Sorrow struck the Quad Cities and the metal world on November 21 with the news of the passing of John Hopkins. A native of Oquawka, Illinois, a small town about an hour from the QC, Hopkins rose from the soundboard at Gabe's in Iowa City to become a highly sought-after sound engineer, front-of-house man, and tour manager for such doom metal and heavy rock giants as Sleep, the Melvins, Corrosion of Conformity, Neurosis, Weedeater, Boris, and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats.

For the second presentation in radio station WVIK and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's 2020-21 Signature Series, the area instrumental ensemble gets seasonal, and virtual, in its December 12 concert event Holiday Brass, a repertoire of traditional pop and classical tunes that will be available for additional viewing a full 30 days after the Saturday-evening program ends.

New Standards Men are a pair of "lapsed Iowans" based in Denver. Their album I Was a Starship finds ex-Dubuquers Drew Bissell (bass, electronics) and Jeremy Brashaw (guitar) joined by Michigander Ike Turner (drums) and two more un-lapsed Iowans: the venerable Bob Bucko Jr. of Dubuque on sax and synths; and Lee County's Luke Tweedy, who added synthesizer in addition to recording and engineering the album at his own Flat Black Studios in Iowa City. The three extended tracks are a wholly Midwestern creation but sound unearthly in origin, like a fading transmission from space, a slow and lonely echo that rises to a rumble and dies out.

Belarusian synthwave unit Molchat Doma has taken a series of interesting turns in their ascent to their current status as the reigning kings of their would-be niche strain of dour, '80s-inflected goth-pop.