Every once in awhile we like to switch it up a bit on the Weekender—try a little something different. So for this edition, we’re scrapping the daily breakdown for a thematic breakdown. Enjoy! (or hate, as you please) Listenin’ William Elliott Whitmore | The Picador, IC | Saturday, Feb 21, 9pm and Sunday, Feb 22, […]
Music
Posted inArts & Entertainment
She Swings She Sways Java Blend @ Java House 12PM 2/20/2009
Troy from She Swings She Sways wrote me to ask that I announce here that they’ll be playing the Iowa Public Radio “Java Blend” show this coming Friday. So I’m doing that right now! She Swings She Sways put out a really good CD “Wasted Love Songs” (which I reviewed here). While these guys are […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
On the Beat: Prepare to be judged
January is the month of perpetual hangovers, and if December was any indication, the whole damn town might be frozen over. So I’m going to partake in the long tradition of using the New Year to pass judgment and make changes—though, not on myself (fine, more vegetables), but on the local venues (Mill: more vegetables!). […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
On the Beat: Breaking in the new year
I want to have a commemorative plate destruction party. I was thinking about some Christmastime introduction to this column, and all I could think about was some single woman carefully setting up commemorative plates around her living room, in their little stands, and getting the lighting just right, and it was making me insane with […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: 12 Days…To Drown Out Holiday Muzak with Twisted X-mas Rock.
Organized religion is responsible for more bloodshed than any institution in human history, but Christmas music is its biggest sin. I hate those songs—and the hegemony they hold over the airwaves, public spaces and every nook and cranny of our subconscious in the weeks leading up to Jesus’s birthday. Nevertheless, I make an exception for […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Weekender Nov 27-Nov30
Imagine that I’m telling you all these things while turkeys are getting slaughtered in the background. Or maybe not. This weekend’s entertainment pickings are a bit slimmer than usual. The Picador used to always have some sort of oddball townie one-off show on Thanksgiving, but not this year! The Mill has no entertainment, though you […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Eugene Chadbourne, Crackety Sax, Evan Miller 11/16/08 @ The Mill
Eugene Chadbourne is a prolific guitarist/banjo/songwriter who has produced a supremely odd, but brilliant, body of work over the last 30 years. He started out as a performer working with John Zorn, a more famous but just as brilliant an experimentalist. When Chadbourne struck out on his own, he genre-hopped with reckless abandon, from Country […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
In Which I Highjack The Weekender NOV 27-NOV 30
Hi, Kent Williams here. I kinda sorta talked to Melody about doing a Weekender post, but we didn’t really get beyond the ‘sure why not?’ planning stage, so I’m operating here on the principle that it’s easier to apologize than ask permission. Anyhoo… The Mill Thursday: Monroe Crossing. A Bluegrass outfit that tours nationally and […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best Of, Schmest of, Part Deux
BEST FORMER ROCK & ROLLER LIVING MORE OR LESS QUIETLY IN IOWA CITY: Pete Balestrieri Pete Balestrieri was a mainstay of the rotating assembly of musicians known as the Horns of Dilemma, who the Violent Femmes used to add a generous portion of crazy to their live shows, and he appears on several of their […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best Of, Schmest Of
Not to give away too much of the mystery of Little Village backstage, but the lovely and talented Melody asked me to write a post about what my ‘top ten’ or ‘best of’ list for this year, as a NOT SO SUBTLE HINT for those of you who read the blog to go vote here […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Musée Mecanique: Hold This Ghost
Musée Mecanique Hold This Ghost Frog Stand Records myspace.com/museemecanique [audio:http://www.false45th.net/Audio/Two%20Friends%20Like%20Us.mp3] Musée Mecanique is one of those bands who puts way more into their songs — both the writing and performance — than the short-attention-span musical culture of the US requires. Delicate quiet vocals that trace out long melodic lines, couched in brushed drums and string […]
