The Lost Woods Music Festival returns to the Cedar Falls area for its third iteration on Saturday. What started as a party in the woods in 2023 has… kept on being a party in the woods, actually. Salt Fox, the band behind the fest, have resisted the scope creep that plagues so many other festival […]
Jim Swim
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Sun Centauri — ‘Flux4D’
When Alyx Rush declares, “I need my space,” in the first atmospheric gasps of Flux4D, it would be easy to assume the aforementioned space only speaks to normal human conflict, bound entirely to Earth. Certainly, in a literal sense, each song is about the push and pull dilemma of whether to be entangled in the […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jim Swim — ‘Unruly Automatons’ EP
Unruly Automatons by Jim Swim I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started up “Creature,” the first track on Jim’s Swim’s Unruly Automatons. Keyboard chords stutter as if a DJ is warming up a crab scratch. A drum loop kicks in that would feel at home in a Metal Fingers Special […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Photo Gallery: Scenes from the 80/35 Music Festival, featuring Killer Mike, OK Go and more
The 80/35 Music Festival covered Des Moines’ Water Works Park in confetti on the first of two great (and hot!) nights of performances from national, international and Iowa acts alike. The first day of the festival — Friday, July 12 — saw tDreamer Isioma, Halfloves and Jim Swim take the stage, among others. As the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Three Saturdays, nine performances, one stage: The Englert’s Local Showcase Series returns Jan. 17
The Englert Theatre’s Local Showcase Series returns in 2024 with three nights of performances featuring exclusively local artists. The goal of this series, spanning January and early February, is to group musically inclined newcomers with experienced veterans on the same night. It is also an opportunity to connect area musicians. The first showcase on Saturday, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ahzia Hester is still rendering
It is hard to say where someone will find Iowa City-based artist Ahzia Hester on any given day. Maybe he’s opening for GZA at the Englert Theatre, or Cautious Clay at the Iowa Memorial Union. He might be at Gabe’s, performing his own songs and DJing the artists that influenced them, all over the same […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jim Swim — ‘New Tattoo’ EP
New Tattoo by Jim Swim Jim Swim is not new to the Iowa hip-hop scene. He performs all over the state, but during the day he teaches middle school kids about the importance of learning grammar and proper English. It is only natural he would take his verbal skills to the microphone. His latest release, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: Jim Swim — ‘Softee Boy’ EP
Softee Boy EP by Jim Swim When I first listened to this Jim Swim project, I wasn’t sure if this was all done by one creative or if there were multiple people — a rapper/singer just going over some instrumental tracks. I’ve heard a single or so here and there, but not enough to know […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Video premiere: Jim Swim, ‘Softee Boy’
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 […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Tall Doozy — ‘Sad Girls With Bible Names’
Tall Doozy is a project from veteran Iowa City hip-hop producer Tyler James, a.k.a. Jim Swim, in close collaboration with singer and producer Mary Bozaan. Previous Jim Swim releases explored various flavors of hip hop, and include other fruitful collaborations with MCs like Tyler Stück and ADE. Sad Girls With Bible Names lands more squarely […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Jim Swim — In It With You
Weighing in at five tracks and 18 minutes, In It With You, the newest EP from Iowa artist Jim Swim, is difficult to pigeonhole in terms of genre. If pressed, I would describe it 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.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Review: Jim Swim — Half Woke
Jim Swim Half Woke EP itsjimswim.bandcamp.com/releases Half Woke EP by Jim Swim Hip hop came to Iowa City in the boom box on the shoulder of celebrated University of Iowa basketball player Ronnie Lester, blasting the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979. Ever since then, hip hop culture has been passed down from MC to […]
