The Buzzhorn

“We just wanted to kinda get back to rock.” The phrase may be a bit of a cliché, but is the perfect description of what The Buzzhorn is all about.

Recently signing with Atlantic Records, the Milwaukee-based band is taking its first steps into the national limelight, with high hopes and realistic expectations. “As far as the national level and everything, you can keep your fingers crossed and hope that it all goes well. We just want to keep playing, and that’s really it,” reflects vocalist Ryan Mueller.

The Buzzhorn are one of Milwaukee’s hottest bands, but were relatively unheard of outside of the city until recently. Advertising extensively and barely getting by financially, The Buzzhorn developed a strong, energetic fan base in the Milwaukee area. Ultimately, this, in combination with the band’s musical talent, caught the eyes and ears of Atlantic Records, offering The Buzzhorn the opportunity every band dreams of. On August 6 of this year, “Disconnected” hits stores, with the first single, “Ordinary” currently being added to radio play lists nationwide.

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Beautiful Creatures

There was a time when rock ‘n’ roll roamed the earth like a tattooed titan, a fire-breathing monster that made mothers cringe in horror, and their daughters creep closer to feel the heat. It was the music that separated the men from the boys, transforming guitars into an electrical storm, vocals into a maelstrom of piss and vinegar, and blasting a bottom end that made the walls shake. It meant more than just songs on the radio, it was a lifestyle.

Well, if the haze of the late-‘90s has left us convinced that excitement has left the building, Beautiful Creatures kick the door back down, stampeding onto the scene with their self-titled debut. Inspired by the same bands that spawned everyone from Alice in Chains to Pantera, they strike a paralyzing blow to the complacent chords and ridiculous excuses for rock stars that inundate the modern music scene. Paying homage to their roots and with their sites set on the future, its monster hooks and sleazed-out looks that make the Beautiful Creatures the most electrifying new band in years.

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Blind Melon

The two associations that Blind Melon will always have are with the girl in the yellow and black bee costume from the video for their 90’s alternative chestnut, “No Rain” (a tune which reached #20 on the Pop Charts and even earned a Weird Al parody), and the drug overdose of their original lead singer, Shannon Hoon, in 1995. Indeed, when I met him as a underager in 1993 after sneaking into Marquette University in Milwaukee to see them, drugs was a subject he mentioned almost immediately. Although an album of outtakes and live performances followed (named Nico after the newborn daughter Hoon left behind) and the band went on a search for a new singer, the public would not accept them and the band broke up before the end of the decade.

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Big Dumb Dick

Milwaukee hard rockers who’ve shared the stage with metal and heavy bands from Saliva to Disturbed to Motley Crue, BIG DUMB DICK was one of the Brew City’s most reliable rock acts through the late 90’s and early Aughts. They would perform regularly at events like Summerfest and Harley Fest as well as touring nationally. Their shows were known for body-passing, moshing, dancing girls, and pyrotechnics, making them one of the city’s best draws. This also garnered them representation from big players like Kid Rock’s management company and serious interest from major record labels. After being at the center of the maelstrom, lead singer and founding member, Travis Mantsch decided to take some time off from BIG DUMB DICK to clear his head and start a family. Three years later, the songs he had created in his home studio took on a familiar tone and now the band is back and releasing a new record, See You In Hell.

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Baghdad Scuba Review

Political revolution through music and a spelling error are just some of the inspiration behind Baghdad Scuba Review.

The six man group got its start when guitarist, vocalist and former member of One Fluid Ounce John Schneider moved to Madison from California and began performing at weekly open mic nights at Pizzaria Uno, 222 W. Gorham St. The band said Schneider developed “comfortableness” with inviting guests and soon guitarist Chad Thompson, drummer Justin Gerstner and bassist Erik Riedasch began sitting in at the shows. Slowly, Riedasch said jam sessions and unrehearsed shows ripened at Mr. Roberts, 2116 Atwood Ave.

“Having no direction or goal we performed under such names as ‘John Schneider and Friends’ or ‘The John Schneider Project’,” Riedasch said.

The members of Baghdad Scuba Review all came from well-known Madison bands. Riedasch and percussionist Rob Bloch came from the band Groovulous Glove, Thompson from Green Situation, Gerstner from The Northern Pines Band and keyboardist Jason Krueger from Runga Kutta. “Since then, we all started taking ourselves a little more seriously, originating with the birth name of BSR, but we’ve never let it go to our heads,” Riedasch said. “I think we all agree that isn’t the objective of this band.  We’ve always had this underlining respect and closeness with each other which is simply not describable.”

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Birth Of Tragedy

In 2003, scientists from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, were studying a supermassive black hole located 250 million light years from earth. They discovered that it was producing sound waves.  These sound waves translate into B-flat, 57 octaves below middle C on the common household piano.  This pitch, inaudible to the human ear, is the sound of the slaughter of light.

Addiction is much like a black hole that crushes the light of those enslaved by it.  A local counselor and musician named Cory Divine works to alter the trajectory of youth who have found themselves in the vacuum of addiction by producing his own yawp of sound. 

His band is called Birth of Tragedy and consists of only two members: Divine on guitar and vocals + Ryan Peterson, percussionist.  To call Peterson a percussionist is to call the Sears Tower a building.  Upon experiencing the colossal sound of Birth of Tragedy, one is certain that continental drift progresses significantly with every set.

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Blackdog

Hailing from Chicago after forming in Madison from two musical soulmates, guitarists Anthony Alban and Sammy Reicher, BLACKDOG fuses influences of early 20th Century Delta Blues, 50’s rock n’ roll, and the Classic Rock Pantheon. Andrew Elbert, their drummer says, “ We all love roots music and have a foundation in blues and rock n’ roll. Our heroes are Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits, BB King, and Buddy Guy.” After earning their undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin, they decided to take the band to the big city and almost the whole band moved to Chicago (they found a new bassplayer,  Jason Segal, when they got there.)

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