The third album from Christopher the Conquered finds songwriter Chris Ford not only singing and playing piano, but also using his role as bandleader for the first time in his recorded history. Ford assembled his crew to perform the music of his sophomore effort, You’re Gonna Glow in the Dark, and the band rehearsed the [...]

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On Saturday, February 5, the Ames Progressive Space celebrated its third anniversary. A birthday party of sorts, it was a success by any stretch of the imagination – as a community event, as a cultural display, as a coming together of musicians and local activists, and as a celebration of everything that is good about [...]

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It’s been a little over a year since Nuclear Rodeo released their last record, Something Bad’s Happening (reviewed in the November/December 2009 issue of the Progressive), and now they’ve returned with the follow-up, Revenge.  There aren’t a lot of surprises to be had here, but that’s not meant in a negative way. Nuclear Rodeo are a [...]

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I’ve unfortunately not gotten around to seeing Iowa City’s So Much Fun live yet, but I’m hoping to remedy that situation, because this album has a lot going for it. First of all, the band’s name: So Much Fun is about as good of a band name as you could ask for. Who doesn’t like [...]

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Man, I can’t begin to tell you the many steps it took for The Atudes’ debut album Rumor Has It to end up in my mailbox! Let’s just say there is some fortunate person in east Ames who was lucky enough find an advance copy of the record in their mailbox. So I will write [...]

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Long ago, more years than I care to acknowledge, I went to see a show at the Maintenance Shop. I don’t even remember what show it was, to be honest, but I recall that Keepers of the Carpet were the opening band, and I was struck by how damn poppy, happy, and upbeat they were. [...]

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When I first met Chris Ford, the force, soul, and spirit of Christopher the Conquered, it was through a mutual friend, who was looking for people to dress up in character and help create a scene to be photographed for Chris’ album cover.  At the shoot, there was a giant wooden box, shovels, red yarn [...]

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The idea of trying to tell you that the new EP from Jordan Mayland and the Thermal Detonators is great or good or awful or assigning it a 10.0 or 7.2 or 2.6 or an A+ or B- or D is, well, frightening. What right does anyone have to determine the value of someone else’s [...]

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If Something Bad’s Happening were a short story, the protagonist would, at one point, look up to his mother and say, “I love you so much but I just can’t help but be afraid for you. I’m young now but you know I’ll get older and probably sad and more than likely hurt. But you [...]

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The Mystery Mines is the wonderful work of Kate Kennedy. Kate has been an incredible fixture in the Ames music scene for years, honing her craft as an extremely talented singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist. I can remember the first time I saw Kate play – it was April 29, 2005. I had just come off a 35 date solo tour [...]

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