Bonne Finken Soul on Display www.bonnefinken.com It takes some gut for a white girl from Knoxville, Iowa, to use “Soul” in her debut CD’s title. But Finken can, as they say in the parlance, bring it. She has a voice and delivery with the buttery depth of Annie Lennox, the effortless blues edge of Bonnie […]
Album Reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Disaster Footage at Night by The Lonelyhearts
The Lonelyhearts Disaster Footage At Night Scenester Credentials www.thelonelyhearts.net Lonelyheart John Lindenbaum lives in Oakland, while Andre Perry lives in Iowa City; so the band is not quite bi-coastal — maybe sesqui- or hemi-coastal? It doesn’t really matter, what with the Internet turning us all into quivering monads afloat in a dimensionless sea. The songs […]
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Album Review: Flight Time by Pieta Brown
Pieta Brown Flight Time self-released www.pietabrown.com Pieta Brown’s latest EP Flight Time is written in a world occupied by Cadillacs and run away lovers, and in which a gallon of gas still cost 36 cents; somewhere just down the road from Tom Waits’ “Burma Shave.” However, this isn’t some sort of forced nostalgia. When she […]
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Album Review: Veins by Raw Mojo
Raw Mojo Veins www.rawmojo.net Raw Mojo is a 3 piece rock band you may have seen at shows around Iowa City. Their M.O. is to deliver short, concise stabs of pure rock and roll, without frills, pretension or irony. They deliver 10 songs in less than a half hour, and each song comprises the same […]
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Album Review: (self-titled) The Sullivan Gang
The Sullivan Gang Self-titled www.thesullivangang.com I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a CD in recent years that more overtly identifies itself as roots music. From Michelle Wiegand’s acoustic cover of country music classic “Abilene,” to the ass-kicking stomp of “The Colorado Mines Song,” there’s nothing on this CD that couldn’t have been recorded 40 years […]
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Album Review: The Vinyl Countdown
Scenester Credentials Vinyl Shores of the Tundra Heart of the Beckoning 12-inch Shores of the Tundra’s 12-inch is an impressive artifact before you even drop the needle. It’s a single-sided release, with the epic “Heart of the Reckoning” cut so that it plays from the label to the edge, with a stylized daisy pattern silk-screened […]
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CD Review: She Swings She Sways – Wasted Love Songs
She Swings She Sways Wasted Love Songs www.sheswingsshesways.com A common sophomoric “insight” into music is that we only have 12 notes, and that this imposes some upper limit on the possibility of musical expression. It’s not like it’s hard to demolish this idea with combinatorial mathematics, but both the argument and refutation are beside the […]
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Album Review: The Tanks – Keep Breaking Down
The TanksKeep Breaking DownScenester Credentialswww.myspace.com/thetanks When Keep Breaking Down opener, “Command Divide” begins in earnest, after a groan of wheezy feedback, it feels like the two years since the Tanks’ debut, Summon Creature was but a day. Lead singer Kevin Koppes bellows over a thick, sludgy mess concocted by bass player Adam Luksetich and skins […]
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Album Review: Trout. Mask. Replica. Check it.
Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica (1969) A year or two ago, I sifted through my music collection and realized that I was sick of every single song I owned. I hated Miles Davis and Eddie Van Halen, Leonard Cohen and Tom Petty. I wanted something new but had no idea where to look. I wanted […]
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Album Review: Musée Mecanique: Hold This Ghost
Musée Mecanique Hold This Ghost Frog Stand Records myspace.com/museemecanique [audio:http://www.false45th.net/Audio/Two%20Friends%20Like%20Us.mp3] Musée Mecanique is one of those bands who puts way more into their songs — both the writing and performance — than the short-attention-span musical culture of the US requires. Delicate quiet vocals that trace out long melodic lines, couched in brushed drums and string […]
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Album Review: Brighton MA – Amateur Lovers
Brighton MA Amateur Lovers Loose Tooth Records www.brightonma.net [audio:http://files.for-robots.com/daveb/sunblinded.mp3] Brighton MA is a Chicago Band with some ties to Iowa City. They have my sympathies — Chicago is a rough town musically, full of clubs and bands playing mean zero sum games. Safe to say anyone mediocre or timid gets tossed in Lake Michigan tout […]
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Album Review: Nethervoid – Sirens of the Blistering Light
Nethervoid Sirens of the Blistering Light Beyond the Pyres Records myspace.com/absolutefuckingevil [audio:http://missionfreak.com/audio/Nethervoid_Wyrm_of_Worlds_End.mp3] There is a song on a Nethervoid demo tape called “Torch the Temple,” and if there is an image that better describes this Iowa City black metal band’s sound, I certainly can’t think of it. And now, the group’s full-length debut, Sirens of […]
