20 Jun 2006

It's Time to Turn Back to the Dark Side

By Administrator

The moon's turned pink again with a "perfect storm" of projects revolving around Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon from 1973, led by a new interpretation of the album and culminating in Roger Waters' fall tour of the United States, performing the album in its entirety. Following up on its recent Back Against the Wall tribute, earlier this month Purple Pyramid Records released Return to the Dark Side of the Moon, boasting Adrian Belew, Colin Moulding of XTC, Tommy Shaw of Styx, John Wetton of Asia, Gary Green of Gentle Giant, Robby Krieger of The Doors, and actor Malcolm McDowell.

13 Jun 2006

Club Plans to Give Your Turntable a Workout

By John M. James

Is your turntable as dusty as your mind?

Dino Felipe The psychedelic conspirators at Melted Mailbox Records have the lysergic solution, looking to use your tone arm's needle instead of a syringe to trip your light fantastic. Later this month the wax-friendly label will issue the first limited-edition 12-inch single in its new Melted Mailbox Vinyl Club, a bi-monthly program that for $70 could be the best pen pal an experimental- music aficionado could ever have. 

13 Jun 2006

"Jazz Professor" Returns Home for Workshop, Concert: Pianist Bill Bell, June 18 at the Redstone Room

By Administrator

Jazz pianist, composer, arranger, educator, and East Moline native Bill Bell will be the third jazz artist to bring a group to the River Music Experience's Redstone Room when he performs and conducts a workshop on Sunday, June 18.

06 Jun 2006

Sing Out with the Boss: Springsteen Brings His Seeger Songs to the Midwest This Week

By Karen McFarland

Bruce Springsteen's "We Shall Overcome" First you hear an old-timey banjo, then a voice like early Dylan, but soon a rousing chorus, full Americana, kicks in: drums, twin fiddles, and horns that sound like Van Morrison wrote the charts. That's "Old Dan Tucker," the opening cut on Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a multi-layered tribute not just to Pete Seeger but to "roots" music in general.

 

06 Jun 2006

Entertainment Gah-rone-teed!: Nine Spicy Bands at Gumbo Ya Ya

By Mike Schulz

N'Awlins Gumbo Kings The Quad Cities' first summer festival - Gumbo Ya Ya: Mardi Gras in the District - has a moniker that's pretty self-explanatory.

 

30 May 2006

Cheap Trick Returns to "Rockford"

By John M. James
Cheap Trick's "Rockford"Cheap Trick is back at the top of its game with an all-new CD this coming Tuesday, Rockford, named for the group’s Illinois hometown. The Big3 Records release features a handful of songs recorded by post-punk champion Steve Albini, and the first single, “Perfect Stranger,” was co-written and produced by star-making songwriter Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes.

 

30 May 2006

"A Marvelous Starting Point": Davenport's St. Mark Lutheran Church Celebrates New Organ with Concert

By Administrator
Ellen Bowlin When the original pipe organ at St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church in Davenport was removed in 1969 and replaced with an electronic organ, the shift was meant to be temporary.

But the temporary has a way of taking hold, and the “interim” instrument lasted until 2003.

Now, as the culmination of a sanctuary renovation and a component of the church’s strategic-planning process, the congregation has a new pipe organ. The organ has been used in services since Palm Sunday and will be featured in a concert by Michael Burkhardt on Sunday, June 4.

 

23 May 2006

Doing It Themselves: The Bowmans, May 24 at the Redstone Room

By Administrator
The story of the “anti-folk” musical duo the Bowmans – twin sisters Sarah and Claire Bowman – might be tired and cheap if it weren’t so compelling and poignant.

They grew up in the Quad Cities, operate out of New York City, and are making their return this week, opening for Lowry (a band in which they also play) at the Redstone Room on May 24. Hometown girls made good!
17 May 2006

At the Crossroads: Fueled by a Simple Idea, Daytrotter Could Put the Quad Cities on the Musical Map

By Administrator
The complaint is painfully common. You look at the list of hot indie-cred-heavy bands playing at Gabe’s in Iowa City, or in Des Moines, and they’re the same bands that are playing in Chicago a few days later or earlier. They’re already driving Interstate 80 – hell, they’re probably stopping near the Quad Cities to pee – yet they rarely play here.

Sean Moeller has heard it. “We’re right on the way,” he said last week. “Everybody who’s anybody drives on I-80. They’re passing right by us every time. It gets to a point where you get really sick of that. You get sick of people ignoring you. ...

“When you are feeling like you’re bypassed every time for a different place, it’s easy to think that this place is crap. It’s easy to think that every place else is better.”

So Moeller gave people a reason to stop: Daytrotter.com.


17 May 2006

Content to Fly Under the Radar: Charles Davis Quartet, Thursday, May 18, at the Figge Art Museum

By Administrator

Neither Tardo Hammer nor Charles Davis can explain their success in jazz.

Hammer, who has been called “the best jazz pianist you’ve never heard,” said he never planned on a music career when he was starting out in the late 1970s.

“To me it was ridiculous to think of a career,” he said in a phone interview this week. “There wasn’t a lot of work, and jazz was really not popular. ... You hardly saw an upright bass player, and almost every piano player had to get a Fender Rhodes. If you played ‘Straight Ahead,’ that was considered something that was just about to vanish off the planet, holding onto something that was ready to expire.

“I was thinking, ‘I’ll do this now because this is what I love to do. I’ll go where this is and see what happens. I’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.’”

Nearly 30 years later, Hammer has stumbled into that jazz career, performing regularly with singer Annie Ross and also releasing three discs as a bandleader. He’ll be playing in a quartet with the venerable saxophonist Davis at the Figge Art Museum later this week. (The pair will be joined by drummer Jimmy Wormworth and bassist Lee Hudson.) 

 

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