Popular music is a tug of war between artistic and commercial concerns, and at the center of it all lays genre. For an artist, genres have stylistic signifiers and limits. A great musician can make punk rock that is satisfying and original within those limits, but if he or she adds a sitar or using diminished 13th chords, it usually stops being punk rock.
Album reviews
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Album Review: Danny Dysentery—’My Fangs Are Wet’
Danny Dysentery My Fangs Are Wet dannydysentery.bandcamp.com For every rabid fanbase there is a genre of music, it seems. For example, there is a crossing of horror fan culture with pop music that dates back almost to the dawn of rock and roll (“Monster Mash” anyone?). Alice Cooper, Danzig and The Misfits birthed the blood […]
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Album Review: The Ills – Fuck this planet
Erika Ebola, Danny Dysentery, Molly Marburg, Tommy Tinnitus, Stella Salmonella; I think I’m sensing a theme here. This is definitely punk rock/hardocre straight out of the 1980s, reminiscent of the Circle Jerks, Plasmatics, and the Rezillos. One may well ask, does the world need more hardcore punk rock with track names you can’t say on the radio or TV?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Punk rock at this point is beyond a sociological phenomenon of the past, and has become a vernacular folk tradition.
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Album Review: Broken Water – Wrought
Although Shawn Reed no longer lives in Iowa City, his label — Night People — has its heart here, at least partly-so. In an interview for Art of Iowa, Reed said that while “the label grew out of being into records, booking shows, inviting touring bands to play (in Iowa City),” it “doesn’t live any place in particular.”
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Album Review: Creeping Punk – Mirror Woods
Creeping Pink Mirror Woods (Castle Face Records) www.facebook.com/creepingpink Mirror Woods is the first full-length effort from Creeping Pink, the newest band on the Castle Face Records roster. Neither the slow verb in the band’s name nor the album’s languorous pace reflect the speed with which this music will lodge itself in your brain. Creeping Pink […]
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Album Review: Tom Jessen – Hunting Season
Tom Jessen Hunting Season www.tomjessen.bandcamp.com At the bottom of the back cover of Hunting Season—Tom Jessen’s first album since 2002’s Night—is a dedication to the late frontman for The Clash, “Special thanks to Joe Strummer for giving me a second wind!” Jessen, a Strawberry Point native spent time in Iowa City and released two albums—the […]
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Album Review: Circuit Des Yeux – In Plain Speech
In Plain Speech by Circuit des Yeux Circuit des Yeux In Plain Speech www.circuitdesyeux.bandcamp.com Circuit des Yeux, the project of Chicago-based experimental songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Haley Fohr, is winding circuits around the world touring her latest release, In Plain Speech. The album’s release in May has launched an ambitious tour cycle that has will […]
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Working class Joe: Bucky Halker covers Joe Hill’s labor rights ballads
Though it’s a century too late to save Joe Hill from the Utah firing squad, Bucky Halker wants to rescue him from the folkies …
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Album Review: Uranium Club – Human Exploration
A lot of biodegradable soy ink has been spilled in the dissection and exegesis of “Attitude,” something Uranium Club has a ton of, mostly of the confrontational, transgressive kind. Attitude is …
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Album reviews: Dick Prall – Dickie
Since 1998 Dick Prall has been spinning his particular flavor of “sad bastard” pop music (to quote Barry from the film High Fidelity). A couple of brilliant power pop releases, a few polished singer-songwriter releases (including a minor hit “The Cornflakes Song” with Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket) and now he’s back with a new project…
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Album Review: Jeff Miguel – Perserverance
Saxophonist Jeff Miguel is a recent graduate of the University of Iowa jazz studies program, which has in recent years spawned bands like Euforquestra and Koplant No. Perserverance collects eight of Miguel’s own compositions, which is a gutsy move in the context of traditional jazz, a genre where musicians are still finding something new in standards from the last century…
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Album Review: Dagmar – Afterlight
Gemma Rose and Miranda Lee are Dagmar—a band born from the eight-year groundwork laid by their previous trio Rock Paper Scissors, which created music of an acoustic jazz and vocal harmony style reminiscent of ‘40s swing…
