KFMH (99 Plus!) out of Muscatine was the default radio station for a lot of Iowa blue-collar rockers back in the day; it was hippy-dippy enough for Deadheads, hard enough for headbangers and eclectic to a fault. Milk Duct Tape creates the kind of music that would have…
Local album reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Ritmocano – Familia
Latin jazz collective Ritmocano is an all-star lineup of the Iowa jazz community, headed by percussionist and one of my former UI instructors, James Dreier. On Familia, Ritmocano’s most recent album, he demonstrates his abilities playing multiple percussive instruments, from the congas often found in Afro-Cuban music, to the Batá drums of West Africa.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Volcano Boys – Self-titled
On paper, Volcano Boys looks like another project from the prolific Jordan Mayland (Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators, Keepers of the Carpet, Nuclear Rodeo, Electronidoll and Tires), who is the principal vocalist and songwriter. But the blending of talent from Wolves in the Attic and Mantis Pincers member Trent Derby (drums, percussion and vocals), Eric Moffitt (guitar) and Tom Reneker (bass), gives Volcano Boys a sound reminiscent of retro-’90s alternative guitar rock.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Cuticle – Mind Holding Pattern
Techno originated in Belleville, Mich., and was invented by middle-class black teenagers with ties to Detroit. Techno brought together the influences of disco, James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic and combined them with the paler European electronic styles of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, which embraced a dreamy futurism born out of comic books and science fiction paperbacks.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Peas and Carrot – Big Girl Shoes
When Iowa Public Radio asked Peas and Carrot lead singer and guitarist Audrey Robinson who her vocal influences were during a recent in-studio interview, she snapped back, “NOT Janis Joplin!” “Janis Joplin” is too often used as shorthand for any female singer who has a raw, bluesy edge, but Robinson’s sound is less hoarse belting and more dynamic rock and soul reminiscent of vocalists like Linda Perry, PJ Harvey and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Unknown Component – Arbitrary Ambiguity
Keith Lynch (a.k.a. Unknown Component) doesn’t have a band—he produces his music at home and plays all the parts. He uses a group name, though it’s just him. And while he’s a guitar-playing singer-songwriter, his albums are full of electronic sounds.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: The Great American Cattle Barons – Lavish Lies of the Holy Corpse
The Great American Cattle Barons is actually yet another ‘band’ instigated by Iowa City’s profligate purveyor of bummer rock, Samuel Locke Ward, this time…
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Album Review: Kelly Pardekooper – Milk in Sunshine
The musician credits of Kelly Pardekooper’s new album Milk in Sunshine is a who’s who of Eastern Iowa country, folk and blues legends including Bo Ramsey, Dave Zollo, Dave Moore, Pieta Brown and Radoslav Lorkovic. Milk in Sunshine is a massive 24-song CD and/or vinyl LP package encompassing 10 new songs with a bonus 16-song “greatest hits” of Kelly Pardekooper.
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Album Review: Pieta Brown – Paradise Outlaw
During her show at CSPS in October 2013, Pieta Brown mentioned that she was working on her next album at Justin Vernon’s April Base studios in Fall Creek, Wis. As a fan of Vernon—better known as the frontman and songwriter of Bon Iver—I was anxious to hear the results.
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Bull Black Nova – Don’t Fall Away
Don’t Fall Away is an album of ambitious art-pop songs with a pretty broad palette of sounds and styles. It’s at least partially home-recorded by A. J. Worden, the man behind Bull Black Nova, though Brook Hoover, of the Surf Zombies, gets an engineering credit as well. No matter the means of production, this is a well-recorded, dynamically dramatic album. It really is true that these days all you need is a computer, a decent microphone or two and good ideas.
Posted inAlbum Reviews, Arts & Entertainment
Album Review: Jack Lion — JAC EP
It seemed that after Slip Silo vocalist and guitarist Matt Logan split the Midwest and his band to take an opportunity on the West Coast, the remainder of the band was rudderless. In a March 2013 interview with Little Village he said that he hoped they’d be able to continue on the mission of connecting and tapping into a “transcendent and universal creativity source” without him.
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Album Review: The Sapwoods – Peaks and Valleys
Iowa City band The Sapwoods are back with their second album titled Peaks and Valleys. While the lineup in the band has changed since their 2012 release Electric Glow, the core of Justin Swafford (vocals and guitar) and David Suchan (lead guitar) remains the same. Joining Swafford and Suchan are Brian Speer on bass, Derrick Cook on drums and Miranda Peyton on keys, vocals and guitar.
