This past Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day in the Quad Cities, which boasts the only bi-state St. Patrick’s Day parade in the United States. The occasion saw hundreds of people dressed in green and imbibing drinks throughout the day. As a veteran bartender, I know that the madness of St. Patrick’s calms by roughly 6 […]
Quad Cities music
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Gorgeous gangsta’ Soe Heartlesz honed her rap persona after a high school breakup
Quad Cities emcee Soe Heartlesz — “The Gorgeous Gangsta” and “Rap President of Peoria” — is a 36-year-old mother of five who recently won the Iowa Music Awards Female Rapper of the Year. After performing on dozens of stages around the Midwest over the past two decades, she’s maintaining her momentum with Cardiac Arrest, a […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Camp Regret — ‘Camp Regret’
Emerging from the dormant memories of basement shows, DIY venues, crashing on couches and floors on tour and the nostalgia for a more active local music scene comes another supergroup of Quad Cities musicians in the form of Camp Regret. Featuring members of past acts such as Meth & Goats, Ice Hockey and Lazer Mountain, Camp Regret may not be young pups, but they are out to prove that you can teach old dogs new tricks with their debut, self-titled album.
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Musician and Moline High grad Diego Raya wrote his way to TV fame in Mexico
Music has been the driving force in Diego Raya’s life for as long as the 35-year-old hip hop emcee can remember. After his family moved from Mexico to Moline when he was about 12, he started writing poetry. At Moline High School, he began making music — just as his favorite rapper, El Díablo, stopped. […]
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Album Review: Pit Lord — ‘Massive Grilling Capacity’
There is a persistent conflict in heavy metal: that of silliness versus profound seriousness. Extreme metal sees the most self-serious, philosophical bands win critical favor and masked bands are, again, taking the top of the charts. The most complex and challenging musicians in the metal sphere are still prone to wearing corpse paint, writing songs […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Wolfskill & the Wild — ‘Feral Heart’
Take Me As I Am by Wolfskill & The Wild It may seem counterintuitive to first notice and bask in the silence of an album, when music is quite literally about the sound created. But something genius unfurls from the quiet as Wolfskill & the Wild’s Feral Heart comes into view. A good 10-second fade-in […]
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Review: Davenport horror fans cheered for iconic kills, scored live by legendary composer Fabio Frizzi
The gang at Void Church added something new to their repertoire by co-hosting Italian composer Fabio Frizzi at The Capitol Theater in Davenport on Thursday, May 8. Void Church typically aims for an audio-visual experience of goth and shoegaze based concerts complete with custom lighting, visuals, and the occasional fog machine as well as DJ-driven […]
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Void Church welcomes Italian horror composer Fabio Frizzi back to the Quad Cities with his masterful ‘Zombie’ score
Quad Cities arts collective Void Church has a taste for the goth, synthy and underground side of music. It’s no surprise, then, that they’re big fans of Italian horror films, specifically the influential works of director Lucio Fulci and composer Fabio Frizzi. The two maestros paid a visit to the Q.C. in the before times […]
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Rozz-Tox’s owner and ‘custodian’ welcomes you to ‘do something fucking cool’ in the Q.C. space
Rock Island, Illinois’ Rozz-Tox is that rare entertainment space that rewards awareness, nurtures community and celebrates revolutionary creativity. Everywhere you look, there’s something interesting to contemplate, literature to read, terrific music and conversation on the air, mixed with the perfume of incredible food. You’re stimulated to explore broader associations between what you’re listening to, what […]
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A moment of blues ‘magic’ brought the Avey Grouws Band together in the Quad Cities
Having twice climbed into the top 10 of Billboard’s Blues Charts, the Avey Grouws Band is hitting the road for its first West Coast tour. “Musicians support other musicians in the Quad Cities,” said Jeni Grouws, thanking fans and fellow musicians for helping create a space where her band can flourish. The QC-based roots rock […]
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Ahzia Hester is still rendering
It is hard to say where someone will find Iowa City-based artist Ahzia Hester on any given day. Maybe he’s opening for GZA at the Englert Theatre, or Cautious Clay at the Iowa Memorial Union. He might be at Gabe’s, performing his own songs and DJing the artists that influenced them, all over the same […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Subatlantic — ‘Say It Again’
Say It Again by Subatlantic Quad Cities band Subatlantic’s new album Say It Again opens with a sparsely arranged synth/guitar/vocal thematic overture titled “Fate” asking, “What would you say if we tried today? / What would you say if we died today?” Every word counts, and we’re measured by how we use them. “Fate” acts […]
