May 7 - May 13
This Week in Milwaukee
Thursday, May 7
D. Rider @ The Cactus Club, 9 p.m.
Those
who found U.S. Maple’s subverting of already subversive Jesus
Lizard-styled noise-rock a touch too unnerving will take little solace
in Todd Rittmann’s new project, D. Rider. Picking up where U.S. Maple
left off on 2003’s ode-to-male-orgasm Purple on Time, D. Rider’s
jarring debut album Mother of Curses continues Rittmann’s creepy
dissertation on sexuality. It’s not a record for the queasy. With its
gruff vocals, layers of industrial clatter and general air of violence
and tension, it seems the sex Rittmann sings of may not always be
consensual. D. Rider shares this bill with openers Bobby Conn, The
Chain and Monica Bou Bou.
Friday, May 8
Group of the Altos w/ The Off Key and Year of the Scavenger @ Cactus Club, 10 p.m.
Though
they share a guitarist (Daniel Spack) and a similar love of
instrumental post-rock with Collections of Colonies of Bees,
Milwaukee’s Group of the Altos flaunts a far deeper kitchen sink than
that quintet, working trumpet, cello, saw and clarinet into suites that
trend darker than Colonies of Bees’ sprightly instrumentals. The
group’s signature composition is “Rake Rasp and Ruin,” a lengthy,
ever-shifting dirge that plays as if pieced together from scraps of
Slint, Mogwai and Rachel’s. The openers on this bill are pulled from
opposite ends of the city’s volume spectrum: The Off Key, the
brainchild of Juniper Tar’s Aaron Schleicher, traffics in hushed folk;
Year of the Scavenger in fierce post-hardcore.
Saturday, May 9
Salt Creek @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 9:30 p.m.
Thanks
in large part to the jam scene’s interest, bluegrass has been stretched
in some very untraditional directions over the last decade. Milwaukee’s
Salt Creek is among those breaking the unwritten conventions of the
genre, but they don’t abide strictly by the rules of jam music, either,
relying instead on the interplay of two musicians born into different
schools: banjoist Colin O’Brien, a classically trained guitarist, and
bassist Guy Fiorentini, who cut his teeth in Milwaukee’s ’90s punk
scene. The quartet, which also leans on the easy guitar work of Jim
Eannelli and the unusually prominent (at least for bluegrass) drums of
Eric Radloff, tonight celebrates the release of its latest album, Live!
Eric Mire Band @ Stonefly Brewery, 10 p.m.
Though
Spooky Love is the Eric Mire Band’s debut album, the Milwaukee group’s
work will be familiar to anyone who checked out last year’s
well-received Melissa Czarnik album, Strawberry Cadillac, on which the
Eric Mire Band played. Spooky Love shares that record’s flair for
breezy, chilled-out live hip-hop, touching on Digable Planets, Citizen
Cope, Spearhead and just about any other act that’s melded acoustic
instruments and verses about positivity. The Eric Mire Band shares
tonight’s CD release show with Czarnik, Sarah Fierek and rapper
A.P.R.I.M.E.
III Insanity @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
The
X-Ecutioners were perhaps the most promising of all outfits born of the
’90s turntablism movement which contended that DJs could build great
songs—and even great albums—from just breaks and samples, even without
rappers. Their 1997 debut, X-Pressions, cemented their legacy, but a
double-edged collaboration with Linkin Park in 2002 brought them
commercial fortune while unfairly pigeonholing them as peons of the
rap-rock movement. They dissolved soon afterward, but the bulk of the
group, including de facto leader Rob Swift, who has enjoyed a rich solo
career, have regrouped under the banner Ill Insanity. Ill Insanity
shares tonight’s crowded bill with countless other DJs, many of them
from the world of house, including Robbie Rivera, Colette, Reid Speed,
Delta 9, Trillbass, Paul Anthony & ZXX, DJ Rozz, Chris Grant,
Matthew K and Adonis TFU.
III Insanity
Mogwai w/ Women @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
As
the once novel soft/loud/soft/loud recipe for instrumental post-rock
threatened to become too formulaic, genre pioneers began retooling
their sound mid-decade. For Glasgow’s Mogwai, this meant abandoning
some of the austere, thundering compositions of yore in favor of
shorter, brighter and more varied songs on 2006’s Mr. Beast and last
year’s The Hawk Is Howling, a shift toward accessibility that endeared
the group to new fans while predictably alienating some old ones,
particularly those who lionize Mogwai’s epic, unrelenting 1997
full-length debut, Young Team.
Mogwai
Sunday, May 10
John Brown’s Body w/ Passafire and Dub District @ Miramar Theatre, 9 p.m.
The
American reggae act John Brown’s Body had been for years incorporating
dub and electronic flourishes into their otherwise traditional roots
sound before 2006, when bassist Scott Palmer succumbed to cancer. That
tragedy triggered a slew of lineup changes, including the defection of
singer Kevin Kinsella, whose successor, Elliot Martin, doesn’t share
Kinsella’s regard for roots reggae. Under Martin’s command, John
Brown’s Body have beefed up their jam credentials, trending toward a
spacey, genre-hopping pastiche that’s more Sound Tribe Sector 9 than
Toots and the Maytals on their latest album, 2008’s Amplify, which
embraces hip-hop, funk and pop.
John Brown’s Body
Monday, May 11
The Soul of John Black w/ Bryan Cherry Band @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7:30 p.m.
As
a sideman and session player, John Bigham has played with Everlast,
Eminem, Miles Davis and, most prominently, Fishbone, with whom he
toured for the better part of a decade. Bigham’s recordings with his
own project The Soul of John Black are predictably polished, then, but The Soul of John Black enjoyment
of them will depend on the listeners’ tolerance for Bigham’s thickly
laid-on hip-hop bluesman persona, “a cool motherfunker” intent to “lay
some game.” Those who can get past it will enjoy some genuinely
inspired updates on the old Sly and the Family Stone funk-rock formula,
while those who can’t can easily be forgiven. The Soul of John Black
plays tonight as part of the Turner Hall Ballroom’s free “No Buck Show”
series.
The Soul of John Black
Tuesday, May 12
It’s Me or the Dog @ The Pabst Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Though
the disapproving scowl and vaguely dominatrix-like attire she wears on
her Animal Planet program “It’s Me or the Dog” may suggest otherwise,
Victoria Stilwell is a big softy at heart, preaching a positive,
reward-based dog training method that’s focused as much on training
delinquent dog owners as it is their pets. She’ll outline her
methodology and illustrate it with local shelter dogs during this
appearance before taking questions. To read an interview with Stilwell
in which the British T.V. personality outlines her opposition to the
harsher, potentially dangerous training techniques of a certain other
celebrity dog trainer—hint: he’s on the National Geographic
Channel—visit ExpressMilwaukee.com.
India.Arie w/ Laura Izibor @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 p.m.
If
Erykah Badu is neo-soul’s breathless visionary, recording difficult,
sprawling albums with fierce ties to hip-hop, then India.Arie is
neo-soul’s friendly public face, the John Mellencamp-collaborating,
adult-contemporary-friendly Grammy favorite who prefers her albums go
down as easily as possible for as broad an audience as possible. That’s
not to say India.Arie can’t stretch out a bit, however. Though her new
Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics isn’t nearly as mercurial as
Badu’s sprawling New Amerykah Part One, it finds time for some unlikely
guests, including rapper MC Lyte, Afro-pop singer Dobet Gnahore and
reggae crooner Gramps Morgan.
India.Arie
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