Posted May 18, 2016in The Sound
They say that all good things must come to an end. Try as we might, no matter how hard we hold on to the things we like in this world, they will eventually ride off into the sunset. For fans of Minnesota-based alt-indie act Motion City Soundtrack, that time
Read More →It’s certainly fascinating and very amusing watching the Republican Party attempting to justify, accept and unify around Donald Trump. From the very beginning of the Trump campaign, most Republican leaders thought he was a joke and totally ridiculed his campaign. Romney called him a fraud and a phony. Cruz
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Posted May 18, 2016in Center Stage
At first, “Every Five Minutes” suggests a whodunit. Jay Jagim’s set threatens to drown us; it suggests a swimming pool, blue, sloping away to the far corner. Laura Sparks’ chatter, at the outset, grates on the nerves. Something is clearly awry for the friends gathered center stage. Their chairs
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Posted May 18, 2016in Locker Room
There was once a time when ESPN consisted of a singular channel — ESPN. Go figure. There was no ESPN II, ESPN III or ESPN Classic. It was just ESPN in all of its youthful glory. Every day of the week, you could set your clock on Chris Berman
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Posted May 18, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
“There are multiple ways of cleaning a herring. What I do is chop the head off, chop the belly off, make sure the skin is off, the fins are off. Then I’m opening the herring by putting my thumb under the back spine, and then I clean the belly and
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Posted May 11, 2016in Homepage Cover Story
Beach Boys frontman Mike Love talks about the good — and bad — vibrations of the past 50 years. It can be easy to forget how great the Beach Boys were. People remember the fun-loving surfer sound, and they remember the album “Pet Sounds.” But when discussing the greatest
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Posted May 11, 2016in Belly Up To...
It’s Tuesday night at Des Moines’ hopping jazz joint, Noce. The three-piece band on stage mixes a cello’s deep bass with the sound of a brass horn and a piano.The dimly-lit ambiance pulses with energy. The music’s volume is low enough for conversation, but loud enough you can still feel
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Posted May 11, 2016in Food Dude
I’ve reviewed so many good new restaurants the last two months (Gilroy’s, Kue’d, Jetheroni Pepperoni, Reed’s Hollow, etc.) that readers said I was getting soft. I figured that was an excuse to revisit a standard-bearer of Des Moines excellence for perspective. At this time, that means Alba to me. Chef
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Posted May 11, 2016in On The Tube
A few shows you need to watch as TV gears up for summer May is mostly a dead zone of season finales and reruns as TV gears up for the summer. Remember all those shows I’ve told you to watch harder in this very column? Now is the time
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Posted May 11, 2016in Sound Check
Beyonce “Lemonade” Parkwood “You ain’t married to no average bitch, boy.” Those words, taken from one of the more devastating tracks on “Lemonade,” should be enscribed on Jay-Z’s tombstone. This album does not mark the first time that an artist has publicly shamed a spouse, but it might
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