Sunday, October 22, 2017

IOWA MUSIC SHOWCASE PODCAST - Episode 54: Happy Hawkeye Halloween 2017, Part 3 of 4 - The Van Meter Visitor and Other Iowa Dragons

Art by Dean Sturtevant


Welcome to this year's third installment of an enticing index of hawkeye musical horrors!

In this aural assault, we present an unique unit of punk, experimental, electronic, progressive, psychedelic, goth, metal, and industrial rock music to give creepiess and crawlies.


And to help with the creepies and crawlies, we present a little lecture on The Van Meter Visitor and Other Iowa Dragons.


In 1903, apparently some smelly manbat creature terrorized the town of Van Meter, shooting a bright light out of its head. Bullets had no effect on it.

It was said to have come out of the mines. And after it finished harassing the town, it was never seen from again.

Whether it had anything to do with the strange "flying ships" with strange men that crashed 8 years earlier in Iowa is unknown.


In the early 2000s, Burlington residents saw a strange flying reptile with a 15-foot wing span and snake-like body flying over its town.

And supposably, the city of Grand Mound sees them regularly.


And sort of related, a giant crow with a 8 foot wingspan was spotted between Marshalltown and Nevada in 2009.


So some nice pleasant stories to think as you listen to the following tunes....

IMSC Ep 54 - Song 1: "They Want Brains (They're Coming To Get You, Barbara!)" by Mega Blast



"We were a band for about a year and a half before I moved out of state with my then-fiancee (now wife) and my little brother went off to college in 1998. Kevin still performs around Cedar Rapids/Iowa City doing solo stuff and as part of the punk band, CR Dicks (check them out on Facebook). He also performs in a cover band, Julie & the Mad Dogs. Jamie was in many punk bands in the CR area in the mid-90s to early 2000s, including The Pee Pees, Brazil, Wheel and the Fence, and most prominently, The Horrors (they put out two albums on the Southern California trash-rock label, In the Red Records). He now lives in Madison, WI, where he is still involved in the punk/underground music scene.

"We performed a grand total of two gigs and recorded 9 songs that have never been formally released. It's all snot-nosed punk music, most of it I'm still quite proud of although a few songs missed the mark and don't hold up to listening nowadays. If you ever want the rest of the songs for future shows, let me know. You could put out a whole series of episodes on the 90s punk scene in Cedar Rapids & Iowa City -- we are really the tip of the iceberg from those old days."
- from an email by band member Alex Pelzel

Lineup:
Nic Pelzel - vocals, guitar
Kevin Michael - guitar
Alex Pelzel - saxophone, backing vocals
Jamie McLees - drums

CR Dicks' Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/yourgirlfriendsplace/

CR Dicks' BandCamp page:
https://crdicks.bandcamp.com/

The Horrors' page on the Red Records website:
https://intheredrecords.com/collections/the-horrors

To download the whole podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":
https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode54/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2054_.mp3

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IMSC Ep 54 - Song 2: "Come My Sweet in Lace" by Violet's Embrace



"Violet's Embrace is a Experimental musical creation by Iowan Moonchild musician Naiad Violet, started July 2003. Influenced by dreams, visions, and anime. The sounds heard are both magical and mysterious. Everything created is purely imagination with a few influences here and there. Music & photos related to Violet's Embrace uploaded anywhere is copyrighted under Naiad Moonchild Violet."
- from their Facebook page

Credits:
Naiad Moonchild Violet - instruments
Written, mixed, & produced by Naiad Moonchild Violet at Naiad's Domain
Most mastering at Sage Audio


Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/violetsembrace/

BandCamp:
https://violetsembrace.bandcamp.com/

To download the whole podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":
https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode54/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2054_.mp3

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IMSC Ep 54 - Song 3: "Creepshow" by Space Burial



"Progressive space rock band from Dubuque, IA"
- from their Facebook page

Lineup:
Shawn Splinter - Guitarist, Songwriter, Vocalist
Aaron Whites - Guitarist, Songwriter, Vocalist
Terry Stowers - Drummer
William Jentz - Bassist


Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Spaceburial/

BandCamp:
https://spaceburial.bandcamp.com

To download the whole podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":
https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode54/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2054_.mp3

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IMSC Ep 54 - Song 4: "Bloodwine" by The Post Mortems



"Bass with too many effects pedals, vocals filling the role of guitar, drums that DO NOT STOP...

