Heather Gabel, one-half of the Chicago-based industrial EDM duo HIDE, has an affinity for the haunting, empowering and confrontational. You may have seen Gabel between flashes of strobe lights and clouds of dry ice in the Yacht Club basement during Mission Creek Festival 2019: glimpses of black-smudged lips yelling […]
The term kosmiche expands from the modular, to the jazzy, to screaming, astral-effected guitars and to automaton pastiche. It is this expansive realm where Chicago’s Spiral Galaxy have found their garden to play in. […]
Saturday, May 4 will bring vocalist and instrumentalist Louise Bock to Trumpet Blossom in Iowa City as part of the Feed Me Weird Things listening series. Bock’s unique take on song structure and multi-instrumentality allow her to create soundscapes that are intensely layered. […]
There are songs of great sadness, written in the early 20th century by Egyptian Arabs and recorded mechanically. They’re written in a forgotten style, slightly grating on the ears, but evoking a sense of melancholy and nostalgia. These are the sounds which guide the latest musical ventures of experimental multi-instrumentalist Nadah El Shazly […]
From singer-songwriters to heavy metal bands, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids breed a wide variety of musical acts. Dozens of artists make up the local music scene, but not many receive the recognition of concert-goers in the area. Naturally, the local DIY scene — united by the “do it yourself” idea that art shouldn’t have barriers to entry, and that anyone, regardless of skill or status, should be free to make art and share it as they please — tends to operate underground while the artists are often shrouded from curious music fans. Some local venue owners are working to change that […]
Feed Me Weird Things Vol. 3, Edition #11 brings the brilliant guitar improviser Bill MacKay from Chicago to Iowa City on Thursday, Sept. 27. MacKay lives on the unexpected razor’s edge between jazz and experimental folk, stylistically, but his guitar is conversational in a sense typically only associated with the blues. […]
Lookin’ to get down, but not sure where to go this weekend? It’s OK; happens to the best of us. Don’t let Monday find you with no great stories to share. Little Village has the lowdown on this weekend’s can’t-miss shows. […]
Frahm is a gifted composer and performer, but what was most engaging about this concert was the simplicity of the music he presented. The closest comparison would be Philip Glass, but Glass can try my patience, and Frahm instinctively knows when to ride a static groove and when to switch up. […]
Frahm began his All Melody tour in New York City last week and will play shows throughout North America this spring. He’ll be traveling with over two tons of equipment, including monitors, speakers, pianos and 11 keyboards for the upcoming dates. […]
Feed Me Weird Things, Vol. 2, Ed. 1: Robert Noyes w/ Alexander, Haunter Trumpet Blossom — Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 9 p.m. Having concluded the first volume of Feed Me Weird Things (FMWT) on Aug. 12, Chris Wiersma, curator of […]
Feed Me Weird Things is the newest curation effort of Chris Wiersema, the soft-spoken but large-bearded part of Witching Hour and Mission Creek responsible for keeping Iowa City immersed in unusual sounds from around the world. Wiersema organized this series in terms of volumes and episodes, and each installment promises to be a unique event, with an emphasis on range rather than continuity (see full lineup below). […]
