Reedist Keefe Jackson, bassist Jakob Heinemann, and drummer Adam Shead are no strangers to this blog. This hardworking trio based in Chicago (Jackson and Shead) and Los Angeles (Heinemann) have busy schedules and often (luckily for this blog) stop in Milwaukee. A year ago they played a captivating set at Bar Centro and this time they were joined in the current exhibition space at the Charles Allis Museum by Norwegian clarinetist Andreas Røysum.
There were some really interesting originals from each member of the group, peppered with a few choice covers of tunes by jazz legends John Tchai, Bobby Bradford, and Paul Motian.
"Unhinged, needling, vicious screamo that somehow leaves a surprising amount of room for slower passages, mostly so it can build something properly horrible before drilling back into your skull like that scene in the legendary Pi movie. Then it loosens its grip for a second, gives you some air, and goes straight back into the spasms and all that raw nerve damage that fierce '90s and '00s screamo was built on."
Their four song set was a delight -- only a bit unhinged and not at all vicious in my opinion -- and at 19 minutes, much too brief. Hopefully they can visit the Cream City again.
Jen Powers and Matthew J Rolin were the only act over the last two Milwaukee Psych Fests whom I was not able to record. The reason was a schedule conflict -- taping the Heavy Lidders at Acme Records, a session which was eventually released by that band as a Bandcamp download. I am finally able to rectify Jen and Matt's absence with this wonderful performance at Cactus Club a few nights back.
Matthew first began gaining my attention a few years before and just after the onset of COVID, with a handful of primitive guitar releases on the Feeding Tube label. There was usually an unexpected sonic element added to these releases which distinguished his work from other more straightforward fingerstyle guitarists, such as bells, percussion, and electronics. He has subsequently proceeded to be a member of indie super group Winged Wheel as well as an especially powerful duo with his partner, dulcimerist Jen Powers.
The pair were opening for Croz Boyce, a side project of two members of Animal Collective -- one of whom makes an appearance on the second of two pieces presented here. I was a little worried that the Cactus Club crowd, there to see an experimental electronics band, might not fully appreciate the finely-crafted acoustic nature of their set. However, to their credit the crowd stood at attention and followed every twist and turn of the music, erupting in warm applause after both pieces.
I'm taking the opportunity afforded by the recent announcement that Ryley Walker will be returning to Big Ears Festival next year (after an inexcusable 12 year absence) to look around on my hard drive for some vintage live Ryley shows to share.
This set was recorded at the wonderful Hare and Hounds club in Kings Heath -- a suburb just to the south of England's second largest city. The trio of Ryley on guitar and vocals, bassist Andrew Scott Young and percussionist Ryan Jewelltook the stage after a wonderful opening set by force of nature Gwenifer Raymond (offered up here).
Despite not having access to a soundboard feed, I feel that this is a nice recording of this varied set. An unexpected treat here is a cover of an XTC song, but all the songs performed this night are wonderful -- and Ryley is in high quality banter mode.
My third recording of Milwaukee psych rock legends Vocokesh is now ready to be shared. Richard Franecki and his trio came to MKeUltra for an evening filled with experimental avantgarde music and the improvising psych rockers of Vocokesh fit perfectly with the other bands on the bill.
Interestingly, their first song of the set was a radical and extensive reworking of the title track from Pink Floyd's second album, something that barely registered with me at the show.
Richard Franecki: guitar Tom Schnier: bass Jim Gawelski: drums
Setlist: 01 A Saucerful of Secrets (19:10) 02 Two (5:04) 03 Three (7:18) 04 Four (8:00)
Total time = 39:32
Recorded with permission by Richard Hayes for this blog
Microphones: Line Audio CM3 in ORTF Additional source: mono SBD from Brian Hospital Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6ii at 32/96 Software: Audacity, Fission, xAct
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I've been frightened at a concert twice in my life. The first was in 1987 while regretting my fragile mortality in a sea of shifting humans standing on metal chairs at the Pontiac Silverdome during a U2 concert.
