WMSE Radio Summer Camp to-do list
Four bands you must check out during the city-wide music festival
Gospel Gossip
Local radio station WMSE has long prided itself on being one of the most diverse places for music on the local radio dial. So it makes sense that the first annual WMSE Radio Summer Camp basically looks like a radio station come to life—only it’s impossible to fit in your car. With more than 40 acts playing at venues all over town through Monday, there’s plenty of genres—including indie rock, hip-hop, punk, and Americana—to choose from. Here are four bands The A.V. Club plan to check out.
1. Sometime Sweet Susan (Turner Hall, 7 p.m. Thursday)
If you came of age as a Milwaukee music fan after the early ’90s, Sometime Sweet Susan was a band you only heard about from aging hipsters. But SSS roared back to life earlier this year with a reunion gig at the Valentine’s Day Atomic Records send-off concert. Thankfully, the reunion wasn’t a one-off thing: The group is back and ready to expose its Sonic Youth-inspired noise pop with a whole new generation.
2. The Rural Alberta Advantage (The Cactus Club, 8:30 p.m. Friday)
Why you should care: This show has saw-them-first potential written all over it. TRAA is a Canadian trio known for waxing poetic about prairie life and the dregs of oil rigging; its much blogged-about debut LP, Hometowns, has elicited comparisons to Wisco-folk hero Bon Iver, and has all the right ingredients to make fans of beardy indie rock swoon. This summer marks RAA’s first extended excursion into the U.S.
3. Gospel Gossip (Club Garibaldi, 8 p.m. Friday)
Why you should care: Gospel Gossip blew the doors off of Cactus Club this past winter opening up for Milwaukee band Brief Candles, which joins them again on this bill. The Twin Cities band is fronted by Sarah Nienaber, who sings with the sexual intensity of Siouxie Sioux and rocks lush, delay-infused guitar solos like Kevin Shields. It’s hard, dissonant and danceable—possibly the sleeper show of the entire festival.
4. Roadside Graves (Club Garibaldi, 8 p.m. Monday)
Roots-rock bands like Roadside Graves sometimes get a bad rep for overdosing on earnestness and for being overly reverent of the usual suspects, i.e. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Tom Waits. But this New Jersey band is a lovably ragged bunch that makes a big noise on gritty, well-crafted, and big-hearted records like this year’s My Son’s Home.
