Forward Fest Listen-Around: Great lakes, good tunes Part 2

Because the second annual Forward Music Festival (Sept. 17-19) has so many bands crammed into its lineup, we at The A.V. Club have been talking about what we'd like to catch and how to get oriented. To preview the festival without getting overwhelmed, our writers will hold a series of informal discussions about FMF's bands. This week, we drop the one-band-at-a-time routine for a multi-post look at some of the many Madison- and Wisconsin-based acts in the lineup.

Joel: It looks like the chimerical Forward Fest beast has really stuck its neck into local music this year. Predictably, they’ve loaded up on deserving folk-pop mainstays like Pale Young Gentlemen, Flatbear, and Icarus Himself. As much as I admire these bands, there will be something extra-special about watching the brilliantly odd Peaking Lights drag what looks like two loaded entertainment centers from my grandparents’ attic to the High Noon Saloon on Sept. 19 to enact their mutant pop experiments. Fortunately, that show doesn’t start until 9 p.m., so I’ll have plenty of time to catch ballistic bass-and-drums duo Nuclear Woods’ final show opening for the blurry-fingered Maps And Atlases at the Corral Room at 5:30. I’m also really stoked about getting a rare opportunity to see post-rock wizards El Valiente and Cougar play at the immaculate Capitol Theater on the 18th in support of Atlas Sound.

Jason: The seven-piece Milwaukee-based Decibully is one of those bands that’s passed through my orbit of consciousness, and I’ve continually heard a ton about, though I’ve never had the good fortune to catch them live. Adding to the air of mystery is the hubbub surrounding their perpetually delayed third album, World Travels Fast—a record that’s finished and hanging in limbo now that the band and their label (Polyvinyl) parted ways. Almost all of my experience with Decibully has been through 2003’s City Of Festivals, and even though this sort of pretty indie pop with alt-country flourishes isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, I’d have to be damn near dead not to let the ethereal vocals of William Seidel sink their hooks in more than a little (and they have). From what I’ve heard off the new album (streaming on our sister site, A.V. Milwaukee), it’s somewhat of a departure from City and Sing Out America! in that it’s more rock-influenced and a whole lot less spare, which is certainly intriguing. So whatever material they end up focusing on at FMF, this is one of those shows that feels like I’d end up kicking myself for if I missed.

Ben: I'll admit I only recently started checking out Milwaukee's Collections Of Colonies Of Bees, after hearing about their collaboration with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Volcano Choir, whose debut album Unmap is coming out Sept. 22. But as for the tons of music (five albums' worth) Bees have made on their own, a lot of it strikes me asa lot of shimmering, ramshackle, experimental slow-burners. I'm curious as to how it will translate live on the 18th at the Capitol Theater, and kind of crossing my fingers for a Vernon cameo (like the one he did for his old high school jazz band in Eau Claire earlier this year).