God speed and good luck to Mr. Jim James in his recovery. Oh man, you think you’ve seen a lot in your day.  You think there are certain events (like say the ordeal with Oasis the other day), that you’ll never witness (and part of you doesn’t want to…but part of you, that part that [...]

So yeah, sometimes Iowa City is deader’na door nail. However, finding two or three good shows a week usually isn’t a stretch, if you’re with it (and if you’re reading this, you’re probably with it). But tonight is completely different. Tonight, Iowa City is host to not one, not two, but THREE awesome shows in [...]

You may have noticed (save Charles Berry at Homecoming), this semester has been devoid of Scope productions at the University of Iowa.  Well that pesky flood put Scope’s primary venue — The IMU — out of commission til at least the Winter, and that’s a hopeful estimate. So in lieu of the IMU, Scope has [...]

Oh man, I hope your DVD player is ready. If you’re watching your two-disc special edition version of Harrold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay on a crappy little DVD player, you’re are really gonna want an upgrade for this. Details are currently sketchy, at best.  Here’s what we do know: Nethervoid, one of Iowa [...]

I believe there is an unwritten rule about limiting the number of exclamation points in a given article to no more than 3. Well, fuck that! We’re too excited at missionfreak to follow rules, let alone unwritten rules! Tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 13th marks the return of Iowa City’s favorite hot dog-hurling trio: The Tanks! [...]

Thursday The Monads, The Mayflies, Illinois John Fever – The Mill Fight the Flood Friday Drakkar Sauna w. Driver of the Year, the Botticellis – Capitol Theatre in Davenport Fight the Flood Saturday Stay Dry Fight the Flood

If there’s one thing that’ll get me writing a Sunday morning post it’s a new Alanis Morissette album. I’m not kidding here; Jagged Little Pill (1995) is one of the few albums, like Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983), to move 30 million units and still be awesome. While Googling around this morning I found out that [...]

If you missed the Blacks’ show in Iowa City this past spring perhaps this video will give you an idea of you what you would have seen: a normal enough guitar / drums duo enhanced by a well-dressed man-beast who gives new meaning (and respect) to playing the tambourine. His name is JDK Blacker and [...]

Iowa City is home to one of the best eccentric pop songwriters in these United States. His name is Sam Locke-Ward and the obvious musical reference point would be Daniel Johnston, which is slightly misleading since Sam isn’t crazy — he’s viciously smart and well put together — though he does share an undeniable link [...]

Being Mission Freak’s resident horror movie guru (sorry Dre), it’s been hard to hold this back – but hey, it’s been weeks since I ranted about something! With tomorrow’s release of new destined-to-suck “Prom Night” remake, I think Hollywood has hit the wall. Is nothing sacred? Must we bastardize every classic? The answer from Tinseltown [...]