Hello, friends of Iowa music! The last week has been great for the Max Ames crew! Mumford’s is staying very busy recording their new full-length (which is going to be supreme), Christopher the Conquered & His Black Gold Brass Band recorded a second Daytrotter session (listen to the first one here while you wait for this one to be released), then played the beautiful Sondheim Center in Fairfield, Iowa with the extremely wonderful Josie Overmyer (the above photo is a shot from that night, which you are probably wishing you had been a part of, if you weren’t). Christopher then took himself to Pella, Iowa to perform a solo show for the good people of that town at the Lamp Post Lounge, which was absolutely amazing! Let’s just say Pella gets down.

While we’re on the topic of Christopher the Conquered shows, check out this epic poster, designed by the prestigious Iowa artists Van Holmgren, for an upcoming performance in Des Moines with the perfect Seedlings, Sean Huston, and H.D. Harmsen.

Amazing. Anyway, on top of all that greatness, check out this bit of news: the Maximum Ames All-Stars are set to perform at the one and only Iowa State Fair (as in the greatest state fair in the world – if you don’t believe us then check out this book that it’s in). Who are the Maximum Ames All-Stars? Good question. We’ll answer that. Eventually. For now, mark August 19th on your calendar. It’s gonna be good.

Beside all that, we’ve been busy preparing for the Blues Pills record, which is gonna be something else. We’re gonna have a lot more to share with you regarding that very soon!

Meanwhile, other amazing stuff has been happening in Iowa, without our help! A bunch of great bands (Love Songs For Lonely Monsters, Seedlings, Ladysoal, Emperor’s Club, Holy White Hounds, The Wire Frames, and The White Elephant) have all been playing live on Iowa Public Radio for a chance to perform at the 80-35 Music Festival, which is the biggest fest Iowa has to offer (and at which almost all of our artists are performing at)! We can’t wait to find out who’s gonna be playing…they all deserve to!

Also, a really cool interactive art show called Sensory Overload happened in Des Moines this past weekend, and part of the show included musical performances by the incredible Olsen Twinns and Trouble Lights! There are some neat photos from the event right here!

Last thing on our radar: Patrick Tape Fleming of The Poison Control Center just finished producing the debut full-length (coming to you courtesy of the brilliant Afternoon Records) for the amazingly good Ohio songwriter Dolfish. That should be enough to make you want the record when it comes out, but check out this cherry on top: The entire backing band is Iowan. And very close to our hearts. Derek Lambert, Chris Ford (Christopher the Conquered), H.D. Harmsen, Dylan Boyle, and Patrick all play on the record. So we’re gonna call this an Ohiowan record! Let’s finish up this post by listening to Dolfish’s debut EP in preparation for the LP!

See you in heaven ya lounge lizards.

-the MA Crew

We mentioned it last week with an undeserved brevity, but Ames champions Mumford’s began recording their new album, Immediate Family, this week! They’re most of the record at the Unitarian Universality Fellowship of Ames with the help of The Spacement’s Bryon Dudley. In a pre-emptive celebration of how incredible this record is going to be (we would know, Nate performed solo renditions of a handful of songs from the record at Public Space One during Mission Creek Festival – there were some real tear-jerkers), we’re posting this video of Mumford’s performing Triple Trinities live in it’s entirety at The Maintenance Shop . You could spend the next hour and nine minutes being disappointed by your Netflix instant queue, or you could sink in to one weird performance (seriously, the theatrics in that video!).

In other news, we’re proud to announce yet another Maximum Ames release on the horizon for Des Moines’ resident handsome man, H.D. Harmsen. You’ve heard him playing guitar on Christopher The Conquered & His Black Gold Brass Band‘s The Fate Of A Good Man, but come this fall, you’ll be exposed via beautiful vinyl to his glorious solo works. Naming the record Papoose, Dustin has been incubating this masterpiece of a debut album for something like twenty-four years. If you don’t know what a papoose is (like me), read this wikipedia page. When asked why he chose the name for his record, he simply replied “these are songs that I could live inside of”. The record was recorded live on tape in an old schoolhouse in Lovilia, Iowa with High Octane Audio – produced by our very own Chris Ford (this record will be his first as a producer, how exciting!). If you’re not already wiggling in excitement, then get this: this record features a jazz band, a string quartet, and heartfelt acoustic tunes, all wrapped up in some serious Iowan weirdness. We could ramble on about how excited we are about this record, but we’ve got other things to talk about. Stay tuned for more information on this record, we’ll definitely be talking about it again. As an idea for what part of this record will sound like, here’s an early rehearsal of the string quintet featured on the record:

If that’s not enough, here are pictures and even more pictures of the recording process of Papoose!

