Benjamin Booker, March 27 @ Turner Hall Ballroom
Thursday, March 26
Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers w/ Miles Nielsen and the Rusted Hearts @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
Almost everybody has heard one of Roger Clyne’s songs, whether they realize it or not. With his band The Refreshments, Clyne played the rollicking instrumental theme song to the long-running animated hit “King of the Hill.” Once that band ran its course, Clyne and Refreshments drummer Paul “P.H.” Naffah carried on as Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, writing rootsy alt-rock anthems with a distinctly Southern flair. The group’s latest album, their seventh, is 2014’s The Independent, a riff-heavy set of songs about the American dream produced by Naffah.
Friday, March 27
Benjamin Booker w/ Twin Peaks and Olivia Jean @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Sometimes all it takes is one fan to make a career. In the case of New Orleans blues guitarist Benjamin Booker, that fan was Jack White, who took a shine to Booker’s thrashy, modern take on the blues (no surprise, perhaps, given that it owes more than a little to White’s work with The White Stripes). Booker linked up with Alabama Shakes producer Andrija Tokic for his self-titled 2014 debut album, then joined White on a tour that yielded some truly memorable performances between the two. It was probably inevitable Booker would end up on White’s Third Man Records and sure enough this year the label released his live album, Live at Third Man Records.
Jagged Edge w/ 112, Cincere, Rodney Poe and G. Womack @ Milwaukee Theatre, 8 p.m.
Beyond the occasional modern guest rapper, the R&B group Jagged Edge haven’t updated their sound much at all since the ’90s, which is part of their lasting appeal. In many ways they’re a remnant of a different time, an era when R&B singers stuck together as groups and crooned lusty slow jams on bended knees. Jagged Edge’s latest album, last fall’s J.E. Heartbreak II, is a back-to-basics affair even more so than usual for the group, reuniting them with Jermaine Dupri, the executive producer who made them stars, and Bryan-Michael Cox, the songwriter who penned many of their biggest hits. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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Saturday, March 28
Earl Sweatshirt w/ Vince Staples and Remy Banks @ The Rave, 7:30 p.m.
Odd Future’s Earl Sweatshirt captured the Internet’s imagination with his mysterious disappearance in 2011, which culminated in the reveal that his mom had sent him to a school for troubled boys in Samoa. He returned from that experience a very different rapper, less interested in stirring controversy than in making minimalist, beats-and-rhymes rap, mostly for himself. On his 2013 commercial debut Doris he repeatedly voiced his disdain for the spotlight, and those same sentiments carry through his new album, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album By Earl Sweatshirt. The title lays clear the record’s reclusive, depressive vibe. For this latest tour Sweatshirt is joined by his regular collaborator Vince Staples, a vital rapper who released a pair of phenomenal projects last year: the mixtape Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2 and the EP Hell Can Wait.
Milwaukee Bucks w/ Naughty By Nature @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 7:30 p.m.
The group behind such hand-waving hits as “O.P.P.” and “Hip Hop Hooray,” Naughty By Nature becomes the latest veteran rap act to join the Milwaukee Bucks for the team’s annual ’90s Night celebration, joining past alums like Vanilla Ice and Coolio. They’ll perform a quick halftime set during the team’s 7:30 p.m. game against the Western Conference-leading Golden State Warriors. In keeping with the ’90s theme, a limited number of tickets will be available for the throwback price of $7.
Spoof Fest 22nd Anniversary @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 6 p.m.
From its early years at the now-defunct Globe on the East Side to more recent installments at Club Garibaldi in Bay View, Milwaukee’s Spoof Fest has grown steadily over the last two decades, drawing crowds with its over-the-top, (mostly) loving send ups of iconic bands and singers. For the last two years the event has been held at Turner Hall Ballroom, where it’s drawn its biggest crowds yet. The targets will be typically varied when the event returns to Turner Hall once again this weekend, with costumed musicians doing their best impressions (or parodies) of Black Sabbath, The Clash, Van Halen, The Kinks, Kenny Loggins, Bob Marley, Heart, Barenaked Ladies and Pat Benatar.
Monday, March 30
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Living Room Show, 8 p.m.
Back in 2005, when it was still rare for bands to make much noise without a record deal—oh, how times have changed—Clap Your Hands Say Yeah won over the Internet with a heavily buzzed self-titled album that brimmed with exuberant hooks and quirky arrangements. A 2007 Dave Fridmann-produced sophomore album that toned down some of the band’s eccentricities, Some Loud Thunder divided fans and cooled some of the hype around the group, but Fridmann returned to the boards for their latest album, 2014’s Only Run. Now down to only one remaining original member, singer/guitarist/keyboardist Alex Ounsworth, the group returns to Milwaukee for an intimate living room show. Tickets and other details are available through the group’s website.
Wednesday, April 1
Maria Bamford @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
The term “comedian’s comedian” is often a polite way of describing a standup who is deeply respected by their peers but sometimes too far out there for mass public appeal. Maria Bamford defines the term. Between her nervous delivery and her uncomfortable tales of anxiety and depression, her surreal style of stand-up can sometimes feel like watching somebody have a breakdown on stage, but it’s earned her the respect of some of comedy’s biggest names, including Louis C.K., who cast her in his FX anthology series “Louie.” She also had a memorably uncomfortable role as DeBrie Bardeaux, a recovering methadone addict who captures Tobias Funke’s heart in Netflix’s fourth season of “Arrested Development.”
Big Data w/ On an On and Chappo @ The Rave, 7:30 p.m.
Producer Alan Wilkis describes his band Big Data as “a paranoid electronic music project,” which makes their music sound more serious and distressed than it actually is. For the most part, Big Data traffics in big, joyful crossover dance music that nods to alternative-rock listeners. The group’s new debut album, 2.0, is packed with guests from the alternative and indie-rock scenes, including Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Joywave, White Sea, Twin Shadow, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and singer Kimbra, of “Somebody That I Used to Know” fame.
