Author: DJ Hostettler

Long live American Science & Surplus (which needs your help)

May 28, 2025

When my wife and I heard the news that American Science & Surplus launched a GoFundMe to help raise operating costs to move into a new warehouse, citing slumping sales since the COVID-19 pandemic punctuated...

How AEW Collision can help make sense of our current nightmare world

DJ Hostettler

March 26, 2025

In her 2023 book Ringmaster: Vince McMahon And The Unmaking of America, author Josephine Riesman coins the term “neokayfabe” to deconstruct the rise of former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, particularly from the c...

Lauryl Sulfate & Her Ladies Of Leisure keep it dark for ‘The Afterparty’

DJ Hostettler

November 9, 2023

Back in 2019—the Before Times—Milwaukee dance-pop mainstays Lauryl Sulfate & Her Ladies Of Leisure unleashed Dance Music Saves Lives, a love letter to the dance music of their youth and the people in societ...

Sparks played Milwaukee? Sparks played Milwaukee! SPAAAAARKS!

DJ Hostettler

July 7, 2023

So, wait...did Sparks play in Milwaukee 40 years ago? The internet seems to think that they played Summerfest on July 3, 1983—almost 40 years eerily to the day. But I suppose we should forgive Russell Mael, the...

“The best jobbers in the country”: The mystery VHS that unearthed Milwaukee wrestling history

DJ Hostettler

March 2, 2023

The message from my wife popped into my inbox during work a few weeks back. "We just got a mysterious wrestling VHS tape from Eric! He says it's the MWA?" We immediately agreed that he must have misread. He...

30 years ago, a WCW PPV at the Milwaukee Theater changed pro wrestling

DJ Hostettler

February 23, 2022

Chicago's Zelo Pro Wrestling has established a solid foothold in Milwaukee. The company will make its return to Turner Hall Ballroom on Sunday, February 27 for its "Level Up" show, featuring Zelo Pro champ GPA,...

I wrote about Shellac’s Turner Hall show a year ago (and left out some important details)

DJ Hostettler

March 12, 2021

For most of my immediate friend group, last March's Shellac mini-tour, which happened exactly one year ago, was the last live music experience any of us were able to take in before COVID-19 shut the world down....

Shellac drops knowledge, new material, and classic jams at Turner Hall

DJ Hostettler

March 13, 2020

Fans of Shellac's notorious between song question-and-answer sessions didn't have to wait long for their fix at Thursday's night Turner Hall show. Thanks to an equipment malfunction on stage right (Steve Albini...

Lauryl Sulfate explains how ‘Dance Music Saves Lives’

DJ Hostettler

February 5, 2019

Lauryl Sulfate is a product of dance music and outsider art. A veteran of Madison dance clubs and the scene surrounding Milwaukee's long-lost art/fashion space Darling Hall, Sulfate developed an adventurous DIY...

We spent the day playing vintage video games at every vintage video arcade in Milwaukee

DJ Hostettler

September 6, 2018

In case you've been an internet-free shut-in for the last year, vintage arcade video games are back in a big way. The arcade bar scene has been percolating nationwide for the last few years—Logan Arcade in Chic...

Ring of Honor wrestler Silas Young brings Midwest talent to Milwaukee

DJ Hostettler

July 18, 2018

For roughly five years now, Milwaukee wrestling fans have had a local rooting interest when dialing in to CW18 or My24 on the weekends to watch Ring of Honor's weekly TV program. Local wrestler Silas Young has ...

“Why fight for crumbs when we can all make a bigger pie?” Milwaukee’s Austin Aries comes home

DJ Hostettler

April 19, 2018

It's been a long, winding road for Milwaukee's own Austin Aries to get back to Turner Hall. A 17-year veteran of the pro wrestling wars, having won world titles in promotions like Ring of Honor and TNA, Aries s...

Here’s what’s happened in WWE since the last time Monday Night RAW was in Milwaukee

DJ Hostettler

March 5, 2018

As the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center nears completion, the soon-to-be-Old-Yeller'd BMO Harris Bradley Center is going through a victory lap of final events, and WWE has joined the party, bringing on...

If you go to WWE Smackdown at the Bradley Center, don’t flip off the talent: A cautionary tale

DJ Hostettler

October 23, 2017

Goodness gracious, is it already time for another live WWE event at the Bradley Center? WWE's "blue brand," Smackdown Live, broadcasts from the soon-to-be-retired home of the Bucks this Tuesday. Why, it was jus...

Hey Milwaukee! Get your band out of town and check out these 5 Racine/Kenosha venues

DJ Hostettler

October 5, 2017

broadstreet.zone(32806); Stop us if this sounds familiar: you're in a hot-shit up-and-coming Milwaukee band. You work a day job because it's not like someone's bankrolling you, so you don't get to tour as much...

Brewcity Bruisers season opener: a first-timer’s primer

DJ Hostettler

January 5, 2017

It's been well over a decade since flat track roller derby began its modern revival in Austin, courtesy of the Texas Rollergirls. Since those heady days of punk rock, fishnet, and wacky names like (retired Te...

Exclusive: Take a whiff of the latest from Lamb’s Legs, ‘A Dozen Torsos Within Spitting Distance’

DJ Hostettler

May 10, 2016

// It's been quite some time since we've heard from post-punk noise weirdos Lamb's Legs. Their last release, the six-song Summer of Lamb's Legs EP, was unleashed nearly three years ago, and in the time sinc...

Liar’s Trial get dark on new album

DJ Hostettler

February 25, 2016

// On Friday, outlaw country combo Liar's Trial will celebrate an album release three years in the making, as Songs About Mama, Trains, Trucks, Prison & Gettin' Drunk finally sees the light of day after...

The Ex and Ken Vandermark join forces at…the Sugar Maple

DJ Hostettler

October 21, 2015

For those unfamiliar with the sort of experimental jazz and noise shows that take place in the tiny brick cube that is the Sugar Maple’s back room, the news that legendary anarcho-punks The Ex were kicking off ...

“You can’t go from zero to being Merge”: The end (?) of Latest Flame Records

DJ Hostettler

April 16, 2015

Latest Flame Records head honcho Dan Hanke is looking as relaxed as ever. He’s got a lot going on right now—he’s working on buying a house, his excellent band Like Like The The The Death is writing a new record...

Author DJ Hostettler