Friday, April 30, 2010

I'm Not A Pilot ... Or Maybe He Is....


[this article was originally published for Suburban Bully, April 30th, 2010]
If you’re one that holds the accusation that Milwaukee doesn’t have much to offer as far as indie music talent goes, you may have, at one time, been right. I mean, sure we rested on the laurels of Les Paul in the 1950’s and didn’t really produce any real talent here again until The Violent Femmes shocked the world out of its complacency in the 1980’s. In the late 80’s we gave birth to The Gufs, and in the mid-90’s The Promise Ring. Though we did offer some good ones here and there, for the most part Milwaukee never really had the Seattle, San Francisco or Cincinnati level reputation for being a powerhouse of musical talent. This city has no shortage of ‘80’s cover bands and teenage thrash metal ensembles, and so one can hardly be blamed for not wanting to bother sifting through so many oysters for the occasional pearls.