Sheboygan's home for original music
Calendar
May 2010
05/01/2010 10:00 PM
"Blueheels have become one of the area’s best-known bands in a few short years."-The Onion A.V Club
"From silence to gale-force fury in a heartbeat."-The Village Voice
"The best current Madison Band." - (www.missthesignpost/blogspot.com)
"Indeed, these boys are damn good." -(Aural Examination Blog Sept 08 (Washington DC))
"Rock N Roll has been given its wake up call."- (www.contessasays.com)
"I cant wait for these guys to go public; Im buying stock!"-Dave Cieslewicz (Mayor of Madison, WI)
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Finn Riggins w/Surgeons In Heat
05/08/2010 10:00 AM
Finn Riggins is the result of a longtime collaboration between Cameron Bouiss, Eric Gilbert and Lisa Simpson. Having met while completing their music degrees at the University of Idaho, the trio began playing music together in 2000, an endeavor that would ultimately culminate in what is now Finn Riggins. In August of 2006, Bouiss, Gilbert and Simpson quit their jobs and moved to Sun Valley, Idaho to stitch together the outlines of Finn Riggins at “the helibase” – a secret practice spot/tour launch pad. Practices yielded shows, shows yielded tours and by the end of their first year as a group, Finn Riggins found themselves a national touring act who lived as much on the road as they did at home.
Finn Riggins has been touring the U.S. relentlessly since the release of its debut full length A SOLDIER, A SAINT, AN OCEAN EXPLORER released Nov. 13th 2007 on Tender Loving Empire — an independent record label, fine art/literature publishing house, fashion collective, art gallery and screen printer based in Portland, OR.
In 2008 alone, Finn Riggins played over 200 shows in 35 different states, including appearances at esteemed festivals like the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City, and Music Fest Northwest in Portland, OR. They’ve made a name for themselves as road warriors brandishing a fresh take on NW indie rock and helping to further push Idaho on to the national independent music scene.
As the calendar flipped to 2009, Finn Riggins relocated to Boise, ID to begin work on a new record and to further immerse themselves in Idaho’s growing music scene. in October of 2009, they’re second full length VS WILDERNESS was released nationwide on Tender Loving Empire and Finn Riggins toured the West extensively, including a stretch of shows with fellow Idahoans Built To Spill.
Finn Riggins will continue it’s touring ways in 2010 with a big US tour slated for the spring and into the summer.
"Surgeons in Heat are Milwaukee’s newest rockers vying for attention in a saturated scene, and, they should likely get it ": WMSE 91.7FM
"It’s not often that I’m sold on a band after one song, but these guys bucked that trend": MuzzleofBees.com
"Milwaukee rock trio Surgeons in Heat formed over the summer and haven't even released an album, but they've been getting lots of thumbs-ups from rock critics and college radio DJs": Isthmus
"Milwaukee pop trio Surgeons In Heat bounce around sonically on some recent singles, from the fuzzy, feisty rock of "I Wanna Get Up" to the falsetto soul of "Can't Do No Right." A.V. Club Madison
"Buzzworthy indie-rock upstart led by Bay View’s Johnathon Mayer, the trio features tasteful falsetto vocals over a Spoon-esque backdrop. Their power-pop sound has quickly made its way around Milwaukee, and has gotten many hoping for a full-length release in the near future.": UWM Post
"The group is already turning some heads in the local scene thanks to an aggressive touring schedule and fuzzily tuneful songs": A.V Club Milwaukee
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Flame Shark and Pink Lipsticks
05/15/2010 10:00 PM
“If someone played this EP (Vireo) between acts at say, Bonaroo, a lot of college age fans would be scrambling to find out who recorded it.” -The Isthmus, Madison, WI
“With vocals like a younger and more decipherable Dylan, Flame Shark is one of the most promising new acts in town.”-muzzleofbees.com, Madison, WI
“Their record (Midnight On Pearl Beach) has a quiet, almost breezy feel, but when turned up a little louder reveals a band with a confident command of their own sound...gleefully weird rockers in the spirit of Viva Voce.” -The Onion, Madison, WI
“With artistry like this, Flame Shark won’t go unrecognized for long.” -
Forum Newsweekly, Shreveport, LA
Most five year olds spend their time playing with imaginary friends, Mike Willis however, would put on a pair of headphones and listen to Rolling Stones and Jay Geils records from his older brother's collection. Willis was already singing and playing guitar in his early teens and fronting a local band that was well beyond their years. While in Oshkosh as a college student, Willis put together the Backyard BBQ band, crafting his sassy, riff-a-licous old school rock into his own persona ... the tape still floats out there and is cherished by those who have it.
After several years of touring Colorado as a keyboard player for the Cool Waters band and a few years working on a solo project in Los Angelas, Willis returned to his home town and immediately started to make musical connections that would eventually lead to his current group ... Pink Lipsticks.
