Looking for beauty? You came to the wrong place. Milwaukee as a subarctic breakwater?
Most of us would beg to differ. So, the liner notes get off on the wrong foot. Dig the grooves here.
Why did it take the Denver outfit, Label 51 Recordings to release the most recent sampler of Milwaukee bands? Appropriately, Trolley’s “Record Store” kicks off Notes From The Underground Vol. 1 Milwaukee with a burst of energy. Written and sung by the late Mike Perotto, (his bandmates Terry Hackbarth and Don Kurth of Irving Place Records are co-conspirators to the project), the tune is just one in a multi-faceted scene.
The album contains 12 slices of Milwaukee’s musical pie—snapshots that include Diet Lite’s manic live sound, reigned in just enough on “Stuck Again,” The Quiet Canon’s trippy REM echo and mid-song break; Certain Stars scruffy rock and Fog Museum’s hypnotic sonic reverie all are part of the Cream City calling card.
Testa Rosa’s sound has been refined and burnished, their timeless melancholy jangle grows from the same branch as Elephonic’s breezy “Wonderin.’”
Nick Maas (who has been releasing music as Cabin Essence) offers the gem “House for Two,” conjuring a laidback Oasis if they’d been influenced by Emmitt Rhodes. Dead Horses released “Brady Street” a few years back; it finds Daniel Wolff’s cello drifting into a Proustian folk music. Think you have the sound of the city pegged? Guess again. Lauryl Sulfate & Her Ladies of Leisure and Immortal Girlfriend’s electro-throb suggest a Euro-disco evening. Both tunes beg for 12” remixes.