Thursday, May 10,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Quintron and Miss Pussycat, The Polyphonic Spree and The Black Keys

Prolific rocker Steve Winwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 for his work with the prog-rock outfit Traffic, and it's not inconceivable he could be inducted again, since he was also a founding member...

Friday, May 4,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Aziz Ansari, Field Report and Milwaukee Underground Film Festival

By Shepherd Express Staff

Los Angeles promoter David Bash founded his International Pop Overthrow Festival in 1998 to showcase bands performing in the loosely defined power-pop tradition—pretty much any group playing melodic, guitar-based rock qualifies—and has since...

Thursday, April 26,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

By Shepherd Express Staff

Gladys Knight and the Pips recorded a number of minor hits for Motown in the mid-to-late '60s, but it wasn't until the group left the label that they scored their signature hit, “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Knight has had a colorful career since...

Thursday, April 12,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Rodrigo y Gabriela, Ceremony and Cults

By Shepherd Express Staff

Decades into a career of recording everything from jazz to pop to R&B, Rickie Lee Jones continues to throw curveballs to her fans. Her 1997 record Ghostyhead experimented with drum-heavy trip-hop...

Thursday, April 5,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Youth Lagoon, Opening Day and Lucero

By Shepherd Express Staff

It's funny how a little bit of talent is all it takes to make even some of the most exhausted sounds feel new again. Released last year through Fat Possum Records, songwriter Trevor Powers' debut album as Youth Lagoon, The Year of Hibernation...

Thursday, March 29,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Spoof Fest 2012, Noel Gallagher and Shabazz Palaces

By Shepherd Express Staff

Dan Hicks has been playing for half a century, and although his 1969 debut LP with His Hot Licks, Original Recordings, wasn't much of a success, it led to a line of more successful albums that established him as a cult...

Thursday, March 22,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

By Shepherd Express Staff

A whiff of the sinister ran through Delta Spirit's revival-spiked indie rock on the California group's 2010 full-length, History From Below, with songs like “9/11,” “Salt in the Wound” and “Devil Knows You're Dead” touching on...

Thursday, February 16,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

The Daredevil Christopher Wright, Sammy Llanas and Dirty Dozen Brass Band

By Shepherd Express Staff

Eau Claire's The Daredevil Christopher Wright has proud ties to that city's biggest star: Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, who produced the band's 2009 debut album, In Deference to a Broken Back. The group's bombastically orchestrated baroque...

Thursday, January 26,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

John Oliver, Aaron Neville and Attack Attack!

By Shepherd Express Staff

Since his 2006 debut as the “senior British correspondent” on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” John Oliver has emerged as one of the program's breakout stars, anchoring his segments with a mix of dry humor...

Thursday, January 19,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

JJ Grey & Mofro, Ghost Hunters Live and Kool Keith

By Shepherd Express Staff

From their humble, late-'90s beginnings in the swamplands of northern Florida, the blues-funk group Mofro quickly rose through word of mouth in the receptive jam band circuit. The band's 2001 Fog City debut, Blackwater, paid homage to...

Thursday, January 12,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Poliça, Brad Paisley and Brewcity Bruisers Roller Derby

By Shepherd Express Staff

Twin Cities producer Ryan Olson was one of the driving creative forces behind Gayngs, the sprawling 25-member soft-rock collective that included members of The Rosebuds, Megafaun and Bon Iver. His latest project features a much smaller cast...

Thursday, January 5,2012
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

JJ Grey & Mofro, Wu-Tang Clan and Hugh Bob and The Hustle

By Shepherd Express Staff

The hard-boogieing Southern rock act JJ Grey & Mofro will return to Milwaukee later this month for a Jan. 19 performance at the Turner Hall Ballroom. In advance of that show, the venue...

Thursday, December 29,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Moshe Kasher, The Get Down and Polar Bear Plunge

By Shepherd Express Staff

Comedian Moshe Kasher's thick glasses and effete mannerisms seem to tease a much different, softer style of comedy than the kind he actually delivers. Instead of riffing on the neuroses you might expect, Kasher barrels forward with a surprisingly...

