Showing posts with label Iowa Shows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iowa Shows. Show all posts
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Warm Gospel at the Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines
The Warm Gospel label was created based on the concept of recreating the grand, layered spectrum of gospel music using the contemporary ideas and tools of electronic, noise, and ambient music. The result is something new. Over the past year, Warm Gospel has collected releases from many of Iowa's beat and noise makers, including DJ DJ TANNER, Tires, Olsen Twinns, Juxwl, and others. In combining these artists under a single label, Warm Gospel has established a foundation of rumbling noise, tidal waves of synth, and layers of clouded harmonies in a part of Iowa where, previously, experimental music was never fully realized as an important part of the state's overall music output.
On December 18th, the Vaudeville Mews will showcase nearly every artist on the Warm Gospel label, bringing an entire night of electronic sound exploration to Des Moines.
Vaudeville Mews
December 18th, 2012
8:00 pm
$5
Tires
Is Home Is (Olsen Twinns)
Juxwl
DJ DJ TANNER
Big Digital
Seezureface
Skyscraper
This show is going to be so much fun.
http://www.vaudevillemews.com/events/warm-gospel-showcase/?sId=2307
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Zeitgeist AND Iowa Noise AND the DMMC (kind of)
I found a great article by the Centipede Farm tape label founder, Chuck Hoffman.
It's all about the accomplishment that was the Zeitgeist music festival and the state of Iowa noise music.
Check it out.
It's all about the accomplishment that was the Zeitgeist music festival and the state of Iowa noise music.
Check it out.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Zeitgeist: A Celebration of Iowa Noise Music
My label, Warm Gospel, will be sponsoring Zeitgeist: A Celebration of Iowa Noise Music at the old Elephungeon space in Boone, Iowa.
You should go, see some of the best noise bands in Iowa, and buy tapes to support the festival and its artists. There will be a Warm Gospel table there with a variety of different releases and some free stickers. Make sure you take a look!
You should go, see some of the best noise bands in Iowa, and buy tapes to support the festival and its artists. There will be a Warm Gospel table there with a variety of different releases and some free stickers. Make sure you take a look!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Dum Dum Girls and The Morning Benders
I have two shows to talk about with you all. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of my own to use.
Let's do this chronologically.
I saw The Morning Benders at the M-Shop on Saturday.
Because people I know keep getting jobs at the M-Shop, my opportunity to get into these shows for free keeps increasing, which is great. Thanks everyone!
I hadn't ever listened to this band, but I had heard them mentioned in a few places, and since the M-Shop schedule is usually pretty ignorable, I thought I would at least go to one of the only good shows it is going to get this semester.
Overall, I thought the whole thing was pretty mediocre. The Morning Benders, to me, are a perfect example of another one of those pop bands that I hear once, download, and never listen to again--similar to half of the bands that Pitchfork reviews between a 7.2 and an 8.3 rating. There are just entirely too many of these bands for me to keep up. If it doesn't stand out initially, I have a hard time rediscovering them in a manner that appeals to me. The Morning Benders show was not a rediscovery for me. While a few of the songs were pretty catchy, I enjoyed the noisy, feedbacking, vocal looped improvisation they used to end their set more than anything else. So, their new album Big Echo will probably sit on my iTunes with 0 listens until I go through and clear out my library like I tend to do once every few years. Judging by the crowd reactions, I feel like this will probably be the case for much of the audience.
That being said, all the dudes in the band were really nice. They were friendly and talkative on stage instead of playing some character like, say, the Dum Dum Girls.
I showed up at this show just in time to miss the two openers. Ten dollars at the door and 40 minutes later, I left the venue. While I am a sucker for the Dum Dum Girls throwback to two-minute, catchy-as-hell pop songs, it is hard to feel satisfied with my 10 dollar ticket when the band I came to see only played a 25-minute set (granted they were a great 25 minutes of song). Their show was...distant, and that is not a reference to the piles of reverb that their music does so well. One song led quickly into another and then it was over. There was a band on the stage and a crowd watching it, but the two never really connected. Normally, I don't really have a problem with this, but considering the pace of the whole event, I felt like I walked from my car, through the front doors to the venue and back to the parking lot where I got in my car and left without anything to remember or any song I had to go home and listen to.
On top of all that, the dude at Des Noise mentioned that the Dum Dum Girls were apparently so disinterested in the show that they didn't even put out any merchandise, which I didn't notice.
What is weird about this whole thing, is that, as far as my experience goes, this was actually a pretty well attended Vaudeville Mews show, and at $10 a head, it was probably a relatively worthwhile show for the band, financially speaking.
Oh well. Des Moines, Des Moines.
I am playing with Utopia Park and These Stains Is Us at the Ames Progressive on Saturday. Should be pretty cool. Both those bands will probably rip it really hard after I get my chance to chill everyone out.
Still haven't decided if I am going to any of the VEISHEA shows.
Let's do this chronologically.
I saw The Morning Benders at the M-Shop on Saturday.
Because people I know keep getting jobs at the M-Shop, my opportunity to get into these shows for free keeps increasing, which is great. Thanks everyone!
I hadn't ever listened to this band, but I had heard them mentioned in a few places, and since the M-Shop schedule is usually pretty ignorable, I thought I would at least go to one of the only good shows it is going to get this semester.
