Formed by former Trapper Schoepp and the Shades guitarist Graham Hunt, Milwaukee's Midnight Reruns play a relentlessly agreeable kind of rock 'n' roll heavily indebted to early Replacements—which is to say, they sound a whole lot like a whole lot of other Milwaukee bands right now.
It's hard to distinguish yourself when you're playing the exact kind of music that can be heard nearly nightly at clubs all over the city, but Midnight Reruns sure seem to enjoy that challenge on their self-titled full-length debut—a bright, buzzy never-ending Pizza Hut buffet of hot-shot guitar riffs and slightly snotty pop-punk hooks. There aren't many bands that can write a tribute to power-pop icon Paul Collins that's as catchy as an actual Paul Collins song, let alone many that can pull it off as casually as Midnight Reruns do on the album's first single, "King of Pop." "Yeah, we know we got chops," they seem to be shrugging on every song here. "What of it?"
Midnight Reruns is out today on Good Land Records, and streaming below via Bandcamp. The group will also be the first guests on WMSE's expanded, new "Local/Live" tonight at 6 p.m.
