When we last heard from longtime Milwaukee musician Sage Schwarm, the former Codebreaker member was, well, releasing a “new” Codebreaker song. The song, “When The Lights Go Down,” was described as something of a “lost track,” one that was set aside after Codebreaker disbanded in 2012. So what has Schwarm been up to lately? Enter The Quilz, the musician’s latest project with singer Becky Heck.
Mining a dark-wave-meets-electro-mod vibe that should go down smoothly with past Codebreaker fans (or, let’s face it, anyone with a discriminating taste in any of the aforementioned subgenres), Schwarm and Heck vamp it up on their debut self-titled EP, released back in October. The EP mixes originals like “Take Me To Your Leader” and “Say Anything” with covers like Devo’s “Girl U Want” and Materiel Issue’s “Valerie Loves Me.” Then there’s the icy-cold “Robot Love,” an original tune that has been given the full video treatment by director Nicolaus Ortiz. Check it out below, and look for the group’s debut full-length, Fishing For Ketchup, sometime in the near future.