November 2011
3 posts
The Beach Boys - "The Smile Sessions"
“The way I saw it, we were in a race, a production race.” So writes Brian Wilson in the liner notes for “The SMiLE Sessions,” a release that completes one of the most incredible and unlikely stories in the history of popular music: how an unfinished Beach Boys album, abandoned by its creator in 1967 after its recording drove him mad and destroyed his band, suddenly materialized 40 years later...
WatchWinter arrives in Milwaukee.
July 2011
1 post
Animals in Human Attire
The line between eclectic and erratic may be even finer than the one between stupid and clever. Animals in Human Attire sit in precarious position, right on that line, almost by design. Jack Tell started out recruiting friends from other bands to work on a solo record for himself. Instead, he ended up fronting an eight-man group that’s all over the place, so much so that you have to wonder...
June 2011
3 posts
WatchIn Memory of Anne Ryan Rasmussen and Patricia Ryan Gilbert.
06/12/11
Maritime - "Human Hearts"
If you’ll forgive some highly technical critic-speak, Maritime just “sound” a lot better on “Human Hearts.” Don’t despair, aspiring rock writers — it’s taken me YEARS to hone my prose and critical thinking to the point where I can formulate these kinds of highfalutin hypotheses with such seemingly minimal effort. Same goes for Maritime. The difference between “Human Hearts” and the...
WatchThe Celebrated Workingman - 05/28/11
Milwaukee Boat Line
More at Rocksposure.com …
May 2011
3 posts
WatchEaster Hunt 2K11
Our Feature Presentation
Killing Osama bin Laden and Watching the War on Terror
Look, I’m glad the bastard’s dead. Thrilled. And like everyone else, I’m impressed — awed — by how the operation played out. In the last four or five days, Obama made a succession of bold decisions that made his dithering during the Arab Spring look even more limp-wristed: green-lighting the strike without, it seems, definite...
April 2011
2 posts
WatchKRISTY! RAGE!
My Office, 4/2/11
Good Night, Gold Dust
Look, I don’t like Good Night, Gold Dust cribbing an EP title from “No Cars Go” anymore than you do, and not just because “Between the Click of the Light and the Start of the Dream” is so long even Fiona Apple would have thought twice, and no, not just because “No Cars Go” is my favorite Arcade Fire song. No, I don’t much like the lift because of everything else about this wonderful EP. A band...
March 2011
3 posts
Drive-By Truckers - "Go-Go Boots"
There was no “ah-ha” moment, no single, stunning, towering track that triggered the thought — the Drive-By Truckers’ music of late is too unassuming for that. It was more like I was gradually remembering something I’d forgotten. Two songs left, nothing pressing, I pulled into my parking space, killed the engine, and sat in my car until new album “Go-Go Boots” finished.
Then I said to...
WatchSleeping in the Aviary - “Another Girl”
Frank’s Power Plant, Milwaukee.
03/11/11
February 2011
3 posts
Ian Olvera & The Sleepwalkers
Wisconsin needs a band like Ian Olvera and the Sleepwalkers. Acoustic singer-songwriters, self-serious alt-country bands that aren’t as good as the Championship — thanks, but no, we’re at capacity. I hear Michigan is lovely this time of year.
We don’t get a lot of hooky power-pop in these parts, and that’s where Olvera comes in. Here’s a guy who knows how to package his disappointments...
WatchSnowpocalypse 2K11, Milwaukee.
January 2011
4 posts
WatchThe Artist at Work, starring @kristykramer.
Watch
bedazzeled asked: Why do you look like such a duchebag in this picture, I thought you were cool? Are you a not cool person just masquerading?
Top Ten Records of 2K10
From Rocksposure.com 1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Kanye West) What should I do? I know this is a rock website. I know we’re all about guitars and drums, not samples and drum machines. I know this. So tell me. What should I do? Should I stop listening to Yeezy? He’s Yeezy. Should I pretend My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy isn’t the single greatest pop record since Purple Rain?...
October 2010
1 post
The Ragadors - "blackinkyswells"
You know the old saying: three chords, infinite variations. That’s the blues. Cranked up to 11, that’s the Ragadors’ debut LP “blackinkyswells” — rolling stones tumbling down a mountain like boulders, anguished midnight wails bouncing off an empty bed, heartless women with blood on their hands, bad memories and restless wandering. Continued at Rocksposure.com …
September 2010
1 post
The Happenstance
Missoura Shore, bitches!
