this love ain't a film by diistancing For the last couple of years, Iowa City’s James Hirsch has been releasing music under the name diistancing. His latest, releasing on good old Saint Valentine’s Day, is this love ain’t a film. Featuring seven slow-burning, melancholic love/breakup songs, this diistancing release is stripped-down and raw, incorporating elements […]
Album reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: GOLDBLUMS — ‘Bless Me for the Get Better’
Bless Me for the Get Better by GOLDBLUMS Over the last few years, the Des Moines-based group GOLDBLUMS have recorded with a wide sonic palette, including elements of garage punk, noise pop, and even some stoner sludge metal into their music. On their latest, Bless Me for the Get Better, they present six tracks full […]
Posted inUncategorized
Album Review: Bellyard — ‘Bellyard’
BELLYARD by BELLYARD Iowa music is nothing if not eclectic. Put a track by early ’90s prog-punkers Fetal Pig side-by-side with something spawned in the late ’90s by genre-less ramblers Why Make Clocks, for example. You’d be forgiven for not being aware that both acts were fronted by Des Moines’ Sump Pump Records maestro Dan […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: William Elliott Whitmore — ‘Silently, The Mind Breaks’
If you’ll permit a strained simile, Will Whitmore is like Iowa’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark. He’s never been anything short of ridiculously excellent, and he makes it look — or sound — easy. I’ve seen him hold hundreds of drunk college kids spellbound with nothing more than a pawn-shop banjo and his voice. That kind […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Dandelion Stompers — ‘Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 1’
Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 1 by Dandelion Stompers Recently, John Kenyon — executive director of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization and one of our area’s most insightful arts analysts — and I were both in the audience at the Englert for a performance by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Kenyon wrote about the […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Sirens and Prophets — ‘Delineations’
Delineations by Sirens and Prophets In the opening minutes of Delineations’ forlorn guitar chords, punctuated by steady drums, lead listeners in a gradual crescendo accompanied by boiling cymbals. By the halfway point of this first track, “Lines Drawn,” I’m enveloped by the album. Typically, I’m hooked by lyrics, but this opening instrumental piece (somewhat reminiscent […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Wave Cage — ‘Even You Can See in the Dark’
Even You Can See in the Dark by Wave Cage “Here we orbit each other with creative collaboration,” says poet Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey on the opening and title track of Wave Cage’s new album Even You Can See in the Dark. That sentiment is central to the record itself. The band’s notes on […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: Sean Tyler — ‘NOR THERE’
NOR THERE by Sean Tyler I first found out about Sean Tyler from one of the great No Touching Sessions filmed at Gabe’s way back in 2020. Tyler’s been performing regularly around Iowa City ever since, and recently played at the Refocus Film Festival. Released in September, NOR THERE is his first official collection of […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Lou Sherry — ‘More Now Than Then’
Lou Sherry — More Now Than Then by Lou Sherry Sometimes in life, anticipation can veer towards obsession. It was after the first time Lou Sherry played Gabe’s that I learned this lesson — as soon as the show ended, I craved a full album. The wait seemed inconceivable, but then September rolled around and, […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Dave Helmer — ‘Such a Clown’
Such a Clown by Dave Helmer Looking at the cover art for Dave Helmer’s Such a Clown, I’ll be honest — I was expecting some trite country rock at best and an Insane Clown Posse knock-off at worst. What I found instead as I listened through was myself writing a plot outline for Paddington 4: […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Lani — ‘Love, Lani’
Love, Lani is an aptly named album. Across nine tracks, its creator reflects on love and relationships while shifting through musical genres that are clearly dear to her. Released in late July, Love, Lani comes from Lani Eclatt, a Des Moines-based musical artist who performs simply as Lani. The first two songs are upbeat break-up […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: T.A.N.G. — ‘Big Bright Empty Nothing’
Big Bright Empty Nothing by T.A.N.G. Space is the place and T.A.N.G. is here to tell us about it on their 2023 release, Big Bright Empty Nothing. Recorded and mastered at Flat Black Studios by Luke Tweedy, T.A.N.G. has unleashed a doom-tinted contemplation of the cosmos and the emptiness that stares back. T.A.N.G. consists of […]
