Soil Compilation

Sports
Around the Big Ten – Week Two

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Week one of college football is in the rearview, but it feels like we’ve somehow already experienced a full season’s worth of drama. This week, we’ll dive into the (lack of) updates about Iowa’s quarterback battle, the “Bail Mary” in Ann Arbor, and the stakes of this weekend’s Ohio State-Texas game.

Sports
Around the Big Ten – Week One

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College Football is officially back. As teams kick off their seasons around the Big Ten conference, there are already multiple storylines to catch up on.

Music
Hinterland 2026 Preview

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89.7 KRUI’s preview of the eleventh Hinterland in St. Charles, Iowa with headliners KATSEYE, Lorde, Mumford and Sons, and Kali Uchis

Music
Minnesota Yacht Club Recap

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The third edition of Minnesota Yacht Club has wrapped was a resounding success. Through sweltering temperatures, heat lightning, and rain drops, none of it phased the over 35,000 fans who came each day to Harriet Regional Park. Celebrating music and summer on the water, it continues to be a highlight for the thousands of Minnesotans and the travelers. Friday Pat Kennedy is a name will be known far and wide very soon. Hailing from Boston, and a recent graduate of Berklee, Kennedy dances the oh so fine line of bringing classic cassette rock and roll with a modern push. Through … Continued

Music
Music

Track of the Week: “Tangie and Ray” by Fruit Bats

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On August 2nd, Fruit Bats will release Tripper, the follow-up to their beloved 2009 release, The Ruminant Band. This album is a brand new add to the KRUI charts this week, and the infectious “Tangie and Ray” is a perfect traveling song for those moving back to Iowa City in the coming days. Fruit Bats will also play The Mill in Iowa City on September 7, with other KRUI favorites Vetiver and Breathe Owl Breathe.

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Review: The Poison Control Center – Stranger Ballet

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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

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Review: Mumford’s – Triple Trinities

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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

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Review: Utopia Park – Utopia Park

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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

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Review: Haley Bonar – Golder

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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

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Top 30: 6/28/11

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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

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Horse Feathers — 6/22/11

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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]

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horse feathers

Review: Pennyhawk — Another Layer

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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

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