Moving on: If you somehow happened to miss it, Bella Soul recorded a live album at the Space for Ames last Saturday night with the help of the Dudleys from the Spacement. Getting to listen in on that session was truly a Cinco de Mayo celebration worth remembering. Keep your eyes out for that recording.

On top of those incredible records, Trouble Lights, the New Bodies, Holly Figueroa, Sean Huston, and Lesbian Poetry are all working on incredible new albums right now! There also tons of awesome shows coming up this summer (whoa, Christopher the Conquered AND Derek Lambert & The Prairie Fires got added to the 80/35 Fest line-up!), which you can check out on our regularly-updated shows calendar (to promoters/performers around Iowa, if you have shows you would like to see listed on our website, just e-mail us at shows@maximumames.com)!

Next up is something we’re extremely pumped about. Read on:

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The Greater Des Moines Music Coalition and Maximum Ames are very excited to present a special edition of Music University, an ongoing series of open conversations about the world of creating and sharing music. This is the first of what we hope to be many collaborations!

If you’re a solo musician, band, promoter, or anyone in between, please join us for a conversation about touring as an artist. Touring doesn’t just mean a long string of dates during which you travel the country or world; it can also be regularly playing throughout the year in places that aren’t your home.

We’ve invited a number of people from within our own music community that have experience touring, but more importantly, we’re inviting you! We want to hear why you want to tour, why you care about sharing your music! We want to hear your stories and experiences, good and bad! We want to brainstorm together and help each other out, sharing booking tips, promotion tactics, and favorite venues. Our goal is to share the brilliant culture of Iowa music with the rest of the country and eventually, the world, and if we’re going to be successful, we need to work together!

Of course, talking can only be interesting for so long, so we’ll also have an excellent musical performance by Luke Belknap and, most importantly, FOOD! This is a potluck, so bring something delicious (plus the event is free, so don’t be a bum, bring some veggies, y’hear?). 

Chris Ford of Christopher the Conquered & Maximum Ames Records and Jill Haverkamp of the Greater Des Moines Music Coalition & On Pitch will be hosting/moderating the discussion, so if you’ve ever wanted to give either of them a piece of your mind, now’s your chance!

Music University: On the Road: Building a Tour and Surviving It
Friday, May 18
7pm
Performance by Luke Belknap, plus others TBA
FREE
Orange Gentleman, 702 Clark Ave., Ames
Organized by the DMMC and Maximum Ames Records

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Uh, yeah. It turns out that changing the world is pretty easy. Check out the Facebook event for this here.

Last thing for this week…our friends at the inevitably ebullient Mission Freak Records are giving out deals on the incredibly cool music of Ex-Action Model. You can stream his EP for free below, then go buy the record on sale from iTunes!

Stay tuned for announcements about all kinds of cool goings-on that we’re not even ready to tell you about yet!

And, as always, keep it real.

-the MA Crew

P.S. Sign up for our newsletter to get news updates, special offers, and access to free streaming of our upcoming releases!

She Is Risen! She Is Risen! And She Reigns Forever More! That’s right, folks. We here at Maximum Ames Records are extremely proud to present to you… the birth of Blues Pills. Your savior will descend to earth on July 3rd, in the form of a 7″ disc containing two brutal songs that signify the creation of the most ridiculously badass blues-rock band to ever come out of the state of Iowa. That is absolutely all we are going to say for now, but trust us: we’re gonna say a lot more. Later.

Next up, a bunch of Christopher the Conquered videos. Check it out.

Here’s Christopher playing for some friends and Macalester College students in a pretty lil’ room on the Macalester campus in St. Paul, Minnesota:

Christopher is taking his group of rockers down to Fairfield, Iowa for a very special event at The Sondheim Center on May 11th. Here’s a great interview with Christopher regarding the evening in question (thanks to PeacetownUSA.org for making this!):

Finally, here’s a beautiful video shot by Tony Galloro of Jerrod Jordahl reciting the opening prayer to Christopher’s album release show at The Maintenance Shop in Ames, Iowa. This is truly wonderful.

