MKE Music Night’s latest installment took place at the Miramar Theatre Sunday night, bringing out some of Milwaukee’s most talented young DIY musicians to entertain an enthusiastic crowd of friends, family, and music lovers. The bill included a solo set from Josh Trimble, Christian Porter’s new full-band project Colorblind Chameleon (which fully realizes his original singer-songwriter material), hip hop artists Ace Parker and Jules Mommaerts, and bands Pineapple Migraine, Hoppers’ Luck, The Sunkin Suns, and Dogbad.

The Sunkin Suns host each MKE Music Night. The project is a psychedelic jazz-jam band consisting of guitarist Sam Catral, bassist Milton Tlalok Rodriguez, and drummer Javontae Atkins. Their performance Sunday came last, as they jammed away for a solid hour. A couple of their Riverwest Radio jams can be heard on SoundCloud.

Pineapple Migraine is a funk-soul-jazz outfit and collective of inside-jokers. They are vocalist Joe Humiston, guitarist Josh Trimble, bassist George Ballasteros, drummer Yanni Chudnow, saxophonist Tyler Kraft, trombonist Mike Lizzo, and keyboardist Liam Hartnett. They play a mixture of covers and originals accented by explosive energy from Humsiton, wicked facial expressions from Trimble, and delightful animation traded off between Ballasteros and Chudnow.

The group are longtime friends of one another and have previously played in bands with each other before. Humiston started the project.

“When Joe actually messaged me to make a band, the main people I thought of are the people I was playing with most of the time at the time,” Chudnow said.

“What amazed me is that I was so nervous asking him,” Humiston said, “but once I asked him it all fell together.”

They have two singles currently out, “Can I Hit Your Vape?” and “Green Umbrella.” Each song has a different formula for coming to life, since jamming is a huge component of the band’s creative process.

“Green Umbrella came from us hanging out and I started playing some Latin bossa nova,” Trimble said. “We were pointing at objects around the room to sing about and one of us pointed at a green umbrella laying around. And then Joe turned the lyrics around…for our EP there’s kind of a central theme of being lost in Cat Town, which is like the world of being in the party life and being stuck in that state of psychosis where you’re in that blind fury of getting faded.”

“I think Green Umbrella is the symbol of whatever’s stopping you from really experiencing life,” Humiston said. “The lyrics allude to substances but it could be anything.”

The EP Trimble mentioned is partially recorded with only songs left to do. They record at MATC Studio while Trimble mixes and masters everything.

“It’s really tough getting seven musicians together. There’s only like one time a week that works…and that time always changes,” Humiston said.

“From my behalf I’ve enjoyed the process because of the fact that we’re all understanding of availability and we enjoy it while we can,” Trimble added.

“We’ll definitely be getting together by the end of this year,” Ballasteros said sarcastically.

Pineapple Migraine plan for a summer release for their EP and a broader Midwest tour to accompany it.

Dogbad is a surf indie rock band consisting of vocalist/guitarist Isaac Repinski, vocalist/guitarist Carter Voras, bassist Ethan Suhr, drummer AJ Peal, and keyboardist Nick Hendrickson. The band had been a rough draft of a project until they did Battle of the Bands for Marquette Radio.

Repinski and Voras are moving into the popular Eastside DIY venue The Murray Attic soon. Dogbad had planned to do a live EP for their set at the attic last Friday but the night had been cut short and they did not play. However, they did separate recordings from that night and have those out on Bandcamp now.

“We actually filmed a bit of a music video before the show started and we recorded a few songs we’ve been working on, and that’s what became that EP. But we actually recorded our set tonight and we’ll be released an impromptu EP from our performance.” Repinski explained. “The plan is to hit a studio this summer.”

Ace Parker performed with The Sunkin Suns as his live band. His debut project “MIBMOH” (Maybe I Broke My Own Heart) dropped last December and can be found on SoundCloud. He has a new song “2Far” as well, which dropped early this month.

“I try to play with a live band for smaller shows; I do have a DJ but always at the Miramar I have a band,” Parker said.

Parker explains his debut project’s subject matter.

“I played the song “Best of Me” off (MIBMOH) tonight. It’s really about me going through the ending stages of a failed relationship and where my head was at. I feel like a lot of times there’s always this side or that side. You don’t really get the inside of “this is why it’s not gonna work out.” The project goes through that mind frame and then the later songs are about my outlook on it now.”

Parker has been in the studio with Mic Kellogg, Sean Sison, and Rob Hicks as of late. He is currently working on a project with Tyso SPRME, Jalen Romell and Fiji Smoke, and plans to perform more frequently this summer.

The next MKE Music Night takes place May 24th at Club Garibaldi’s, followed by another on the 31st at Riverwest Public House.

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