In the northeast corner of Iowa, near the confluence of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, lies a collection of more than 200 earthworks, built between 650 and 1200 AD or so by ancestors of Indigenous peoples still living in the state. Effigy Mounds National Monument in Allamakee and Clayton counties is unique among Midwestern mound sites: […]
Loren Thacher
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: Sam Locke Ward — ‘Thrift Store Gtr Gold’
Thrift Store Gtr Gold by Samuel Locke Ward “Everything that they ever warned us about, all the sad things, all the bad things, all of those things, they are coming. They are all coming to pass.” So singeth Samuel Locke Ward, master of minimalism, grim jester and bard of Iowa in the unhinged 2020s. In […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward — ‘Happy Hearts’
Happy Hearts by Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward Cross-country collaborations with punk-rock legends are nothing new for Sam Locke Ward. His glorious work with Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, etc.) under the SLW cc Watt moniker has been covered in this publication before. At the same time those albums were unleashed on an unsuspecting public, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: SLW + BBJR — ‘Bubblegum Necropolis EP’
Bubblegum Necropolis EP by SLW + BBJR Iowa is beautiful: a land of verdant cornfields, ball diamonds, quaint small towns and Shire-like rolling hills. But the realities of life are grim: the mask of “Iowa nice” all too often hides a deep core of red-state intolerance. Those acres of corn are nurtured by chemicals that […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews, Arts & Entertainment
Album Review: Soultru— ‘The Truth’ EP
The Truth: An Acoustic EP by SoultruTerrance “Soultru” Banks has been blending pop, R&B and hip-hop for years. For The Truth, the Davenport singer’s latest EP, he’s taken an unexpected step back: peeling back the production and sitting down for a set of stripped-down, unguarded acoustic songs. It’s a bold move for any singer to […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: Twin Wizard — ‘Glacial Gods’
Glacial Gods by Twin Wizard After a messy split from Dubuque stoner-metal powerhouse Telekinetic Yeti, drummer Anthony Dreyer forged a trans-Mississippi partnership with axeman Brad Van, a member of Madison kindred spirits Droids Attack. The result is Twin Wizard, whose thundering debut Glacial Gods had the ill fortune to drop on Friday the 13th back […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: Murnau — ‘Lungs’
Lungs by MurnauMurnau is a two-piece band from the small town of Morrison, Illinois, just a short ride up I-88 from the Quad Cities. Last year the band rose from the double obscurity of a square little town and an almost decade-long hiatus, releasing a compilation of old recordings (Static) and wasting no time in […]
