It’s Friday, which means it’s time to enjoy some new music! And even better: some new MILWAUKEE music!
First up is Almost Didn’t Make It, the first new LP from Milwaukee/Fox Valley party-rock group Offend Your Friends in 20 years. The band is Kev Zettler on vocals, Devin King and Wes Reinke on guitars, Luke Reinke on bass, Caleb Westphal on sax, and Dan Wolff on drums. Milwaukeeans will know Wolff from Dead Horses, and Westphal from Devils Teeth and this site’s long-running Enjoy Every Fish Fry column. King, meanwhile, comes out of Rockford, Illinois metalcore band The Color Morale.
“Never hardcore enough for the punk scene, too destructive for the ska circle, and hailing from a small city no one has ever given a damn about, Offend Your Friends has always done things their way,” the band says in Almost Didn’t Make It‘s liner notes. (Don’t sell Fond du Lac short, guys.) And sure enough, the record is delightfully hard to pin down: songs like “Light A Spark” and “These Streets” channel the heart-bursting energy of Andrew W.K., while “Skatt Stapp” and “Terry Funk Retirement Plan” take a more punk (and cheeky) route. There’s even time for “Olive Branch,” a rowdy acoustic scream-along that just might be the record’s best moment. (The album was recorded by Wolff and Colton Jean, the latter of whom has worked with Zach Bryan, JD McPherson, and The Bends.)
Next is the latest release from top-shelf indie-rock group Known Moons, Beginning To End. This five-track EP follows 2024’s flawless Everything Is, and it’s another winner. Opener “Real Fangs” adds a little grit to the Known Moons mix, while songs like “TIME” and the title track play like instant classics. “Beginning To End” features Andrew James and company crystalizing their sparkling dream-pop with a gorgeous three-minute ode to getting off the floor and giving it another go. “When everything is beginning to end / Will you dust yourself off again / Or bury your head in the sand?” James sings.
Want Everything Is and the new Beginning To End in one convenient package? Then check out (and buy!) the aptly titled Everything Is Beginning To End!
Finally, we have a new song from the always fantastic Bicentennial Drug Lord. If you’re in the mood for some of the most beautifully rendered Americana-flavored indie-rock of the last five years, listen to BDL’s self-titled 2021 EP and its You Are Never Alone 2025 LP. Then, when you’re done with that, cue up the band’s latest single, “Thaw.” The gentle track finds John Daniels, Rick Donner, and Alan Weatherhead in a hopeful and wistful mood. “Is it too much to ask you to stick around and help piece it back together? / In your light, I’m beginning to feel the thaw,” Donner sings. Lovely, lovely stuff. Here’s to that light. Here’s to that thaw. Goodness knows we all need them.
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• Offend Your Friends return with rowdy, rousing “Light A Spark”
• WMSE’s Local/Live: Known Moons and Barely Civil (Live from Anodyne)
• Barely Civil, Known Moons team up for fantastic ‘Barely Known’ split EP
• Known Moons will pull you into their orbit with debut EP, ‘Everything Is’
• Meet Known Moons and check out the project’s debut single/video