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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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The All Soul’s Day EP, the newest release by Nadalands, is, apparently, firmly in the post-songwriter (po-so?) tradition. This may mean that John Lindenbaum, Nadalands’ heart and soul and only official member, is engaged in employing the trappings of the singer-songwriter tradition to consider topics and ideas that are not generally the stuff […]
The first time I heard Aubs. perform the titular “Sensei of Syllables,” he was on the Rozz-Tox stage with one of his writing students. Abdur, 12, had just made his debut at Roaring Rhetoric, the spoken word event series Aubs. founded. Aubs. is Aubrey Barnes, known to the QC lit community […]
As I listened to Brian Johannesen’s Holster Your Silver this week, driving south on I-380 in the January dusk — a nearly full moon rising in the clear sky, plane contrails lining the sunset, bare trees silhouetted in the orange-pink-twilight blue — it hit me that dropping this standout album in deep winter makes all the sense in the world. […]
Two years ago, I saw the Vahnevants play a show on a city bus. The audience was an even split: Half of the people were bus regulars, just trying to get to their stop on their way to or from work. The other half was a mix of the kinds of freaks and art geeks who tend to turn up for these out-of-the-ordinary occurrences of live music. Due to the […]
Doug Nye has been playing shows around Iowa City for almost a decade. A self-taught guitarist, singer and songwriter, he’s always had a resonant, deep baritone voice and an ear for bleak folk-tinged songwriting. His voice has become more confident even as his songwriting has turned more cryptic and playful. […]
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