November 18, 2005 - The 100s
Yesterday I introduced you to the local locker owners, today you get to hear about a great new Iowa band. I got their CD as a pledge gift for the KUNI public radio pledge drive. KUNI is my favorite radio station as they play everything - not just classical and jazz. They play progressive music in the evenings, folk music, blues, live concert broadcasts of local bands, and the usual assortment of news, talk etc. You can listen in on the internet at their streaming web link.
At any rate, the disc they sent (I said I don’t care what CD they sent as long as it was a local band). The 100s are a band with members from music hotbeds like Mt Vernon, Anamosa and Central City. Here’s a press review about the band:
“Uncle Tupelo started the movement. The 100s are keeping it alive in Eastern Iowa. The ‘movement’ is “alt-country”, an amalgam of country, rock, punk, folk and blues. The 100s feature six veteran musicians who have played most styles of music throughout their careers. Their songs feature three- and four-part harmonies and a layered sound bolstered by banjo, mandolin, lap slide, dobro, and fiddle. “We play 14 instruments between the six of us, so there’s a lot of variation,” says guitarist and mandolin player Pete Raine.”
I like their sense of humor - here’s a picture of the 100s from their web site:
Here’s their commentary about another similar band:
From the “You’re-Not-Gonna-Believe-It-But” dept: Somewhere on the back gravel roads of Japan is a six-piece band called Hyaku-Shiki. (That’s “The 100s” in Japanese.) Here’s a shot of the band (you can check them out on their Toshiba/EMI label at www.100s.jp). You simply can’t make this stuff up. It’s like a parallel alternate universe of music on the other side of the big beach ball…
Listen to a sample from “Happy on the Farm“
