Read about the best of last month below:
10. Chill on the Hill returns for another year of kicking back in Humboldt Park
Bay View’s weekly Tuesday night music festival Chill on the Hill announced its schedule of acts in May. The series kicks off tonight at Humboldt Park at 6 p.m. with The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Other headliners include The Delta Routine (June 9), Anna Fermin (June 16), Extra Crispy Brass Band (June 23), American Legion Band (June 30), Painted Caves (July 7), Urban Empress & The Urbanites (July 14), The Vitrolum Republic (July 21), Midwest Death Rattle and Space Raft (July 28), Generation Z and The Rust Belt Rejects (August 4), Doghouse Flowers and The Carpet Baggers (August 11), Chief and The Size 5’s (August 18), Greatest Lakes and Ladders (August 25) and Living Statues and Dead Horses (September 1).
9. Summerfest finally adds a woman to its masculine Marcus Amphitheater offerings
While the rest of the fest often boasts a diverse cast of musicians, the main stage at Summerfest is once again heavily dude-centric this year. The bands announced so far are The Rolling Stones (four dudes), Florida Georgia Line (two dudes), Kings of Leon (four dudes), Keith Urban (one dude), Stevie Wonder (one dude), Zac Brown Band (eight dudes), Linkin Park (six dudes), Kendrick Lamar (one dude), Ed Sheeran (one dude) and Neil Young and Promise of Real (five dudes). That’s 33 dudes, according to the band’s press photos—43 counting the opening acts. That’s a ridiculous amount of dudes. That’s enough dudes to field a baseball team or a football team or some other exclusively-dude sport that requires a lot of dudes. But thankfully in May, Summerfest decided to throw all those non-dudes a bone and book non-dude Carrie Underwood to headline July 2. They also snuck in non-dude opener Grace Potter who will play a non-dude set before dude Neil Young on July 5.
8. Burnhearts/Pabst Street Party books solid local line-up
For the past few summers, Bay View bar Burnhearts has offered a glistening oasis from the seemingly never-ending chaos of Summerfest. Each year its annual block party delivers a long list of micro beers and craft cocktails and keeps the music to a single stage. On June 27, De La Buena, Klassik, Platinum Boys, Light Music and Nightgown will grace the stage with DJ Why B between sets. It may turn out to be the most refreshing block party this summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjYiA9FIrXE
7. Old Earth releases first material since moving from Milwaukee
Singer-songwriter Todd Umhoefer moved out to Oakland late last year, but he didn’t leave his experimental folk project Old Earth in the dust. Last month, Umhoefer released the stirring three-song, 12-minute EP…until they’re called. A familiar face shows up the recording—William Ryan Fritch, who you may remember as the multi-instrumentalist that scored Death Blues’ climatic release, the lushly-arranged Ensemble.
6. Vonny Del Fresco drops mature, stunning new album
Rapper Vonny Del Fresco premiered his new record, Memoirs, on Pigeons and Planes last month. As he tells the hip hop blog, “These are my memoirs, my wisdom, my knowledge obtained. Not just knowledge of self, but everything that stood around me, the world and where I desire to stand in it.” Listen to the album below:
5. Take a shot of Hello Death with a whiskey back
Remnants is technically a new record from the folk outfit Hello Death, but while the album was officially released last month, the songs were originally recorded during the same session at April Base recording studio that brought about 2013’s self-titled debut. But Remnants doesn’t sound like a collection of b-sides, rather it’s another effort of hauntingly beautiful tracks that easily stacks up to its auspicious debut.
4. Jump into the Piles album
Piles’ sophomore full-length, Planet Skin, has a way of worming into your brain. The inviting opener “Blue Glue” provides an easy entryway, with its post-punk guitars and sun-drenched melodies, and the blistering record doesn’t let go from there.
3. The Replacements capture loose, shambolic vibe at its sold-out reunion show
Guitarist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson joined together onstage last month as the seminal power pop group The Replacements reunited for a packed performance at the Rave. For a band that loved to buck expectations, The Replacements lived up to them this time, playing the big anthems “Bastards of Young,” “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “Never Mind” while also digging through some deeper cuts and covers. Read my full review of the show here.
2. O.M.G. Soul Low EP
It’s been two years since Soul Low’s impressive debut album Uneasy emerged from the ether, but the three-piece hasn’t just been lying around in the meantime. January saw the release of the ambitious four-song EP/DVD Kind Spirit, which included a music video for each track. The boys were back again last month with another four-song EP Sweet Pea (which also includes some bonus demos), in which singer Jake Balistreri tackles some particularly sensitive subjects, especially on the, um, contagious “O.M.G.S.T.D.”
1. Estates unveils hard-hitting sophomore album
The Midwest has a storied history of emo, but the powerful three-piece estates blazed its own path with the release of May’s grueling sophomore record It’s Great to Be Alone. The unrelenting power and refreshing fervor manifest an animated and emotional album that resists being labeled simply as a period piece, but rather forcefully resuscitates the long-maligned genre.
