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Tag Archives: Milwaukee Music

We’re Trying To Make A Television Show About You, Milwaukee!

Here goes a rant. Enjoy:

I’ve already briefly mentioned this before, but my friend Steve and I, AKA Breaking And Entering, are trying to make a television series about Milwaukee’s emerging music scene. We want to feature a lot of the people that get write-ups here on AllenHalas.com, as well as some who don’t, and some people that we haven’t even met yet. I know for a fact that there’s a lot of talent in this city. If you follow this blog somewhat regularly, you do too.

We want to span all genres of music. How many of you know that Kings Go Forth, from Milwaukee, signed with Luaka Bop, the world music label headed by David Byrne, formerly of the Talking Heads? How many of you know that Milwaukee is home to artists that have won Alternative Press’ “Hometown Heroes” contest? (Most recently: Take The Day in 2011) The answer is not enough of you. When Bon Iver won their Best New Artist Grammy a few weeks ago, I saw a lot of people saying “I didn’t know they were from Eau Claire, WI?”. I believe things like that shouldn’t happen. We want to make a show that looks great for you, the viewer, as well as something authentic for the artists. We want to launch careers. Each show will center around one featured performer, and we’ll also have a remote segment featuring someone who might not be an artist, but is still a significant contributor to Milwaukee.

Here’s where it gets tricky, though. Things like this cost money. I don’t really want to twist your arm on this (mainly because things like that hurt), but if I could for a second, I strongly urge you to help contribute to our fund on IndieGoGo.com, a fundraising website. We can’t do this alone. We’ve already put some significant time and effort into this project. We’ve talked to a television station, and we’re on their list of possible shows to get partial funding in the near future. We can’t put up all of the money ourselves, though. This is where Milwaukee can really make something happen. Even if you give $1, everything is a step forward. We’ve set up some perks for you if you contribute enough to our campaign. We’re going to keep adding to those perks when we can find something worthy of giving you. We also need more than money. If you have anything you think we might be interested in, send us an email at BreakinNEntering@Gmail.com

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Contribute to our campaign on IndieGoGo by clicking here. Also, spread this to everyone you know. Please and thank you.

-Allen

R.I.P. Richard LaValliere

Photo credit: George Taylor, via MilwaukeeRockPosters.com

Wow. It feels weird to write this, mainly because I never knew Richard personally. But I feel like I just have to say something about him. Before I continue on, let me give everyone a brief backstory of how I learned who Richard LaValliere was:

If you know some of Milwaukee’s music history, chances are you know who The Haskels were. Or at least you know the name or something. Anyway, my dad hung out with them somewhat regularly. He went to practices and hung out in the now infamous Haskel Hotel, a house on North Arlington Dr. He was actually pretty good friends with Presley Haskel, AKA Jerome Brisch, who was in the band with Richard at one point before his untimely death. This is where the story gets fuzzy, mainly because I never asked much about it, but at some point Richard split off to form his own band, the Oil Tasters. They released an album and a couple EPs, which I’m sure are still drifting around in Milwaukee and elsewhere.

Fast forward to roughly 2003, 2004?ish (probably around then), where I come into play. I was going through CDs, and found a burned one with the words “Oil Tasters” on it. It was a copy of their album that my cousin ripped to CD for us. I put it on, and I was confused to say the least. I heard something that was kind of punkish, but there’s this ridiculously loud saxophone over the top of it. It was like something out of a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Then you hear this grainy, whiny voice come in, singing “It’s the kind of day when a friend that you trust, could miss that red light, and hit that school bus” That was the true “What the fuck am I hearing?” moment. But it was awesome. I listened to it a lot. I was hooked.

Since then, I’ve been a fan of the Oil Tasters, and I’ve seen plenty of history to go with the whole Haskels/Oil Tasters era. I always wanted to meet Richard. He had to be some kind of weird but cool guy to hang around with. I mean, the guy had a blue bass with fried eggs painted/molded onto it. According to my dad, he took them off at one point, explaining that he “had to with all of that AIDS shit that’s going around”. That was the kind of guy that I had the pleasure to learn about. He/the Oil Tasters were so original that nobody knew what to do with them. It was quirky, to say the least.

Richard unfortunately passed away on February 8th. He was a local legend. R.I.P.

Mad Static – “Let The Church Say… Amen!”

After much anticipation, Mad Static has released his first project in two years. “Let The Church Say… Amen!” has a very diverse sound to it. At times, it reminds me of A Tribe Called Quest and Raekwon, and at times it reminds me of a Kanye West album. Either way, I’m totally okay with listening to either. Oh yeah, and I produced track 4, “Bass In Ya Eye”. Just saying. Listen to this EP and download it right here:

88Nine Radio Milwaukee Music Awards Winners’ Compilation (Free Download)

This is a pretty awesome compilation featuring a lot of local talent, some of which I had not heard before. I’m downloading this at the moment, and I think you should, too. Or, consequently, you could just keep coming back to this page and streaming the compilation here. Your call.

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