On the website for the Waterloo Center for the Arts, you’ll find a list of perennial outdoor festivals hosted in the museum’s RiverLoop Amphitheatre. You may notice one of the events is not like the others. Nestled amongst the likes of Cedar Valley Stem & Stein and the Holiday Arts Festival is the Chroma63 Arts […]
punk
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Veteran rock trio TsuShiMaMiRe and new Q.C. power group Sheer Image had scene kids reveling at Raccoon Motel
Amidst the growing humidity and heat of early June, a nearly sold-out crowd gathered on 2nd street outside and in of The Raccoon Motel in Davenport. The night’s enthusiasm was twofold. Not only did it see the return of the long-running Japanese girl punk trio TsuShiMaMiRe, but this was also the debut performance of a new Quad City hardcore band, Sheer Image.
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Saeed’s Punk Nite puts on free theme parties with games and nostalgic playlists at Maggie’s Rumble Room
Walking through the yellow-tinted double doors of Maggie’s Rumble Room, you’re likely to see a multi-generational Des Moines clientele purchasing drinks and crowding around pool tables. At the far end of the room hangs a sheet with a shag carpet beneath. Atop the carpet sits a chair, a speaker and a microphone. Before long I […]
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An early Velvet Underground ‘protégé,’ Jonathan Richman wrote his way into punk history while trying to troll the hippies
Jonathan Richman can still pinpoint how the Velvet Underground transformed his life with their collar-grabbing sound back in 1967. “It was on record and it was that drone! Oh my God! They changed everything!” As a teenager, he saw the band over 80 times and was a regular presence before and after gigs. “If the […]
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Review: The eyeliner is heavy and the outfits skimpy for Des Moines’ Panic! at the Burlesque Show
Never in my wildest dreams have I imagined someone flashing her pasties at the iconic strike of a G note. Morticia Midwest started the night with a bang (or flash if you prefer) to the tune of “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. Morticia Midwest and her husband, Johnny Bravado, created the […]
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‘A little bit of chaos is OK’: Pokey’s Fest keeps punk music, ethic alive in Iowa City
Punk isn’t dead. Sure, punk is old enough that it may be dad — or mom — but it’s still by and for the kids. For proof of life, one needn’t look any further than Pokey’s Fest 3, two all-ages nights of hardcore punk and other assorted music for freaks that will take place June […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Running Man — ‘Running Man’
Quad Cities’ Running Man are the local antithesis to aging out. These guys have been steady putting work into the QC DIY scene, playing in bands like Meth & Goats, Lord Green, Tambourine, The Multiple Cat, Mondo Drag and more.
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Legendary pro skater, punk rocker and Des Moines local Mike Vallely is living his teenage dream
Growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s and ’80s, Mike Vallely was, of course, aware of skateboarding. But it didn’t seem approachable. Popular culture presented it as something made for Californians with nice tans and well-built bodies who wanted to show off and do handstands on their boards. So Vallely didn’t pay it much […]
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‘Punk was about action!’: A new documentary, 16 years in the making, charts punk history
“I remember first hearing about punk in Newsweek or Time magazine in the summer of 1976, when we were living in Afghanistan,” mused Minor Threat drummer Jeff Nelson, whose father worked for the U.S. State Department. Nelson was born in 1962 in South Africa and lived in other far-flung places before the family settled in Washington D.C.,
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Democracy in Crisis: Love And Rage
Antifa glitter bombs Richard Spencer in D.C., nearby Damaged City maintains the punk rock tradition of resistance By James Berbert “Fuck the war we’re waging against Syria. Fuck the war we’re waging against people in our own country. And fuck the war on drugs,” Laura Thrillhauser, the lead vocalist of Iron Cages said during the […]
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Show Preview: Those Darlins with Turbo Fruits – The Mill 9/24
Southern through and through, Those Darlins will bring their own brand of cowpunk through Iowa City on the 24th of September. Easily blending the twangy sounds of the Appalachians with the speed of punk rock and a bit of pop sensibility, Those Darlins are fast, catchy, and write really great simple songs.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: Musical Brew
Prairie Pop: March 2010 – With some musicians and bands, I form a kind of matrimonial bond (though because I like so many artists, that makes me a bit of a polygamist). Long-term fandom is like entering into a marital contract–where you’re with them until the bitter end, even if they get a little ugly […]
