In MKE Music Rewind we revisit notable Milwaukee music that was released before Milwaukee Record became a thing in April 2014. In this installment: BoDeans’ sophomore 1987 album Outside Looking In.
I‘ve never claimed to be a stone-cold scholar of classic Milwaukee rock bands, but I do alright. I can hold my own when it comes to the history of the Violent Femmes, and I can even drop a few nuggets of wisdom about Pat McCurdy’s first band, Yipes! But if there’s one gaping hole in my “remember some Milwaukee guys” knowledge, it’s the BoDeans.
I’m not sure why this is. The band has been a steadfast Milwaukee and Wisconsin musical presence for more than 40 years. When folks ask “Who are the biggest bands to come out of Milwaukee?” the BoDeans are second only to—you guessed it!—the Violent Femmes. Songs like “Good Things,” “Fadeaway,” and “Still The Night” are irresistible and instantly familiar. And oh yeah, the group’s biggest hit, 1993’s “Closer To Free,” was the theme song to Party Of Five. Not too shabby for a band that traces its roots to Waukesha South High School.
And yet, beyond those songs, I know only the broad strokes. I know that high school pals Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas formed the BoDeans in the early ’80s. I know that the group was an East Side staple and soon found success. I know that Llanas left the band in 2011. I know that in 2018 Neumann’s stepdaughter accused Llanas of sexually assaulting her multiple times while she was a minor. (Llanas denied the accusations.) I know that despite some seriously rocky times, Neumann and the BoDeans continue to play out to this day. I know that people love them.
But I don’t know any BoDeans deep cuts, and despite living in Wisconsin my entire life—and in Milwaukee my entire adult life—I’ve never seen them live. Strange but true!
So I’ve been dipping into the BoDeans’ catalog as of late, better familiarizing myself with Milwaukee’s prodigal sons. It’s been nice! The band’s T Bone Burnett-produced 1986 debut, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, is a root-sy winner. (“Fadeaway” and “Still The Night” come from this record.) Nineteen-ninety-one’s Black And White is beyond slick, and lives up to the high bar set by opener “Good Things.” Go Slow Down, the 1993 album that birthed “Closer To Free,” successfully takes the band in an early-’90s alt-rock direction. Lots of good stuff!
And yet the BoDeans album I’ve found myself most fascinated with is one that was—and still is?—considered a bit of a black sheep: 1987’s Outside Looking In. Released just one year after Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, it found the band applying an ’80s sheen to its sound. How did they do this? Following some unsuccessful sessions in L.A. with producer Mike Campbell (he of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers fame), the BoDeans returned home and enlisted the services of local star producer Jerry Harrison (he of Talking Heads and Modern Lovers fame). Harrison was certainly in-demand at the time—just one year earlier, he produced The Blind Leading The Naked, the third album from—you guessed it!—the Violent Femmes.
Calling the Harrison-produced Outside Looking In a “black sheep” in the BoDeans’ catalog is perhaps putting it nicely. Here’s a taste of Rolling Stone‘s scathing review:
Immediately it’s apparent that something’s wrong: “Dreams,” the sluggish opening track, is bogged down with a bland arrangement and overly echoey vocals. Whereas Burnett emphasized the group’s camaraderie, Harrison replaces the band’s south-of-the-Canadian-border spark with a generic “American rock” sound complete with tinkling keyboards, session musicians and incongruous backup singers. What made the lovesick sentiments of the first album so disarming was the no-frills production; here, when the pipsqueaky Sammy emotes that he’s “looking for something that I ain’t known” in “What It Feels Like,” he has to fight against formulaic power chords and a cannonlike drum sound.
Yikes. But what sounded bland, overly echoey, and formulaic in 1987 sounds remarkably modern in 2026. Or at least “pleasingly retro.” Close your eyes while listening to songs like “Dreams,” “Only Love,” or “What It Feels Life”—the latter complete with its “cannonlike drum sound”—and it’s easy to think you’re listening to long-lost tracks from The War On Drugs. Harrison’s gauzy and reverb-heavy approach is back in vogue these days, and has been for at least a decade. Go figure.
So yeah, I’m glad I’ve been giving the BoDeans a long-overdue shot, and I’m glad I’ve been spending time with Outside Looking In. Will I finally see the band live? I’ll have a chance when the BoDeans close Summerfest 2026 on July 4 with a 10 p.m. show on the Generac Power Stage. Closer to free, indeed.
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