Saturday is also the KRUI 40th Anniversary Birthday Bash, where alumni from across the country are coming together to celebrate the student radio station’s impact and longevity since March 28th of 1984. The party will feature an anniversary gathering at 3:00 PM, and a live music performance at 5:00 PM both at the Iowa Memorial Union. Here are the details of what’s going on Saturday.

KRUI 40th Anniversary:

Blist Her

The Midwest can be isolating. Flatness can consume you. If you try to drive away, you’ll only be met with the familiar red rhythm of powerlines flashing on the horizon.  

Blist Her is a shoegaze band from Burlington, Iowa. The Midwest feels less like their place of origin, and much more like the perfect backdrop to all their songs. I hear an infinite field in the fuzzy, droning guitar, and thick snowfall in the glittering ambiance. As the drums slowly trudge on, so does your car. It too is now acutely familiar with the crimson flashes in the distance. 

Blist Her’s songwriting is tender but disturbed. It blends short, aching lines with beautiful environmental descriptions. While words in the band’s songs are few, usually no more than 10 lines per song, their vocalist Brandon Boyd delivers them with a confessional tone that blankets you in sorrow and new beginnings. This local act fits well for the celebration of an Iowa City staple in KRUI. Come cry, come smile, and maybe walk out of it feeling a little more connected to your Midwestern existence. 

-Casper Bakker, Production Staff

OHYUNG

Robert Ouyang Rusli has found themself walking down seemingly miles of red carpet in recent months for the release of the film Problemista, directed by Julio Torres, and the most recent film put out by the production company A24. They wrote the soundtrack for the film, along with composing for several other movies as well. As a recent transplant to Iowa City from New York City, they have been performing experimental noise sets in the Iowa City area over the past few months under their performance name OHYUNG. Now, they find themself performing as the headlining act for the KRUI 40^th Anniversary Birthday Bash. 

Combining, many different sonic genres, OHYUNG’s albums have varied from permeating minimalistic ambient tracks like on imagine naked! to the blown out maximalist trap beats in PROTECTOR. Live sets also have vast variation, and can balance between peaking bright shearing sounds, to a soothing calm atmosphere, to loud abrasive and anxious breakbeats dabbled with harsh noise. They’re reminiscent of lying still among the serene tranquility of nature, and then being dragged out into the chaos of artificial human living. Two contrasting survival arcs. Ripping out the essence of a person’s humanity, it can either destroy, or stand still and take in the beauty around them. OHYUNG couples this with a lively stage presence, breaking into sporadic convulsions and writhing across stage often drenched in ebbing and flashing light. The sets are both visual and auditory artistic displays. 

OHYUNG has been prolific, with many performances in places across the United States. Their performance portfolio even includes a Boiler Room set in collaboration with animator Lorin Roser. Now, their next show will be to commemorate this historical benchmark in KRUI’s history. Like the student run radio station itself, they will create an experience lasting in memories for years to come. 

-John Glab, Editor-In-Chief

Saturday:

The Blake Shaw BIG(ish) Band (3:00 PM ReUnion Brewery)

The Blake Shaw BIG(ish) Band will be playing ReUnion Brewery on Saturday at 3:00 PM for the Mission Creek Festival. Shaw has cultivated a group of masterful players and writes arrangements to play to their strengths. Shaw himself features on double and electric bass, while also doing vocals at times. His band is composed of some of the best improvisational players around Iowa, whether they be music professors, retired band teachers, or some of Iowa’s best local musicians. Shaw also serves as the entertainment director of Iowa City Pride, along with providing insight for the Iowa City Jazz festival. 

The group as a unit is so tightly put together, whilst also feeling loose and freewheeling. This can be seen in the performance of “Love For Sale” from 2019’s Iowa City Jazz Festival. Speaking from personal experience, his group was a joy to see live when they performed at Hancher Auditorium in August. If you like jazz and find live performances enjoyable, this is a great show to go see. To quote Mission Creek, this is “for fans of bass, funk, hot people, and a good time.” You can keep up with Shaw’s activities by visiting his Instagram @theeblakebass. 