Christopher the Conquered’s new album has also been making people pretty excited, and we know that because great reviews keep rolling in! Here’s one from Jeremy Hoffman of themilkcarton.com, in which he calls the record a “work of pure love” and “one hell of an album.” And here’s a great write-up from a wonderful music-lover out in good ol’ Germany.

Ok, last but absolutely not the least in any way possible: MUMFORD’S IS MAKING A NEW RECORD. WOW. IT’S HAPPENING. IT’S COMING OUT THIS FALL. WE ARE SO READY. GET EXCITED BY WATCHING THIS VIDEO:

Thank you so much. We adore you.
-The MA Crew

Friends and family,

We hope you watched that video up there. It was shot in Ames, Iowa at the legendary Pink Lady house by Tony Galloro, using a Bell and Howell Zoomatic Director Series, the same style of camera used during the Zapruder Film. That track “10,000 People” is on the new Christopher the Conquered record The Fate Of A Good Man, which you can pick up right here! By the way, here’s a video in which Christopher shows off the collector’s edition LP, which comes with some pretty rad stuff (thanks to Patrick Tape Fleming for the video work here, and to Tony and Sami Villwock for being in the video, and to Ashley Tape Fleming for her secret cameo).

Alright. Anyway, we’ve got lots of stuff in the ol’ pot right now, and trust us, the house smells so good. The potluck is coming soon, in the form of lots of great creations! Today we’re keeping this short, as there’s only a few things you need to know about this week:

• Our Shows page just got a badass makeover. We’ve decided that since we can only release albums for a small portion of the incredible artists that live and play in Iowa, we’re going to start trying to list shows that we think you should check out in cities around Iowa. If you have any good suggestions for shows we should list, email us at shows@maximumames.com with the subject “Show.”

• Christopher the Conquered performed for the Iowa Public Radio show Java Blend last month, and they’ll be airing the show this Friday from 9 to 10 p.m. and this Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. Head here for information on what frequency you can hear the show in your area. You can also stream it online from anywhere in this sad old world.

• We’re starting a new, awesome, collaboration with our favorite record store in the world, Vinyl Cafe, which resides in lovely downtown Ames. Starting in the month of May, here’s what we’re doing: If you buy any turntable from Vinyl Cafe, you’ll get a free Maximum Ames release of your choice, right then and there! And if you buy any Maximum Ames record, you get a free cup of coffee! Isn’t that incredibly rad? Yes, yes it is.

• We’re currently working with the absolutely essential Des Moines Music Coalition (the volunteer-based group responsible for epic Iowa music events like 80/35 (which Mumford’s, Leslie & the LYs, and Christopher the Conquered will all be rockin’ this year), Gross Domestic Product (which CtC and Mumford’s brought their magic to just last week (check out this great review of the show on the wonderful music blog Iowaves.com)), Little Big Fest, and more) to bring their Music University series to Ames! Music University has thus far only been offered in Des Moines, and it is a sort of open discussion about some aspect of being a living, breathing, musician in Iowa, often centered on some guest or panel of guests with experience relevant to the topic at hand. Of course, we’re putting the Maximum Ames twist on it, which means it is going to be very open, involve music actually being made and definitely include food. Think a potluck with people playing music, and then taking time to sit and talk openly and candidly about the challenges and joys of making music! The topic for this gathering is going to be about how to put together a tour and survive it! We’ll have lots of people with experience booking their own tours and executing them in a fulfilling and successful way to talk about this, so we’re pretty pumped! We’re planning this for sometime in May or June, so keep your ear to the ground, you’ll hear the train a’comin’. We struggle to not make sure everyone knows what we’re doing all the time.

• MORE MUSIC. Yes, we are a record label. As you know, the Christopher the Conquered record just came out, and we’re feeling pretty good about that. Make sure you get a copy of this magical album for yourself if you haven’t yet, right here! Anyway, we’re now in a huddle, planning our next move. And we know what it is. We’re super excited about the releases we’ve got on the books for this year, and you need to be, as well. Next week, we’re gonna tell you all about our next release. See you then!

