Los Voltage:

Las Ardillas:

The post Photos: Las Ardillas w/ Los Voltage and Good Habits @ The Mill – 4/14/13 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

After Container’s set, Pete Swanson set up his impressive collection of equipment in front of the Yacht Club’s stage. The crowd quickly gathered around to dance to the pounding beats. There were no song breaks during Swanson’s show. From start to finish, the crowd was treated to a continuous flow of sound as Swanson conjured it from the series of drones, controllers and other equipment at his fingertips.

Container got the crowd psyched up with his set, and served as an excellent opener for Swanson.

The post Photos: Exitmusic, Pete Swanson, and Container @ Yacht Club – 4/7/13 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

You know that feeling you get when you run into a friend you haven’t seen in a while? That’s sort of what it’s like to see JEFF the Brotherhood live. Their music is innovative to be sure, but it calls back to an era when songs thick with distortion and ripe with guitar solos were the norm. At the Mill last night, JEFF’s music and stage presence combined to remind audience members of a time when songs with lyrics about taking road trips to the woods and drinking beers with friends weren’t invariably tinged with irony and sarcasm. Jake and Jamin Orrall are genuine guys, and that really came across during their set.

For those uninitiated, Jake (guitar) and Jamin Orrall (drums) are, as their band name suggests, brothers. They’re the sons of famed songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall, so they were exposed to music from an early age. Throughout their respective musical careers, starting when they were just kids growing up in Nashville, they experimented with different sounds. Eventually they came together and settled on the lo-fi psychedelic, classic-rock inspired style they have now become famous for.

Jake plays a custom three-string guitar. This makes for songs filled with power chords, but that’s not a bad thing. You might think that his unconventional guitar style could limit the band musically, but it actually makes for a more raw auditory experience. Jake’s style, coupled with his brother’s driving drum lines create an arresting and thoroughly accessible sound. As a side note, you may recognize Jamin as having been the drummer for the now-disbanded pop-punk outfit Be Your Own Pet.

Pujol did a good job of setting the stage for JEFF the Brotherhood at this show. The highlight of their set for me was their performance of “Psychic Pain”. “Reverse Vampire” was good too, but the crowd just didn’t seem as into it. Their main problem, I think, was that their songs had a tendency to sound very similar to one another.

For “Psychic Pain”, though, lead singer Daniel Pujol channeled Mick Jagger’s slurred yet still clean-sounding vocals, and managed to get the crowd moving. After each of their songs, Daniel took time to remind the audience of the fact that they are, in fact, from Nashville, and also counted down how many more they’d play before allowing JEFF to take the stage. After their performance ended, JEFF the Brotherhood’s fog machines started up and things started to get real hazy at the Mill.

As fog filled the air, the crowd filled the room. It got pretty packed in front of the stage, but it wasn’t quite shoulder-to-shoulder like at Thao and the Get Down Stay Down’s Mission Creek performance earlier in the week.

After sound-check, JEFF the Brotherhood took the stage and kicked off their show. They started with a couple songs from their most recent record, Hypnotic Nights. During the song “Staring at the Wall” a shoving match in front of the stage turned into a small mosh pit as the crowd became increasingly sucked into the show playing out before them. This was a trend that continued throughout the night, and really added to the smoky, basement-party atmosphere built up by the wall of distorted sound and thick fog that steadily rolled from the front of the stage.

After those first couple songs, Jake announced that they had brought some friends along to perform with them for the remainder of the show. A keyboardist and bassist joined them and the rock continued with “Country Life”. Lines like, “I want a place, where I can smoke meats / Where I can drink, and swim in the creek,” are definite stand-outs for me as they work to illustrate the genuine nature of JEFF’s music. Also, when they formed a foursome their heady, psychedelic tracks really came to life. “Dark Energy” and “Heavy Krishna” were blurs of tripped-out guitar solos and (appropriately) hypnotic vocal repetition. Think Black Sabbath meets Weezer, and you’ve got a rough idea of their sound.

Speaking of Black Sabbath, JEFF never played their cover of “Changes” and that bummed me out. Having put on such a solid show though, I really can’t fault them for not playing one song from their admittedly large and ever-expanding repertoire.

As Derek’s photos show, it was a great night to be at the Mill, and JEFF the Brotherhood’s set is sure to go down as one of the many highlights of this year’s Mission Creek Festival.

The post JEFF the Brotherhood with Pujol @ the Mill – 4/4/13 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

After their first few songs, a small crowd gathered in front of the stage to take in the music up close.  Their style shifted markedly from song to song, at times embodying a pure reverb-infused punk and at others moving closer to a blues-y, almost classic rock sound.  They closed with “Get Protection,” a solo-heavy throwback to Ramones-era punk that got the crowd moving.  As they left the stage, anticipation built for White Mystery.

