The Get Up Kids has dealt with the label “emo band” since Day 1. “It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Matt Pryor, vocalist and guitar player. Now, 16 years later, the band members don’t care...

The lyrical themes of mechanical tyranny in Iconoclast mark a drastic shift from the fantasy epics the New Jersey metal quintet explored on past albums, most recently 2007’s Paradise Lost. Yet these...

Nathan Gould is a 2010 University of Iowa graduate who works as a marketing associate at the Englert Theatre. The Daily Iowan: What exactly is your job at the Englert? Nathan Gould: My title is marketing...

Emiliano Lasansky picked up his first instrument when he was 7. Starting with the violin, the now 18-year-old Lasansky’s love for music grew quickly as he moved on to electric bass when he was 10 and...

Jessica Lea Mayfield, an Ohio-born singer/songwriter, started performing with her family band when she was just 8. By 15, she had made her first album. And now, at 21, she has opened for the Black Keys...

Sunkissed skin and plenty of rest is apparently all it takes to unleash an event that’s been in a 12-year slumber. After a successful three-year run in the late 1990s, the Iowa City Firecracker 500...

A circus is coming to Des Moines this weekend. There’s no big top, no ringmaster. No wild animals or trapeze artists. Instead, there will be three stages, 30,000 fans, and a musical menagerie: mashup,...

Holly Newsom considers herself more of a songwriter than a vocalist. Passionate about the paradox of life and the things in it, she creates the most powerful songs she can with the least number of words.  “We...

Brewed in Liverpool, England, by Robert Cain Brewery, the beer of the week is Cains Bitter. This beer, brewed year-round, features a hoppy, floral aroma and a light, refreshing finish. According to the...

Live performances can provide the ultimate connection between a fan and a musician — and the new “Intimate at the Englert” series will allow fans of Haley Bonar and Holcombe Waller to gain access...

The recent popularity of shows such as “America’s Next Top Model” and “Project Runway” seem to have started a trend with young women trying to start fashion careers. The Daily Iowan sat down...

Alex Versackas wants people to look beyond the wobble-wobble. The noise is a colloquial reference to the grinding, distorted bass sound heard in dubstep, a style of electronic dance music headling this...