Many times, bands with one of the breakout songs of the summer don’t necessarily amount to a great live show. After the success of a single, the EPs and albums that follow tend to be rush jobs, revolving around that radio-friendly hit, and subsequently that less than stellar material becomes the filler building up to the band playing their hit
Read moreThe US Cellular Connections Stage at Summerfest saw one of its most solid lineups of the festival’s duration on Friday night, with local standouts GGOOLLDD, followed by indie up and comers Atlas Genius, and culminating in England’s The Kooks. For all three sets, at least the front portion of the bleachers at the stage were filled, and all three got
Read moreIn the madness that is Summerfest, I still had time to put together a mixtape for this week. Now, granted, the lineup may have influenced my picks, as evidenced by the presence of Schoolboy Q and Something Corporate (you know, that band Andrew McMahon fronted once). However, there’s a ton of pop punk from my early teenage years there, too.
Read moreThe stage was set on Thursday night for one of the more sentimental performances of this year’s Summerfest, as Vinyl Theatre played the festival for the first time as Fueled By Ramen artists. This was a homecoming for the Milwaukee band, and that was apparent from the number of Vinyl Theatre shirts in the crowd, likely from friends and family.
Read moreRapper F. Stokes has seen a good chunk of the world. He’s toured overseas, put out releases to critical acclaim, and consistently finds a way to evolve. His latest project, however, sets his sights on helping out the youth with “Rappin’ Ricky”, a children’s hip hop series with an educational message. The project has already eclipsed its Kickstarter goal with
Read moreAs a veteran Summerfester I’ve been extremely disappointed with the “World’s Largest Music Festival” these last few years. Bands that played 45-minute sets, little to no encores, and some stages having the volume turned down, I’m looking at you Miller Lite Oasis, left a very unkind taste in my mouth. This year made me forget all of that in the
Read moreComing off of an extraordinary run throughout the past two years, Bastille took their set to the Miller Lite Oasis for the opening night of Summerfest, where they unfortunately became victims of circumstance. For whatever reason, the festival’s opening night doesn’t always seem to be the ideal slot for headliners, as I fondly remember from last year’s energy-depraved Arctic Monkeys
Read moreThis week’s mixtape is a little erratic, but when isn’t it, really. There’s a lot of indie, but I’m ashamed to say Kriss Kross, I mean Rae Sremmurd’s “This Could Be Us” was an earworm for me, as well. There’s also some La Crosse pop punk in Of The Fact’s “Breakdown”. Definitely a band I’d say to check out if
Read moreThe Cream City Collective is a hard working group of young emcees that are determined to get their names embedded into the Milwaukee hip hop scene. One of their latest releases is the debut mixtape from Jay Michael, “Narukami: Season One”. Jay gets the chance to spit his style to the world, and there’s plenty of appearances from other members
Read moreVic Mensa is officially in here. In just a few days, Vic and Kanye’s visuals for “U Mad” have already surpassed a million views. Granted, the production is incredibly hard and Yeezy is on the track, but that’s still a hard milestone to crack in just a short time. The Grant Singer directed video is stunning, and definitely fitting for
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