In less than half a year, Milwaukee’s Atlatl has transformed itself from virtual unknowns to one of the city’s most likeable bands. Of course, they’ve had some help. Radio Milwaukee 88.9 has all but adopted the band, giving their day-dreamy single “Hey Man” the kind of airplay the station usually reserves for Atmosphere and Curtis Mayfield. The song deserves the exposure: Sweet and effortlessly hooky, it evokes one of Modest Mouse’s long drives with nothing to think about.

Atlatl, a young Milwaukee group that teeters back and forth between harmonic jam-rock and ramshackle indie-rock, does a 6:15 p.m. show at the Summerfest’s only all-local stage, the Cascio Groove Garage, sponsored by the Shepherd Express. The group has clocked considerably airplay on Radio Milwaukee 88.9...

Dax Riggs’ previous band, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, might have garnered more attention had it not been recorded during the reign of The White Stripes, a much higher-profile band that played similar, bluesy heavy rock and invited countless imitators that, while disposable, nonetheless stole attention from more . . .

Brooklyn folkie Langhorne Slim strips American music down to just the bare essentials: an acoustic guitar and a singer/songwriter with a little bit of fire and a whole lot of personality. A favorite of the music blogosphere, Slim does a 9 p.m. show at Mad Planet tonight with openers Atlatl, a young Milwaukee group that . . .

Local rock upstarts Atlatl celebrate the release of their debut EP tonight with a 10 p.m. performance at the Cactus Club with openers Fire On Your Sleeve and Eat The Mystery. Atlatl’s four-song debut runs the gamut from riff-heavy stoner-rock to spastic, Modest Mouse-style romps.

In recent years, DJ Aaron Wade’s “Late Night Hype Show,” 91.7 WMSE’s independent hip-hop program— by most accounts one of the longest running of its kind in the country, and certainly one of the best—had begun to feel less like a labor of love and more like a public service. Wade has often voiced his disillusionment with the state of hip-hop, and he could never muster the same affection for modern rap as he felt for the classics, so it was to great disappointment but not much surprise that he announced plans to end the show this March.