"You're reading this because we interest you. Please, allow the mystery to enrich your experience of the music, and create your own backstory for the band here:"
- from their Facebook page

"Discovering his music on Pandora, Devin Alexander questions how the Internet radio station, which groups music by genre and similar sounds, paired his group's album with the music of Finish Ticket, Yellowire and Dane Rumble.

'The Post Mortems' genre-defying sound intentionally paints itself into a corner, distinguished from the local music scene and hacking out its own niche with a blunted battleaxe.

"'The mystery of what we sound like is even more so than a band with four people in it ... because people have to triangulate with something else in their head more than a band that has more obvious influences,' Alexander said in a sit-down interview.

'Drummer Al Raymond and Alexander, the bassist/vocalist, will happily share the names of their influences, but they strongly discourage anyone from expecting their music to sound anything remotely like them. An array of effects are sprinkled through The Post Mortems' sound, rounding out the sludge-jazz and pop-rock songs...

"The Post Mortems, which had its genesis as a three-piece band, evolved after the guitarist left several years ago.

"Now the duo sludges through grungy distortions and power-progressive thrash to deliver fuzzy bass-and-drum goth melodies.
- from the article, "Post Mortems release 'Cracked and Crooked' album", by Tripp J Crouse in The Quad City Times

Lineup:
Al Raymond - drums and locks
Devin Alexander - bass and vox


Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ThePostMortems/

BandCamp:
https://thepostmortems.bandcamp.com/

ReverbNation:
https://www.reverbnation.com/thepostmortems

To download the whole podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":
https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode54/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2054_.mp3

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Ep 54 - Song 5: "Murder Blood" by The Saddleback Zombies



The Saddleback Zombies is one-man band from Douglas Havlick, who also works as the one-man band, Scarvation. Why he needs two one-man bands, I do not know.

Lineup:
Douglas Havlick - vocals, instruments


ReverbNation:
https://www.reverbnation.com/thesaddlebackzombies

Scarvation Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/scarvation/

To download the whole podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":
https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode54/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2054_.mp3

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IMSC Ep 54 - Song 6: "All the Lights Are Fluorescent" by Tom Hummer



"Just another guy with a guitar... drums, bass, saxophone, piano, odd samples, and scary noises...

"One day Tom Hummer decided to make some music."
- from his Facebook page

"Tom Hummer is a musician from Ames, Iowa, who has released four albums. His style incorporates indie rock, folk, hard rock, industrial, and post rock." - from his Locusic page

"A multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter coming from Iowa, who also plays bass with the rock band Thoughts of Crossing since 2003... He began releasing music under his own name with the 2010 album, The Greenhouse Effect, an intriguing and quite unique bland of folk influences and noisy endeavors. Three years later, he came up with the concept-driven and experimental Pairs, where every song, except one, is linked to another. His third album, Sexism Sells, was published in 2015, and contains his most angry and heavy material to date, bringing social commentary to the forefront of the lyrics. This record was quickly followed by the post-rock influenced and largely instrumental Dystopian Blues in May 2016."
- from his Sputnik Music page

"Tom Hummer is the kind of artist that rewards those of us who are always searching for that hidden, undiscovered gem. His music is infectious and original; haunting, yet inspiring.

"His first three albums show his increasing skill as a craftful songwriter, presenting us with tunes unlike much other music I’ve heard before. Hummer accomplishes this by refusing to adhere to any particular structure or sonic motif. His songs build and explode in both dynamics and ideas while covering a variety of genres: rock, folk, industrial, heavy metal, singer-songwriter, post-rock, to name a few. And yet, Hummer is able to deliver his sprawling epics via cohesive, themed listening experiences. Lyrics and wordplay not only add intrigue to Tom’s music, but they also serve as a device that ties everything together by establishing common themes and concepts that eat at our fundamental understanding of society and the world we live in."
- from the decription of the Velocities in Music podcast where he discuss how he writes his music

Credits;
Writing, performances, mixing, production, and mastering all by Tom Hummer


Home page:
http://www.tomhummer.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tomhummermusic/

BandCamp:
https://tomhummer.bandcamp.com/

To download the whole podcast, right click on the link below and hit "Save as...":
https://archive.org/download/IowaMusicShowcaseEpisode54/Iowa%20Music%20Showcase%20-%20Episode%2054_.mp3

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