Iowa City folkies the Feralings released their highly anticipated debut EP last October, a collection of six gorgeous tracks that’s stylistically scattered but so tightly woven and so cleanly mixed and mastered (I hope we hear a lot more from Ben Schmidt and Rescued Rabbit Studio) that the diversity has the feel of a carefully curated sampler. […]
Album Reviews
Album Review: 85 decibel Monks — Sliced Beets

Tack-Fu’s story begins here in Iowa City as a dedicated Hawkeye and fan of music. As hip hop began to get more attention in the late ’90s, Tack discovered his true passion for the boards and later expanded his love for creating music into a production empire. Fu, which Tack takes to mean a practice […]
Album Review: Kate Kane — Meet the Cats

Meet the Cats by Kate Kane I can’t think of a single better combination of words than “cat-themed Kate Kane album from Bloated Kat Records.” Any of those three factors would have me dropping everything else to listen, but the combination is an outstanding pop-punk success filled with whimsical odes that I’m pretty sure retroactively […]
Album Review: Brother Trucker — 5

Des Moines band Brother Trucker is an honest-to-goodness Iowa institution. Since 2000, the band has toured extensively, bringing their roots rock and country to avid fans in bars throughout the Midwest. Their Iowa pedigree was established when they signed on as one of the original bands on Dave Zollo’s seminal Trailer Records, where they released […]
Album Review: Good Morning Midnight — Both Neither and Both

Both Neither And Both by Good Morning Midnight Good Morning Midnight is a band unafraid to wear its influences proudly. On Both Neither And Both, the song “Ballerina” has the low-slung slyness of mid-tempo Nirvana, and “Dynamite Head” has a chugging, breakbeat rhythm that recalls Creation bands like Swervedriver and the Boo Radleys. A rock […]
Album Review: David Huckfelt — Stranger Angels

David Huckfelt took advantage of a break in touring with the Pines to become the artist-in-residence at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. The writing he did in solitude there formed the basis for his first solo album, Stranger Angels. The close proximity of nature during Huckfelt’s residency informs the record. The first single, and […]
Album Review: Holy White Hounds — Say It With Your Mouth

Holy White Hounds Say It With Your Mouth www.holywhitehounds.com Des Moines band Holy White Hounds are back with their second album. Say It With Your Mouth picks up where their 2016 album, Sparkle Sparkle, left off. Producer Brandon Darner, who produced that first record, is back at the helm as producer. Darner’s ability to make […]
Album Review: Soultru & Progeny — Soultru & Progeny
Album Review: Chrash — 2017 The Music
Album Review: Chuck Henderson — Christmas

Chuck Henderson Christmas Dear readers: For the purposes of this review, I broke one of my personal cardinal rules. I listened to Christmas music before Dec. 1. And then I listened again, and again, and again. And I liked it. Chuck Henderson’s Christmas, despite the name of the holiday gracing the title of the disc […]
Album Review: Kevin Gordon — Tilt and Shine
Album Review: Ben Driscoll — Earthly Remains

Doing due diligence on Ben Driscoll — whose name I know mostly from live performances on KUNI FM — I turned up an article from 2015 in the Cedar Rapids Gazette that calls him a “former musician” and describes his Cedar Rapids woodworking business. Lucky for us, news of his demise as a musician is greatly exaggerated. […]