4.0

Soul Low: Kind Spirit

Matt Wild
If there were a war for Milwaukee’s most affable band—an exceedingly polite and well-mannered war, mind you—the victor would undoubtedly be Soul Low. On 2013’s excellent UNEASY, the young group offered up eight...
4.0

NO/NO: X.O.

Matt Wild
It should come as no surprise to fans of Milwaukee’s gone-but-not-forgotten Delphines that the band that quickly formed from the group’s ashes, NO/NO, has already released two EP’s worth of material. The Delphi...
4.5

Eric & Magill: In This Light

Tyler Maas
Since 2010’s solid debut, All Those I Know, tangential Milwaukee dream-pop duo Eric & Magill (ex-Camden, Decibully, The Promise Ring) has been putting out material at a greater rate and of a higher quality ...
5.0

Death Blues: Ensemble

Matt Wild
There’s a moment in the making-of documentary of Magnolia where writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is moments away from shooting the film’s first scene. “So this is the first shot of the movie,” he says. “I t...
4.0

Sugar Stems: Only Come Out At Night

Matt Wild
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 ...
3.5

Kinth: Psychological Manipulation

Dan Oberbruner
On his latest effort as Kinth, the sometimes-acoustic-guitar-wielding songwriter Jay Flash tackles industrial and electronic music over the course of 10 tracks that are mostly ominous, occasionally buoyant, and...
3.5

Sat. Nite Duets: Los DJs

Matt Wild
Give Sat. Nite Duets credit where credit is due: For a band that has long cultivated an image of scruffy, tongue-in-cheek good-time dudes who are prone to use hashtags like #blessed and #tite on Twitter, they’v...
3.0

The New Red Moons: Mesmérisme

Matt Wild
Taking disparate musical influences and shaping them into something new and/or fresh is an art many bands profess proficiency in, but few ever truly master. Collect a nickel for every group that claims its musi...
4.0

The Delphines: Hush

Matt Wild
The Delphines have always been a singles band. The A-side/B-side and EP formats seemed especially suited to the group, whose sly, sinewy, lo-fi garage rock was best enjoyed in short bursts, leaving an aftertast...
3.5

Lisa Ridgely & The Fainting Room: Heart Hot

Matt Wild
Lisa Ridgely & The Fainting Room’s 2012 EP Wine In Bed was the kind of debut that garnered faint praise like “nice.” Its dark-hued Americana was pleasant enough to pass the time, but not quite bold enough t...
3.0

Animals In Human Attire: Ourmegadawn

Matt Wild
Like the Denver-based Elephant 6 collective of the ’90s, Milwaukee’s Bread King collective has come to define a specific time and place—in this case, Milwaukee circa present day. Part of that dominance is due t...