Milwaukee's summer months bustle with so many festivals, block parties and concert series that it's impossible to catch every can't-miss event. It's an enchanting season but also profoundly maddening. With all that excitement packed into such a short period, the remainder of the year

Underground rock bands have touched upon issues of violence, illness and death for ages, to the point of draining these topics...

The familiar songbook of U2, as performed by the Midwest tribute band U2Zoo, will be juxtaposed against the beautiful background of the Floral Show Dome at the Mitchell Park Conservatory. The performance is part of the Domes...

Disappears work fast. Consisting of members from various other Chicago groups (most...

Based on the wild art-punk of Call Me Lightning’s earliest releases, nobody could have predicted the mighty rock band the group would evolve into. The power-trio’s new album, When I Am Gone My Blood Will Be Free, is their best yet, a fierce and sweaty homage to The Who’s howling rock operas, telling epic...

FM 102/1’s fourth annual Big Snow Show concert celebrates the harder end of the Milwaukee alternative radio station’s spectrum. There’s no Death Cab for Cutie this year; instead, the headliners are Breaking Benjamin, the hard-edged post-grunge mainstays from Pennsylvania who this summer released their fourth album, Dear Agony...

"I would do it the same," says Vinnie Kircher of the latest recording session by his garage-pop band, Jail. "I guess when you're done, you think you could have experimented more, but at some point you've gone overboard and you've got to let some things go." Kircher's belief of losing the bells and whistles that hundreds of musicians tie themselves to is refreshing. The singer/guitarist isn't shy about his...

It's been less than a year and a half since Call Me Lightning drummer Shane Hochstetler moved out of his bedroom studio and into a more professional space in Bay View, but his Howl Street Recordings studio has already left an indelible mark on the Milwaukee music scene. The studio has become a breeding ground for great albums from many of the city's punk, metal and hardcore bands. In the past year, it's produced records from Malachi, Disguised As Birds, Cougar Den and Protestant. Many more will see release in coming...

Though they’re clearly influenced by the Jesus Lizard and other seminal acts from Touch and Go’s back catalog, Milwaukee’s Pigs on Ice play their tightly wound punk and post-punk with a theatrical flamboyance that most of their no-frills muses eschewed. Using low-key, loosely themed costumes, the band aims to create a visual complement to their edgy rock ’n’ roll. This attention to detail and the subsequent word-of-mouth has helped them...