The Secret History of the Cedar Valley

Spent the day taking the exhibit down. It was sad.

Thanks to everyone who loaned us materials for the exhibit, especially Chuck Hoffman, Paul Stanard, John Fecik, Ed Ware, Chris Kenline, Barb Schlif and Dave Deibler, Greg Honnold, Steve Turner, Dana Lechtenberg, Adam Bolts, Joe Reihle, Maria Fluette DeGuzman, Mike Wilson, Ben Wilson, Steve Potter, Bryan McCarty and Tara Pickering.

Thanks to Tara & Dena Pickering, Bianca Grace, Nathan & Christine Perry, Lauren Kahler, and John Fecik & "his girls" for helping install this huge exhibit on a tight timeline.

Thanks to Bryan McCarty and Kyle Thye for their assistance with designing promotional materials.

It was a great success - probably the most visited art exhibition in Wartburg's history. Thanks to everyone who came by to see it!

On Saturday night, March 17, 2007, The Secret History of the Cedar Valley opened to a crowd of over 150 at the Wartburg College Art Gallery in Waverly, IA. In attendance were many of the musicians involved in the bands represented in the exhibit.

Among those attending were Steve Turner, all members of Drednex and Aggressive Chubbies, Barb of House of Large Sizes, Clair Clarke, Colin Lamb (Ran sound at Dean's Parkade Lounge), Chris Kenline, Sara Shelton, Nathan Perry, John Fecik, Denise Narey, Matt Borger, Derek Reynolds, Jay Perkins, Scott Ream, Marcus Brewer, Leah & Chuck Hoffman, Steve Potter, Mike Wilson, Blake Badker, Stephen Oulman, Neils Thulstrup, Noel Isley, Dana Lechtenberg, Josh Otten and Cam from FSU Garage, Heather & Justin Baumgartner, Benjy Klosterman and Jason & Justin from Old Scratch Revival Singers.

Attendees came from as far away as San Francisco CA, Oakland CA, Portland OR, Minneapolis MN, Jonesboro AR, Iowa City IA, and Des Moines IA.

Wartburg Professor Emeritus Arthur Frick said it was the largest crowd he had ever seen at an art opening at Wartburg College in the history of the art gallery.

It was a great success! Thanks to everyone who helped to make this exhibit possible!

I will be posting photos soon! (If you took photos at the opening, I would be interested in getting copies--please email me).

We've been metafiltered.

Todd Totale blogs about the Secret History exhibit, DIY, and the nature of nostalgia.

My kind friend Eric really "Diggs" this exhibit:



For the record, that quote is not from me... probably from someone else on the wiki?

For any of you who want to help promote the exhibit, I have created a Media Kit site with links to high-res images for print publications. You can also use them to print out your own copies of the awesome Album Cover Poster.

The Secret History Media Kit

Also in the Media Kit are some fun promotional pieces illustrated by Wartburg student Kyle Thye.

Feel free to email them to your friends, post on MySpace, Facebook, etc.

A poster has been designed which will be used to promote the exhibit. It showcases over 120 album, cassette, and CD cover art from releases from bands associated with the underground music scene in the Cedar Valley 1977-2007. Click on the poster for a larger view:

I apologize for any ommissions. I tried to get the word out and collect as much together as I could and in the end had to make print deadlines.

Enjoy! You should be seeing these around CF/Waterloo/Waverly in the next week.

Just dug out some VERY old negatives of Crock of Dookey from 1987. Scanned them in on a flatbed and they look pretty decent.

I went to check out the Iowa Underground Archives and they have just released a beta version of their own Wiki. They've wrapped a Mambo CMS around a MediaWiki installation.

It is a bit confusing to use and navigate, so until the beta testing is over, their old site can still be accessed here.

This is great news--as the site had languished a bit due to infrequent updates. With their new site and our own Secret History Wiki, which launched in November, the collaborative history of the Iowa underground music scene should be well-represented.

This weekend I was rummaging through my parent's attic and found the box with almost all my old flyers! I had thought they were lost. They are invaluable in figuring out which bands played at which times in which venues from 1985-1988. I will be scanning these in over the holidays and will post some of the more interesting ones!

I also found the original collages that I used to make flyers for shows I set up, plus the original pasteups for all the zines I put out. I'll be sharing the highlights from those too in the coming weeks!