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 bad series of events in 2020, artists and art have been there to shine a […]
Michael Roeder
Michael Roeder is a self-proclaimed “music savant.” When he’s not writing for Little Village he blogs at playbsides.com.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: TWINS — ‘Dream On’
Dream On by TWINS The four years leading up to the latest album from Cedar Falls band TWINS, Dream On, could be summarized in this line from track two, “Hearts”: “Well, I was playin’ around ’til you came to town…” Singer and songwriter Joel Sires told me in a chat, “I’d exhausted the type of […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
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 […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
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 […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
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 […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Guitar Chords by Brook Hoover’
Brook Hoover is an Eastern Iowa music scene staple. He plays out every week, whether it’s a solo gig with his cover band the Flaming Camaros or a tour stop with his surf-rock group the Surf Zombies. When he’s not in the spotlight, he’s teaching guitar to folks from the very young to the, well, older. His classes are tailored to the goals of the
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Pink Neighbor — ‘Time Beach Universe’
The brightly illustrated Peter Max-influenced pop-art cover of Time Beach Universe, the debut album from Grinnell band Pink Neighbor, gives us a pretty good idea of what lies within. But, it’s not all tangerine trees and marmalade skies — it’s a perfect pastiche of the full variety of 1960s party pop. The neighborly tone of the record is set at the
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Halfloves — ‘Dazer’
When a band takes the time to create an album as a single work and does it well, as Iowa City band Halfloves has done with their second album Dazer, the investment of experiencing the whole work pays off. Overall, Dazer explores a theme of human connection or, in some cases, the lack thereof.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Pieta Brown — ‘Freeway’
The press material for Pieta Brown’s new album, Freeway, quotes guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker asking, “what kind of music IS this? Prairie gaze?!” The question, while humorous, touches on the sonic explorations of the sessions that make up her eighth album. For her first album on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe label, Brown returned to Justin
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: DICKIE — ‘Minus Thieves’
If various comic book universes have taught us anything, it’s that every hero needs an origin story. For DICKIE, that was their 2015 self-titled release—a concept album summarizing songwriter and vocalist Dick Prall’s life to that point. Returning like Superman from the Fortress of Solitude, Prall has reconvened DICKIE with a different lineup
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Subatlantic — ‘Villains’
Subatlantic is not a band that would be described as impatient. Although they have been together since 2009, playing occasional gigs that secured their place on the Quad Cities music scene, they just released their debut EP, Not Louder, But Closer, in 2015.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: The Maytags — ‘Meriweather’
If Des Moines R&B combo the Maytags had followed up their 2016 album Love Lines simply by revisiting their proven formula, it would still have been a welcome chapter in their developing story. Love Lines was a standout in a landscape of retro R&B albums.
