Musician, guitarist and educator Allegra Hernandez returned to Des Moines in 2018 after their stint at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota was cut short when the school closed. That time afforded them a solid basis in […]
“I suppose the new direction is another pandemic story,” Nick Fisher offers as the impetus for the recent pivot of the band formerly known as Hex Girls. “I had begun writing lyrics to songs that seemed to lend themselves to […]
Bonsai by Alex Ramsey Alex Ramsey has been a mainstay of the collective of Eastern Iowa’s folk and country blues community, either as a member of the Pines (who seem to be on a sabbatical) with his brother Benson and […]
Pop Fluff by Hex Girls In typically warped Hex Girls humor, the back of the 10” vinyl version of Hex Girls’ new EP Pop Fluff shows a taxonomic chart with the caption “Hex Girls feed off of the energy of […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
NEW ROOTS GROW: A Benefit Compilation For The CRANDIC Corridor Derecho Storm Recovery by Money Tapes I didn’t realize how much of what I’ve come to know as the Cedar Rapids area was about the trees. After the Aug. 10 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Best Years by Greenlake On the inaugural World Art Day on April 15 this year, UNESCO tweeted, “In times of crisis, we need culture to make us resilient, give us hope, remind us that we are not alone.” Through the […]