-John Mumm, Music Staff

New Standards Men (3:30 PM Trumpet Blossom Café)

A particularly unique inclusion, Denver’s New Standards Men reward those with an ear for details. Opting for more longform pieces, the band offers an exploration of tonality and progression, featuring elements of jazz, metal, drone, and post-rock. Their works are epic in nature, and command the listener’s attention. Fans of such acts as Earth and Godspeed! You Black Emperor, consider making time for this performance. 

-Evan Raefield, Music Staff

Bootcamp (4:45 PM Trumpet Blossom Café)

Formed in May of 2023, Bootcamp is a hardcore punk band that doesn’t disappoint. With members from several other notable hardcore groups, they’ve made a mark in the local Iowa City Hardcore scene with an assault of consistently energetic performances, and a powerful demo tape released by Pokeys Records in August of last year.

In the short time they’ve been a band, they’ve already toured across parts of the United States, established a strong following in the local community, and garnered praise from many other musicians in the hardcore sphere. Bootcamp’s shows are typically short and punchy, with lively crowds often including an active mosh-pit. Their presence on stage is, similarly, active. The band members exude a fantastic energy that really elevates their shows. 

-Harry Epstein, Editorial Staff

24thankyou (7:30 PM Riverside Theater)

Having more than established themselves as a band on the cutting edge of Iowa City’s local scene, 24thankyou is coming off the release of their debut album, Everything I Was, Burning Slow. Each song feels like an auditory adventure of its own, with their most recent album featuring forays into avant-folk, bedroom pop, trip-hop, and more. Their performance is not one to miss. No matter the sonic palette, each song is delivered with its trademark one-of-a-kind energy and colorful delivery. 

-Evan Raefield, Music Staff

m denney (7:45 PM Gabe’s)

m denney will be performing at Gabe’s on Saturday at 7:45 PM. m is a local artist whose work fragments genres, mediums, and ideas to create a unique experience threading together our very lives. She works in electronic and noise music, guitar, writing, and lying about being a composer. These works frequently incorporate collaboration from other local artists such as dancers, instrumentalists, and other performers to bring a visual element to her one-of-a-kind sound. m’s career has spanned many cities, many names, many genres, and many mediums, but no matter what she does, it is sure to be experimental and wholly unique.  

m’s performances are mesmerizing. They’re a web of sounds, engrossing the audience in an alien experience that challenges them to consider what connects them, these noises, and the world around them. My experiences at her shows have been fascinating. Her style has a knack for pulling you in with its persistent, familiar repetition yet always leaving room for more, keeping the audience on edge with curiosity. The underlying droning and blinking lights further hypnotize me as I imagine the jungle of audio equipment analogous to the connections between the sounds it outputs. m’s set is sure to be a truly unique experience. You can find her previous work on her website, and her future performances under the name .em

-Trent Strawhacker, Editorial Staff

S.G. Goodman (8:00 PM The Englert)

S.G. Goodman is a singer-songwriter based in Murray Kentucky, that caters to the Americana folk set of ears. Raised in a rural area, within the confines of a Southern Baptist church, Goodman makes songs that convey feelings around forbidden love. She speaks on the queer experience while living in a community that isn’t entirely accepting. Through the medium of music, Goodman produces songs that are interpreted as a means of healing from the traumatic experience of not being welcomed for who you are by your own community.  

Tender and bittersweet, Goodman represents and holds an identity within the country genre that one doesn’t usually run into. She pours her sapphic longing in lyrics of sentimentality and instrumentals of nostalgia. The approach that she has toward rock is one that sets out a unique perspective and voice within the genre. It is a voice that is much needed. Her well-known album Teeth Marks probes into sensations of yearning, within the umbrella of something passionate and evocative blossoming into fruition. What Goodman has to offer are reflections of reality placed in the romance of outlaws. It makes the listener want to live their truths just as she does. 