So far, we’ve had some great reactions from those that have heard the album already, and we’re ecstatic to release this behemoth of a horn-laden orgasm to the masses. At the release shows this weekend in Ames and Des Moines, the album was literally flying off the shelves in some sort of David Lynch alternate reality where records resist the forces of gravity and levitate throughout the room, sometimes attacking innocent bystanders, for which we give our most sincere apologies. We blame Trouble Lights for that. But anyway, we sold a lot of records.

Already, proving yet again that central Iowa is not the bromidic portrait of insipid life, Des Moines is Not Boring’s Dave Murphy has given “Fate of a Good Man” a glowing review, with generous words like,

“CTC are hardly just old fashioned musicians. They are classic performers and entertainers. Chris’ vocal range is impressive, as his tenor warble is rarely off-pitch on accident. But it isn’t just his singing, it is how he chooses to sing. His inflection and the pauses and vibrato are all done with purpose and hit at the exact right time. The horns are highlighted in just the right way, with the trumpet featured as the rhythm instrument on occasion, the trombone at others, and the sweet sounds of saxophone getting its due with the occasional solo.’

And if that wasn’t kind enough, CityView’s Chad Taylor called the album ”a triumph” and “one of the best things you’ll hear this year,” and we totally agree. Unless Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles and Sly Stone get together and make an album. That would probably be the best album you’ve ever heard. He also gave Mumford’s Triple Trinities a fantastic review, noting it for being “thought-provoking, entertaining and worthy of (artistic, if not theological) debate.” While we’re on the topic of rave reviews for Mumford’s, check out this great review of their split 7″ with The Wheelers, in which you’ll be told that “you’ve never heard anything like this before.”

If you weren’t one of the amazing people that pre-ordered the record or picked it up at the release show at the Maintenance Shop on Friday or Gross Domestic Product on Saturday, there’s nothing to fear. You can order your own copy here on our website or pick one up at Vinyl Cafe in Ames, ZZZ Records, Raygun, Mars Cafe in Des Moines, and Record Collector in Iowa City. You can even hear the album on Spotify or pick it up on either Amazon or iTunes, depending on which tablet ideology suits your desire.

We’ve been having a great week here at Maximum Ames, and we were delighted to see such an amazing turnout for CtC‘s release show at the M-Shop. It was a remarkable night, and we were so happy to share such an intimate evening with so many people from the scene. The always amazing Brooks Strause graced the stage along with Sean Huston, making the night an incredibly memorable one for all of us at Maximum Ames. Here’s a beautiful photo from the evening, taken by our good friend and always vigilant photographer Tony Galloro.

The next evening, several Maximum Ames artists and local favorites took the stage at Gross Domestic Product, a showcase of Iowa’s best talent featuring 10 stellar bands, and put on one of the most memorable performances to date.

This was a show that transcended the expectations of everyone in attendance, and lead up to one of the most heart warming and personal performances by CtC yet. If you missed out, don’t worry! We took some pictures.

We were also honored this week when Des Moines’ Juice Magazine awarded CtC a Mixie for Buzz Band and to Maximum Ames for the Maximum Ames Music Festival. (We hear they’ve announced dates for the next festival, so you better head over to Ames247 to get in the know.) Some great friends of Maximum Ames also took home some awards, including the seductive Ladysoal and Sonic Harvest, which is available for purchase through Maximum Ames.

In other news, you should check out Ames High Twist’s YouTube page for a ton of great videos from Aquapalooza, an event to support clean water efforts in Uganda featuring a ton of great Ames bands. If these videos are any indication, you can expect some amazing things in the future from these high school students who put on an amazing day of music. Here’s one to give you a taste:

Oh, and did we mention Christopher the Conquered is going to be playing the main stage of 80/35 this year, along with Mumford’s and Leslie & the LYs? It’s okay, we had to change our pants after we heard the news, too. They’ll be playing a lot of other shows around the midwest to share the new record with y’all, including a particularly exciting show with We Are The Willows, The Poison Control Center, and The Olsen Twinns at The Nomad in Minneapolis on April 27th!

So get out there and keep on the hunt for reality!

Love,
-the MA Crew