Chicago sister/brother duo White Mystery is known as much for their corybantic style as they are for their matching heads of untamed red hair.  They’ve been playing together and touring tirelessly since 2008, and know just how to get a crowd into their music. They showcased this well-developed stage presence at the Mill by deciding to abandon the stage altogether, opting instead to play on the floor just in front of it.

As Miss Alex White and her brother Francis Scott Key White began setting up their equipment, a tight ring of audience members formed around them.  Soon all the seats in the house were empty and the crowd was ready for the show.  After an extremely brief sound-check, White Mystery launched into their set.  With drinks in hand, audience members who were now just inches away from the band began to sway rhythmically to the fuzzy sounds of Miss Alex’s distorted guitar and howling vocals.  At this point it felt like the show was taking place at your friend’s house party instead of an actual concert venue.  In a word, it felt personal.  White Mystery’s songs are generally around two minutes in length and their live show strings them together largely without breaks.  One song bled into the next, which imbued the show with a very garage-punk quality.  That feeling was driven home by Francis’ frenetic percussion skills and the duo’s near-constant head banging.

About halfway through the show they took a quick break to address the crowd.  After a few kind words about Iowa City and a shot of whiskey from an audience member, Miss Alex shouted, “This Song’s for you guys!” and they played their famed “Birthday Song.”  After several more of their signature fast-paced tracks, they brought things down a notch or two with the slightly more subdued “Kickin’ My Ball.”

Throughout the show, audience members shifted in and out from the front of the stage, some finding seats around the bar.  When Alex announced their last song though, the seats once again quickly emptied.  The crowd swelled and by the end of the song there was a full-fledged mosh pit forming, a sight somewhat unfamiliar at the generally hip, laid-back Mill.  As reverb filled the air at the end of an extended guitar solo, Francis stood up and punctuated the end of the show by smacking his cymbal down onto the stage behind him.  As the sounds of the guitar and cymbal crash faded out, the band thanked the crowd for coming and the show ended with the same high-energy feeling it had begun with.

The post Show Review: White Mystery @ The Mill – 2/28/13 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The room was dark, but the vacant stage remained lit for a show, adding to the unsettling atmosphere.  As the two musicians worked the guitar and digital sound into not-quite rhythms and almost-harmonies, the majority of the crowd became transfixed on the spectacle playing out before them.  Though as soon as it had begun, it was over.  They only played for about 30 minutes but the stage was set for The Main Sequence, whose name is an astronomical term that refers to a band of “dwarf” stars.  The crowd was about to be taken on a tour of the universe.

The Main Sequence consists of Joel David Palmer and Joshua Alan Weiner.  They are both brilliant multi-instrumentalists, but at this show Palmer primarily played guitar while Weiner played a huge range of instruments and controlled an impressive array of sound modification equipment.  Palmer’s guitar style, it should be noted, is anything but traditional.  During a song that utilized a Theremin (!) Palmer used a guitar slide in a way I had never seen before.  He would play a chord, set the slide, and then let it roll down the neck.  Their hyper-experimental style contorts digital, electric sound into something that seems natural.  It would be a mistake to call their music purely deconstructive.  They don’t just tear apart music down to its bare chords and leave it at that, but start from a sort of bottom point and build skyward.  I wouldn’t call it “art-rock”, but it is most certainly artistic.  Their music is a feeling, more than anything else, and to even try to understand it, you need to see them create it.

The last act of the night was Iowa City’s own Alex Body. It made sense that his set was the last, as his style is the closest to what most would consider “main-stream” music of all that was on display at the Showcase.  This ordering gave the impression that there was an active progression throughout the night toward something more recognizably “musical” and less minimalist in nature.  It was as if the sound in the room had been sculpted into something that would allow for immediately determinable rhythms that backed vocals to tell stories.  When he played “Rules of Summer”, a Flaming Lips-esque track, a few audience members actually got up and danced in front of the stage.  Midway through his show, he left his music to loop and ran to make adjustments to the main mixing boards in the back of the room, by the bar, which reminded the audience that he is the Mill’s “sound guy”.  Arguably, the highlight of Body’s show was his last song “Bimini Road,” from his most recent record No Event.  It’s a song with sweeping harmonies that loop behind lyrics that reference a real-world underwater “road” in the Bahamas. Some believe it to be part of the sunken city of Atlantis.  This song, like most of his others, ended abruptly and the crowd cheered as he began packing up.

Maybe calling the evening a “progression” of sound is wrong.  Maybe it was just a movement of sound in a certain direction.  All three acts make audiences ask themselves just what it means to create music, and just what a “finished product” is supposed to sound like. Hopefully, Iowa City can expect to see more Ambient and Soundscape shows in the near future.

