Angle and Coolzey are Iowa hip-hop veterans, but to my knowledge White Andy is their first collaboration. They don’t pussyfoot around; “White Andy” is a character Angle (Jarid Catrenich) uses to take on the issue of hip hop and race in possibly the most ridiculous, over-the-top manner, including appearing in White Face on the cover. “Two white dudes making music for people of all colors,” drawls Coolzey at the end of “Blazee.”
Local album reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: The Blendours – Level 99
The continuing influence of The Ramones’ music on the face of rock years after their breakup is a testament to the idea that simple and direct is the most effective approach to getting to the hearts of youth. Directly or indirectly, any variation of punk rock today owes a debt to the amphetamine-driven sped-up version of ‘60s rock that The Ramones made.
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Album Review: Alex Body – No Event
The title of Alex Body’s sixth release, No Event, is actually an apt description of my first impression of the album. After a string of increasingly better releases, No Event showcases a more confident artist, one willing to re-explore many of the sounds and textures that have comprised previous efforts. But the album is definitely a grower.
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Album Review – Yacht Club 10th Anniversary CD
Has it really been ten years since the Yacht Club opened? Really, the story goes back a few years before that. Owner Scott Kading bought the Yacht Club building and set about recreating his favorite college hang out. Renovating the building was only the first part of his journey.
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Album Review: Eric Pettit & Tim Buhmeyer – We Are In Rome
Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica and Voice. Stop me if you’ve heard this one already. Eric Pettit and Tim Buhmeyer have the folk musician’s most glorious delusion—that they can make something new and unique with the same tools everyone’s been using since forever. Or maybe they have the folk musician’s perfect addiction—it feels so good to play this kind of music that you just can’t stop doing it.
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Album Review – Megan Buick
Megan Buick’s self-titled album feels like the aural equivalent of Jan Svankmajer’s surreal, stop-motion film Alice—a fractured take on the Lewis Carroll classic. Svankmajer’s imaginative recreation of Wonderland constantly treads the fine line between delightfully imaginative and eerily unsettling; Buick’s lo-fi psychedelic folk embraces a similar duality.
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Album Review – East Side Motors
East Side Motors East Side Motors eastsidemotors.bandcamp.com East Side Motors is a Waterloo/Cedar Falls band that is plowing their own row in the field of Midwest Roots Rock. That’s a thousand acre plot at least, so they don’t sound like they felt constrained to plow a straight furrow. Neither are they tangling the tractor in […]
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Album Review: Blizzard at Sea – Individuation
Blizzard at Sea Individuation blizzardatsea.com “All that I see are the photons, vibrating strings propagating down through the geometry of the higher dimensions. There’s a world that I’m unaware of because it’s not the world I’ve been shown. History is in me. It’s just so easy to forget.”—“Longevity.” I quote the third and final track […]
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Album Review:Gem Jones – Exhaust
Gem Jones Exhaust (Night-People Records) gemjonesia.bandcamp.com The latest EP from Gem Jones, Exhaust, is a brief study in juxtaposition. At only 19 minutes, Jones milks Exhaust for every second; vacillating wildly between light-hearted pop romps and intense aural assaults. Yet Jones finds a nice balance, keeping the effervescent material exciting with kamikaze guitar attacks or […]
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Album Review: Samuel Locke Ward- 7 AM New Year’s Day
Samuel Locke Ward 7 AM New Year’s Day samuellockeward.bandcamp.com The normally prolific Samuel Locke Ward, no longer content with releasing two recordings per year, has embarked on an ambitious project: write, record and release an album each month for a year. On his first shot across the bow, 7 AM New Year’s Day, Locke Ward […]
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Album Review: Har-di-Har – Word(s) of Whim / Feudal Kind
Har-di-Har Word(s) of Whim Feudal Kind (EPs) Hardihar.com Few things excite me as much as stumbling upon a new band. The discovery of unexplored territory is a time consuming, but happy distraction for me, so I often click through on the Facebook pages of unknown bands when I see they were “liked” by someone else […]
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Album Review: Old Man Charlie – Bad Life
Old Man Charlie Bad Life oldmancharlie.bandcamp.com/ I say it every few months but it bears repeating: Iowa City has a collection of local musicians and bands that stands up against any other city in terms of quality, creativity and above all, good weird. In terms of the global music scene we’re ahead of the curve […]
