Bill Sackter’s Birthday Bash Uptown Bill’s — Thursday-Sunday, April 13-16 In honor of Bill Sackter’s life and legacy, Wild Bill’s Coffeeshop and Uptown Bill’s Coffeehouse will hold their annual celebration over the course of this weekend, from Sackter’s birthday through Sunday, April 16. Sackter would’ve been 104 on Thursday, April 13. He spent 44 years […]
Iowa City live music
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Mission Creek opening day events at Hancher
At 6 p.m. on April 4, Joe Tiefenthaler opened Mission Creek 2017’s Hancher component with a short statement about the enduring importance of the arts in terms of building what is essential within human communities. In addition to thanking sponsors, it was a necessary statement (given the current political backdrop in which the arts risk no longer being funded by the government), and a welcome invocation of the need to remind ourselves of the essential ingredient that the arts play in our experience of being human.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Exploring the visceral and diaristic music of Mykki Blanco
Mykki Blanco has gained prominence in the past few years as an artist that blows up conventions — in the hyper-masculine world of hip hop, she’s queer, HIV positive and gender fluid, a gay man performing as a woman without being either trans or drag. Her songs are, as she says “diaristic,” speaking about personal fears and feelings in a genre known for bragging about expensive cars and coke-dealing and violence. She is both Mykki Blanco and Michael Quattlebaum Jr, she and he — an artistic creation, but never artificial.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Interview: Pieta Brown on ‘Postcards,’ pen pals and Flat Black
The songs for Pieta Brown’s latest album, Postcards, were written while she was on a solo tour. The isolation and distance and the challenge to stay connected inspired the songs. When it came time to assemble them into an album she compiled a list of her dream collaborators and sent them “musical postcards.” The credits for the album read like a who’s who of American folk, and those familiar with her career will see some notable musicians she’s worked with or toured with including Calexico, Mark Knopfler, Carrie Rodriguez and the Pines.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
The Cool Kids bring their inventive approach to production to Flat Black
In 2008, the Cool Kids were “bringing ’88 back,” channeling a stripped-down eighties boom-bap rap aesthetic for a new generation. “When we started,” Sir Mike told me in advance of their appearance at this year’s Mission Creek Festival, “I was about seventeen and Chuck was twenty-two.” This led to a series of acclaimed singles and albums, a burst of activity that began with their debut “Black Mags” and abruptly ended after their 2011 LP, When Fish Ride Bicycles.
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Interview: Whitney’s Max Kakacek on process and relationship
Whitney w/ Helena Deland The Mill — Saturday, April 1 at 9 p.m. Lauded for their Light Upon the Lake and playing in their own backyard after an Australian tour, Chicago’s Whitney will perform at the Mill on April 1 at 9 p.m. A Mission Creek Presents show the weekend before Mission Creek kicks off […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Little Village and Dead Coast Present: Willy Tea Taylor, Ryan Joseph Anderson and J.Aubertin
Willy Tea Taylor, with Ryan Joseph Anderson, J.Aubertin Cortado — Saturday, March 25 at 8 p.m. New baristas on the block Cortado (26 S Clinton St) will host their first live music event this Saturday, March 25 at 8 p.m., in partnership with Little Village and Dead Coast Presents. Singer-songwriters Willy Tea Taylor, Ryan Joseph […]
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Interview: Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner talks music, art and love
Lambchop, the musical collective anchored in the vocals and musical genius of Kurt Wagner, will be playing their first show in Iowa City on March 23 at The Mill. The show is set to start at 8 p.m., with House and Land serving as openers. Tickets are $17 in advance and $20 at the door.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Features
A-List: The undefinable Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird’s discography is a compelling set of intricately arranged songs that have no obvious cognates in the contemporary musical scene. Having studied violin, Bird also plays guitar, sings and whistles his way through a set of songs that make excellent use of loops due to his intricate and impeccable timing. His songs are worth studying in advance of a performance, as each provides a dizzying set of dense, clever lyrics that are occasionally lost in the rapturous soaring of the violin.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
LV Presents: Advance Base at Public Space One
Advance Base and Karima Walker head to Public Space One on Friday, March 17 for a low key evening of solid songwriting and some of the most beguiling vocals in current music. Owen Ashworth, who from 2007-2010 spun his midwest melancholy as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, dropped his first record as Advance Base
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Interview: A Homecoming for Kelly Pardekooper
It’s been several years — nearly three to be exact — since Kelly Pardekooper has returned to Iowa City to perform. The times have changed since he first left, a baker’s dozen years ago. But roots don’t ever move.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ohio’s Papadosio brings their psychedelia to Gabe’s Iowa City
Five albums into their career, along with two live recordings released, Papadosio will take Iowa City into orbit at Gabe’s this Thursday, March 9 in support of their latest EP, ‘Pattern Integrities’ (2016).
