Alex Riggen and Nick Pompou will perform their first public show as Murnau on Saturday at East Moline's Mixtapes, but the duo's ambitions are already clear.
Based in Morrison, Illinois, the band is named for the expressionist silent-film director F.W. Murnau (who made Nosferatu and Sunrise), and in addition to a trio of demos it has already recorded a score for the 1929 surrealistic classic short Un Chien Andalou as part of an EP with the single "We March on." The songs for a full-length have been written, the drums are recorded, and the album should be released next year, Riggen said last week.
"We've just always focused on recording and releasing ... to a wide audience [on the Web] rather than finding shows," he said. "We just like to write."
This
should not be taken as anything other than an inquiry from a
discouraged person. We here at 
If
all else fails, with the help of his trusty loop pedal Marty Jones
could have a promising future as a one-man band. As the founder,
primary songwriter, and conductor - who also handles vocals, bass,
guitars, keyboards, additional percussion, sampling, and programming
duties - of Silvis' X+X (spoken as "X Add X"), Jones (a.k.a.
Heat) seems more than happy to take anyone willing to jam with him
along for the musical ride. But he's ready to do it alone, if
necessary.
For somebody who's been compared favorably to Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young and Nick Drake, Damien Jurado has had a touch-and-go career, and a bit of an inferiority complex.
When Rob Barber and Mary Pearson met in December 2005, they quickly struck up a friendship.
When Buckcherry co-founders Josh Todd and Keith Nelson re-formed the band in 2005 after a three-year hiatus, they got an opportunity to basically start from scratch.
Just
Tuesday morning we were able to confirm an exciting show that you're
not going to have to wait for. Like the Ingrid
Michaelson show about a
month ago, this one is a last-minute affair, but you have a week to
prepare instead of 24 hours.
Chris Thile doesn't like musical boundaries, and the mandolin player seems to almost relish pissing off those who would prefer to pigeonhole him.
We
had a last-minute show this past weekend with the always tremendous
Delta Spirit,
from California way. Those of you who were at Huckleberry's the
last time they were in town know this. We regret that there wasn't
more time to get the word out that they were going to be in town, but
we found out just a few hours before they were set to arrive for a
session that they were going to be here in time to play. They'd
made a long drive from Salt Lake City the night before and hauled it
east to make it so that we could add them to the Southeast
Engine bill. It might be
the best show in the Quad Cities that only 10 people showed up for in
the past five years or more.
In two
years, the Spokane, Washington-based five-piece Paper Mache - which
will be performing at Mixtapes in East Moline on September 3 - has
gone through more than a dozen members.
