The A.V. Club’s Top 15 Milwaukee albums of 2011
There’s something both thrilling and intimidating about assembling a year-end Top 10 list. It’s great to revisit old favorites and give them their proper due, but it’s frightening to think of all the worthy entries that might not make the final cut. For our annual “Best Milwaukee albums” list, The A.V. Club once again opened things up a bit and expanded our list from 10 to 15. Still, these 15 albums represent only the tip of the Milwaukee music iceberg. Here are our choices, in alphabetical order. Enjoy.
1. Absolutely, Learns To Love Mistakes
The jagged, emotive, shambling, but locked-in noise-rock of Absolutely recalls the post-hardcore that was sometimes called “emo” back in 1994, before that word inexplicably evolved into an expletive targeted at Hot Topic mall-punks. Nope, we’re talking about the crunchy riffs, challenging arrangements, and off-mic screaming that was pressed onto 7-inch vinyl, wrapped in Xeroxed sleeves, and sold in basements from Washington, D.C. to Washington state (anyone else miss Unwound?). Learns To Love Mistakes was named in jest for the number of incorrect takes that the band eventually liked more than the songs’ original parts, giving the proceedings a raw, live, and organic feel that makes each song extra captivating. For a bunch of alleged misfires, the confounding structures and deliberate grooves of Absolutely’s debut are impressively assured, and I shudder to think (see what I did there?) about how glorious their next batch of fuck-ups will be. [DJ Hostettler]
2. Brief Candles, Fractured Days
This is definitely one of those cases of “worth the wait.” Pedal-pushers Brief Candles’ last release was 2006’s They Live We Sleep, yet it felt even more distant. Even though the Milwaukee band was active in regards to live shows, the little teases of new material pumped through various PA’s on those stages didn’t sound as completely satisfying as an album blasted through speakers or headphones. Kevin Dixon and Jennifer Boniger-Dixon—thoroughly schooled in their instruments’ sound capabilities—showcase that notion on Fractured Days, creating headphone-perfect, dense waves of chords and filtered-light vocals, pairing up for an almost underwater feel with Boniger-Dixon’s voice illuminating the heavier moments of the album (e.g. “Bitter End” and “Recognition”). Both cavernous and intimate, Fractured Days is a satisfying return to tape for the quartet who knows how to make “loud” devastatingly exquisite. [Erin Wolf]
3. Black Eagle Child, Lobelia
Black Eagle Child’s Michael Jantz hasn’t received much notice locally (as may be the nature of his chosen genre), but his quiet and thoughtful recordings have been receiving slow but steady praise elsewhere, especially for his most recent collection of songs called Lobelia. Jantz seems to be shy-eyed to the hefty press, but when considering the sparse but glowing arrangements and aesthetics, it’s easy to see they form a startlingly lovely album, worthy of plenty of praise. Sentimental, introspective, and sweet, Lobelia is filled with field recordings, acoustic guitar, and banjo with the added adornment of reminiscent titles: “Falling Off Your Bike,” “The Quarry Slide,” and “Summer Street.” Lobelia is never cloying—just plain pretty. It’s knowing and innocent all at once, filled with the savvy of a skilled musician and the cleverness of one who knows what to leave out and what to leave in. [EW]
4. Burning Sons, Reduced To Equality
In an era when the hot trend is updating ’80s synth-pop, Burning Sons come along to update ’80s hardcore. The crowning result is a slab of white vinyl with enough gut-churning bile and mad, militaristic fury to reduce your stereo to rubble. Callous and venomous like most great punk rock—but not without its humorous moments—Reduced To Equality showcases a band that developed rapidly from a quick side project while members’ other bands were on break into one of the city’s most prolific names. The record captures all the energy of the band’s blistering live shows, tightened up (but not too tight) by Milwaukee’s star production team at Howl Street Recordings. [Cal Roach]
5. Canopies, Canopies
Plenty of local bands set aside their guitars and fiddled around with synths in 2011, but none did it as jaw-droppingly well as Canopies. A new project from John Marston, Nolan Treolo, and drummer Craig Leren, Canopies appeared out of nowhere, and came fully equipped with an incredible EP of infectious electro-pop. Yes, the disc is clearly indebted to the proto-new-wave of the ’80s, but it’s also shot through with the spirit of unhinged, post-millennial dance parties. Listening to instantly familiar songs like “Rebels” and “Warrior,” it’s easy to forget Canopies are a new (and local) band, and not one of your favorite groups from a murky, hormone-heavy, and dance-infused past. [Matt Wild]
6. The Celebrated Workingman, Content Content
Mark Waldoch and company have never been afraid to go big, but Content Content was especially bold and daring, even for a group responsible for 2008’s histrionic Herald The Dickens. Content’s opening title track alone was one of the year’s biggest showstoppers: Over a distorted guitar and organ, Waldoch wails to the heavens in an ever-desperate plea, yet one that’s more wistful than defeated. It’s a raw and poignant declaration, and plays like a roughed-up, shouted-from-the-rooftops incantation of “Over The Rainbow.” That show-tune sensibility informs much of the album (see: The Music Man-esque piano ballad, “A Lover’s Waltz”), and its joyful statement of purpose is thrillingly clear. [MW]
7. Collections of Colonies of Bees, Giving
Precision in repetition is very much the beating heart of CoCoBees, but the group does it all with such revelry that it’s shameful to criticize the complexity. The one-upped mirrored repetition in the song titles for their latest (“Lawn”/“Lawns,” “Vorm”/“Vorms”) speaks volumes to the fusion going on amongst the parts, presenting fresh takes on an idea. Through this melding and repetition, they easily (and seemingly effortlessly) do what many musicians try to do without success—create lasting layers that leave the foundation intact. Bees have it together and know full well that what they’re doing creates something that’s not meant to be picked apart chord by chord or hit by hit—it’s meant to be experienced as a whole. [EW]