The second time was in June 2023 at Acme Records in Milwaukee when one of the musicians, dressed up like an alien cannibalistic swamp dweller, ran off stage directly at me on his way out of the building, screaming at the top of his lungs the whole time. Outside, on the sidewalk, he kept loudly screaming at passersby for a minute or so.
That last moment is captured in surprisingly good fidelity on this recording, where this enigmatic and anonymous duo opened for Derek Monypeny at Acme Records.
I'm afraid I can't quite explain in mere words how strange Ak'Chamel is. As an illustration of how they might perceive themselves, let me quote in full their promo material for their most recent album That will give you a picture of what we're dealing with:
Ak'chamel, The Givers of Illness plunged into truly deranged extremes to summon the decayed, otherworldly essence captured on Spiritually Unemployed, embracing unhinged and esoteric methods during the tracking process. Recorded in a makeshift adobe studio amid liminal border-zone ruins. Nocturnal treks along forgotten stretches near the U.S.-Mexico line, through derelict border outposts and sun-bleached vehicle husks, yielded unique recording opportunities: Ak'chamel dragged tape decks like sacrificial talismans, to capture gravel crunch, distant javalina fights, and unintentional EVP-like anomalies. Harvesting the psychic weight of migration, abandonment, and geopolitical limbo. A half-broken oud, double-reed pipes, a battered hurdy-gurdy, and self-built spike fiddles were "tortured" pre-recording; strings detuned to unstable microtonal chaos, reeds soaked in questionable desert-sourced liquids, and instruments were kept outdoors to absorb ambient dew, dust, and wild temperature swings, ensuring every take carried an unpredictable, haunted instability. Vintage cassette decks and reel-to-reel units were powered through erratic, low-voltage setups (literally dying generators) which introduced random voltage drops, speed fluctuations, and ghostly dropouts mid-take -- turning tracking into unpredictable spirit interventions. Fresh analog takes were dubbed onto tapes previously buried in arid soil throughout the hot day, then exhumed and played back while layering new overdubs; creating a palimpsest of temporal erosion where past decay bleeds into present performance. Live performances were blasted through overloaded, malfunctioning analog chains (cranked cassette walkmans, battered spring reverbs filled with gravel, warped echo units), then physically "mauled" by running the tape through sandpaper-wrapped capstans or crushing segments underfoot before resplicing -- resulting in tracks that feel compressed, twisted, and ruptured. Thus the desert claims its due: instruments tortured into prophecy, tapes interred and exhumed in chapels of malfunction. Spiritually Unemployed is the resulting artifact -- a sonic border autopsy where enlightenment arrives not as a sealed doctrine but as an open infested wound.
Honestly, it was an amazing experience. I've thought about this wild show often in the last three years and can't wait to see them again.
Swedish saxophonist Sebastian Strinning performed twice in the same month in Milwaukee during the month of October 2024, bringing a different group each time. This particular show featured bass clarinetistEmily Beisel, bassist Jakob Heinemann, and percussionist Bill Harris. It was a high-energy set with completely improvised material.
Brandon Seabrook's intense brand of avant garde jazz guitar performance, where sheets of sound descend upon the listener, is an exciting thing to experience. It can be overwhelming until the inevitable auditory adjustment has taken place. However I never feel assaulted by Seabrook's intensity -- instead it feels welcoming, with his energy and effort slowly pulling in the members of the audience into an ecstatic outpouring of emotion.
The Magic Tuber Stringband hails from Durham, North Carolina. Their blend of avant-folk reminded me quite a bit of folk drone legends Pelt as well as Universal Light. Their recent album on Thrill Jockey, Heavy Water, is packed with haunting melodies seasoned with an uneasy glowing light.
They came to the Jazz Gallery in July during a 17-date East Coast and Midwest tour for a brief but mesmerizing set.
