The Trusty Knife

The Trusty Knife made up of Zack Pieper, Brock Gourlie, Ross Bachhuber, Spectron, and Annie Killelea is a self described pop band. Like so many Milwaukee bands they are heavily influenced by the past. I don't know if it's something in the air, but be it hip-hop or rock Milwaukee bands tend to have a laid back retro sound that lands somewhere between the 80's and 60's. The Trusty Knife carries on the tradition of creating strong melodies that echo the classic rock of the 60's. To their credit I can't pin down one influence that stands out more then any other, or obscures their voice. They're able to blend it all together to form music that's sounds familiar and different.

Although the energy of the album "The Trusty Knife" doesn't match the energy of their live performances the album gives you a chance to hear the pure melodies without them being drowned out by at times strange and somewhat over indulgent vocalizing of lead songer Zack Pieper. It seems when he sings live he can go a little nuts.

Songs of note are "Jack In the Box," "Goliath Son," "It's All Built In," and "Flash in the Pan." These are the kind of songs you could play over and over again and never get tried of hearing.

Fahamu Pecou is the Shit or so he says

Fahamu Pecou, an Atlanta based artist inserts himself into his art feeding our need for images, questioning our need for images and questioning our ideas about image. If you see a black man on the cover of a rap magazine verses an art magazine how do you perceive him? Pecou is interested in how branding, and propaganda influence culture and thinking. He explains in his artist statement:

"Thinking through the process of media propaganda brought me to my current work with magazine covers. Playing on the public's psychological reaction to magazines, and preconceived ideas about who should be in them, I began projecting my image and ideas on the covers of magazines. I further abstracted the concept by juxtaposing my character's in your face, hip-hop bravado on fine art magazines."

He presents the easily cliche hip-hop persona. You may even think you recognize him in his many posses on various magazine covers. Like propaganda you begin to believe what you see; that this is someone you should know about. And you should know about Pecou the artist. Is he only talking about the persona of Fahamu Pecou when he describes himself as "the most beautiful and brightest boy in the land" on his cover for Fader magazine? In an interview for FormatMag.com he mentions that magazines often request his covers. As it was for Warhol, fame is the key. Pecou plays heavily on the notion of fame for the sake of fame through his persona and in turn plays on our desire to know who he is as an artist and somehow become part of the scene he is creating.

Gallery Openings and Closings

There's been a lot of panic and concern over the state of the arts in Milwaukee. Galleries are closing within a couple of years of opening. I'll admit I tend to put things off, but I'd expect a gallery to last a good five years before it closes up. But what's even more surprising is they keep opening. Just as the Armoury Gallery closed it's doors another has popped up. Caggio: An Art Experiment just announced the opening of it's first show on June 5th to the pleasant surprise of a lot of people who've perhaps unintentionally written off the ability of Milwaukee artists, curators, and art enthusiasts to keep art alive in this city. And let's face it, a gallery is a business and running a business can be a difficult operation. Many business fail. I can only hope that Milwaukee has enough people who are willing to step up and say yes I want to open a gallery and yes I'm willing to do the research so I know what I'm doing.

Walkers Point Center for the Arts Annual Members Show

Now for a little shameless self-promotion. Come see the show! Come see the show! Walkers Point Center for the Arts is opening its members show Friday, June 5 and my art will be on the walls. I got a peek at some of the other submissions and I think the exhibit is going to be extremly varied. Here's a look at some of my work.

The show runs til July 2, and admission is free.

Fashion for Life

Prim & Proper-Kadeem Johnson, Bronx, NY



The Great Gatsby-Linda Lunstedt, Goteburg Sweden

Lookbook.nu with its fashion pics from around the world is seductive, cool and a little addictive.

Dawoud Bey after dark

Another night of MAM After Dark has come and gone. It’s the Milwaukee Art Museum’s way of getting people to come to museum under false pretenses. I suspect they don’t really care if you like the food or the entertainment so long as you see the art. The food and entertainment are the bate. That’s fine with me. The night featured old school hip-hop. True Skool brought the breakdancers and graffiti art. The movie “Beat Street” played in the Lubar Auditorium, and by DJ Tarik Moody of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee brought the music.

