Wax Moth Spiracle Mannequin Rein Recordings waxmoth.bandcamp.com The debut EP, Spiracle, from Iowa City metal outfit Wax Moth is nearly relentless. Starting with the feedback and initial kicks of “Colony Collapse” till the two-minute mark of the sixth and final cut, “Of Dust and Lung,” there’s barely a moment to breath during the pummeling this […]
Music Reviews
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Album Review: The Emilees – Self-Titled
The Emilees Self-Titled theemilees.com/ Emmalee Hunnicutt and Emily Hall write and perform acoustic folk music. A lot of people do that, and many of them learn to do it well enough to build an audience. Tune in any Saturday to “A Prairie Home Companion” on Public Radio and you’ll hear someone who can play a […]
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Album Reviews: Mox Narsky – All Else Fails
Mox Narsky All Else Fails purevolume.com/moxnarsky Michael Bednarsky was born in 1991, twelve or thirteen years after the rise of hip hop in the national consciousness, part of a generation who don’t know a world without hip hop. Mox Narsky’s fluency in the idiom reflects this history. The originators of hip hop were making it […]
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Album Review: Greg Brown – Hymns to What is Left
Greg Brown Hymns to What is Left gregbrownmusic.org Following a nearly-aborted album in 2011 (Freak Flag, which I reviewed in LV issue #103) Greg Brown was quoted as saying, “I enjoyed it; even though it was a bitch—what with the lightning, mixing problems, etc.,” he admitted, “it got me interested in recording again, and I […]
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Album Review: Error – Self Titled
Error Error erroria.bandcamp.com/ The debut EP from Iowa City’s Error is ear-piercingly awesome. It’s doubtful there is a fifteen-minute experience your mom would hate more. The hardcore trio’s self-titled re- cording kicks off with a few ominous, dron- ing strums of a guitar, when the drum kit joins in, they ratchet up the speed and […]
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Album Reviews: Big Box – Die Now
Big Box Die Now bigbox.bandcamp.com There’s a whole world of Metal music, and it’s a messy place. The last time there was a unitary ‘Metal’ genre was around the time Black Sabbath made Paranoid. These days, Metal shades off into Indie (Pearl Jam & Soundgarden were basically flannel-wearing Metal), Emo, Screamo, Punk and who knows […]
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Album Review: The White Elephant – Self Titled
The White Elephant Self Titled thewhiteelephantband.com Brothers Ron and Tim Coleman and Chris Rohr of The White Elephant grew up in Wapello, IA (pop 2,067) in the Southeast corner of Iowa. Where many from similar small towns in the Midwest might choose other less productive extra-curricular activities, these guys chose to form a band in […]
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Album Review: Iowa City Song Project
Iowa City Song Project maximumamesrecords.com As a teenager hungry for a scene larger than the veritable cultural island of Bellevue, IA, at night I would arrange and rearrange my radio antenna to try to capture KUNI to get a glimpse of the world of music around me, which included bands from Iowa City. It […]
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Album Review: Tallgrass – God, Sin, Whiskey and Women
Tallgrass God, Sin, Whiskey and Women facebook.com/Tallgrassband I hate country music. Sort of. If you drive around Iowa with just FM radio in your car, you hear a lot of what they call “country music” and that music is to the real music of the country folk of the United States what the Matterhorn […]
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Album Review: Unknown Component – Blood v. Electricity
Unknown Component Blood v. Electricity www.unknowncomponent.com Keith Lynch, the man behind Unknown Component, may cringe when I draw an easy comparison between his latest release and the work of Radiohead, but I make the comparison lovingly and without claims of derivativeness. Unknown Component has all the elements in place for a great alternative rock album: […]
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Album Review: Samuel Locke Ward – Double Nightmare
Samuel Locke Ward Double Nightmare samuellockeward.bandcamp.com I was introduced to the insanity of “Big Lizard In My Backyard” by The Dead Milkmen sometime in the 80’s. The irreverent, usually scatological humor and unpolished performances on the album seemed to have dislodged the chromosome that would have prevented me from being able to enjoy the hometaping […]
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Album Review: D.O.P.E. Clique – Blunt Force Trauma
D.O.P.E. Clique Blunt Force Trauma Iowa hip hop has an identity problem. As an urban phenomenon that has gone worldwide, the further it gets from big city African American culture, the harder practitioners need to work to find an authentic way to both stay true to the roots, and to represent their own experiences. D.O.P.E. […]