The post Show Review: The Ambient Showcase @ The Mill appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The concert kicked off with a set from Phil Cook. He’s a member of the group Megafaun from Durham, North Carolina. He took the stage shortly after 8 PM and began playing an instrumental piece on his steel electric guitar. He followed that up with Bob Dylan’s “Alberta” and then Randy Newman’s “A Memo to My Son,” which he dedicated to his own 16-month-old son back at home. During that song, a baby in the audience could be heard laughing, adding to the song’s emotional effect and bringing smiles to the faces of audience members. He closed his set with a few of what he called “unfinished” songs. They were all-instrumental works-in-progress, but in a strange way they felt polished. His last song, “Ballad of a Hungry Mother,” was played without an amp and felt deeply personal. During it, a hush fell over the audience as it became entranced by the twangy slide blues. The set was genuine, and worked as an excellent lead-up to the main event.

After a brief intermission, the Be Good Tanyas took the stage to a roar of applause. After playing the decidedly down-tempo songs, “In Spite of the Damage” and “In My Time of Dying,” they brought the mood up a bit with “Ootischenia.” Trish Klein’s playful banjo in the background carried the song, inspiring some in the crowd to clap along to the beat.

A couple songs later they played “Scattered Leaves,” a song about accepting past mistakes. As the three came together for the sections where they sang in harmony they looked upward into the stage lights high above, casting a dull crimson glow over their faces. It was as if their collective voice fed off of that light and sent its implied warmth out over the audience. A standup bass set inconspicuously behind Sam Parton at stage right kept the beat throughout and rattled listeners’ ribcages.
Throughout the first half of the show, a woman in the audience had been shouting “Only in the Past!” in between songs. Finally, Parton took time to really look at her and determined that she knew who she was.

“Karen?” she asked.

What followed was unusual, to say the least. The band informed the audience that the woman was their “first fan ever.” After a brief conversation with the band, Karen was asked on stage to tell her story. She had met them twelve years prior at the Saddle Creek Bar in Omaha, Nebraska. Ford asked the audience, “This happens in Iowa City, right? This is a storytelling town?” As she told her story, the band began playing the lead-in to “Only in the Past,” occasionally directed by Karen to either get louder or softer. Her short sentences fit with the rhythm of the song (sort of) and created a very “beat poetry” vibe in the theater. Her story concluded and she headed back to her seat to polite applause from the audience, half of whom seemed only to want the show to continue more or less uninterrupted.

At the end of the show, Phil Cook returned to the stage to play a few songs with the band. They first played their popular single, “The Littlest Birds.” During it, Cook and Klein played off of one another in brief back-and-forth guitar solos that created movement behind the harmony of the Tanyas’ voices. It was a fan favorite and felt almost like the climax of the show. They then played a cover of Neil Young’s “For the Turnstiles.” Harmonica and banjo filled the air and the audience once again clapped along.
Afterward, they left the stage to shouts of “More! More!” Before the applause had stopped they were back. They brought the mood down a few notches with a slowed-down rendition of “Here Comes the Sun.” After thanking the audience they headed backstage to another round of applause. This may have been The Be Good Tanyas’ first time in Iowa City, but after a show like this, they’ll certainly be welcomed back anytime.

The post Show Review: The Be Good Tanyas with Phil Cook @ Englert Theatre — 11/12/12 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The post Photos: The Giving Tree on IPR’s “Java Blend” — 10/5/12 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Jim the Mule is not just a country band. They describe themselves as Midwestern Alt-
Country, but don’t be fooled by that label. These guys can rock. They come from the Quad Cities
and have been playing together since 2000. Over the span of their 12 year career they have
shared the stage with greats like Bo Ramsey and Edgar Winter, as well as local QC favorites like
Rude Punch and Wicked Liz and the Belly Swirls. This more than makes them seasoned
veterans of the Midwestern music scene, granting them a confidence on stage that allows them to
really engage their audience.

Trying to pigeon-hole them into a genre is difficult, if not impossible. To imagine their
sound, think Wilco meets The Band meets Ryan Adams. Their early work can even be described
as funky and lead singer Tom Swanson says they were influenced strongly by a uniquely New
Orleans sound at that point in their musical career. Many of their songs feature accessible classic
rock structures, mixed with a bit of country twang. This is especially evident through Sean
Ryan’s guitar solos, which fit into the background of the songs like puzzle pieces. It is through
these solos that Jim the Mule maintains a sense of constant movement within their songs. Their
very diverse sound invites fans of a wide range of musical styles to groove on their unique and
tasty jams.

