10 Apr 2009

Soft Metal: In All Its Glory, April 11 at Hal's Wagon Wheel and April 25 at RIBCO

By Jeff Ignatius

I'm guessing the Quad Cities-based metal outfit won't approve of my labeling them "soft," but I intend it as a compliment. And I don't mean the quintet is a bunch of poseurs; they're still metal, but they're not made of titanium.

Because of its aesthetic constraints, metal often strips bands of credible emotional content, obscured by the muscle and attitude. And if one strays too far from the formula, it risks losing its bad-ass credibility.

In All Its Glory, on its self-titled debut, strikes a balance between sensitivity and a hard edge.

03 Apr 2009

Photos from the New Kids on the Block Show, April 2 at the i wireless Center

By Administrator

Photos by Chris Jones. Click on a photo for a larger version.

25 Mar 2009

The Best Parts Win: Ready the Destroyer, March 27 at the River Music Experience and April 3 at Mixtapes

By Jeff Ignatius

Ready the Destroyer

The first thing to notice about the music of Chicago's Ready the Destroyer is that singer Neill Miller's guitar has a lot to say. Some guitarists are technically proficient, but the really good ones are able to give their instruments a voice. Miller's sings.

The unsigned Chicago trio -- which will be playing at the River Music Experience's performance hall on Friday and Mixtapes on April 3 -- plays punk-ish music with a strong sense of melody on both guitar and bass, not unlike the Alkaline Trio and Interpol, and clearly influenced by Hüsker Dü. It's a lean, rigorous, muscular sound in which the guitar, bass, and voice are all fighting to be the lead instrument - a busy din but without discord.

24 Mar 2009

Put Your Ears on: Railroad Earth, March 29 at the Redstone Room

By Jeff Ignatius

Railroad EarthRailroad Earth mandolin player John Skehan notes that most recording studios are set up so that even when musicians are isolated from each other in separate rooms, they can see each other.

But when the New Jersey-based bluegrass/jam band convened in a three-century-old farmhouse owned by Todd Sheaffer, the band's singer and chief songwriter, the setup was different. As they tracked last year's Amen Corner mostly live, the sextet didn't have the benefit of body language and visual cues. Bass was in the kitchen. The drums were in the dining room. Multi-instrumentalist Andy Goessling was stuck in a bathroom.

"We had a little headphone system where everybody could control their own individual level and everybody else's level," Skehan said in a phone interview last week. "And we pretty much barely had eye contact. We just went into our individual little rooms and put our ears on, and that was the extent of the interaction. ... It does put you in a place where you're just listening."

18 Mar 2009

Photos from the March 14 Nickelback Show at the i wireless Center

By Chris Jones

Images by photographer Chris Jones from Sunday's Nickelback show at the i wireless Center. Click on any photo for a larger version.

12 Mar 2009

Not Minding the Dark: William Fitzsimmons, March 19 at RIBCO

By Jeff Ignatius

William Fitzsimmons

Most folks don't like to talk about painful personal stuff, such as a failed relationship.

William Fitzsimmons -- who will be performing a Daytrotter show on Thursday, March 19, at RIBCO -- doesn't have much choice.

"I wrote a record on divorce, so I opened the door," he said in an interview this week.

You'd never guess that The Sparrow & the Crow, Fitzsimmons' album from last year that the Boston Herald called a "near masterpiece," is about divorce on first blush. It's unfailingly delicate, intimate, and gentle musically, with folk-y lead piano and acoustic guitar lightly accented with other instruments. And it starts with the words "I still love you" and "I still need you" and what sounds like a reaffirmation of marriage vows. It absolutely does not sound like divorce.

10 Mar 2009

Bleeding, and Putting It Out There: Tim Mahoney, March 13 at Augustana College

By Jeff Ignatius

Tim Mahoney

If you watch a lot of MTV, there's an excellent chance you've heard the music of Tim Mahoney, who will be performing at Augustana College on Friday, March 13.

He also has a video airing in Life Time Fitness locations in 18 states. And he has a partnership with Miller Genuine Draft.

That might sound like selling out, but the Minneapolis-based Mahoney said last week that it's simply a matter of survival for an independent musician.

"This is how you stay alive I think these days in the music business," he said. "It's that any-and-all-and-kind-of-outside-of-the-box theory. ... It takes so much more to get it to people."

03 Mar 2009

Hot and Odd: Dirty Projectors, March 8; and Cut Off Your Hands, March 12 at RIBCO

By Jeff Ignatius

Dirty Projectors

Editor's note: The Dirty Projectors show scheduled for Sunday, March 8, was canceled the day of the show.

Three years into its existence, the variety of acts that Daytrotter.com has brought to the Quad Cities for concerts defies pigeonholing, but they've tended to fall into two broad categories: the highly idiosyncratic and the on-the-verge. (Remember that founder Sean Moeller brought in Vampire Weekend, Blitzen Trapper, and Fleet Foxes before they were big.)

27 Feb 2009

Borderline Insanity: Blk Jks, March 3 at RIBCO

By Jeff Ignatius

Blk JksIf you want a sense of how excited the music press is about the up-and-coming South African psychedelic rock band Blk Jks (pronounced "Black Jacks"), you only need to see the art-rock royalty that reviewers name-check.

The stuffy New York Times: "Far closer to TV on the Radio and the Mars Volta than they are to Ladysmith Black Mambazo."

The hipsters at Spin, dubbing Blk Jks a "hot new band" earlier this month: "The electro-funk experimentalism of TV on the Radio with the Afro-pop guitars of Vampire Weekend, and drop in hints of jazz, ethnic African music, and the prog-rock of contemporary acts like the Mars Volta."

If those descriptions pique your interest, Daytrotter.com is bringing Blk Jks to the Quad Cities, and fans of adventurous rock would be foolish to miss the band's performance at RIBCO on Tuesday, March 3. This is a buzz band poised to make seriously good noise.

18 Feb 2009

Half-Naked: Rude Punch, February 21 at the Redstone Room

By Jeff Ignatius
rude-punch

The closing track on Killin' It, the new release from the Quad Cities reggae-rock trio Rude Punch, is called "Payment," and unfortunately it's overdue. Loose and light, the guitars and drums at the outset seem to be searching for the groove, and when they find it 35 seconds in, they sustain it for another four minutes. Brady Jager's singing is heartfelt and nimble, and background vocals and twin guitars add satisfying accents and interplay, while bassist Robb Laake and drummer Adam Tucker are each given opportunities to fill in the gaps. The lead-guitar and drum breaks suggest a band adept at jamming within a song's structure.

I'm guessing the band's CD-release party on Saturday at the Redstone Room will be a good time, as its music goes down easily and has the benefit of familiarity. If you've heard reggae, you'll have plenty of reference points. Most importantly, the band works it right on stage, and "Payment" shows what they're capable of.

But the album itself suffers from a lack of imagination.

Pages

Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts

On Stands Now

 

Tagged Content

    

Two Ways to Subscribe

1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.

You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?) 

Subscribe!

* indicates required

2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48

Get 12 issues mailed monthly for $48 per year.

Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!

Click this link to Subscribe now.

 
 

Music Calendars

Submit your event listings to calendar@rcreader.com