Local Live | WMSE

Caley was eating expired sushi at her day job. Surprise and strange fortune were met in the bitter flavor of translucent cucumber, that meal. The Lucy Cukes would later form, curling snugly around Caley’s songs, its name gently alluding to the memory of that fateful, off cucumber. What will become of them all?

Caley Conway and her”Lucy Cukes”, the band she gathered from a group of childhood friends – Timothy Stone, Alex Heaton, and Robert Weiss — has, over the past few years, served her well, bolstering her already-strong singer-songwriter foundation.

Conway’s voice evokes folk vocalists from both the past (Joni Mitchell) and more recent (Alana Davis), her range impressive and her verbose lyricism a breath of fresh air in a scene where chorus / verse / chorus is pretty standard. Conway has released a couple of EPs (Discipline Soup and Of Songs on the Ukulele) but has never gotten to a full-length. It’s unfortunate that the demise of the band also times out as their first release (Silk For Life will be released later this summer), but the bittersweet nature of things doesn’t take away from the music, itself; the first single (“The Dreaming Genius Sees”) is solid. Recently previewed by Milwaukee Record, they write, “Conway’s vocals remain magnificent and altogether charming throughout.”

Caley was eating expired sushi at her day job. Surprise and strange fortune were met in the bitter flavor of translucent cucumber, that meal. The Lucy Cukes would later form, curling snugly around Caley’s songs, its name gently alluding to the memory of that fateful, off cucumber. What will become of them all?

Caley Conway and her”Lucy Cukes”, the band she gathered from a group of childhood friends – Timothy Stone, Alex Heaton, and Robert Weiss — has, over the past few years, served her well, bolstering her already-strong singer-songwriter foundation.

Conway’s voice evokes folk vocalists from both the past (Joni Mitchell) and more recent (Alana Davis), her range impressive and her verbose lyricism a breath of fresh air in a scene where chorus / verse / chorus is pretty standard. Conway has released a couple of EPs (Discipline Soup and Of Songs on the Ukulele) but has never gotten to a full-length. It’s unfortunate that the demise of the band also times out as their first release (Silk For Life will be released later this summer), but the bittersweet nature of things doesn’t take away from the music, itself; the first single (“The Dreaming Genius Sees”) is solid. Recently previewed by Milwaukee Record, they write, “Conway’s vocals remain magnificent and altogether charming throughout.”

A soulful banshee coupling cascades melodies over upright and ivory…gives way to the raucous intrusion of electric strings, syncopated thunder claps, brass shimmers, the jarring howl of “in the morning I’ll be good as gone…jazz, folk, punk rock, and apparition-driven serene, NBC broadcasts the collective unconscious in fierce.

On Tuesday, May 24th, WMSE will present Local/Live with Milwaukee’s Midwest Death Rattle, who are newly-releasing a brand new album, Post-Apocalypso.

This special night of local music and a live radio segment at Club Garibaldi’s (2501 S. Superior) is free and open to the 21+ public to listen to and participate in. WMSE Music Director Erin Wolf and co-host Cal Roach, will lead Midwest Death Rattle through questions in between their live sets and you can get in on the interview, too; the audience will be active participants, allowed to pick the our guests’ brains by writing out their questions for Cal and Erin to ask, live on the radio.

Doors are at 5:30pm, segment starts at 6pm and runs until 7pm. If you can’t join us for the live segment and show at Club Garibaldi, please tune in, per usual, to 91.7 FM (or stream online at WMSE.org) at the 6 o’clock hour.

From the birth of the cool till the end of September she is Ms. Lotus Fankh. She whose name represents “life and rebirth” creates music that explores the heart of soul and is sure to make you smile. A singer-songwriter-producer-musician from Milwaukee, her sound is inspired by influences of Soul, Funk, Jazz, and Rock. She expresses her story through guitar, loop station, violin, and voice while her shows reach beyond generations and across genres.”

Ms. Lotus Fankh will be releasing a brand new EP – Better Than This – on May 21st at the Riverwest Public House.

Antler House is an alternative/indie rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We released our debut album Through the Dirt in May 2014. Our next album Across the Waves is being released on April 30th. While Through the Dirt is a more relaxed, atmospheric, even folky record at times, Across the Waves is much more abrasive and dynamic, honing in on the sound of our live performances.

The Cow Ponies is a Milwaukee-based band founded by music veteran John Graham in 2015. Our set list includes both original music and old country, alternative country, and cow punk copies.” The band features members whose experience runs deep in Milwaukee’s music history — Rock-A-Dials, Those XCleavers, Torn Soul and Resist Her Transistor, to name a few.

AUTOMatic Music is the perfect name for the hip-hop group formed by Milwaukee based emcee APRIME and producer Trellmatic. The perfection that comes from their musical collaboration is simply, automatic…

2016 is already shaping up to be the most audacious year for the group with several projects planned to drop over the calendar year…AUTOMatic Music is the next best thing to the golden era of hip-hop, and it’s the revival of the golden era sound that AUTOMatic Music is here to bring back, and will bring back, because when the music that you do is automatic, there’s no way that it can be denied.

Milwaukee-based quartet Space Raft — a staple in the city’s indie scene alongside garage poptimists Jaill — serves up lightweight guitar rock in the melodic vein of early 2000s post-punk revivalists like the Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. Dusted with weird little synthesizer distortions Kenny Rogers might be proud of, “Mountain” (the second listen off of the group’s sophomore LP, Rubicon) roughs up the edges of their power-pop with just enough psychedelic edge. Singer Jordan Davis’ double-tracked croons and his guitar’s pleasantly layered crunch, plus jovial arpeggios from T Jay Christenson’s keyboards, beam rays of warmth into the ears of listeners in frigid flyover county.”

~SPIN

Help Space Raft celebrate the release of its new Dusty Medical Records LP, Rubicon, by joining us on Tuesday, April 19th at 6pm for another installment of WMSE’s dynamic ‘Local/Live at Club Garibaldi’s’ series, featuring Milwaukee’s Space Raft.

This special night of local music and a live radio segment at Club Garibaldi’s (2501 S. Superior) is free and open to the 21+ public to listen to and participate in. WMSE Music Director Erin Wolf and co-host Cal Roach, will lead Space Raft through questions in between their live sets and you can get in on the interview, too; the audience will be active participants, allowed to pick the our guests’ brains by writing out their questions for Cal and Erin to ask, live on the radio.

Heat Death is a Milwaukee band combining self-oscillating fuzz, analog synthesis, and pounding drums with hints of noise-rock, shoegaze, industrial, and no-wave.

Formed in later 2015, Heat Death first arrived in the form of the apartment-recorded Obselescene EP. After months of playing through Milwaukee and with a finalized line-up and crafted sound, Heat Death retreated to the wilderness to record their forthcoming album.