Milwaukee's Best

Whelp.  We just spent a great weekend in Milwaukee, WI with our buddy and long-time reader John (from Milwaukee), and Andy from the radio show Zero Hour Radio.  Some great food/cook-outs, and some great music all weekend long.  We even came back with 50+ records (damn our suitcase was heavy), that's gonna please y'all down the line.

We'd especially like to thank the great staff of WMSE (97.1), who were incredibly supportive and friendly, and put out just about the best free-from radio all y'all gonna hear (and it streams live on the internets, dammit!).  They put on the Radio Summer Camp all weekend long, with great bands (like, oh, I dunno, Jack Oblivian with John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives), culminating with a day long  free fest downtown on Sunday that featured, among others featured down below, The Carolina Chocolate Drops (who we bought a "commemorative kazoo from) and the chicken-hurlin' Southern Culture On The Skids.   

If y'all missed it, and wanna hear our interview, followed by the Jack Oblivian/John Paul Keith interview, go all clicky click here. 

Now, for the music portion of our "show".

We wanna draw yr ADD-addled digital listening selves to a few bands who played the free WMSE-sponsored fest, Backyard BBQ on Sunday.  We think they're fantastic bands that all y'all will dig, and we hope to cover further down the line.

First up is the .357 String Band, who kicked out the punk-bluegrass  (think they call it "Street-Grass") like nobody's business, reminding us, in a very good way, of Bloodshot's early years with The Riptides, The Meat Purveyors, and most especially Split Lip Rayfield.  They don't sound anything like those bands, of course, but they're carrying on the tradition of punk-inspired country that's been sorely lacking these days.

Next we've got Jonathan Burks (and his band), who do a Miller-lite buzzed-out snarl of boozed-up Country trash and LoudonWainright- style observation and snark.  The man loves his drinking song like no other, and we're keen to see where he goes from here.  Oh, and if you visit his site, you'll get a nice surprise,  but be generous, folks, be generous.  Man's gotta have beer money, dontcha know.

And finally, we've got The Ragadors.  Damn.  Saved the best for last.  We don't know what the following two tracks are actually titled, as they provided a sampler of their upcoming LP without a track listing.  Doesn't matter, cuz these cats make a fuckin' hell of a racket, all Blues-trash surge and wail, deep and heavy bottom with a guy up front who's voice comes from the very Devil.  This is a band to keep yr eyes on, and we'll have a longer post on these guys when their full-length comes out this Autumn.  They promised it'd be on vinyl (oh, and cd, too, of course), and we're seriously jazzed.  But for now, revel in this surging racket of rawk! 

Thanks for a great weekend, Milwaukee!

.357 String Band: Milwaukee, Here I Come (mp3)

Jonathan Burks: Drunkard's Remorse (mp3)

Ragadors: Untitled #1 (mp3)

Ragadors: Untitled #2 (mp3)


Check out WMSE.  Independent, Frontier Radio, and well worth it.