Singer-songwriter Margaret Stutt has kept close ties to Milwaukee since she left the city for New York in 2010, but a lot has changed since then, including her stage name, haircut and, to hear her tell it, her general outlook on music and life itself. The artist formerly known as Pezzettino is now recording as <strong>ZETI</strong>. She\'ll return to Milwaukee on April 5 to play a release show at the Sugar Maple behind her first EP under the new moniker, <em>Biscuit Basin or the Kangaroo Communiqué: A bowl of genetically modified fruit</em>, a stripped-down digital release built around electric accordion and drum machines. She\'ll also be selling a limited-edition book of poetry, lyrics and miscellanea, and plugging a philosophy-minded iPhone game she conceived.<br /><br />The <em>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em> this weekend took stock of the Milwaukee acts making the trek down to Austin\'s <strong>South by Southwest</strong> music festival this week and found that <a href=\"http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/musicandnightlife/fewer-milwaukee-bands-doing-sxsw-n44gkml-142208405.html\">there aren\'t many of them</a>. The newspaper counts six: Fresh Cut Collective, I\'m Not a Pilot, Field Report, Lorn, Maidens and Enabler. That\'s roughly in line with last year, but down considerably from 2010, when more than a dozen local bands played the festival. <br /><strong><br />Field Report</strong>, by the way, is the re-booted and re-branded latest incarnation of singer-songwriter Chris Porterfield\'s folk-rock band Conrad Plymouth. A couple of raw tracks from the band\'s upcoming record, which was recorded this winter at Justin Vernon\'s Eau Claire studio, are <a href=\"http://field-report.org/audio/\">streaming here</a>. After a spate of SXSW showsincluding a Saturday Daytrotter session which will be streaming livethe band will support Megafaun on a tour that includes a March 22 show at the Cactus Club.<br /><br />More cool news from <strong>Juniper Tar</strong>: In the month-long lead up to the group\'s Friday, April 27 release extravaganza at the Turner Hall Ballroom for the new <em>Since Before</em>, the band will be playing a weekly residency at Hotel Foster. Each Wednesday will find the band teasing new material and collaborating with different local artists, who will also perform a few solo songs. Each show will include a cover of a song from The Band\'s famous "Last Waltz" concert. John Sieger and the Sat. Nite Duets join the band on March 28; Paul Cebar, Hugh Masterson and Joe Crocket on April 4; Trapper Schoepp and Black Eagle Child on April 11; and BJ Seidel and Shane Hochstetler on April 18. <br /><br />Milwaukee\'s airwaves have been a little emptier for the last couple of months. <strong>The Beat 102.5</strong> (formerly Majic 102.5), a low-power urban station with a rich, utterly unpredictable playlist, went off the air in late January, apparently after <a href=\"http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/55436/majic-102-5-milwaukee-goes-dark/\">interference complaints</a> from <a href=\"http://www.life1025.com/\">a Christian-leaning soft-rock station</a> in Madison. There\'s no official word on when or even whether the station will return, but I emailed that station\'s DJ Mike Mil and he gave me reason to hold out hope. "Keep watching Facebook," he wrote. "I will have more information later."<br /><br />This is about the time of the year when my inbox begins to fill up with press releases for competitions promising a gig at <strong>Summerfest</strong>. I tend to politely ignore most of themthere\'s something sad or exploitative about a lot of thembut the sheer size of Summerfest\'s "Land the Big Gig" competition seems noteworthy. In addition to a slot at Summerfest, the festival is giving out $45,000 in prizes, including a $17,000 Hyundai Veloster and round-trip flights and hotel accommodations for the first prize winner, and $12,500 and $7,500 for the runners-up. That\'s almost absurdly generous. Interested acts have until Sunday, April 22 to submit a performance video at <a href=\"http://www.landthebiggig.com\">www.landthebiggig.com</a>.<br /><br />
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