Imagine that I’m telling you all these things while turkeys are getting slaughtered in the background. Or maybe not. This weekend’s entertainment pickings are a bit slimmer than usual. The Picador used to always have some sort of oddball townie one-off show on Thanksgiving, but not this year! The Mill has [...]

Eugene Chadbourne is a prolific guitarist/banjo/songwriter who has produced a supremely odd, but brilliant, body of work over the last 30 years. He started out as a performer working with John Zorn, a more famous but just as brilliant an experimentalist. When Chadbourne struck out on his own, he genre-hopped with reckless abandon, from [...]

Captain Beefheart
Trout Mask Replica
(1969)
A year or two ago, I sifted through my music collection and realized that I was sick of every single song I owned. I hated Miles Davis and Eddie Van Halen, Leonard Cohen and Tom Petty. I wanted something new but had no idea where to look. I wanted someone to give [...]

Hi, Kent Williams here. I kinda sorta talked to Melody about doing a Weekender post, but we didn’t really get beyond the ’sure why not?’ planning stage, so I’m operating here on the principle that it’s easier to apologize than ask permission. Anyhoo…
The Mill
Thursday: Monroe Crossing. A Bluegrass outfit that tours nationally and won awards [...]

This is going to help me get over my Mahjong addiction. Eeeeee puppies!!!

Because yours truly is kinda behind the curve on the music side of things, this is the first time I’ve seen this, and I’m now crying my eyes out while shaking my hips ’cause I wish I would have seen this when it came out a year ago. It’s the best thing since Beyond the [...]

BEST FORMER ROCK & ROLLER LIVING MORE OR LESS QUIETLY IN IOWA CITY: Pete Balestrieri
Pete Balestrieri was a mainstay of the rotating assembly of musicians known as the Horns of Dilemma, who the Violent Femmes used to add a generous portion of crazy to their live shows, and he appears on several of their albums. [...]

Not to give away too much of the mystery of Little Village backstage, but the lovely and talented Melody asked me to write a post about what my ‘top ten’ or ‘best of’ list for this year, as a NOT SO SUBTLE HINT for those of you who read the blog to go vote here [...]

KRUI and Little Village are teaming up to get your input on the best in music for 2008. None of the questions are required, so tell us as much or as little as you think we should know. KRUI is the sound alternative for the entire IC community, so even if you aren’t a student, take this short survey and let your voice be heard.

For the contrarians of the world, today is difficult. In the face of so much optimism, so much hope, being a grumpy, bad-news aggregating blogger seems like a silly thing to be. I, like Katrina Vanden Heuvel, think Barack Obama’s enduring success will be defined by his “boldness.” That is, how will his audacity of [...]