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 […]
Album Reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Giallows — ‘Enochian Power Ballads’ and ‘Placer’
Enochian Power Ballads by giallows Adam Wesconsin and Devin Alexander of Giallows have been making music together for much of their lives. In fact, in the first 10 seconds of Enochian Power Ballads, the groggy riffs and tentative tapping will instantly transport longtime fans back in time to Peabody’s, the bygone Quad City coffeehouse and […]
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Album Review: Dante Powell — ‘The Squirrels Get Fat’
Comedian Dante Powell presents the Midwestern life in a hilarious and delightfully new way on his debut album The Squirrels Get Fat. Powell has lived in Iowa since 2012, after moving from Louisiana for a relationship that didn’t last long once he arrived in the Hawkeye State. Much of The Squirrels Get Fat is about […]
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Album Review: Paul Cary — ‘Raven’
Paul Cary makes raggedy, broken music. His guitar sounds are dirty, distorted and low-fi. Drummer Johnathan Crawford sounds like he’s banging on a briefcase. Cary’s nasal voice puts the mixer in the red, surrounding every accented syllable with a cloud of fuzz. “Snake In the Grass,” the opening track on his 2020 release, Raven, drips […]
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Album Review: Jordan Sellergren — ‘Sweet, Bitter Tears’
Jordan Sellergren, local songstress and woman about town [Ed. note: and Little Village art director], has a new record out, titled Sweet, Bitter Tears. And I’m fairly certain that it’s the album we all need right now. It opens with “Get in the Woodshed,” which explores the idea of lacking time — or desire — […]
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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 […]
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Album Review: The Host Country — ‘Strike Gently’
I listened to a lecture once explaining why classic country music has the greatest capacity to elicit sadness among all the genres. It’s in the words. The point-of-view is usually more specific; the details more individualistic and unique to the singer. Where other genres may use a simple lyric like “she’s leaving” to communicate loss, […]
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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 […]
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Album Review: Barry Phipps — ‘The Exuberance Phase’
When Iowa City-based multimedia artist Barry Phipps posted to Facebook that he had just released a new album, I headed to my favorite streaming service right away. I am an admirer of Phipps’ book of photography, Between Gravity and What Cheer: Iowa Photographs, and aware of his history as a musician, which included membership in […]
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Album Review: Tall Doozy — ‘Sad Girls With Bible Names’
Tall Doozy is a project from veteran Iowa City hip-hop producer Tyler James, a.k.a. Jim Swim, in close collaboration with singer and producer Mary Bozaan. Previous Jim Swim releases explored various flavors of hip hop, and include other fruitful collaborations with MCs like Tyler Stück and ADE. Sad Girls With Bible Names lands more squarely […]
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Album Review: Condor & Jaybird — ‘The Glory’
A full-bodied chord progression, disguised as a bridge (where the other shoe just never drops) closes out Condor & Jaybird’s latest album, and it marks the end of an era: the completion of a trilogy six years in the making. First there was The Kingdom, then The Power — now, The Glory is the climax […]
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Album Review: Stephanie Catlett — ‘Meet Me In the Dream’
Meet Me in the Dream by Stephanie Catlett Stephanie Catlett’s EP Meet Me In the Dream was launched into the world on Dec. 18, 2019. Coming at the end of a year in which the corruption and hatred in the world at large augmented acts of courage and hope at the smaller scale, it is […]