8. Conrad Plymouth, Comrade Plymouth
As Milwaukeeans wait anxiously for his band’s debut full-length, Christopher Porterfield gifted us in August with this name-your-price, mostly solo EP. It’s sparse and rough around the edges, and it contains some of Porterfield’s most powerful songs yet. “Evergreen” and “Incommunicado” evoke the bittersweet longing of Ani DiFranco’s sad songs, and the thorny finger picking and story-poems of “I Am Not Waiting Anymore” and “Keep Everything Quiet And Clean” are reminiscent of John Prine. Still, Porterfield’s own distinct style is even more obvious than his influences. [CR]
10. Crappy Dracula, Fantastic Dracula
What do you get when you take Crappy Dracula’s brilliantly dumb and impossibly surreal shtick and give it a fresh coat of production paint? One of the funniest and best-sounding records of the year, that’s what. It’s safe to say that no other Milwaukee album sounded anything remotely like Fantastic Dracula (the band would surely note there’s probably a good reason for that), which came complete with Dead Milkmen-esque snot-rock and songs about computers that learn to watch TV. If anything, the album suggests it may be time to put Crappy Dracula’s “smart-stupid” tag to rest: It’s not every band that can make a song about free Wi-Fi in a funeral home into something approaching musical greatness. Oh, and the vinyl copy of Fantastic Dracula somehow includes a hidden track. If that’s not demented ambition, nothing is. [MW]
11. The Fatty Acids, Leftover Monsterface
There is plenty of evidence on both Fatty Acids albums that the band is capable of writing songs as good as those of any other band in the country. Leftover Monsterface is not as immediately catchy as last year’s Stop Berries, Berries And Berries, Berries, it tickles more of the prog funnybone, and is a little harsher in terms of production. There are more dissonant collisions of sound, and definitely more shrill horns, but there are so many brilliantly crafted pop songs just below the surface that it doesn’t take much to penetrate the bizarre sheen. If you enjoy inherent weirdness, you get the best of both worlds with this band. [CR]
12. King’s Horses, Polis
King’s Horses’ 2009 debut EP was a bit of a surprising contrast to their delightfully ramshackle live show, revealing hints of Polvo-style Chapel Hill indie-rock that are usually buried under the volume of Matt Slater’s wailing feedback and throat-shredding vocals. Polis not only manages to capture all of that live intensity on disc, but it also showcases the band’s evolution into a screaming, electro-shoegazing, indie-noise juggernaut. Slater carried the pedal board from his defunct band White, Wrench, Conservatory over to the King’s Horses practice space, while Jack Packard migrated more and more from his three-string bass over to the low end of his Alesis Micron synth. From the dreamy “In The Interest Of Full Disclosure” to the blister-popping “And The Winners Write” to the live favorite “Babylon, The Bride,” Polis firmly establishes the King’s Horses sound as one more likely to be used to describe other bands than one easily classified by name-checking anyone else. You could say that they’ve built a whole new polis on their unique rock ’n’ roll. (That’s Greek for “city,” you see.) [DH]
13. Northless, Clandestine Abuse
I could talk about how the glacial power of Clandestine Abuse is about more than thundering riffs of doom, Erik Stenglein’s angry bear howls, and enough volume to get the band kicked off the stage at UW-Madison’s The Sett in Union South in October. I could talk about how the true brilliance of Clandestine Abuse is in the record’s patient evolution from pure sturm und drang to surprisingly melodic storm and beautifully moody stress. I could discuss how songs like “Sundowner” and “The Storm” showcase the expert songwriting that got the band lovingly profiled on NPR and given the “this record rules” stamp of approval by Decibel Magazine. But what you really need to know about Milwaukee’s heaviest band is that its record is so seismically awesome that Kuma’s Corner in Chicago dubbed its 10 oz. butter burger March 2011 special the NORTHLESS. If there’s a greater stamp of approval in the world of metal, it can only be bestowed by King Diamond himself. [DH]
14. Quinn Scharber, Every Other
One of the best Milwaukee releases of 2011 barely even qualified as a release: Quinn Scharber’s Every Other sat on the shelf for two years before Scharber himself dusted it off and unceremoniously posted it online. Why the album was never given a proper rollout remains a mystery; the fact that it finally saw the light of day, however, is cause for celebration for fans of perfectly-pitched power-pop. Every Other is terrific, unabashedly hooky, and demonstrates just why Scharber has long been such an important asset to the Milwaukee music scene. A lot of musicians have various odds and ends lying around their bedrooms or hard drives—few have full and complete albums just waiting to be heard and loved. [MW]
15. Heidi Spencer And The Rare Birds, Under Streetlight Glow
Words like “gorgeous” and “lovely” get tossed around easily, though Heidi Spencer’s Under Streetlight Glow surely qualifies as both. The highly touted disc is Spencer’s first for label Bella Union, and represents a huge step forward for the elusive Milwaukee singer-songwriter. Spencer’s seductive voice is the main attraction throughout: husky, wistful, and unpredictable. The Rare Birds, meanwhile, provide a gauzy, sepia-toned accompaniment, and give Spencer’s otherwise sparse acoustic sketches a layer of musical sophistication and richness. Flush with moody, dimly-lit sketches of love and lovers lost, Under Streetlight Glow nonetheless seems less concerned with the darkness, and more with the catharsis that comes just before the dawn. [MW]
