War causes irreparable damage to everyone involved. An unjust, not to mention failed war multiplies that suffering. In the first single from his upcoming album, Milwaukee native and folk purist Trapper Schoepp sings of such suffering. A plucky guitar riff and spare drums run free for a few bars before he begins to sing. “Brother don’t you know we were
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Milwaukee-based and genre-bending, Khal!l released a steady stream of singles last year. “Fast Break” is his first track of the new year. 808s knock and snares snap under his autotuned vocals, synths coming and going to leave plenty of space for the lyrics to come through. The song progresses somewhat over its short length, with female vocals coming in to back the last
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ARTS & Crafts, the latest project from Milwaukee’s own Quies Terry, dropped last week following a one-of-a-kind album release party. The album and the event stand as mirror images of each other, Quies as host and Quies as poet together reflecting a single picture of what he and his music stand for. I was greeted at the door by the
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The latest single from Stuart is a heartfelt ode to the love of his mother. Solely backed from beginning to end with sweet fingerpicking, Stuart is vulnerable as he tells stories of the moments that shape his view of the woman who raised him. His conversational, half-sung verses are separated by a chorus sung by Klark. Stuart loves his mom,
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Milwaukee’s music scene is rife with great rock and roll, and its full of talented rappers. But the middle child, so to speak, between these two genres sits a just-as-promising lineup of R&B artists. The newest single from Milwaukee native Leroy Booker proves that there’s soul in the 414. A thick curtain of R&B instrumentals lay heavily on this track. The
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A new face in Milwaukee has hit the ground running with a new album, According to Us. Having just moved here back in August, the nineteen year-old DIY guy is itching to put himself out there. “I started doing music as a revenge story,” he says, having found creating to be an outlet for his frustration with not being taken seriously in school
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Experiencing love in a new way is something magical, and Andrew Cesarz expresses that magic on his newest single. A love song in the purest form, theatrical piano comes in alongside his voice. The occasional blues lick jumps out under his heartfelt lyrics. And before long the drums and accompanying instruments come in, creating a sonic sweep of sweet pop ballad,
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We all know how evasive Santa Claus can be. But even he has slip ups once in a while—this track is the story of one of his latest. Over an instrumental composed solely of a laid-back finger-picked chord progression on the guitar, Joe Quinto sings the story of how he left some pot cookies that he couldn’t finish out on the
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The newest visual from Death Is A Business is a blast of color, both literally and figuratively.
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Giving expression to the weight of unhappy experiences in the past, “Baggage” appears to be a catharsis for Ja Dubb. Seriously melodic, the song has a sweetness to it that is balanced out by fat 808s and snappy high hats. This newest video from Ja Dubb, directed by Millie x, which accompanies the track shows her spitting bars and singing
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The Milwaukee native, now underground New York rap staple R.A.P. Ferreira is back with a new album. Interesting beat after interesting beat back heady bars. A couple feature some jazzy brass lines, some lean more into the synthetic sound of modern underground rap. Both of which get in the ear while leaving plenty of room for the ponderous lyrics that
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Some musicians know their sound in a definite way. Atmospheric soft-rock is the definite sound on the newest album from Dan Kolesari. The first couple tracks soar with sweet guitar riffs and saxophone lines, most of the back half chug along with somber instrumentation and heartfelt vocals. All the while Dan relates all sorts of feelings and experiences. From longing
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The newest from NEWSKI is here. On this EP, the locally established singer/songwriter provides something for everyone who enjoys some well-done modern rock. With tasty guitar throughout, the 5 tracks on this EP stay fresh from one to the next. Some go upbeat in a bluesy way (Seek Asylum From Myself), others lay into the laid-back grunge like a bed
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The 5th album from Milwaukee rapper Smokey Jonez is here. Hard flows, slick beats, and a well-blended sense of both variation and continuity of character from track to track make this album a tight piece of work. The subject matter of his Smokey’s bars cover a lot of ground. Smokey has been in the game for a while now and makes that
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Newest from Milwaukee native Wells is this LP, “ParkingLot Musick (Greatest Love Story Ever Told). Enthusiastic from the start, the songs here show us that Wells has a lot to say about the woman in his life. Intimate moments together, navigating trust issues, and the thrill of planning for the future are all explored on the bars here. Did
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There’s a place where minds go to melt, where ears go to be soothed into oblivion. And that place is the sonic landscape created in “Pothead Social Club Volume 2”. With some songs being entirely instrumental, others having sparse bars or repeated choruses, they all provide the same extremely chilled out, couch-locking vibe. This doesn’t make it boring though— the drum
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Milwaukee alt-rocker Zach Pietrini has a new album out, and it sounds of the DIY guy’s many influences. Opening track “Dead End Town” is upbeat and sets a pattern for most of the album’s songs: being lyrically reflective and often somewhat sad on one hand, musically leaning heavily on often-riffing guitar and chill drums on the other. The more upbeat songs on the
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Milwaukee native musician Josh Trimble brings the funk on this newest single of his. For the bulk of the song, his clear voice rides easily over sultry guitar and jittery drums. His lyrics shift back and forth between statements about the hands of creation and other such abstractions and definite feelings like the urge to get to know someone. As such,
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The newest single from Cloak, who is described on their Bandcamp as an “Experimental dreamcore artist”, this track certainly is dreamy to its core. From the plodding arpeggios it opens with to the almost chant-like repetition of poetic lyrics, the song keeps the listener’s head in the clouds all the way through. That’s not to say it ever gets boring as
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Opening with a minute of foreboding guitar plucking, this track sounds like it could go anywhere.
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At the close of a summer full of basement and club shows, Midwest tours and a sold out showing of a locally made feature length film, three bands and a DJ play a show which they unanimously agree was their best show yet.
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