It is officially night 5 of Mission Creek and I’ve been on a tear all over town since the pre-show monday. I’ve tried to catch as many acts as my short legs will get me to in time. I’ve got a lot of photos to throw your way, but let’s do this in bite-sized chunks. […]
Yacht Club Iowa City
Your guide to Mission Creek: Tuesday
Each day of Mission Creek I’ll be sharing my itinerary, carefully curated to maximize fun with you all. Tonight starts with a pork dinner at Motley Cow (6:00 p.m.) and a reading at Prairie Lights (7:00 p.m.), featuring Roxane Gay, who is the genre-mixing, Haitian-diaspora-discussing author of Ayiti (2011), and Iowa City’s John D’Agata. I’ll still be in class at this point, but you should go and make me jealous!
Mission Creek Festival Spotlight: Pete Swanson
Pete Swanson is, in a word, experimental. His music is a mash-up of industrial noise, pulsing electronic dance music and pure, minimalist expressionism. He draws from a varied and complex pool of musical subcultures, resulting in a product that often transcends more well-established music genres.
Mission Creek Festival Spotlight: Détective
LA-based rock group Détective will be playing the Yacht Club on Wednesday, April 3. The group is comprised of former Guided By Voices bassist James Greer, alongside Guylaine Vivarat (former member of Useless Keys), and Chris Dunn. Together, they mix the hazy sounds of French surf-rock with catchy indie-pop hooks to make accessible, yet vaguely melancholic tracks.
Mission Creek Festival Spotlight: Zammuto
Nick Zammuto, former member of the now-disbanded duo The Books, will perform at the Yacht Club on Friday, April 5. Zammuto twists together various forms of instrumentation with digital and organic effects in such a way that they convey his feelings about moving on to a new, post-Books stage of his life.
Mission Creek Festival Spotlight: Mister Lies
Columbia College student Nick Zanca, also known as mastermind producer Mister Lies, is scheduled to play a show at the Yacht Club on Thursday, April 4. He combines looping vocal lines with sweeping synth and sharp percussion and bass to create mesmerizing dance tracks.
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.
Iowa City Weekender: January 24-26
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Weekender. Here’s what’s happening in your chilly town this weekend! THURSDAY Gerhard Loewenberg // Prairie Lights // 7:00 PM // Free From Prairie Lights: University of Iowa’s Professor Emeritus Gerhard Loewenberg will read from his new memoir, Moved by Politics. In his memoir, Loewenberg tells of twelve experiences […]
On The Beat: What shows are in store for the winter migration
Iowa City has been pretty quiet over the past few weeks. That tends to be the case when a big chunk of the population migrates to Chicagoland (or wherever), and another chunk goes into hibernation. We all must accept the fact that less people in town means fewer shows. That is not to say that […]
Album Reviews: Mint Wad Willy – The Fucking Sidewalk
Mint Wad Willy The Fucking Sidewalk Mint Wad Willy left Iowa City a couple years back after putting out a couple of CDs and are currently living and playing in Omaha. Their new record The Fucking Sidewalk is a change from their earlier album A History of Guns & Liars, which was mostly rock with […]
On the Beat: Party Time
As the year winds down, December is a time when I generally become pensive. Looking back on the past twelve months, I can safely say that 2012 has been an excellent year musically. There have been solid releases in all genres of music. Artists like Chromatics, Kendrick Lamar, Wild Nothing, Japandroids and Tame Impala have […]
Iowa City Weekender: September 27-29
Welcome to another edition of the Weekender. There’s not much to lead in with this week, except that it’s a music-heavy one! THURSDAY The Dirty Three w. Dark Dark Dark // Gabe’s // 8:30 PM // $15 In 1994, Australian post-rock pioneers, The Dirty Three set off on a string of U.S. tours with a […]