The crowd was large and energetic although there were moments when I sensed the event needed a little more direction. People needed to be told what to do, instructed on how to party. I spotted quite a few wall flowers standing around or sitting on the floor. And being that I’d already scene at lot of the art on display I quickly ran out of ways to occupy myself between breakdance sessions.

One display I had not seen was a group of portraits called Class Pictures taken of high school students from around the country by photographer Dawoud Bey. He’s been a photographer for over thirty years and a professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago since 1998. The purpose of the project in Bey’s own words is “to create a compelling and significant contemporary portrait of American youth in its various social and human dimensions.”

Each extra large, color portrait is accompanied by a description of the subject written by the subject. We see the image of the tall, handsome teenage boy, with steely eyes and read that he is really a mama’s boy and misses his family. We see the “pretty girl” who speaks for languages. Bey creates, by including the teens own statements about themselves an opportunity to view and understand the individual; and possibly relate through the memory of what it was like to be a teenager full of plans and expectations, but lacking life experience.

I just wish Bey could have gotten more of the teens to let their guard down physically. Except for a few they all appeared to me as angry teenagers at first glance, which of course they weren’t. Bey seemed to mainly capture a hardness, and standoffish air teens tend to carry in their body language. And of course what’s missing is the teens who aren’t in school, the drop outs and the runaways. The show runs to July 12, 2009. Examples of Bey’s other works can be found at his web site www.dawoudbey.net.

It's Sat night and I need a beat

So I finally got up off my ass to go out on a Saturday night and hear some local music. I want to see and hear what Milwaukee really has to offer. For years I been putting it off and for years I’ve heard the complaints that Milwaukeeans don’t support the local music scene.

Thanks to 88nine Radio Milwaukee I’ve heard more and more local bands get air time. Which is a good start. The results are mixed. Some of the groups are headed in the right direction. Some need to end their suffering now and just break up. But what I really want to experience is the live music.

My first night out in a long time I dragged my boyfriend across town with two options in mind, Code Breaker and Those XCleavers. We headed to the Stonefly Brewery first to check out Codebreaker. They’ve gotten respectable air time on 88nine with “Fire” and “Riviera On The Moon.“ Their music is a cool and breezy throw back to disco, laden with funk and danceable beats, so I was prepared to get up. The show was scheduled to start at 10pm. We got there at 10:30pm and the band was still sitting up. I had a feeling they’d get a late start as that seems to be the norm around here. But when you’re pushing forty and used to getting up and going to work five days a week going out on a Saturday night is a major operation. I don’t want to sit and wait for a band to start. So we got up and walked around the neighborhood to see what else was going on at the other bars.

We followed cool crowds of black clad twenty-somethings until they disappeared into nothingness. I wanted to cool like them and not care about were I was going or when I’d be home, because only the moment mattered. But it was 11pm and I was pissed and tired and still needed to justify being in a bad neighborhood late at night with a middle-aged white man who’s sweet, but not nearly tough. Only live music could justify me and there was none to be had.

We soon realized there was nothing to see but a couple of fully krausened drunks mumbling to themselves and made our way back to Stonefly. Code Breaker still wasn’t set up. I must admit my expectations were low for Code Breaker as I’d witnessed them walk off the stage mid-song once before when they suddenly decided the sound wasn‘t up to their standards.

As the night was wasting away and we still hadn’t had the chance to hear any live music we headed off to the ever crowded and lively Brady Street to the Up and Under Pub. Brady Street is like a cool dream and a nightmare. I drew energy from the crowds of younger women who remind me for myself when I was in my twenties running around in the middle of the night trying to get high, look good and searching for the secret something that only existed in clubs, beats and cigarettes smoke. The nightmare is driving in circles looking for a parking space, vaguely worrying about getting hit up for money by a homeless guy or mugged.

We were lucky enough to find a parking space after only ten minutes of driving in circles, strolled down to the spot only to find that
Those XCleavershad cancelled. I have a vague memory of this band from the eighties. I was expecting to see a bunch of middle-aged punk rockers trying to make a come back. Maybe they were too tired to play. I did manage to dig up some very worn videos of “Confusion(Do The)” "Mondo Commando" and they sound better than they look.





I was fighting sleep, but didn’t want to give upon the night just yet, so we stopped in Rochambo for a game of Operation and a soda. We called somewhere round midnight.
I will not give up. I want to see what the musicians and performers of this city have to offer.