William J Locker is best known to people around town as the drummer for two of the more talented acts to grace Des Moines stages in the past decade, Bright Giant and Towncrier. The former took a break nearly two years ago and hasn’t really been heard from since. On
Read More →Not everybody is picking up what Madison Ray is putting down. Like virtually any artist who has created for public consumption, Madison Ray has suffered the slings and arrows of negative response, sometimes in this very forum. Dealing with it is part of the coming of age that any performer
Read More →MarKaus knows that Des Moines does not have the best relationship with hip-hop. The Kansas City-born MC has been a resident of Des Moines for the past four years and has watched the town’s hip-hop scene grow and change during that time. He has also seen the stagnation. “I feel
Read More →The past year has been good to Roxi Copland. Since we last checked in with her, Copland’s 2014 LP, “Truth Be Told,” has become her most successful album to date. Tracks from the album are finding regular rotation on radio stations around the country, and Copland’s first tour in support
Read More →Murder Earth has been working on this for a long time. The Des Moines metal four-piece is set to release its debut album, “Waiting for the End of Man,” this week at Lefty’s. It is the culmination of three years’ worth of work that has included tweaks, re-tweaks, countless live
Read More →There is an adage that says you do not become a great writer without first being a voracious reader. Similarly, I am convinced that one does not become a great songwriter without first living voraciously. Sara Routh, the 38-year-old Norwalk native, is a heck of a songwriter, and now she
Read More →Andrew Fleming is the kind of guy who stays busy. The Brother Trucker front man has developed a reputation as a hard, quality worker, but the last few weeks have seen him work through a period of transition. Most notably, Brother Trucker’s long-time monthly gig at El Bait Shop —
Read More →
Posted August 19, 2015in Sound Circuit
For as long as music has been played in Des Moines, the city does not, in all honest reality, have a huge number of bands that we could call “legendary” or “iconic.” Each person you talk to in the scene will have a different definition of what that means, to
Read More →
Posted August 12, 2015in Sound Circuit
Unlike virtually everyone else in the local music scene, Brian Holtz did not come to music as a toddler, amped up and ready to rock. Instead, Holtz came to the game later than perhaps anyone else performing in town today. “I was a cop for 30 years,” he said. “I
Read More →
Posted August 05, 2015in Sound Circuit
The New Bodies have, in some form or another, been playing together since high school. “We started a band called Stuck With Arthur when we were students together,” said New Bodies front man Adam Bartelt. “That band actually stayed together until about 2009, when we all decided we wanted to
Read More →
