Continuing to find inspiration in Iowa City’s arts community. KRUI’s Tarik took a little day trip to Hancher’s new Stop/Time Festival, losing himself in two incredible performances from Evicshen and Sharp Pins.
Logan Melia sits down with Eve 6 at Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona. Eve 6 took some time after their slot to discuss their early days playing gigs at small cafes all the way to a racetrack.
Luke Combs came to Ames, Iowa with his My Kinda Saturday Night Tour on April 11th, 2026
After listening to a lot of jazz over the past week, culminating in an amazing performance by renowned trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and the PUBLIQuartet last Friday at the Stop/Time Festival presented by Hancher Auditorium, I’ve come to the conclusion that most jazz isn’t meant for an audience at all.
Logan Melia talks about Six Foot Blonde’s headlining gig at Lincoln Hall on January 9th, 2026 with support form Pretoria and Violet Crime
On a regular Thursday in March, I discovered underscores while scrolling on Tiktok. I worked my way through her discography and eventually fell down a rabbit hole of hyperpop. Her take on electronic and pop music is deeply refreshing and her captivating sound is definitely one to pay attention to.
Six Organs of Admittance will perform at the Englert Theatre on Thursday, August 4. Preview the show here!
By Max Johnson For fans of Iowa music, The Poison Control Center require no introduction. The Des Moines based group have released 3 full-lengths and a handful of EPs full of excited indie rock. Tomorrow, July 30th, their Never-Ending Tour will take a much-deserved break after two shows at The Vaudeville Mews. Let me cut to the chase — PCC’s newest album, Stranger Ballet, is my favorite album of 2011 (so far). The fingerprints of other excellent indie rockers are everywhere, but the band never lose themselves in their influences. It seems more like they’re honoring them. Imitation isn’t the … Continued
By Max Johnson “Triple Trinities”, Mumford’s brand new album, is epic. The nine songs on the album converse with one another, all of them focused around the single theme of religion, looking for the soft spots to sink their teeth into, to maybe find some answers to all the questions circling above them like vultures. The characters in the songs – preachers, atheists, God Himself, and an Antichrist or two – are three-dimensional and compelling. You might not be able to finish listening to it all in one sitting, all the narrators are so frustratingly human. Obviously, this is not … Continued
By Max Johnson Utopia Park is an electronic-punk band from Fairfield, Iowa. The band is composed of Dominic and Philip Rabalais, who are the two most sincere and genuine human beings on the face of the Earth. There. That should be enough for you to listen to them. But if you aren’t convinced… The songs on Utopia Park’s self-titled EP build toward epiphanies, but at the same time, they work as a regression from, not a progression towards, complexity. Vocals go from simply shouted to non-verbal screaming. Instruments pile on top of each other until you’re convinced you heard a … Continued
By Max Johnson A friend of mine told me today that he doesn’t like Haley Bonar because she moved to Portland, away from the Twin Cities. He was joking, of course, although when I informed him that Bonar had, indeed, moved back to Minnesota after writing much of Golder, he didn’t seem particularly surprised. It seemed inevitable. Bonar’s sound – pillared by her pretty country-twinged voice, poetic lyrics, and travelin’-song guitar work – should remind more than a few Iowa Citians of another Minneapolis singer-songwriter: Caroline Smith. (Note: seeing Bonar live at The Englert on July 1st, will hopefully feature … Continued
Rank Artist Recording Label 1 Rosebuds Loud Planes Fly Low Merge 2 Cults Cults Columbia-In The Name Of 3 Wooden Birds Two Matchsticks Barsuk 4 Black Lips Arabia Mountain Vice 5 Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See Domino 6 Paleo Fruit of the Spirit Partisan 7 John Maus We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves Ribbon 8 William Elliott Whitmore Field Songs Anti 9 Marissa Nadler Marissa Nadler Box of Cedar 10 Woods Sun and Shade Woodsist 11 David Bazan Strange Negotiations Barsuk 12 Bodies Of Water Twist Again Thousand Tongues 13 Battles Gloss Drop Warp 14 Sea Pony … Continued
KRUI’s very own “Little Village Live” conducted an in-depth interview with symphonic folk group Horse Feathers right before their sold out show at the Englert Theatre. Listen to the Portland-based band perform favorites, both new and old, live at Public Space One in downtown Iowa City. [audio:http://krui.fm/assets/music/horse%20feathers%20in%20studio.mp3]
By Max Johnson Pennyhawk (straight outta Ames, Iowa) is lead by Kate Kennedy. Fans of Christopher the Conquered, Mumford’s, and Leslie and the Ly’s might be familiar with Kennedy. It’s interesting to note that she’s found herself in those three groups, all of which are fronted by huge, boisterous personalities. Pennyhawk’s latest release, the 4-song EP “Another Layer”, begins with the song “Timid Women.” Here, Kennedy channels a voice not at all unlike Leslie Hall – humorous, a little vulgar, and brimming with an “I-will-never-ever-care-what-you-think” attitude. The song establishes the honky tonk/gypsy folk sound to come. The last two songs, … Continued
The first Low Frequency Series announcement for the Fall – They Might Be Giants!
Rank Artist Recording Label 1 Battles Gloss Drop Warp 2 Sebadoh Bake Sale Sub Pop 3 Black Lips Arabia Mountain Vice 4 Paleo Fruit of the Spirit Partisan 5 Woods Sun and Shade Woodsist 6 Sondre Lerche Sondre Lerche Mona 7 Art Brut Brilliant! Tragic! The End/Cooking Vinyl 8 Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues Sub Pop 9 Making Friendz Social Life Last Bummer 10 Balkans Balkans Double Phantom 11 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. It’s A Corporate World Quite Scientific 12 EMA Past Life Martyred Saints Souterrain Transmissions 13 Rosebuds Loud Planes Fly Low Merge 14 Reatards Teenage Hate Goner 15 Vetiver … Continued