-Anika Maculangan, Editorial Staff

Nadah el Shazly (8:45 PM Riverside Theater)

Nadah el Shazly’s work is not to be overlooked. Originally hailing from Cairo, Egypt, she combines a creative art folk style with precisely played jazz, classical, and electronic backings. The result is a wholly original whirlwind of influences capable of profoundly moving an audience. Their compositional attention to detail alone is enough to make this performance a must-see for classically trained audiophiles, as well as anyone interested in the sheer artistry that el Shazly is capable of displaying.  

-Evan Raefield, Music Staff

Osees (9:45 PM The Englert)

Osees (aka Thee Oh Sees, Oh Sees, The Oh Sees, OCs) is the blossoming brainchild of musician and visual artist John Dwyer. Founded in San Francisco, and now based in Los Angeles, the band has gone through various lineup and name changes since their inception in 1997. The band’s sound is erratic, spanning a range of genres, all with a distinct psychedelic garage rock edge. Osees started to flourish as a band in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s in DIY venues across the country. The band is known for their bombastic live shows, making it a performance not to miss during The Mission Creek Festival on Saturday.

-Casper Bakker, Production Staff

Pelada (11:00 PM Gabe’s)

Iowa City is not often one of the last stops, at least to my knowledge, of a music act on their farewell tour. Mostly because I associate the “farewell” tours with bands that were not able to pass the test of time, providing their goodbye, which is sometimes ephemeral, in large, stadium-like venues. Additionally, these farewell tours are often more called for than not. Whether it be because of the state of the band members or lack of interest from audiences. This is far from the case with Pelada, who have decided that 2024 is going to be their last, and we are fortunate to have them in Iowa City closing the Mission Creek Festival.  

Pelada is characterized by a its electronic music backbone with a punk ethos, and Spanish lyrics. The vocals provided by Chris Vargas sternly communicate themes of evolving inequality, climate change, and social justice with vigor. Production is mainly managed by Tobias Rochman, taking foot on techno and house, with strong probes to industrial music, and heavy yet tasteful uses of acid bass lines. Their highly acclaimed Movimiento Para Cambio gained traction with a fully-fledged ideal of what punk in an electronic music context would sound like. Ahora Más Que Nunca is their most recent project, released in mid-September of 2023.  

After 10 years, one EP and two highly acclaimed LPs, Rochman shared on Instagram the dates for the last stops in the first half of 2024 and announced that Pelada would end by January 1st of 2025. I remember a couple weeks after, Rochman posted an Instagram story expressing frustrations over fees regarding transporting their gear into Mexico for their Pitchfork Music Festival performance in Mexico City. He added that increasing fees for touring artists in the United States and internationally is one of the reasons the duo will be dismantled.  

Those working behind the scenes at The Englert, knowledgeable or not of the situation, worked out to provide an incredible opportunity to witness a unique musical act once again. But now with the caveat of being one of the last shows for this duo. Expect an unrepeatable danceable experience, where defiance is the protagonist. 

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

The post Mission Creek Preview: KRUI 40th Anniversary & Saturday appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Kate Bollinger. Image via Cat Dooley

A five-piece assemblage local to the Iowa City area, 24thankyou introduced spacey, ambient forces of rhythmic pattern, with stylish pulses of abrasion and sharply-honed reverb. The phonics swapped in alternation between Emma Parker and Ethan Traugh. Emma with mellifluous, canorous vocals, whereas Ethan with potent, zappy expanses of aria, filtered with sound plug-ins that robotize the voice, sparked the perfect formula for something natural and mechanized, wedding the human to the computer.

Midway through the set with the worst luck, Ethan’s guitar string had broken. While resolving the issue, Emma had shared the contents of her prolific sound board, which was entertaining to say the least. Eventually through the kindness of Sam Burton, Ethan returned with a borrowed guitar. Pushing through, as the newly-acquired guitar saved the show, the musical unit proceeded to set forth their array of vividly radiant sound. A flashing amplification that broadly echoes through Gabe’s spellbound hall. 24thankyou unifies the realm of hyperpop to shoegaze, inventing a hybrid never much explored and experimented with.