Overall, I thought the whole thing was pretty mediocre. The Morning Benders, to me, are a perfect example of another one of those pop bands that I hear once, download, and never listen to again--similar to half of the bands that Pitchfork reviews between a 7.2 and an 8.3 rating. There are just entirely too many of these bands for me to keep up. If it doesn't stand out initially, I have a hard time rediscovering them in a manner that appeals to me. The Morning Benders show was not a rediscovery for me. While a few of the songs were pretty catchy, I enjoyed the noisy, feedbacking, vocal looped improvisation they used to end their set more than anything else. So, their new album Big Echo will probably sit on my iTunes with 0 listens until I go through and clear out my library like I tend to do once every few years. Judging by the crowd reactions, I feel like this will probably be the case for much of the audience.
That being said, all the dudes in the band were really nice. They were friendly and talkative on stage instead of playing some character like, say, the Dum Dum Girls.
I showed up at this show just in time to miss the two openers. Ten dollars at the door and 40 minutes later, I left the venue. While I am a sucker for the Dum Dum Girls throwback to two-minute, catchy-as-hell pop songs, it is hard to feel satisfied with my 10 dollar ticket when the band I came to see only played a 25-minute set (granted they were a great 25 minutes of song). Their show was...distant, and that is not a reference to the piles of reverb that their music does so well. One song led quickly into another and then it was over. There was a band on the stage and a crowd watching it, but the two never really connected. Normally, I don't really have a problem with this, but considering the pace of the whole event, I felt like I walked from my car, through the front doors to the venue and back to the parking lot where I got in my car and left without anything to remember or any song I had to go home and listen to.On top of all that, the dude at Des Noise mentioned that the Dum Dum Girls were apparently so disinterested in the show that they didn't even put out any merchandise, which I didn't notice.
What is weird about this whole thing, is that, as far as my experience goes, this was actually a pretty well attended Vaudeville Mews show, and at $10 a head, it was probably a relatively worthwhile show for the band, financially speaking.
Oh well. Des Moines, Des Moines.
I am playing with Utopia Park and These Stains Is Us at the Ames Progressive on Saturday. Should be pretty cool. Both those bands will probably rip it really hard after I get my chance to chill everyone out.
Still haven't decided if I am going to any of the VEISHEA shows.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
A Sunny Day in Glasgow Show
Trista and I played with Wolves in the Attic and A Sunny Day in Glasgow tonight at the Vaudeville Mews. It went very well. We actually had a couple of songs to play so we didn't just improvise everything and make noise between half-finished pieces of songs. It was probably the most well attended VM show I have ever played.
On the way in, we stole Wolves in the Attic's parking spot, and then later they announced that it might be their last show as a band, which was kind of sad. I have seen that band play in all sorts of basements and spaces, and they are one of maybe 5 bands that exist in Ames that I care about (which is also sad).
A Sunny Day in Glasgow was...okay. I hate to spit out the whole "they-sound-better-on-the-album" thing, but it is kind of true.
Live music is kind of like headphones for your entire body. So, I was excited for this show because listening to their album, Ashes Grammar, this whole week on my way to work at 7 in the morning made my head swim around in some pond made up of the frozen trees lining the sidewalks on campus, the sun failing to break through the Iowa winter cloud cover, and the wonderful, sky-filled sounds of A Sunny Day in Glasgow flowing between my ears.
Unfortunately, their live drums and guitars tended to drown out the reverbed singing and sunny guitar and synth parts that made their album as good as it was (all 22 songs of it). Either that, or they primarily played new stuff and it is much more guitar-and-drum based, which is entirely possible too.
I don't think I have any more shows scheduled. I'm going to try and finish some of these sample-based songs I have in the works, and I might make a split tape with Trista for SWEAT POWER RECORDS if and when that is created.
Vivian Girls in Grinnell next Saturday, and then I'm going to Portland at the end of the month (which I'm still trying to get work off for).
On the way in, we stole Wolves in the Attic's parking spot, and then later they announced that it might be their last show as a band, which was kind of sad. I have seen that band play in all sorts of basements and spaces, and they are one of maybe 5 bands that exist in Ames that I care about (which is also sad).
A Sunny Day in Glasgow was...okay. I hate to spit out the whole "they-sound-better-on-the-album" thing, but it is kind of true.
Live music is kind of like headphones for your entire body. So, I was excited for this show because listening to their album, Ashes Grammar, this whole week on my way to work at 7 in the morning made my head swim around in some pond made up of the frozen trees lining the sidewalks on campus, the sun failing to break through the Iowa winter cloud cover, and the wonderful, sky-filled sounds of A Sunny Day in Glasgow flowing between my ears.
Unfortunately, their live drums and guitars tended to drown out the reverbed singing and sunny guitar and synth parts that made their album as good as it was (all 22 songs of it). Either that, or they primarily played new stuff and it is much more guitar-and-drum based, which is entirely possible too.
I don't think I have any more shows scheduled. I'm going to try and finish some of these sample-based songs I have in the works, and I might make a split tape with Trista for SWEAT POWER RECORDS if and when that is created.
Vivian Girls in Grinnell next Saturday, and then I'm going to Portland at the end of the month (which I'm still trying to get work off for).
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