Picking up local music verterns Bob Schmidt (Guitar, vocals), Ryan Brown on the kit, and recently adding Bret Smith as the bass player, the Lipsticks have honed in on their own brand of pure rock n' roll that harkens back to an era of packed late 70s NY and British punk clubs, opinion laden-cigarette smokin' record collectors, and field parties centered around the world's biggest bonfire.
Their self titled debut Pink Lipsticks is full of delicious riffs, driving beats, sassy vocals, dirty solos, and attitude. In the modern era where most rock bands lean towards stylings of jam bands, straight up punk rock, southern rock, or blues, the Lipsticks have created their own brand of pure no-strings-attached sassy rock n' roll. This is a record that will be enjoyed by many windows-down-stereo-up-summer-drivers, those at oudoor parties revolving around a keg on ice, and perhaps ... another kid who puts on a big pair of headphones and dreams of being in a rock n' roll band.
Pink Lipsticks on Reverb Nation
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05/21/2010 10:00 PM
"The ever-evolving Cedarwell crew, fronted by Erik G. Neave, sent me a promo copy of the record [A Stone, A Leaf, A Door ], and it’s refreshingly diverse for an “acoustic” album of sorts. For those of you Western European folk, they’ll be touring overseas as a three-piece next month for the record release.
Neave’s voice has a slight falsetto ting, and the airy harmonies of other members effortlessly play off each other. My favorite tracks are those that showcase the female vocal contributions, as it adds another level to the already intricate, detailed songs. The instruments never dominate over each other – some tracks contain bells, others synth, and still others keys, harmonica, what have you, all complementing the acoustic guitars. The arrangements are carefully plotted, some wistful and yearning with just the delicate touch of Neave’s voice and others filled with the aforementioned instruments and more. They come into play at unexpected times, making me an eager listener."
--Lee, Knox Road
Cedarwell - Untitled from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.
"Christopher Porterfield’s songs seem explicitly designed not to illicit immediate pleasure. The Milwaukee singer-songwriter, who records under the moniker Conrad Plymouth, favors slow builds over easy climaxes, evocative texture over gut-level hooks, and spooky atmosphere over a quick visceral charge. The four songs on the Conrad Plymouth EP tend to blur together into a 20-minute, mid-tempo, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-sounding groan on first listen, but upon further inspection they reward patient listeners with finely written and sonically constructed coming-of-age meditations. Whether it’s the warm steel guitar that flows in like a salve on the contemplative “Metamora,” or the ghostly organ that haunts “Here To There,” there are lots of little aural details on Conrad Plymouth that stick with you. If the record has a pay-off, it’s the album-closing “Fergus Falls,” a childhood memory that slowly dissolves into a puddle of cacophony. It’s the big emotional moment on a record that otherwise takes a while to reveal itself."
--Steven Hyden, Milwaukee AV Club
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05/22/2010 10:00 PM
The Form was established in 2000, with a mission to add another original category to the genre of rock music. Touted as a modern interpretation of classic rock, The Form injects the classic rock sound of the late 60's into a new wave body. Their live-sounding style employs elements such as four-part harmonies, smooth dynamics and lyrical significance. Each song generates its own feeling and is not created to fit within a fixed length of time or a musical category; allowing The Form to cross beyond rock's boundaries and into Funk, Country, Folk, Pop, Anthem, Reggae, and more. The main goal in writing is to create songs that are distinctly different from the last; a philosophy that earned them the 2002 Milwaukee Original Music Battle of the Bands title.
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05/27/2010 10:00 PM
"Heartfelt, high-quality stuff - mixed with a little smoke, whiskey and grizzle"
My Old Kentucky Blog
"It's easy to fall in love with Jeremiah Nelson's sound"
Muzzle of Bees
"Interstate seems born out of an improvisational spirit and the beautifully bittersweet meeting of daydreaming and reality."
Capital Times
"A bittersweet slice of back-porch folk-rock"
Tom Laskin, Isthmus
"A ragged journey through the small-town Midwest"
Captain Obvious
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The Championship and Hayward Williams
05/28/2010 10:00 PM
"For me, unexpectedly discovering a new band is akin to getting a single onion ring in your fries or finding a forgotten sawbuck in a coat you haven't worn since the previous winter. It's windfall to be sure, but it makes you want to believe there's more where that one came from. Sadly, there are a lot more renegade onion rings out there, than stray money or new bands worth your attention. Given this, I was practically giddy (for me, at least) to stumble upon Milwaukee's The Championship sandwiched on a local bill this past weekend"
--My Old Kentucky Blog
"With an understated rootsiness that recalls Townes Van Zandt, Cotton Bell achieves a warm, natural sound. Most songs were recorded in just a few takes at producer Jon Christopher Hughes’ home studio in Bay View. The sessions were deliberately loose and unscripted.
“I’m always excited about what recording live can do,” Williams says. “Depending on the mood or how you feel, it can take you in different places, and make you try things you wouldn’t normally try.”
Williams’ last album, 2007’s Another Sailor’s Dream, earned the singer some strong press in Europe, where there’s a great demand for Americana. He tries to tour there every year or so."
-- Evan Rytlewski, The Shephard Express
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