The Maytags Love Lines www.themaytags.com Seven-piece Des Moines band The Maytags continues their rise to the top of the modern soul scene with their full-length debut, Love Lines, out July 1. Frontman Dustin Smith told me in February that, when recording all in analog (as this album was done) there’s “no excuse not to have […]
Album Reviews
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Album Review: TWINS — Square America
TWINS Square America www.facebook.com/Twinstheband Iowa’s very own princes of guitar pop are back with another slab of black vinyl densely grooved with their trademark harmonies and chugging guitars. Their 2014 album Tomboys on Parade was a smart collection of guitar pop that I described in my Little Village review as being a “survey of power […]
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Album Review: Blake Shaw — Listen Hear
Blake Shaw Listen Hear www.blakeshawbass.com Listen Hear is the latest release from Iowa City composer/musician Blake Shaw. Recorded at Flat Black Studios, Listen Hear is an incredibly accessible jazz album featuring a strong quintet of players with Shaw on the upright bass, Dan Padley on guitar, Nolan Schroeder and Ryan Smith on respective woodwinds and […]
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Album Review: The Phineas Incarnation – Liquid Karma
The Phineas Incarnation Liquid Karma www.thephineasincarnation.bandcamp.com Liquid Karma is the work of Phineas Brady, a 17 year old drummer from Iowa City. He wasn’t even born when the genre known as IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) began gaining listeners. Brady’s chief inspiration is the restless, jackhammer rush of artists like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, but instead […]
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Album Review: Max Jury – Self-titled
Max Jury Max Jury www.maxjury.com A series of strong singles in 2014 established West Des Moines native Max Jury as able to craft instantly-classic songs influenced by laid back seventies West Coast singer-songwriters. These singles, which included the tongue-in-cheek “Black Metal,” started the snowball of acclaim and fueled expectation of his self-titled debut album, out […]
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Album Review: FireSale – Furry Noises
FireSale Furry Noises firesale.bandcamp.com/album/furry-noises FireSale is a band made up of players currently finishing bachelor’s degrees at the University of Iowa College of Music. They share that musical pedigree with alumni Euforquestra, whose frontman Matt Grundstad joins with them on their song “Don’t Ya,” on their 2015 album, Furry Noises. Their music is an amalgam […]
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Album review: Christopher the Conquered – I’m Giving Up on Rock & Roll
Listening to Christopher the Conquered’s new album I’m Giving Up On Rock & Roll, I can’t help but compare the epic, theatrical sound of the album to Springsteen’s Born to Run and Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell. The pilgrimage that Christopher and producer Patrick Tape Fleming (of Poison Control Center) took to Memphis, to divine some of the magic that comes from the legendary Ardent Studios (where many of the hot Stax Records came from) brought forth a well of R&B gold.
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Album Review: Suspect – Faux Empath
Suspect Faux Empath www.raccoo-oo-oon.org/np Suspect (AKA Ryan Beck, Iowa City to Chicago transplant) is part of the ever-growing group of artists — many with recordings released on former Iowa Citian Shawn Reed’s Night People label — who are seeking to find a new musical path based on techno music, but outside the club/dancefloor/rave world from […]
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Album Review: Hello Clyde – Rewind
Hello Clyde is the side project of Chris Rohr of The White Elephant, though Rohr tells me that he actually considers Hello Clyde his “main squeeze” while the other band is on extended hiatus. “[Hello Clyde] is a revolving door of people that help color the songs I’ve made,” he says…
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Album Review: The LonelyHearts – Age of Man
Full disclosure: I am incredibly jealous of Andre Perry, Executive Director of the Englert Theater, musician, author and past contributor to Little Village. No one should be this good at that many things. I’ll try to rise above that deadly sin as I consider the new album he’s made with his musical partner John Lindenbaum, Age of Man…
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Album Review: A432 – Broken
A432 (Iowa City’s Logan Stimmel) calls himself a sound artist, rather than a musician — which means that I have high confidence many Little Village readers will not like Broken. A432’s music sits in the general vicinity of the music of Autechre and Richard Devine. It is deliberately abstract, without being arbitrary. Any sounds that originated as acoustic vibrations in air (i.e., “normal” music or location recordings) have been digitally altered and treated to render them unrecognizable.
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Album Review: Trevor Sensor – Texas Girls and Jesus Christ
Trevor Sensor Texas Girls and Jesus Christ www.trevorsensor.com Illinois-born Trevor Sensor, recently seen opening for the Halfloves at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City, has spun his songwriting skill — honed and perfected while studying English at Central College in Pella, IA — into an EP, Texas Girls and Jesus Christ. It dropped Mar. 25 […]
