Local Live | WMSE

“Milwaukee native Lex Allen, is reinventing old soul for a new generation, with his own sound that has been dubbed “Soul Pop with a kick”. He has been compared to new aged singers John Legend and Justin Timberlake, with the articulation of indie powerhouse Jason Mraz. “Dare to be different” is the motto he lives by through and through, it’s evident in his enlightened lyrical style that is way beyond his years.”

From Tap Milwaukee:

“Produced by Q The Sun, “This Is Our Year” is Lex Allen’s newest joint and it’s bangin’. Off top, the beat is just funky with it’s thick bass and hype drums. Then with Lex’s voice on top and a guest verse from Lorde Fredd33, this not only gets you hype, but it gives you that drive to make things happen.”

Dogs In Ecstasy is a band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band is a vehicle for songs drawing on great works by The USA Is A Monster, The Rentals, the Breeders and Sparks and exploring characters (real and imaginary), objects (useful and stupid), and facts (true and false).

The trio just released a brand new album (Welcome 2 Hell) and are diving into our special (and always fun) fall membership drive version of Local/Live.

Brat Sounds was formed in November of 2014 after the release of the projects first self-titled EP. Three quarters of group are ex-members of the Milwaukee band Dinny Bulca. With the addition of a fourth member they became Brat Sounds. After releasing their first LP on cassette in September they hope to play bars and basements in Milwaukee and across the country.

“Formed in 2000 with no sense of when to call it a day, Milwaukee’s pop-noise chaos theorists have recently reconvened after some time on the shelf.

“IfIHadAHiFi are a whirlwind of feedback, samples, clanking guitars and de-tuned synths hiding some deceptively catchy pop songs.

“Their most recent release was an online-only EP about particle physics written for an art/science installation show, if that gives you any indication of the subject matter you’ll normally find in the cyclone that is a typical HiFi set.

“IfIHadAHiFi is currently writing songs for yet another record and are happy to share them with the dynamic and intelligent hosts of WMSE’s Local Live.”

Join WMSE and IFIHadAHiFi for a farewell to the Milwaukee record label that they called home for years, Latest Flame Records. Latest Flame Records will be winding down with a pair of shows at Club Garibaldi on Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th.

To list out Milwaukeean Chris Rosenau’s current and former groups is to go back to the dusty depths of the late 90s (Vermont) and page through to the ever-morphing and still active projects of Collections of Colonies of Bees and Volcano Choir. The current state of Rosenau sees him taking a solo flight, but not straying far from the source of his group musical roots, past or current; guitars create an undulating storyline that is lively and inspiring, joined together by loops and subtle auxiliary embellishments.

The recent output of Rosenau’s solo effort is a pair of songs recorded for a 2011 performance at Milwaukee’s Cactus Club that on record, adds that auxiliary instrumentation from his family members. “Pearl” and “F/Lynn” was released on Bandcamp this past summer and was re-performed for the Eaux Claires fesitval in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and a return show at the Cactus Club.

Milwaukee’s husband and wife trip-hop duo, Will It Burn think of their music as “upcycling for the ears.”

Featuring “Em” on the vocals and “Eight” on the beats, Will It Burn make it their art to take snippets of forgotten musical history and refashion those snippets, recovering lost words, poetry, phrases and decades-old culture by searching for gems on neglected wax.

The duo’s snippets and gems go to also fashion a sound that recalls moments of modern electronic bands such as Purity Ring and Broods as well as older moody offerings from Propellerheads and Massive Attack.

Coming right off of the release of their new album, In Other Circumstances, Will It Burn is getting set for a string of fall shows and beyond.

elvaliente

El Valiente, fronted by Eric Caldera, a native Texan, grew up playing in Austin and San Antonio. Riding the dusty wave of Texas, Caldera made his move to Madison, Wisconsin and continued his penchant for writing music full of slow-burning and sparkly electric guitars, evoking the vast landscape he had just left.

The Onion (A.V. Club) writes, “The accomplished instrumental trio El Valiente have won over listeners on the strength of their evocative new album, El Topo. El Valiente lurk and charge through spaces as broad and bleak as the Grand Canyon. The group’s guitar,glockenspiel, bass, and drums prove boldest when drifting off into a skeletal void between slowcore, spaghetti western, and free jazz.”

Like a spore in a petri-dish, Phylums slowly cultivated in the dank basements of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2011. With a common goal of creating stripped-down, primitive rock n’ roll, members of Wisconsin acts Goodnight Loving, Head On Electric and Holy Sh** started banging out three-chord homages to the Sonics, Creedence, the Monks…any band with a simple message and no-frills attack.

Phylums took this primitive drive into Kyle Motor’s recording studio in Madison Wisconsin in summer 2014. It took the band under 24 hours to record their complete debut album on reel-to-reel eight track. Surfy guitar leads and wandering fuzz combined with a rhythm section of driving toms and bass make up the core instrumentation, but a shades of organ, piano, and even a vacuum cleaner add to the sonic palette.

The songs, ranging from party rave-ups to off-kilter introspections, eschew the traditional boy/girl tropes of most three chord songs and instead focus on, amongst other things, alienation, the afterlife, speech impediments, and the frustrating beauty and monotony of modern life.

Out of “drinkers’ paradise” Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Grasping at Straws blend the sounds of old Americana, country, and blues with a more modern, dissonant rock energy. With a canon of eclectic and catchy songs, the Straws use the traditional tools of multiple harmonies, banjo, guitar, fiddle and upright bass to create a well-rounded offering.

It's back-to-school so it's back to the Todd Wehr Auditorium and Conference Center for WMSE's next Local/Live. On Tuesday, September 1, not only will we host our special live radio segment with Marielle Allschawang, we've added a second band to the bill for the after-show-show - the Midwestern Charm. This concert is all a part of MSOE's first week of events for new and returning students.