At their Java Blend show this week, Jim the Mule played a lot of the songs from their
recently released EP “You’re Gonna Regret Me.” This studio recording had been in the works
for about a year and a half, and was just released September 18. In addition to those new songs,
they played several older favorites including “Common Antecedents,” a song written back in
2000 when they were first starting out. In it, you can hear that funky sound Swanson referred to
when speaking about the bands birth. When they played it at the Java House, I could also sense
an almost reggae vibe, communicated mostly through its syncopated drum and bass rhythms.
They closed the show with their new single, Marilene, a catchy song written by Swanson that
describes a relationship gone a-rye.

You can catch the recording of this edition of Java Blend on IPR’s Studio One when it
airs Saturday, October 20th. Jim the Mule’s next show is scheduled for October 5th at the Galena
Brewing Company in Galena, Illinois.

The post Jim The Mule on IPR’s “Java Blend” — 9/28/12 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Article by Ashley Wiser and Erin Marshall
Photos by John Miller

Last Friday, September 21, at the Java House, a small band from Chicago celebrated their fifth anniversary with a decent crowd of music-lovers and coffee-drinkers. The notorious Java House brings in bands every Friday at 2 p.m. for your free consumption! The company is friendly, the atmosphere relaxed, and the shows are usually acoustic, allowing a great opportunity to enjoy the lyrics.

The lucky band last week: The Future Laureates, consisting of four members playing the bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and ukulele. Throw in an occasional harmonica and it created a mixture of folk, pop rock, and indie. Similar to the sounds of Los Lonely Boys, Jack Johnson, and Sugar Ray, The Future Laureates might be most memorable for their vocal harmonies and quirky lyrics. Recently, they came out with their third album, Fortress Sessions, and played multiple tracks from it including “For Debbie,” “Witchcraft and Imagery,” and “Convert Them in Convertibles,” a song about the giant Jesus statue on I-75. The Future Laureates also beautifully covered Amos Lee’s “Arms of a Woman”.

The band was very friendly with the audience, encouraging them to clap and sing along, as well as poking fun at each other in between songs. They divulged a bit of how they met at Loyola University in Chicago five years ago and have been a band ever since.

Matthew Daigler (vocals/ukulele) even contributed a little information on his past: “I started playing the ukulele before it was cool,” he confessed. For the past few years, The Future Laureates have been touring different parts of the country almost every weekend. This past year, they attended the South by Southwest Music Festival, and they hope to play at a variety of festivals in the future.

The post The Future Laureates on IPR’s “Java Blend” — 9/21/12 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Tim Kasher’s high-hat, not-quite falsetto scream still seemed to fill the Blue Moose Tap House’s main stage as the crowd shuffled back in for the main event. The verdict amongst the crowd seemed unanimous: Cursive’s show had been a success. Concert goers were still reeling from their signature faster-faster-faster, grownup (but still very much hardcore) sound. And they were hungry for more.

Fog machines worked overdrive to create that familiar concert atmosphere and anticipation quickly spread. People were packed in shoulder-to-shoulder and the band hadn’t yet taken the stage. The heat was becoming almost unbearable just in front of stage left when the house lights went down. There was a sudden eruption of howls and frenzied applause when a door to the alley outside swung open. Minus The Bear had arrived and brought with them their Seattle brand of experimental rock n’ roll. They took the stage and hot white spilled from the stage lights to their rear, rendering them silhouettes. Red and blue laser-light intermixed and the show was officially under way.

During their roughly one and a half hour set Minus the Bear managed to play most of the songs from their new, generally well-received Infinity Overhead record. The one-two punch of “Diamond Lightning” and “Toska” punctuated the midway point of the show. Occasionally old favorites like “Throwing Shapes” and “Into the Mirror” were thrown in, giving fans a chance to sing along even if they weren’t as familiar with the new record.

This sing-along vibe was especially noticeable when the main microphone cable went out early in the show, leaving the crowd to fill in for Snider on the vocals. The crowd’s slurred-together shouting of the lyrics created a strange juxtaposition with the intricate keyboard work by Rose. With a band like Minus The Bear, where everything is so technically sound, changing something as apparent as the lead singer’s voice so drastically is bound to create a sense that something is not quite right. Yet, the crowd loved it, and these difficulties only lasted one song. The rest of the show went on without interruption. Before the band had time to leave the stage prior to their three song encore, a chant of “One more song!” rose from the audience. Within minutes Minus The Bear was back playing “Lonely Gun”. They closed the show with “Pachuca Sunrise” and a promise that they’d be back in Iowa again sometime soon. Here’s hoping they make good on that promise.

The post Show Review: Minus The Bear —9/16/12 appeared first on KRUI Radio.