Tyler Maas

Monday, March 3: Jared & The Mill with Zach Pietrini & The Broken Bones at Club Garibaldi, 8 p.m. – (2501 S. Superior St., ClubGaribaldis.com) Tuesday, March 4: 88Nine Radio Milwaukee Mardi Gras Party (with Herman Astro and Extra Crispy Brass Band) at Turner Hall, 6:30 p.m. ($14) Celebrate Fat Tuesday in distinct Milwaukee style with a Mardi Gras celebration at Turner Hall. Locals Herman Astro and Extra Crispy Brass Band will provide music. Maxie’s will supply the food. Cap the evening off with a slice of king cake. (1032 N. 4th St., PabstTheater.org) Also: Pink Martini with China Forbes,…

Every month, we count down the top 10 most exciting, surprising and just plain great moments in Milwaukee music. February was low on shows, but there was no shortage of things happening in the local scene. Here are 10 standout picks from February. 10. Kiings collaborates with Rae Cassidy Different month, same caliber of dazzling aural output from Milwaukee production duo, Kiings. This time Chris Siegel and Sean Foran collaborated with San Fermin’s Rae Cassidy. Pretty noises follow.  9. Gerald Walker holds over fans with new mixtape As a prelude to his forthcoming full-length Target, Milwaukee rapper Gerald Walker treated…

Tuesday, Feb. 25: Hellfyre Club at Mad Planet, 9 p.m. ($10) While still fairly young, Los Angeles label and hip-hop collective Hellfyre Club, is fast becoming a respected fixture in the rap community with its intellectual, artistically driven and grassroots cast that eschews redundant (and usually untrue) badass bravado and fiscal posturing in favor of Werner Herzog shoutouts, “Degrassi” references and lines about driving a “Ford Focus on 13s.” Hellfyre will send four of its members – Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle, Nocando and (Milwaukee ex-pat) Milo – to Mad Planet as part of its ongoing 30-show, two-country “Dorner vs. Tookie”…

Kellen Abston is a dreamer. The Riverwest-based performer has quickly made a name for himself as Klassik through his energetic showmanship and his intrinsic ability to meld genres. Following a year that found Klassik releasing YRP (his most celebrated album to date), winning some 88Nine hardware and playing out more than ever, Music Notes managed to take Abston away from his ambitious – though increasingly realistic by the day – plans for world domination long enough to talk about Klassik’s growth, his pop and jazz influences and what to expect from him in 2014 and beyond.   If you had to describe your music…

Tuesday, Feb. 18: Sigmund Snopek at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 9 p.m. (FREE) It’s Tuesday at the tail end of winter. You know the drill. Chill On The Hill can’t come soon enough. (1001 E. Locust St., Linnemans.com) Wednesday, Feb. 19: IndieMKE2 at Turner Hall, 7 p.m. ($10) See some longstanding Milwaukee music standards – a cast that includes Semi-Twang, John Sieger & Greg Koch, Annie B & The Complication, Panalure, and Crooked Keys – and reap the immediate reward of supporting local bands with a copy of the Indie MKE 2 compilation. The CD is included with each ticket. (1032…

Milwaukee is sitting pretty when it comes to great bands and talented musicians. But why not add 16 more bands populated with 64 randomly selected musicians to that tally? For the past three years, All Messed Up has brought the local music community together with the unorthodox pairing of people to form makeshift bands tasked with writing and performing 20-minute sets over the course of two nights at one Riverwest Bar. Some of the representatives hail from established locals like Lambs Legs, Lady Cannon, IfIHadAHiFi and Holy Shit. The unique and unifying showcase is set for its fourth year. Before…

Monday, Feb. 10: Robert Cray with Mavis Staples at Potawatomi Bingo Casino’s Northern Lights Theater, 8 p.m. ($60-$70) Robert Cray isn’t exactly a household name in rock and roll, but he ought to be. The proficient blues guitarist owns five Grammys and has logged time in the backing bands of icons like Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton and even played on of Otis Day’s Knights in a classic party scene in the film Animal House. Even at 60, this Blues Hall of Fame inductee can still shred. Mavis Staples opens. (1721 W. Canal St., PaysBig.com) MUSIC NOTES SHOW OF THE WEEK…

Since we last caught up with Sam Ahmed, the 21-year-old WebsterX mastermind has been a pretty busy fellow. He’s played out avidly; he’s snagged a spot on NEWaukee’s Eastside Music Tour (March 1) and is among the 20-plus artists representing Milwaukee at SXSW next month. Wednesday evening, WebsterX’s first music video, for “Blue Dream” off his debut, Desperate Youth, (one of MilMag’s favs of 2013). Don’t adjust your tracking. This video was shot on VHS by the BLACKMANN video team of Phil Hoffman and Dan Black. The basement shots were done at Black’s Eastside home. Interesting fact: there are actually…

Wednesday, Feb. 5: Trey Anastasio Band at Pabst Theater, 7 p.m. (SOLD OUT) Undoubtedly more famous (or, in some cases, more infamous) as the head honcho of legendary jam band Phish, Trey Anastasio is also instrumental in a number of other projects, including Space Antelope, SerialPod, Bad Hat and Oysterhead, among others. Between Phish tours – or possibly as part of a lengthy break during one of Phish’s never-ending mid-song interludes– Anastasio comes to the Pabst with his unimaginatively named 15-year-old side project, Trey Anastasio Band. (144 E. Wells St., PabstTheater.org) Also: Dr. Dog with Saint Rich, and Moses Sumney…

It was a yet another good month in music, and we highlight the 10 (or so) best and most notable moments from January – and technically of 2014, too. 10. Myles Coyne does a Little Elephant session Before he hit the road with Temple (one of his numerous other bands) earlier this month, Myles Coyne embarked on a November jaunt with Jordan Maye and Jack Tell for a partial-band Rusty Nickel tour. Along the way, the trio stopped in Little Elephant Room in Toledo, Ohio, to shoot some live, stripped down versions of Rusty Nickel cuts off last year’s celebrated…