The A.V. Club - Daily

Promotion: Contest: Win tickets and an Amtrak Hiawatha trip for the Spring Awakening Music Festival in Chicago, plus a CD from the Exclusive Company

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:00 -0500

Each month, The Onion and The A.V. Club will send one lucky winner and a friend to a concert in Chicago, along with a pair of roundtrip Amtrak Hiawatha tickets and a free CD from The Exclusive Company. For May, we’re giving away a pair of two-day passes to the Spring Awakening Music Festival, June 16-17 at Soldier Field. Dubstep phenom Skrillex will headline the dance-friendly fest June 16, while Afrojack will headline the following night. They’ll be joined by Moby, Flux Pavilion, Laidback Luke, Wolfgang Gartner, Diplo, A-Trak, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Arty, Claude VonStroke, Derrick ...

Arts & Culture: Now Hanging: Makeal Flammini: The Bricks Are Dipped In Marble Dust at Sky High Gallery

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:20:00 -0500

On the heels of the Parachute Project’s last exhibition, Herr Seagull And His Global Dustbreath, organizer Makeal Flammini announced that she would be living in the tiny town of Ballyvaughn, in the desolate Burren region of County Clare, Ireland, for the next nine months. Curator of the Astrix Gallery, owner of Brickhouse Printing, and founder of the Parachute Project, the absence of this Milwaukee artist was felt throughout the creative community. Now, just days after arriving home, Sky High Gallery welcomes her back this Saturday by hosting a solo exhibition entitled The Bricks Are Dipped In Marble Dust, featuring ...

Sports: Talkin' Baseball: What can the 2012 Brewers learn from Bernie Mac and the Brewers of Mr. 3000?

Fri, 25 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

More than a quarter of the way into the season, it’s still tough to figure out exactly what kind of team the Milwaukee Brewers actually have. The presence of a Cy Young winner, a reigning MVP, and an accumulation of past All-Stars screams “’82.” The initial potential and fanfare surrounding the team draws parallels to the 1983 and 2009 clubs. The incessant string of serious injuries to vital players harkens back to, well, never before. And the team’s current record shows shades of 2002. Really, one of the only Milwaukee squads that hasn’t been paired with this ...

Arts & Culture: Local Newswire: Lite-Brite activism: Plugging in with the Overpass Light Brigade

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:30:00 -0500

There’s no need to remind Wisconsinites of the political turmoil that has engulfed their state ever since the last gubernatorial election. From prime-time commercial spots to not-so-casual conversations shouted from barstools, the fervent opinions spewed forth statewide have set neighbors at odds and have prompted an unprecedented recall effort. As the June 5 election quickly approaches, extreme anxiety can be felt from supporters of both candidates. Nowhere can this divide be more powerfully felt than within a group that calls itself the Overpass Light Brigade. Holding lighted anti-Walker signs from pedestrian bridges overlooking busy interstates, the group inspires split-second ...

Sports: Jock Itch: John Axford shaved his ’stache last night, and here’s the terrifying proof

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:00:00 -0500

If there’s one thing that has put a stopper in that whole “Win-sconsin” movement of the last two years (aside from the Bucks, but the Bucks obviously don’t count), it’s the 2012 Milwaukee Brewers, currently eight games under .500. A variety of factors have been at play here, most of them injuries. Five different Brewers starters are out, including Mat Gamel, Alex Gonzalez, Chris Narveson, and now Narveson’s replacement, Marco Estrada, who hurt himself by running to first base yesterday. Even Carlos Gomez recently fell victim to the injury bug, suggesting that there’s something more ...

Features: Interview: An oral history of Die Kreuzen, part 3

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

In the final installment of our history of Die Kreuzen, Kubinski and Brammer discuss having White Zombie and Sonic Youth open for them, and Saturday’s Lest We Forget reunion show. (Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.) Keith Brammer: I think any band that’s been around for 11 years will tell you this: you reach certain plateaus. You get to one level, then you get to the next level and the next level. You want to keep moving up, and it really seemed like, from Century Days on, we were playing to the same-sized audiences ...

