As anyone who was at Mitten Fest Saturday can attest, spring is on its way. Still, despite the slowly rising temperatures, the increased amount of daylight, and Brewers pitchers and catchers mere days from reporting to spring training, chilly days like, say, Sunday are just quick to remind Milwaukee that winter is still very much here. With Wisconsin’s cruelest and longest season here for about six more weeks, Breadking collective co-founder Myles Coyne wanted to bestow a late seasonal gift upon the city with Coal, a four-song winter-themed split.
The first release on Breadking’s label component is a doozy, as Coyne enlisted an impressive cast of artists from Milwaukee and beyond. Milwaukee’s own Hello Death and Christopher Porterfield (a solo venture totally separate from his Field Report project) each provided subversive winter hymns. Beyond the locals, Baraboo-born (now Nashville-based) band Boom Forest and J.E. Sunde (of The Daredevil Christopher Wright) each supplied sullen seasonal songs. The four-way split was born when Coyne saw Hello Death perform their eventual contribution—”On A Quiet Winter Night”—during a Tap Milwaukee session in late 2013 and sought to organize a wintery split.
“When I was growing up, every other Christmas or so, my mom would forget about a really awesome present and randomly find it some months later. It would always be one of the sickest gift and have a lot of thought and love,” Coyne says. “Please accept this release as a very late present on behalf of all of us at Breadking.”
Coyne says he plans to release Coal in cassette form in the near future. Until then, enjoy Coal in its digital glory, only at Milwaukee Record.