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Tonight, it feels like New York in Elray’s. Maybe it’s the absence of live music for so long? Or maybe it’s the unexpected blend of looping pedal, expansive jazz bass lines and heartfelt covers converging into what is Blake Shaw’s new pandemic-constructed solo show? Certainly, there is something magical about the great sound system and […]
Two weeks ago today, Penny Peach (a.k.a. Elly Hofmaier) dropped a debut EP, Brain Gamez, that you won’t want to miss. But I’m not going to steal the thunder from the full review (forthcoming). I’m just here to talk about “Laurelz,” track three on the release, which Little Village is thrilled to premiere the video […]
There’s a setting used in some of the ambient noise interstitial scenes between videos in Meka Jean’s “visual long play,” Still (a) Life, released at the end of January. It first appears between tracks two and three, “Distortion” and “Too Good for You.” It’s within the abandoned frame of a building, likely in Alabama, where […]
Two years ago, LV reviewer Lucas Benson described Jim Swim’s In It With You EP as “a blend of hip hop, Nick Drake bootlegs, a book of poems by Rumi and a cold Arnold Palmer spiked with a little bit of whiskey.” It’s striking that, if you squint, those are all things you can imagine […]
In Iowa City songwriter Brian Johannesen’s new single “Corona of Springfield,” one of two new tracks he dropped today, a child — the narrator in fact — is born in a Walmart in Springfield, MO. Like so many life events during the pandemic, what might have been a celebration and blessings with gatherings of loved […]
“A Red State Handshake” Red State Handshake Wrote some of this a while back and finished some lines and added slide this weekend for our dearest Kim the Reaper.LyricsOn the corner across from the gas stationOn the same block as the public libraryThere’s a house whose yard is stocked fullOf trash under it’s decaying treesPiles […]
A longtime Iowa City institution is officially closing its doors after 58 years, according to a Facebook post on the business’s page Thursday afternoon. The Mill is known for its pizza and spaghetti, vintage pew seating, vine-draped patio and, of course, its performance space. […]
Guitar in hand, foot tapping a tambourine, Ace Jones is a one-man show for all who pass through the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall. This is where the Marion-based artist has come for years to practice his set in a low-pressure environment. “It’s a great place to just work on songs, or I’ll freestyle a song and see if it sounds good,” Jones said. […]
“Don’t worry; they don’t have a band tonight. I called ahead to make sure,” my husband said about the restaurant where we were thinking of eating that evening. Though we’d technically passed the threshold already, I think that was the moment we officially entered our 30s. I had to tease him about being old and […]
Little Village is pleased today to premiere the video for Good Morning Midnight’s “Josie’s Experiment,” a driving, melodic tune that’s the perfect capper to sophomore album ‘Both Neither and Both.’ […]
As I write this, it has been one year since the passing of one of America’s greatest songwriters, Tom Petty. It’s appropriate, then, that I’m writing a review of another “songwriter’s songwriter.” And, like Petty, Kevin Gordon’s formative years were spent in the American South. […]
I want to thank Luke Tweedy for his Sept. 29 letter to the editor. Artist compensation is an incredibly important subject that isn’t discussed in concrete terms nearly enough. I spend quite a lot of time thinking about it while I sit at a desk working a job I don’t really care about, dreaming of a day when I can support myself entirely on my art. […]
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Little Village is an independent media company based in Iowa City. In print since 2001, our mission is to create visibility for the communities, businesses and events that define our region. Support Little Village →