It’s fitting that Sugar Stems’ 2010 debut was titled Sweet Sounds Of The Sugar Stems. Over the course of three full-length albums—including the new Only Come Out At Night—the Milwaukee power-pop purveyors have ...
The last few weeks have seen the premieres of two new songs from Field Report’s ridiculously anticipated second album, Marigolden. There’s likely more to the come before the record’s October 7 release on Partis...
Last month, pop-minded post-punk trio Heavy Hand released a trippy video for “David Bowie Wants To Steal Your Baby,” the first single from its excellent new LP, Northwoods Knives. The video featured various bod...
Like rock, hip-hop, and nearly every other genre of music known to man, metal comes in a variety of subtle but recognizable flavors: classic, speed, doom, sludge, Norwegian death, etc. The metal embraced by Mil...
Lest you think U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan has been taking it easy and/or working on his ’ceps since his failed 2012 vice presidential bid, think again. The Janesville Republican is still the golden child of his party,...
Every Friday, Off The Record looks to other Milwaukee publications for bits of news we missed throughout the week.
• We’re forever barred from making jokes about NEWaukee’s NEWaukeean of the Week (sponsored ...
The sixth annual Milwaukee Film Festival is just over a month away (cue another round of heart attacks at Milwaukee Film), which means the fest is in full announcement mode. Programs spotlighting Mexican cinema...
If there’s one thing Milwaukee is good at, it’s appearing on dopey online lists—or “listicles,” if you’re nasty. Yes, there’s something about the Brew City that makes it a perennial go-to name for lists of 10 C...
Let’s take a moment to honor those bands that refuse to play the kind of music that typically gets streamed on NPR. Let’s take a moment to pay tribute to bands that stick to their noisy, straight-up rock-and-ro...
Back in the spring of 2012, Milwaukee’s gone-but-not-forgotten Juniper Tar set up shop at The Hotel Foster for four Wednesdays in a row, previewing songs from their then-upcoming album Since Before, and collabo...
Is there anything more punch-worthy than saying “It’s August already? Where did the summer go?” Probably not, so we won’t say it. Instead, we’ll look ahead (past this weekend’s Breadfest/Center Street Daze mayh...
It’s been a few years since Milwaukee hip-hop duo The Hollowz have dropped new music on the city—three years to be exact, which is when the group’s last LP, Dreams Of Sex And Flying, was released. Not that rapp...
This past Sunday, I went to the Lynden Sculpture Garden to see a retrospective performance from the Trisha Brown Dance Company, which kicked off Alverno Presents’ 2014-15 season. To say I knew nothing—and still...
For more than five decades, Alverno Presents has pollinated the city with some of the most original and rewarding performing arts in the world. International music and dance have long been staples of Alverno’s ...
Some albums instantly reward listeners with big hooks, sparkling production, and an eagerness to please. Other albums offer up complex arrangements and knotty lyrics, challenging listeners to unlock the rewards...
For a few months out of the year, Milwaukee is a magical place, filled with festivals, fireworks, and babes and bros on the beach. But the fleeting summer months hide an ugly truth: Milwaukee is a deeply unhapp...
If our calculations are correct, the 2014 Milwaukee Film Festival is little more than two months away. (Cue heart attacks from everyone at Milwaukee Film.) Like past fests, the sixth annual installment—schedule...
Walk into the Cactus Club and you’ll see a silk-screened 12” record created by Milwaukee artist Von Munz promoting The White Stripes’ first out-of-state show, November 13, 1999, in which they opened for The Mis...
Durham-by-way-of-Milwaukee electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso have been having what music industry insiders call “a really, really, really big year.” Amelia Meath and former Milwaukeean Nick Sanborn met at a Cactus Cl...
For fans of perennial song parodist/national treasure/greatest human alive “Weird Al” Yankovic, the past eight days have been bliss. In honor of what will likely be his last proper album, Mandatory Fun, Yankovi...