Thursday, December 22,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Call Me Lightning, Haunted Bar Tour and Sleeping in the Aviary

By Shepherd Express Staff

The familiar songbook of U2, as performed by the Midwest tribute band U2Zoo, will be juxtaposed against the beautiful background of the Floral Show Dome at the Mitchell Park Conservatory. The performance is part of the Domes...

Thursday, December 15,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Cage the Elephant, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mac Miller

By Shepherd Express Staff

The local modern-rock station FM 102.1 has some exciting acts for its annual holiday show. Headliners Cage the Elephant have been alt-radio staples since their breakout hit “Ain't No Rest for the Wicked,” from their 2008 self-titled debut album, a funky...

Thursday, December 8,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Wilco, Milwaukee Zine Fest and Urban Garage Sale

By Shepherd Express Staff

After two albums of deranged, abrasively noisy psychedelic art-pop, including 2009's densely packed Worldwild, Brooklyn's Pterodactyl has made its catchiest, most accessible record yet with its newest release, Spills Out. It's still a jittery, deeply...

Thursday, December 1,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Kyuss Lives!, Russian Circles and Beady Eye

By Shepherd Express Staff

Though they amassed an impressive body of work in their own right, the stoner rock band Kyuss has become known mostly for its many offshoot bands—Them Crooked Vultures, Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles...

Wednesday, November 23,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Steve Aoki, .357 String Band and Art vs. Craft

By Shepherd Express Staff

Expert remix artist Steve Aoki—also a club promoter, a record producer and the founder of Dim Mak Records—injects tricked-out trance beats into even the most tame tracks to create thumping house...

Thursday, November 17,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

The Avett Brothers, Seziure Chicken Fall Fest and Mates of State

By Shepherd Express Staff

Brothers Scott and Seth began recording as The Avett Brothers in 2000, roughly at the beginning of the modern roots-revival movement jump started by Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, and in the decade since, with bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe...

Thursday, November 10,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Rachel Yamagata, Paul Simon and The Game

By Shepherd Express Staff

From their humble beginnings as a house band in Chicago, the progressive-bluegrass ensemble Cornmeal grew an audience that allowed them to play high-profile festivals like Bonnaroo...

Thursday, October 27,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

GWAR, Neil Hamburger and They Might Be Giants

By Shepherd Express Staff

Even by the anything-goes standard of modern world music, Delhi 2 Dublin's fusion of world sounds is pretty eccentric. The Canadian sextet electrifies traditional Celtic and Indian bhangra music with turntables and electronic sitars, rock guitars...

Thursday, October 20,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Los Straitjackets, Seth Meyers and MAM After Dark

By Shepherd Express Staff

The post-Pulp Fiction surf-rock revival spawned plenty of instrumental surf bands, but Nashville's Los Straitjackets didn't have...

Thursday, October 6,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Will Hoge, Cheap Trick and Trailer Park Boys

By Shepherd Express Staff

Nashville songwriter Will Hoge set out to become a history teacher, but he left Western Kentucky University to pursue music. The rustic, soulful roots-rock sound of his independently released album Live at the Exit/In drew attention from Atlantic...

Wednesday, September 21,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Marshall Crenshaw, Center Street Daze and Milwaukee Noise Festival

By Shepherd Express Staff

A singer-songwriter with a reverence for classic rock 'n' roll, Buddy Holly glasses and porkpie hats, Marshall Crenshaw emerged shortly after Elvis Costello, so it's a testament to his songwriting gifts that he wasn't immediately dismissed...

Thursday, September 15,2011
This Week in Milwaukee

This Week in Milwaukee

Bay View Bash, Okkervil River and SWANS

By Shepherd Express Staff

It shouldn't be too surprising that Pizzle has revealed himself to be one of Milwaukee's most pop-savvy rappers with his new album, Fame in Vain. . His Packerscheering Wiz Khalifa remake “Green and Yellow,” with Prophetic, was ubiquitous on local...