The music scene in Iowa in the ’80s was vibrant. Inspired by similar regional scenes nationwide, bands across the state were springing from their garages, basements and practice spaces ready to storm the stages of bars and dorms everywhere. The beacon for this movement locally was the ever-present KUNI studios evening music programming, which regularly […]
Articles by Michael Roeder
Album Review: David Huckfelt — ‘Room Enough, Time Enough’

David Huckfelt’s 2021 Room Enough, Time Enough gets its title from the name the Navajo used to describe their ancestral homeland, near where Huckfelt recorded the album in Tucson, Arizona. Its rocky landscape influenced the Western themes of the record. Being in Tucson allowed Huckfelt to take a more communal approach to recording the album, […]
Album Review: Joel Sires — ‘Dog Years’

Dog Years by Joel Sires To paraphrase the famous Corinthians Bible passage, Joel Sires — songwriter and frontman for Cedar Falls band TWINS — set aside his “childish ways” for the songs on their last album, Dream On, out earlier this year. That new maturity on record is a result of woodshedding new songs at […]
Track premiere: Brian Johannesen, “Corona of Springfield”

In Iowa City songwriter Brian Johannesen’s new single “Corona of Springfield,” one of two new tracks he dropped today, a child — the narrator in fact — is born in a Walmart in Springfield, MO. Like so many life events during the pandemic, what might have been a celebration and blessings with gatherings of loved […]
Album review: Various artists, ‘New Roots Grow — A Benefit Compilation For The CRANDIC Corridor Derecho Storm Recovery’
Album Review: Johnnie Cluney — Love Is Law

Love is Law by Johnnie Cluney Johnnie Cluney’s album Love Is Law includes two sound montages titled “New Years Prayer,” made up of pitch-shifting snippets of instruments, including a chord organ and random percussion. On cassette (clearly the way Cluney would prefer the album be experienced) these are something of an amuse bouche for each […]
Video Premiere: The Hex Girls, “Cats With No Teeth (Catch No Mice)”

While live shows are effectively throttled in-person, it has become more important than ever for bands to come up with ways to maintain visibility on their fans’ radar. One such way? By releasing music videos. Once largely considered a necessary evil (albeit a potentially fun and creative one) to help boost album sales, videos are […]
Album Review: Greenlake — ‘Best Years’
Album Review: TWINS — ‘Dream On’
Album Review: The Uniphonics — ‘The Uniphonics’

The Uniphonics have been long-time members of the constellation of bands who spearheaded the Iowa City funk and world beat scene in the late-’90s and early-2000s, along with brothers in backbeat Public Property and Euforquestra. While the formula of blending rap with live instrumentation has been done before, the electric jazz and funk of the […]
Halfloves fold a food drive for HACAP into a return visit to CSPS

Halfloves are back at CSPS Legion Arts this Saturday night, March 7, along with eastern Iowa Americana legends Dave Zollo & the Body Electric and former Cedar Rapidian Tyler Stück, who will be bringing his electronic beats as the opening act (if his name seems familiar, it’s because he was half of the husband/wife duo […]
Album Review: Anthony Worden and the Illiterati — ‘Voilá’

Voilá by Anthony Worden and the Illiterati Voilá, the latest from Iowa City band Anthony Worden and the Illiterati, is a record both timeless and out of time, drawing inspiration from an earlier era when bands focused not just on songwriting but creating an album as a full artistic statement. Voilá clearly has two distinct […]