Music: Just Announced: Justin Bieber announces big boy tour

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:05:00 -0500

Get ready to squeal, massive segment of The A.V. Club readers who are also members of Bieber Nation—the big man is going on tour. Now that he’s all growed up, legal, and has tried his hand at easy manly hobbies like boxing, the Biebs is set to release his first “adult” album. Believe is set to drop manliness on everyone June 19, and Bieber is set to go on a mind-bendingly masculine, Ron Swanson-like, months-long marathon tour behind it that includes a stop at the newly christened BMO Harris Bradley Center on October 2. Tickets go on ...

City Life: Blog: What will happen to Milwaukee’s image when Walker wins the recall?

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:45:00 -0500

Allow me to make a not-so-bold prediction: Gov. Scott Walker will win the June 5 recall election. (Whoa, whoa—take it easy. Step away from the comments section!) Still with me? Good. Pro-Walker ads have been flooding the airwaves for the past few months, and a recent Marquette Law School poll gives the nominally embattled guv a six-point lead over Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett. That sounds about right. I recently went on a weekend fishing trip to Rhinelander, which is a four-hour drive north from Milwaukee. For three of those four hours I saw nothing but “I Stand With Governor ...

Music: Interview: An oral history of Die Kreuzen, part 2

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:00:00 -0500

In part 2 of our three-part history of Die Kreuzen, the band discusses Touch And Go Records, Butch Vig, and almost being labelmates with Led Zeppelin. (Click here for part 1.) Keith Brammer: Tour was, back then, the only way to get yourselves out there. You could put an ad in the back of a magazine and sell records by mail order or whatever, but we were lucky enough to hook up with Touch And Go, which gave us a bit of an edge in that Corey [Rusk] could distribute the records. We played with the Necros, which was Corey ...

Eat/Drink: First Impressions: Terra Restaurant Bar

Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Akin to Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Seth McClung partnering to open a “12-Seventy Three” restaurant in Brookfield (or opening an-all-you-can-eat buffet anywhere near this guy), one of Milwaukee’s newest restaurants, Terra Restaurant Bar, is starting at a huge disadvantage. Terra has made the decision to serve Mexican food and to be located near the heart of Walker’s Point, near a cluster of popular, more-established options such as La Perla, Botanas, La Fuente, and various other Mexican eateries. While this could be chalked up to poor planning, Terra’s establishment could instead suggest confidence, if not aspirations ...

City Life: Local Newswire: Milwaukee alderman takes stock of his precious bodily fluids, proposes ending water fluoridation program

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:30:00 -0500

INT. CITY HALL – DAY Ald. Jim Bohl and Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake (played by the ghost of Peter Sellers) crouch underneath a desk. Outside, the sounds of gunfire and/or downtown traffic can be heard. BOHL: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream. This obsolete, unhealthy practice has to end. That’s why I’m proposing putting an end to Milwaukee’s water fluoridation program. MANDRAKE: Lord, Jim. BOHL: You know when fluoridation first began? MANDRAKE: I...no, no. I don’t ...

City Life: Local Newswire: Great job, Milwaukee! Esquire names Milwaukee “Bar City Of The Year”

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 -0500

It’s been weeks since Milwaukee popped up on yet another highly scientific, probably beer-related online list. For those of us who crave the validation of strangers and love to see how we stack up against cities like Cleveland and El Paso, it’s been a frightening, trying time. But what’s this? Esquire magazine has named Milwaukee the “Bar City Of The Year”? Oh, thank God. In an only slightly condescending piece by “cocktail historian” David Wondrich, Milwaukee is given props for its blue-collar image, its German heritage, and the number of people who still play bar dice. Wondrich ...

Music: Interview: An oral history of Die Kreuzen, part 1

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

There’s plenty to like about Saturday’s Lest We Forget show at Turner Hall: It’s a tribute to all the Milwaukee musicians who have passed away before their time; it’s a benefit for the American Liver Foundation; and it boasts a jam-packed lineup that resurrects many long-defunct local bands. But the real highlight—why this isn’t just a good show but a bona fide event—is the reunion of the legendary Die Kreuzen. From its blazing hardcore roots through multiple phases of fruitful experimentation, the group had all the brains, work ethic, and tunes needed to ...

