Back in 1994, the local band Tripmaster Monkey filmed the video for their first single, “Shutters Closed,” off their album “Goodbye Race” here in the Quad-Cities, featuring a variety of area folks as extras, including this reporter. The video was shown on MTV and other national video shows, and lives on in the recesses of […]
A look back at Quad-Cities indie rock band Tripmaster Monkey, from their start in the late ’80s through their heyday in the mid-late ’90s signed to the Sire and Elektra Records labels, to the recording of their current album, “My East Is Your West.” (Photos are taken from the Tripmaster Monkey Facebook gallery.)
It was always stunning to me that Tripmaster Monkey never hit it bigger than they did. Back in the mid-late ‘90s, the band – singer Chris Bernat, guitarist and singer Jamie Toal, drummer Marty Reyhons and bassist Wes Haas – had everything going for them. They were of and in the zeitgeist, with a perfectly […]
Tripmaster Monkey, one of the most commercially and creatively successful bands in Quad-Cities music history, will release its first album in more than two decades, “My East Is Your West,” in record stores and online stores and sites on August 6. The group — guitarist and singer Jamie Toal, singer Chris Bernat, drummer Marty Reyhons, […]
Tripmaster Monkey released its first album in over 20 years, “My East Is Your West,” this week, and like the veering navigation implied by the title, it’s been a strange trek of various directions for the members over the past few decades back to their current reunion. At their mid-’90s peak, Tripmaster were signed to […]
There’s a robust family atmosphere that fills Sal Vitale’s and Sons, with the same richness and flavor of their delicious Italian food. The authentic Sicilian restaurant at 1010 Park Ave has been a family tradition since opening in 1984, said owner Salvatore Vitale, and given how the amiable Salvatore beams with jocularity and pride when […]
If you’re looking for a custom guitar unique as your playing style, you don’t need to fret those frets, just pick Shumaker Guitar Works at 1706 N. Brady, Davenport. The sharp shop, at suite 102, is packed with stacks of guitars and musical memorabilia along its walls, everything from vintage acoustics to flying V’s, and […]
You’ll find quaint, cute, fun and funky products more folksy than a dropped “g” at Rustic Pickin’s, a new store that just moved from its old Park Avenue locale to new digs at 225 E. 2nd St., in Muscatine. The location specializes in the suddenly hot market for repurposed items, furniture, housewares and the like. As […]
If you’re drifting through a haze of heat exhausted and you see a painted shack near the side of the road, don’t worry, it isn’t a mirage. It really is nirvana. Nirvana in the form of icy cold refreshment. Nirvana in the form of the Flamingos Tropical Cone stand. For more than five years, Flamingos […]
Keeping your items safe and secure is what fires up the owners of Blue Flame, a secure storage facility at 18602 County Road in Fruitland, Iowa. How do they achieve that? “We have a very secure storage facility and buildings,” said Rocky Phillips Jr., manager of Blue Flame. “We have one building with temperature controlled […]
