Austin Galante Cat Of Nine Tales austingalante.bandcamp.com Austni Galante’s musical evolution, from the straight-ahead hip hop of The Committee, to the Rap-Rock of Bad Fathers, to the hip hop/dub step/sci fi of Black Market Maven, to this solo debut, comprises a classically American long, strange trip. Prior to this album, Austin’s output has heretofore been […]
Kent Williams
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Album Review: Slut River – Off White
Slut River Off White slutriver.bandcamp.com On Off White, Slut River is Joe Ross (also of The Tanks), Mickey Shaw and Matt Fenner (of Solid Attitude) and Anna McDermott. If you’ve been going to local shows you’ve seen the Slut-Riverenes in many different bands over the past few years, but in Slut River they seem to […]
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Album Review: Noble Octopus – Like An Island
Noble Octopus Like An Island virb.com/nobleoctopus Since I’ve been writing music reviews for over a decade, I get to hear more than one album from some musicians. In 2009 I reviewed Noble Octopus’ self-titled debut and said of it “The weakest link on the album is the singing. It can be perfect for the material, […]
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Album Review: Colloquialisms – Nothing Remarkable
Colloquialisms Nothing Remarkable colloquialisms.bandcamp.com You may know the man behind Colloquialisms, Joe McNertney, if you shop at the New Pioneer Food Co-op, as the beardy guy behind the meat counter. He’s also Eric Rohn’s collaborator in Noble Octopus, and the two albums share similar silk-screened recycled cardboard covers. But despite some similar gestures, Colloquialisms is […]
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Album Review: Caterwaulla
Caterwaulla Self-Titled facebook.com/caterwaulla Since I was born in 1957, my life corresponds approximately to the life-span of rock and roll. In that 55-plus years, there have been times when rock has seemed to be tired and played out. But there’s always some snotty group of kids who come along and beat it back into shape. […]
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Album Reviews: Slip Silo – Monsoons / Koplant No – Transit EP
Slip Silo and Koplant No are two local groups which share two members (Brian Lewis on trumpet, keyboards and laptop, Drew Morton on bass, synth and vocals) with adjacent releases. This invites a classic English Final “Contrast and Compare” review. Firstly, Slip Silo (also starring Matt Logan on vocals and guitar and Justin Leduc […]
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Show Preview: Musical Charis @ Uptown Bill’s Tuesday April 17
WHO: Musical Charis WHERE: Uptown Bills’s 730 South Dubuque Street, Iowa City, IA 52240 WHEN: 7PM Tuesday April 17th, 2012 Uptown Bill’s is an Iowa City music venue that doesn’t get the same coverage as the bars in town that feature live music. But UB’s deserves special mention because it’s much more than a place […]
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Album Review: Exposed Fiction
Exposed Fiction Exposed Fiction www.exposedfiction.com Exposed Fiction’s self-titled debut album arrived at my house with a big crack through the middle. It’s romantic to imagine the music is that powerful, but it’s more likely the Postal Service or our intrepid publisher Mr. Steele broke it accidentally before dropping it off. No matter. You can listen […]
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Album Review: The Twelve Canons – Volume 4: Sacrifice
The Twelve Canons Volume 4: Sacrifice thetwelvecanons.bandcamp.com The Twelve Canons is currently singer/songwriter Jim Durocher and multi-instrumentalist Justin Norman. Volume 4: Sacrifice came with a note from Norman that mentioned “FYI it was recorded in a mental institute.” Jim Durocher’s personal demons are no secret around Iowa City, but it’s not my place to air […]
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Show Preview: Koplant No and Slip Silo – April 14 at the Blue Moose
This Saturday at the Blue Moose Taphouse, two bands who are joined at the head (i.e. overlapping personnel) will be having a CD release party, for the new Slip Silo CD. If you aren’t familiar with these guys, they’re mostly graduates of the University of Iowa Jazz program. Like other alumni (I’m looking at you, […]
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Inside the Canarium
Once upon a time, I wanted to be a poet. I carried around a notebook, went to readings, bought poetry books, took poetry classes. What was hard was actually writing poems. One day in class, Marvin Bell said something that took a while to sink in, “Poets write poetry because that’s what they do, they […]
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Live Recordings of Rhys Chatham/Rene Hell/Solid Attitude @ Gabes 3-27-2012
Adrianne Behning’s photographs of this show are here. A performance of Guitar Trio by Rhys Chatham is always a stunning, overwhelming, transcendent thing to experience. The composition itself is a schematic set of instructions for 3 or more guitarists, a process that Chatham directs from the stage as he plays himself. It has been his […]
