No other contemporary artist in Iowa can boast a discography as original and consistently excellent as Iowa City’s DIY hero Samuel Locke Ward. Sam has produced a body of work that encompasses folk, punk, electronic, metal, grind, rock & roll, pop, and country music and he’s pulled it all off in an inimitable style that [...]

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Last Wednesday, the new art zine Gestalt launched at a Space for Ames release party. The inaugural issue’s contributors include past and present Ames Progressive collaborators Dave Atchison, Hannah Johnson, Rick Lem, Nikki Rains, and Jordan Zantow (see his Gestalt sketch below), as well as our editors Molly McDonald and Nate Logsdon. Check out the [...]

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The locally legendary rock band the Poison Control Center is set to release a limited edition vinyl record of their previously unreleased rock opera A Nice Old-Fashioned Romance With Love Lyrics and Everything on Maximum Ames Records (with which I, Mr. Blogsdon, am affiliated). In this video, Patrick Tape Fleming talks to the music writer [...]

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The second annual KURE Fest is coming up on Thursday, October 27, at the M Shop. The fest is in its second year. Last year, the event featured a big lineup of local talent. This year, the organizers decided to go for some national talent and managed to get the awesome bands Neon Indian and [...]

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Ames sensation Leslie Hall, who Ames Progressive’s Nate Logsdon profiled in 2009, performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Monday night with Yo Gabba Gabba, who sang “We’re Gonna Party Tonight” with some additional help from Fallon’s house band The Roots. Check it out (Hall’s got a solo at 1:21): Related articles Nate’s Tour Blog [...]

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Fans of Ames music will definitely want to be at the one-of-a-kind house concert taking place Sunday, September 25, as part of the Maximum Ames Music Festival. The Orange Gentleman, a local house concert venue across the street from the downtown Fairway, will be hosting the inaugural Ames Women of Rock Showcase. The show will [...]

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The iconic Ames Pantorium building on Douglas Avenue is the new home of KHOI Community Radio, a noncommerial station that plans to go on air next August. The official opening of the new space is on Friday, September 16. The Chamber of Commerce will be there for a ribbon cutting and the KHOI board of [...]

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AMC/Fair Use Earlier tonight, I was catching up on Breaking Bad, the brilliant AMC drama by former X-Files producer Vince Gilligan. In the episode that aired last Sunday, meth cook Walter White flips through documents of meth recipes that his oblivious DEA-agent brother-in-law shows him. On one of the pages is a sticker endorsing Ron [...]

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Here’s a new music video, by the talented Douglas Choi, from Ames band Ladysoal (also playing the Maximum Ames Music Fest): Related articles Photos from Ames Summerfest 2011 Album Review: Ladysoal EP

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Ames band and longtime friends of the Progressive Nuclear Rodeo will play the Maximum Ames Music Festival in September. Here’s an appropriately titled track by the libertarian rockers, recorded by the Ames-based digital media music promoter Griffle TV: Related articles Song of the Day, 8/6: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s ‘Sink/Let It Sway’ Song [...]

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