Milwaukee’s DIY emo/punk record label Snapdragon Records struck gold when they signed rising stars A Farewell Rescue, a Pennsylvania band beginning to make a national name for themselves thanks to their new single “Pretty Cut and Dry,” which has been embraced by MTV2. Fittingly, then A Farewell Rescue will...

It’s hard to picture a better house band for Milwaukee than The Goodnight Loving. The group touches on many of the sounds Milwaukeeans love most, from rollicking, country-tinged guitars to the thumping rockabilly bass and the unlabored aesthetic of '60s garage-pop, which the band shares with Dusty Medical label-mates...

Before he was a DJ, Bad Boy Bill was another just Windy City house fan, mixing records in his bedroom at 4 a.m. and priming for a shot on the decks. Like many players of the day, Bill let his beats speak for themselves-until they piqued the legendary ear of Farley "Jackmaster" Funk of WBMX's Hot Mix Five team. After more than 20 years in dance music, Bill's live sets continue to reflect his hip-hop roots, often using four...

One of the few Milwaukee rappers with ties to both the alt-rap hip-hop scene of the city’s East Side and the grittier, club-rap scene of the North Side, Prophetic stakes out an agreeable middle ground, embracing both sounds without succumbing to conscious-rap moralizing or thug-rap clichés. The slick production of his new album, Mo Profit, Mo Progress, finds a sonic middle ground between laid-back alt-rap and bombastic...

“He has a gift for expressing big ideas with simple words,” you might hear said of Mason Jennings in those sonorous public radio spots plugging the singer-songwriter’s 8 p.m. concert tonight at the Pabst Theater. But, if anything, Jenning’s actual appeal seems to be his utter disinterest in big ideas. His ever-cute folk-pop songs...

One of the few cover bands to earn national respect, The Detroit Cobras set themselves apart from the pack through their choice songbook. Cherry-picking rarities and deep cuts from the early days of rock 'n' roll and Motown (they are, after all, a Detroit band), then letting firecracker singer Rachel Nagy have her way...

Despite what their moniker promises, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, which plays an 8 p.m. show tonight at the UWM Gasthaus, isn't from Scotland; they don't play gospel; and, for that matter, they're not a choir. They're a Chicago co-ed indie pop ensemble with a warm, dreamy sound and the requisite allegiance to Belle & Sebastian...

Though he cautions that two of his band mates who once lived there might disagree with him, Andy Kavanaugh doesn't have many kind words about Green Bay. "We went up there in the middle of winter to record our latest album," he says of his band, The Goodnight Loving, "and it was just kind of a sober experience.

  The past few years have seen Milwaukee turn out a number of powerful rock 'n' roll bands. While there is room for variety within the city, there is usually a consistency in the volume at which these acts play (loud) and the gender of those doing the playing (male). It's a band-centered, male-dominated world out in the noisy clubs of this city.

   Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce named his band's newest record Songs in A&E, a reference to his recent stay in an "accidents and emergencies" ward in his home country of Great Britain. Based on his haggard appearance, i...