Have you heard of “word painting”? It’s the musical technique in which instrumental choices illustrate the lyrical ones — and vice versa — in a positive feedback loop. Synergy at its finest. Skilled word-painters create something unique, something a purist musician or lyricist couldn’t create when exclusively focusing on one or the other. Iowa City’s […]
Iowa City musicians
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘A little bit of chaos is OK’: Pokey’s Fest keeps punk music, ethic alive in Iowa City
Punk isn’t dead. Sure, punk is old enough that it may be dad — or mom — but it’s still by and for the kids. For proof of life, one needn’t look any further than Pokey’s Fest 3, two all-ages nights of hardcore punk and other assorted music for freaks that will take place June […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: The Sam Ross Quartet and Michael Sarian channel Miles Davis and early electric jazz at the PS1 Close House
This is the first in hopefully many reviews I will write in the near future covering local, live musical performances. I hope that sharing my experience at these shows will give people some idea of what music in our own town sounds like and feels like. I am a lifelong musician in addition to being […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
After divorcing her bandmate, Deb Talan channeled heartbreak into a solo album
Little Village spoke with singer-songwriter and visual artist Deb Talan about the inspiration behind her recently-released solo album, I Thought I Saw You, what she loves about creating art in her chosen hometown of Iowa City, and the joy she’s found in collaborating with her fellow Iowa-based artists.
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Review: Younger previews upcoming album ‘Y3K’ in propulsive Mission Creek set
Iowa City band Younger closed their Friday set for Mission Creek Festival with a pitch-perfect cover of Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon.” The sound, energy and song choice were on point. Immediately after, an audience member threw up his hands and said what I suspect others in the crowd were also thinking. “From now on, I’ll think […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Early Girl — ‘Lovers Out to Pasture’
Lovers Out to Pasture by Early Girl On their Bandcamp page, Iowa City trio Early Girl proudly proclaim to be “bringing queer aesthetics back to pop rock.” The gritty opening riff of “Green Eyes” telegraphs this plainly, immediately invoking the shimmy bop of the B-52’s iconic “Private Idaho.” But Early Girl builds on the influence […]
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Album Review: 24thankyou — ‘Everything I Was, Burning Slow’
Everything I Was, Burning Slow by 24thankyou The bedrooms in old, rented houses from Fairchild to South Lucas are held together by paint — layers upon layers of beiges and grays that do the semester’s tenants the courtesy of covering up mold colonies and mysterious stains. If those bedroom walls could talk through those layers […]
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Meet Sam Locke Ward, Iowa City’s pop music MacGyver
Since the time Samuel Locke Ward grew up in relative isolation on a family farm in Iowa, he has taken the road less traveled at every turn. With a preternatural talent for crafting earworm hooks and catchy melodies, the prolific musician could very well have beaten a path to Nashville or Los Angeles and developed […]
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‘Make art. Shoot a video. Play in a band.’ Gen X rockers reunite in Iowa City to encourage the next generation
“At the Old Threshers Reunion this summer, you’re going to come across some old pumps, tractors and hay balers, and there’ll be too-cute nanny goats and freckled girls in pigtails,” said musician David Murray, summing up the annual festival in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa that celebrates the state’s agricultural heritage. “If you go to the Old […]
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Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Iowa City guitarist Randall Davis is a musician’s musician
Best of the CRANDIC 2021 winner: Best Overall Musician So you like to enjoy a night out of live music in the CRANDIC, but you’ve never seen Best Overall Musician Randall Davis perform? Hmmm. I call bullshit. Davis is a fixture, a necessary component of how the musical ecosystem in this region thrives. When I […]
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‘Everything is critical’ for IC rapper and entrepreneur TheZeffsterr
It takes many years for an artist to develop, and most are unafraid of the challenges that come with growth. Of course, every artist’s journey is different. Confidence in self, combined with support from community and family, drives the need to be successful. Artists are becoming more comfortable managing themselves and even other artists, as […]
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Jordan Sellergren on balancing music, motherhood and magazines in a pandemic
Writing and recording music as a mother with a full-time job has been a balancing act for Jordan Sellergren, even before COVID-19 arrived in Iowa. “On a typical day, I would get the kids to school and head to the Little Village office first thing,” said Sellergren, art director at Little Village, of her pre-pandemic […]
