Jlin Gabe’s — Nov. 5, 2016 at midnight In the late 1990s, footwork — a new style of dance music — erupted across Chicago’s black neighborhoods. Footwork’s hectic tempo and fragmented sampling was the soundtrack for a unique dance style, performed in competitive dance battles. This is the music Jlin (aka Jerilynn Patton) grew up […]
Kent Williams
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Elvis Costello rocks the Paramount in Cedar Rapids
The world’s oldest enfant terrible, Elvis Costello, performed a long-overdue (for his Iowa fans) concert Oct. 3 at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids. The audience was mostly — like Costello — angry young punks gone grey and sedate, but Costello was equal to the difficult task of staying fresh and relevant. Costello charmed and challenged […]
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Album Review: Kasper Hauser — Last Ghosts
Kaspar Hauser Last Ghosts www.kasparhauserchicago.bandcamp.com/album/last-ghosts Kaspar Hauser was formed in Iowa City in 1999, led by singer/songwriter Thomas Comerford. Since the last Kaspar Hauser album, The Sons (2009), Comerford has put out two solo records and juggled performing live with his day job teaching film-making. Last Ghosts, recorded mostly live in a Chicago basement studio, […]
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Album Review: Larry “The Wizard” Sievers — Kingdom of Mermaidia
Larry “The Wizard” Sievers Kingdom of Mermaidia www.larrysievers.bandcamp.com/album/mermaidia The artist formerly known as Larry “Machine Gun” Sievers is back with a new album of his unique original compositions. If you’ve seen an older gent wearing a black hat with white ostrich feathers out and about downtown Iowa City, that’s Larry. After playing drums in local […]
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Album Review: Hunter Dumped Us Here — I Understand
Hunter Dumped Us Here I Understand www.hunterdumpedushere.bandcamp.com The members of the band Hunter Dumped Us Here may hail from Cedar Rapids, but they have musical ideas and ambitions that extend well beyond the city limits. They may be firmly in the camp of drums-and-wires rock and roll, but one cannot deny their intensity and musical […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Blake Shelton to headline Back Porch Revival concert at Kinnick Stadium
The Back Porch Revival Kinnick Stadium — Saturday, Aug. 27 at 3 p.m. Can the University of Iowa’s 87-year-old Kinnick Stadium go beyond sporting events to become a concert venue? We’re about to find out on Aug. 27, when the Back Porch Revival will take over the arena for a seven-hour-long country music concert, starring […]
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Album Review: Samuel Locke Ward — Dunwich Piano Recital
Samuel Locke Ward Dunwich Piano Recital samuellockeward.bandcamp.com/album/dunwich-piano-recital Samuel Locke Ward hasn’t had an album reviewed in Little Village in over a year. Given that he released 12 full-length albums in 2014, it may be reviewer exhaustion to blame. But if we’re going to end this critical shutout, Dunwich Piano Recital is a great place to […]
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Album Review: Josh Fina — Feel Me EP
Josh Fina Feel Me EP www.kindgesturerecords.com Electronic dance music’s natural habitat is a dark room with the sound system turned up until the bass hits you in the solar plexus and your fillings vibrate. The Feel Me EP attacks that milieu with a subtlety and gentleness that seems out of place on the dance floor. […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: The Phineas Incarnation – Liquid Karma
The Phineas Incarnation Liquid Karma www.thephineasincarnation.bandcamp.com Liquid Karma is the work of Phineas Brady, a 17 year old drummer from Iowa City. He wasn’t even born when the genre known as IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) began gaining listeners. Brady’s chief inspiration is the restless, jackhammer rush of artists like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, but instead […]
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Album Review: FireSale – Furry Noises
FireSale Furry Noises firesale.bandcamp.com/album/furry-noises FireSale is a band made up of players currently finishing bachelor’s degrees at the University of Iowa College of Music. They share that musical pedigree with alumni Euforquestra, whose frontman Matt Grundstad joins with them on their song “Don’t Ya,” on their 2015 album, Furry Noises. Their music is an amalgam […]
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Album Review: Suspect – Faux Empath
Suspect Faux Empath www.raccoo-oo-oon.org/np Suspect (AKA Ryan Beck, Iowa City to Chicago transplant) is part of the ever-growing group of artists — many with recordings released on former Iowa Citian Shawn Reed’s Night People label — who are seeking to find a new musical path based on techno music, but outside the club/dancefloor/rave world from […]
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Album Review: The LonelyHearts – Age of Man
Full disclosure: I am incredibly jealous of Andre Perry, Executive Director of the Englert Theater, musician, author and past contributor to Little Village. No one should be this good at that many things. I’ll try to rise above that deadly sin as I consider the new album he’s made with his musical partner John Lindenbaum, Age of Man…