Innovative and originally DIY, the collaboration and communication that transpires amongst Muhlena, Wilkins, Griffin, and the other members of 24thankyou, is one that produces a resonance comparable to an abstract painting. Conceptual, impressionistic, and plunging against the boundary of defined compartments, 24thankyou generates a sonority fueled by static buzz and unchartered refinement. Poignant with its rough scratches here and there, 24thankyou is brusquely fitful with a cause. It’s to channel what is broken glass into a glowing cathedral. Such tracks from their latest album release entitled Everything I Was, Burning Slow such as “Gnawed” and “i wash it out” garner a harshly vigorous intensity that fills the ear with rich and teeming electricity.

Lyrically, the songs spoke of metamorphosis, and how in changing time, the self veers toward a subconscious evolution. Although there were some instances of slippery slopes when it had come to tuning and coordination, the group, which seems to pose chemistry-like communication, pulled off their attempts of striking the room with dynamically passionate strains of energy. Something that had particularly attracted everyone in the audience’s attention was Traugh’s pair of granola sandals. Each time as needed, he had stepped onto the pedal board with them. An unusual but fascinating sight, Traugh had held the world upon the cusp of his sandals and the space that had divided it from the board. 

Next on the line-up was Sam Burton, who stemmed from in-between Salt Lake City and L.A., had furnished the stage with forbearingly halcyon underscores of rustic vocals and campestral notation. Tracks such as “Coming Down on Me” and “Maria” from his latest album release Dear Departed, accentuated his trademark for effortlessly sinuous vocal structures that flow across the instrumentals evenly. It was unfortunate that there were no orchestral and side-vocal backings present to further support such tracks that in their original recording, had this chordal facet. Because of this lack of reinforcement, the set felt slightly underwhelming. However, with the aid of a piano and drum accompaniment, the songs still provoked a certain air for what is pensive and brooding.

Amidst the set, Burton expressed that Iowa City is not what he had initially expected it to be, revealing that he was pleasantly surprised by the city’s unforeseen aura and atmosphere. Despite Burton’s set being on the lengthier side, his set was a good relaxant to ease the crowd between the other two sets. Mostly lyrical compositions on romance, specifically around the themes of attachment, courtship, and prurience, Burton’s songs provide the same essence as the “Harana”, a culture of ‘serenade songs’ specific to Filipino tradition. A key observation that I’ve grasped from Burton’s sound is that it speaks of love in such a way that heightens the ardor and fervor for admiration and adoration. The songs are brought upon the umbrella of affectionate introspection and rumination. 

Image via Anika Maculangan

As the last act, Kate Bollinger comes on. She embarks on a setlist, composed of songs played with her whole band, while some were played by herself, apace with her guitar which she seems to know all too well, as she emits a sense of comfortability while playing it. As soon as Bollinger and her band made their way to their stage, the crowd, particularly those in the front lines, are enamored and struck by Bollinger’s stage presence. This was accentuated even more so when she starts singing “Running“, her 2022 single release, which the audience, without fail, sang along to word-per-word.

There were some early troubles faced with the bass’ volume level, but this was soon sorted out, as it then sounded victoriously magnified for the rest of the set. The set had powerfully incisive drum beats, and clean yet repercussed vibrations of the guitar, where its sleekness and affinity for jangle-pop tonalities swimmingly complimented Bollinger’s glossy, polished vocals.

Influenced by the likes of Vashti Bunyan, Elyse Weinberg, and The Apples in Stereo, Bollinger encapsulates the utmost feel for ‘Freak Folk’ as she coalesces synth-like modulations to soothingly tempered strums of the guitar. Bollinger’s tonality even traverses across landscapes of what would be considered jazz and R&B. She takes little details from these genres and fuses them into a crisp sound that acts as a glue holding all of them into one melodic arrangement, in succession of whichever harmony Bollinger chooses next to effectuate.