August 2010
1 post
The Wildbirds - "Sunshine Blues"
Nicholas Stuart and Hugh Masterson know something about the old gypsy curse. 2008: The Wildbirds fulfill the promise of coast-to-coast wowing and a big label deal with “Golden Daze,” which belongs on any shortlist of the best Milwaukee albums. Steven Van Zandt features “Suzanna” on one of his “Underground Garage” compilations. ESPN plays “421” during X Games promos. The band gives an old bus...
July 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Pitchfork 2K10: In Review
Continued at Rocksposure.com …
Gold Motel - "Summer House"
You know the story: comely girl-next-door can’t take another Windy City winter, so she packs notebooks full of song lyrics and her boyfriend into the cutest used car on the lot and points the headlights towards California. Along the way, puppy love catches rabies. He slams the passenger door behind him, she continues west, mascara streaking down her cheeks. She finds an open mic night in LA. He...
June 2010
2 posts
Will Write for Vinyl
The music just didn’t sound a good as I thought it should. First thing’s first: I unplugged everything, wiped down all the connections with electronics cleaner, plugged everything back in good and tight … Ehh, a little better maybe. I clicked around a couple A/V forums looking for advice, and a consensus began to emerge. So I headed down to Jo-Ann Fabrics and bought some cork...
May 2010
4 posts
Icarus Himself - "Mexico" EP Release Party
05-21-10
Madison, WI - The Frequency
Before the release party for Icarus Himself’s excellent new EP, “Mexico,” I thought you could put Led Zeppelin behind singer/songwriter Nick Whetro and his songs would still shrink from any pretense of grandeur. “All my life I’ve been digging holes … Sometimes I say terrible things that I know,” Whetro sings on EP...
Missing Pieces
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The “Lost” Finale did not disappoint me. In fact, it ended exactly as I thought it would, as I thought it HAD to end.
I’m not bragging. I’m not saying that I successfully decoded the show’s myriad runes into a solution confirmed by the final two-and-a-half...
The LeBron Face
With apologies to Bill Simmons, let’s talk about “The LeBron Face,” which began as a clever joke in LBJ’s very first Nike ad, has made sporadic appearances throughout LBJ’s playoff career, and occurred most recently last night after LBJ hit two back-to-back three pointers in the 4th quarter, speed-walked through his soon-to-be-former teammates, planted himself on...
February 2010
1 post
inBOIL
In late December I logged onto Science of Sound’s website to see what was new with Rocksposure’s favorite Madison indie label.
Front page, first line: inBOIL, a new solo album from Sleeping in the Aviary bassist Phil Mahlstadt coming out on … Thanksgiving? How did this happen? How did I miss a new release from one of my favorite Wisconsin artists? If only there was some kind...
January 2010
3 posts
Avatarded
On “Avatar,” the future of cinema, and how stupid I may be.
After an opening weekend clouded by an East Coast blizzard, “Avatar” has skyrocketed into that rarefied box office air where our collective pop consciousness takes shape. Look at the list: “Titanic,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” “The Dark Knight,”...
"Coffins" - Icarus Himself
“Oh, how your heart’s on your sleeve,” muses Nick Whetro over some harmless acoustic strumming on album-opener “Pigg.” Sounds like a good thing, right?
Not so much. A menacing twang drifts in and darkens Whetro’s mood until that heart “looks like a piece of dead meat.” Continued at Rocksposure.com …
December 2009
13 posts
Top Five Records of 2009
Trends? Movements? Big thoughts on music in 2009? Uhh … Lots of over-hyped mediocrity. Here are 5 glorious exceptions.
1. “Bitte Orca”(The Dirty Projectors)
2. “Album” (Girls)
The most influential record of the ’00s wasn’t “Kid A,” “The College Dropout,” or “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” — it was a 43-year-old Beach...
72-10
Seems like it happens every Fall: With the NFL Playoffs falling into place and MLB trade rumors swirling, the NBA and its analysts start charting whoever’s in first place against the ‘95-‘96 Bulls 72-10 pace to drum up interest in a season that won’t be front page sports section news until the Spring.
This year’s candidate: the 20-4 LA Lakers. ESPN already has the...
Decibully - "World Travels Fast"
In late 2008, Decibully’s two-years-in-the-making third album, “World Travels Fast,” evolved from Milwaukee’s own mini-“Chinese Democracy” to Milwaukee’s own mini-“Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” when Polyvinyl nixed releasing the record and dropped the band. Decibully streamed the album online last December, and fans have spent most of 2009 wondering...