City Life: Always Be (Missing) Connections: Blondes (and Marilyn Manson fans) have more fun

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:40:00 -0500

Each week, we pick four thematically linked Missed Connections from the weekend to compete in a battle of opinion. First prize is a date with the missed connection. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired. (We have no power to actually award any of these prizes. Leave your ranking in the comments.) If Rod Stewart is to be believed (and who wouldn’t believe Rod Stewart?), blondes have more fun. But what about lonely, love-struck dudes who are into Marilyn Manson? Don’t they deserve some Internet-assisted frivolity, and/or hookups? And so ...

Music: Newswire: Sugar catalog to receive the reissued, remastered, and expanded treatment

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:15:00 -0500

Though the umlaut-laden and hard-to-pronounce words “Hüsker Dü” are the first to come to mind whenever Bob Mould surfaces in polite conversation, Mould’s work with his post-Hüsker group Sugar is equally iconic. Starting with 1992’s unstoppable Copper Blue and culminating with 1994’s File Under: Easy Listening, Mould—along with Dave Barbe and Malcolm Travis—created music that both defined and transcended the ’90s alt-rock landscape. And now, because that very same ’90s alt-rock landscape is 20 years old, the Sugar catalog is getting the standard reissued, remastered, and expanded treatment. On July 24, Merge Records ...

City Life: News Net: The Bradley Center is dead, long live the BMO Harris Bradley Center!

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:30:00 -0500

Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked over the weekend. Here are some things to think about as the workweek begins. • In a world teeming with Petco Parks and KFC Yum! Centers, it’s nice to live in a city where the most egregiously named stadium is Miller Park. (Let’s try and forget about the U.S. Cellular Arena, okay?) But Milwaukee’s days as a relatively innocent, corporate-name-free town may be ...

Music: Roll Call: Prepare for Saturday’s Lest We Forget show with the help of MKEPunk.com

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:55:00 -0500

When we first checked in with MKEPunk.com in 2010, the fledgling website had just begun the daunting task of gathering rare, hard-to-find, and out-of-print Milwaukee music to give it a permanent digital home. Jeremy Ampe, Pete Prodoehl, and Martin Defatte act as curators for the meticulously organized site, which specializes in Milwaukee punk, emo, indie, and hardcore from the ’80s through the ’00s. Two years later, the mission remains the same, and the site is still going strong—MKEPunk.com recently celebrated its third anniversary and its 200th release. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years ...

Music: Just Announced: Counting Crows, My Morning Jacket (and Boston) to headline BMO Harris Pavilion following Summerfest

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:45:00 -0500

When is a Summerfest announcement not a Summerfest announcement? When the show takes place on the festival grounds after the Big Gig has come and gone. That’s just the case for three just-announced shows at the new BMO Harris Pavilion on the Summerfest grounds. Counting Crows will headline the stage July 25, and will be joined by We Are Augustines, Kasey Anderson And The Honkies, and Milwaukee’s own Field Report. Unsinkable classic rock band Boston will play the stage Aug. 3, along with Starship featuring Mickey Thomas. Finally, My Morning Jacket and Band Of Horses will stop by ...

Comedy: Just Announced: Tim Heidecker and Neil Hamburger at Shank Hall

Mon, 21 May 2012 08:00:00 -0500

Now here’s a comedy gig we can get behind: Neil Hamburger and Tim Heidecker (the Tim in Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) are co-headlining a show July 29 at Shank Hall. DJ Douggpound and Kenny “K-Strass” Strasser’s Yo-Yo Extravaganza are also on the bill. Somehow, this pants-poopingly fantastic lineup will only set you back $20 a pop.

Music: Interview: Advance Base’s Owen Ashworth

Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Without ever actually requesting it, certain people compel others to change their demeanor. Peers and authority figures demand separate rules of dialect and behavior, while grandparents may presume an entirely different persona altogether. And that’s how it feels talking to Owen Ashworth. The gentle giant—who, last year, retired his Casiotone For The Painfully Alone project to redirect his efforts as Advance Base—rounds his consonants and speaks with such soft timbre that one shudders at the thought of coarse language in his presence, lest his politeness be turned to painfulness. These days, that effect is more an exaggeration ...