Like a magician of sorts, Bollinger holds many tricks up her sleeve. When someone in the crowd requested her to play the song called “I Don’t Wanna Lose”, with no hesitation, she began playing the track. The song hadn’t initially been part of the show’s designated setlist, yet Bollinger had no skepticism or indecision when it came to playing it. This best exhibited Bollinger’s ability to play any of her songs on the spot, which also raises more recognition toward her capacity as a singer/songwriter.

This proves that all her songs derive and originate directly from her own accord. She knows the nature of these songs, in and out, much as it is apparent that these tracks have come straight from her imagination and creativity. As a last culmination of her mini retrospective, Bollinger plays “Lady in the Darkest Hour”, “You at Home”, and “Yards/Gardens”. Three songs which are celebrated favorites off the Bollinger discography. With this, Bollinger ceases the show in a more quirky, yet refreshingly outré fashion than ever. 

Image via Cat Dooley

In final tense, throughout listening to these three acts, they went satisfactorily well together. 24thankyou being concordant to Bollinger’s indie pop disposition, whereas Sam Burton for Bollinger’s folk orientation. Both extremities had managed to detail the amalgamation of the two, which Bollinger was able to epitomize and exemplify with her sound of duality.

However, what ultimately cements these three acts together were their sensibilities for a sound that brings pride to the ‘bedroom pop’ title. It gives respect toward artists who began independently crafting their music, as they take it to the venues with much more vast rooms than the ones they had written these songs in. This further augments Track Zero’s importance to the current music scene. Track Zero’s prevailing goal is to bring more exposure to artists who started out producing their own music autonomously, but are now ready and prepared to share their music with a larger pond of awareness. 

Kate Bollinger Set List:

1. Running
2. Who Am I But Someone
3. What’s This About (La La La La)
4. God Interlude
5. Any Day Now
6. Pictures of You
7. To Your Own Devices
8. Postcard from a Cloud
9. Lady in the Darkest Hour
10. You at Home
11. Yards / Gardens

The post Kate Bollinger, and When Bedroom Pop Makes it Out of the Four Walls appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Originally a breakthrough from the burgeoning world of Soundcloud, Bollinger started off her career through uploading her music on the platform from the vernal age of sixteen. She grew up in a household where her mother was a music therapist, and her two brothers both played in bands. Around this juncture of time, she had already established her serene tendency for embodying the now euphoniously dulcet symphony evident in all of her songs. Springy, blithesome, and affectionately maudlin, Bollinger’s musicality withholds an aptitude for a laid-back, subdued sentimentality that extends itself lyrically and instrumentally. In another single “Running“ released in 2022, aspects of her musicality provide the feel for epiphanic reflections, as if accessed through the breach of her secret garden of a diary, and all met in the bridge that ties indie pop to folk rock. With the adjunct compliments of chimerical synth lines and delicate ringings of the saxophone, Bollinger blurs the line between what is intimate and grandiose.

Image via Kate Bollinger

On the 3rd, Bollinger will be accompanied in the roster by special acts, courtesy of Sam Burton and 24thankyou. Touring with Bollinger, Burton possesses the similar kinship to folk rock, at which his tracks reminisce upon longing and discovery. This is all illustrated within the backdrop of rural, country scenery within context of a road trip or a search for truth. 24thankyou brings a more vogue edge to the program in their music. With its occasional glitch and distortion for tonality, it expresses a nostalgia for circuit-bending break-core intonations that descend upon a path of forgotten memories. Close to remembrance, but not quite.  

Kate Bollinger, alongside Sam Burton and 24thankyou will make their Track Zero debuts on Tuesday, October 3rd at 7:30 PM, at Gabe’s. Other upcoming acts within the catalog of Track Zero include Tennis, Madison McFerrin, Sen Morimoto, and ZORA.

The post Track Zero Preview: Kate Bollinger To Set the Bridge That Meets Indie Pop and Folk Rock  appeared first on KRUI Radio.