It's Just Your Turn by The DZ Combo Have you ever been served dinner by a friend with a passion for food? Every course is presented with love and a desire to open your mind and heart to new and exciting experiences. The album It’s Just Your Turn by Dubuque-based quartet the DZ Combo is […]
Local album reviews
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Album Review: Kinji — ‘Thunderhead’
In the same way nature’s counterpart forewarns of dreariness and thunderous disruption, indie musician Kinji’s newest EP Thunderhead starts as the calm before the storm, only to break open, laid bare to the elements, oozing out luscious, melancholic aural landscapes.
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Album Review: Strange News — ‘Liar’s Curse’
Liar's Curse by Strange News It is reasonable in an increasingly unreasonable world to crave nostalgia. As AI and surveillance technologies continue to invade our lives and each day’s news cycle is more absurd than the last, sometimes you have to sit back and pretend it’s 1974, when tech billionaires were mere fantasy and people […]
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Album Review: Calmer Feeling — ‘Pianos in the Fields of Color’
This is one of the few times I can compare a song to the music you might hear in a swanky therapist’s office and mean it as a compliment. “Waiting Room” off Pianos in the Fields of Color transports you into a world of familiar serenity.
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Album Review: Astro Brat — ‘Astro Brat’
Like a lot of people, undergrad was a formative time for my musical tastes. If I were to let you scroll the wheel of my iPod in the mid-aughts, chances are you’d find something that could qualify as “dance-punk.” I’m talking about groups like Bloc Party, Le Tigre, The Rapture, !!!, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem. There’s a special place in my heart for bands that lean into grooves while still maintaining an edge.
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Album Review: Bryon Dudley & Ira Rat — ‘City Dead’
City Dead by Bryon Dudley & Ira Rat I want to begin by saying that Bryon Dudley and Ira Rat describing their album City Dead as “Zombi Giallo” immediately grabbed my attention. Was the title specifically an homage to the 1980 Lucio Fulci classic City of the Living Dead? A delightful review of said film had […]
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Album Review: Patricia Holly — ‘Satin Sashes’
With a stage name like Patricia Holly, a Christmas album seems to be a no-brainer. Name synergy aside, the Des Moines-based jazz and Americana artist is wholly up to the task of a new holiday effort; her signature vintage sound glides effortlessly between dazzling big-band-style orchestrations and a jazzy, moody piano bar, guided by a […]
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Album Review: Bootcamp — ‘Time’s Up’
Time’s Up by Bootcamp. Whenever Iowa City hardcore punk outfit Bootcamp sets off for the divey bars and dimmed basement venues of a tour, vocalist Juliette Enloe sets a phone lockscreen to a map of the U.S., with the state of Iowa circled in blazing red. The reason? Non-Midwest audiences never seem to know where […]
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Album Review: Camp Regret — ‘Camp Regret’
Emerging from the dormant memories of basement shows, DIY venues, crashing on couches and floors on tour and the nostalgia for a more active local music scene comes another supergroup of Quad Cities musicians in the form of Camp Regret. Featuring members of past acts such as Meth & Goats, Ice Hockey and Lazer Mountain, Camp Regret may not be young pups, but they are out to prove that you can teach old dogs new tricks with their debut, self-titled album.
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Album Review: Simon Cropp — ‘Paperback Dream’
Simon Cropp doesn’t just write songs — he crafts worlds out of the ordinary. On his debut album Paperback Dream, the 28-year-old songwriter invites listeners into his universe of small-town stories, worn highways and quiet revelations. With a voice both gentle and resolute, Cropp illuminates the beauty and heartbreak tucked inside daily life.
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Album Review: Sophie Mitchell — ‘What’s Left of Us’
What's Left of Us by Sophie Mitchell So rarely does an album break free from its auditory confines and spin itself into the most visceral, tender visual scenes, painting an achingly beautiful portrait of being in your 20s. But with Sophie Mitchell’s What’s Left of Us, you see it — all of it. See the […]
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Album Review: DIEZELEATER — ‘Couthless Aggression’
With a band name styled in ALL CAPS and “kvlt and tru” spelling, you know you’re going to have some sort of preconceived notion of the Des Moines-based metallers DIEZELEATER (Should it technically be DIEZELDRINKER?) and I won’t tell you mine.
