-heavy beats. The J Dilla apostle released a series of ever-improving beat tapes before stepping out from behind his MPCs and synths to grab the mic on 2007’s Popular Demand. Since becoming a double threat, Black Milk […]
John Schlotfelt
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Album Review: Grand Tetons – They Do Move in Herds
The debut album, They Do Move in Herds, from Grand Tetons is a quintessential 20-something’s album. The quartet has composed a paean to the lost years between college graduation and the “real world.” It’s clear from the opening organ strains of “Honey Don’t Know”—the aural equivalent of the sun cutting through the blinds and peeling open the lids glued to your eyes by a whiskey-soaked sleep—that Grand Tetons are sucking down experiences like well whiskeys and $2 tall boys. There isn’t a whole lot of restraint: too much to drink, too quiet, too loud, too many instruments; there’s a lot of life, and energy and the alt-country group wants you to feel it as intensely as they do.
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Album Review: Ex-Action Model – Dropland
Ex-Action Model Dropland Mission Freak Records exactionmodel.com Brendan Hanks’ full-length debut under his long-running nom-de-plume, Ex-Action Model, is a testament to the years Hanks has spent perfecting his programing and sequencing abilities. Dropland is a diverse collection of electronic pieces that manages to cram a wide variety of sounds and textures over the run of […]
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Little Village's Top Ten Local Albums of 2011 (Thus Far)
If you find yourself marking the calender just waiting for the big regional and national acts to pass through (or near), you may be missing all the wonderful music right under your very nose. Consider this a primer.
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Album Review – Wet Hair: In Vogue Spirit
Wet Hair In Vogue Spirit On Wet Hair’s third full-length LP (11th release overall), In Vogue Spirit, the band has embraced many of the same sun-baked sounds of their peers. Where contemporaries like Peaking Lights came at Reggae and dub through the backdoor of drone and noise, Wet Hair has found the middle ground between […]
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Album Review – Alex Body: Cutting Down Camelot
Alex Body Cutting Down Camelot self-released Since emerging in January 2010, from Twelve Canons’ indefinite hiatus with a self-released CD-r called Just Say Yes, Alex Body has quickly carved out a new shiny identity for himself. His sixth release in under 18 months, Cutting Down Camelot, finds Body heir-apparent to Iowa City’s lo-fi pop throne—watch […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Guided By Voices
Saturday, April 2 – Blue Moose Tap House – $30 advance, $35 door Guided By Voices frontman and its only constant member, Robert Pollard, ended the group’s 18-year tenure in 2003. While Pollard retreated to his four-track recorder in Ohio, a torrent of bands like Times New Viking, No Age and The Vivian Girls would […]
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Night Vision
DOWNLOAD >> Cola Heavy Nights A New Compilation from Night-People Naked on the Vague – Making Enemies (unreleased–from forthcoming split with Wet Hair) The Twerps – Good Advice (from The Twerps) PC Worship – Staring at the Sun (unreleased) Lazer Zeppelin – This Heart (from Pyramid Echo) The Pheromoans – Stubble Brothers (from The Pheromoans) […]
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Hallways of Always: Magical Mind
Why would Iowa folkie William Elliott Whitmore and Erase Errata frontwoman Jenny Hoyston re-record the six songs from their 2006 EP Hallways of Always for a vinyl-only release? Only they know for sure, but on their return, this time calling themselves Hallways of Always, the performances do seem sharper.
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The Wandering Bears
Iowa City indie pop quintet, The Wandering Bears, have offered up a potluck, of sorts, for their self-titled debut. The Bears have cribbed a little bit from nearly every great left-of-center pop act and placed it all in front of you in heaping, steaming, well-produced portions.
The group, comprised of members of The Western Front and Vagabonds, opens with the glitchy, down-tempo, electropop number “William S. Burroughs Teaches Photography” (they also have a knack for whip-smart-alec titles), followed by the alt-country swagger of “Tom Bodett Rearranges his Living Room.”
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Pieta Brown – One and All
Local Albums: May 2010 – One and All, the sixth full-length from Pieta Brown, finds the folky at her most relaxed and confident. One and All feels like a commiseration at The Mill: It’s easy, fluid and full of prospective delivered in a comfortable drawl. The album opens with a double-shot of hopeless romanticism. “Wishes […]
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Samuel Locke Ward & Darren Brown – From the Privilege of the Grave
Local Albums: May 2010 – The fact that you can hold this album in your hands is astounding. From the Privilege of the Grave faced nearly every hurdle imaginable–from technical and logistical issues to legal and financial difficulties. That it was worth the wait, is still more astounding.
