Looking Back on a Year of Iowa Music: Collaborations Founding Nations

By Nate Logsdon

 

I’m not gonna lie: 2011 was the best, the headiest and the most productive year of Iowa music I have ever witnessed.

What distinguished 2011 as an incredible year for the burgeoning Iowa scene was that cutting edge projects taking place around the state started to join forces and work as a unified, collaborative and interconnected state-wide community of music and love.

 

Oh, and the other thing that made the past year so great? The music itself.

 

There were too many tear-inducingly beautiful moments this year to recount them all, but I’d like to take a moment to reflect on some of the most telling, brilliant, slayful and forward-thinking musical events that I encountered in 2011. My heart is racing as I write this. I am full of love for this state. I am also full of caffeine.

 

Okay, let me start by repping two bands that have effected my life and artistic sensibilities on the most fundamental level and who both had red-letter years.

 

First of all, there’s the Queen of Ames Music (as I like to think of her), Mother Gem (as she likes to think of herself), the original Midwest Diva (as all people agree): Leslie Hall of the classic Ames-based pop act Leslie and the Lys. For more than a decade, Leslie has been following her art, pursuing her unique craft, developing the persona and performance that many thousands of passionate fans around the world have come to really love and, in many cases, kinda worship. In 2011, she embarked on a three-month long tour with the travelling circus that is the Yo Gabba Gabba live show. YGG is a children’s show on Nickelodeon and Leslie is a recurring character on the show. For the live performances, she comes out as, of course, her bedazzled self and makes the kiddies shimmy. As a part of the tour, she got to perform live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which is definitely the widest exposure of any Iowa artist in 2011, and quite possibly EVER. Then she returned to Ames, put out a new album - “Destination Friendship” – and is getting ready to tour with it in February 2012. Hero.

And my other heroes, the Poison Control Center also had an incredible year of nonstop manic activity, touring, playing shows, making and releasing incredible music and videos and generally being the professional band that they ARE. 2011 was the second half of their 13-month national throwdown that brought them all the way around the country many times over. In the midst of all the travelling they also managed to write and record the greatest album they’ve ever made, the death-defying thrillride of joy that is “Stranger Ballet.” Spin and Pitchforktook notice and were like, “damn.” PLUS, on top of being national rock stars, they never stopped repping Iowa. In fact, repping Iowa was their main thing, what they did best, what they did most, what they will always do.

Speaking of repping Iowa, let’s talk music festivals. Iowa has awesome festivals. Des Moines’ ever-ambitious, ever-successful gigantic throwdown 80/35 had what, in my opinion, was their best year yet. The weather was amazing, the lineup was unbelievable, the local talent shredded grey matter. Remember when all the members of Of Montreal simultaneously jumped into the crowd? That shit was wild. 80/35 is the gold standard of the bigtime urban fest in Iowa and it’s going STRONG.

 

The more ‘underground’ festivals are also dank-beyond-belief. Gotta mention the always-inspiring businessmen-hustler-brothers who make Mission Creek in Iowa City such a tossdown. Last year was beyond insane. I mean, Guided By Voices? Jeff Tweedy? Devotchka? That’s legendary. Mission Creek gets better and better, bigger and bigger every year and it has become a signature event for Iowa City. PRIDE.

 

Now, it’s not really a secret that my second home and deep love is the Twin Peaks-like zone of beauty and mystery known to the human world as Fairfield. This thriving community of culture, art and far-out individuals has its own underground festival in January called Sweat Power and it seriously lives up to it’s name: the power of sweat is abundantly wet. The fest corresponds to the birthday weekend of my friend and personal inspiration Dominic Rabalais (who is also the completely illegal and unacceptable artist Little Ruckus and one of the bros in the outrageously ingenious and powerful Utopia Park, my favorite band of all time, including all bands.) Another amazing thing about Fairfield is that they have monthly (yes, MONTHLY) art walks on the Square. I had the chance to play at one of 2011′s art walks and I’m not ashamed to tell you that it was one of the most fun experiences I had all year and it only deepened the already soul-deep love I feel for Fairfield. I also got to see the mind-boggling diva-fronted pop pioneers Trouble Lights for the first time at that Art Walk and let’s just say that they changed my life forever.

Put all those fests together and what do they inspire? They inspired me and my business partner Chris Lyng to start our own music festival in Ames called Maximum Ames Music Festival. The first year was a hit! We didn’t lose money! Everyone loved it! The community was like “do this forever!” and we were like “okay we will!” and the community was like “yes!” Another cool thing about the fest: there were a ton of d-d-d-DANK acts from the Fairfield music scene who represented SO HARD: Utopia Park, Trouble Lights, Little Ruckus, Lane Weaver, Fierce Wing, Coyote Slingshot and Surgery. Fairfield is Ames, Ames is Iowa, Fairfield is Iowa (that’s math).

Oh my god, my heart is racing even faster now.

 

I got to see some SUPER underground fests this year too (fests on private property that were personal-invitation, word-of-mouth kinda deals). Two amazing ones in central Iowa were Fourth of Julawesome and Cornstalk. So much partying. So much Iowa talent. So deep underground. My brethren of the Ames psychobilly punk band People With Heads hooked up Fourth of Julawesome and my brethren/sistren of the Ames/Jewell soulful blues band Echo 18 hooked up Cornstalk. LOVE LIVE PRIVATE PROPERTY!

 

Antoher thing I loved about 2011 was all the awesome music videos. Bands like Ladysoal, Parlours, Little Ruckus, Josie Overmeyer, The Poison Control Center and Leslie and the Lys all released videos this year that got a ton of traction and earned those artists some much-deserved face-time. It was great to see how people really banded together to help promote one-another’s videos online too, there is a real feeling of camaraderie and mutual support in that style of co-promo, it’s good for the scene as a whole.

Now, what do all these great artists and events and creations have in common? They are all conciously promoting Iowa as a place of culture and music. In 2011, we saw bands and festivals taking it upon themselves to celebrate Iowa together across city lines and scene borders to make Iowa one unified cultural landscape of musical madness. In Iowa, we lead with our hearts. Let’s take this hearts-out approach to life into 2012 and continue to show the midwest and the world who we are: a nation of collaboration.