It takes a lot of nerve to release an album during the first few days of a new year. “Here you go, new year,” the move seems to say. “Top this.” In the case of Milwaukee’s Body Futures, it’s a move with guts to spare. On the group’s second full-length album, Maybe It’s Just The Weather, hooks are tossed off like confetti, sci-fi sound effects ring out like party favors, and shit just gets big and loud. Welcome to 2018.
Similar to 2014’s Brand New Silhouettes, Weather’s draw is twofold: there’s the band’s loud and noisy sound, full of big guitars, big drums, knotty rhythms, and a single-minded disdain for current trends. (Are openers “Criminal Standards” and “Another Broken String” catchy-as-hell rock songs? Yes. Do they sound like anything else on commercial or indie radio today? Nah.) Then there’s the sometimes sweet, sometimes shout-y vocal interplay between singer/autoharpist Dixie Jacobs and singer/drummer (and occasional Milwaukee Record contributor) DJ Hostettler. Jacobs’ voice is one of the best in town, and can only be likened to a pissed-off Neko Case. Hostettler, meanwhile, shouts along with (and sometimes against) Jacobs on tracks like the geeky “Heliopause” and the Scott Walker protest song “Right To Work.” Speaking of politics, the harrowing “Ropes” contains one hell of a summation of our country’s current predicament: “They’ve cut the budget for ropes in half / Now the flags only fly at half mast.” Welcome to 2018, indeed.
Body Futures will celebrate the release of Maybe It’s Just The Weather Friday, February 2 at Cactus Club, and Saturday, February 3 at Evelyn’s Club Main in Racine. Until then, listen to the whole shebang below.