8 Top Albums and Songs from Milwaukee to Listen to in July 2024
What was the best and worst about the second weekend of Summerfest in Milwaukee?
Piet Levy, Damon Joy and Cal Roach give their opinion on who was the best and who could have been better on the second weekend of Summerfest.
Milwaukee rapper JP and local country-rock band Ladybird are among the Wisconsin highlights on the final weekend of Summerfest 2024—and both recently released brand new music.
They’re among the eight best Milwaukee albums and songs to listen to in July, listed in alphabetical order.
That pedal steel guitar and lonesome vocal at the beginning of “Audrey’s Garden,” the opening track on Ladybird’s latest and best album, will conjure up images of a dusty Southern town. That’s unexpected given the title, but it’s not the only way Ladybird subverts expectations. “Fight Song” is a sparse, whistle-filled ballad, and “Short King Shuffle” offers up a rousing, curfew-like vibe at a rowdy bar, all on the way to an epic title track. (They play Summerfest at Miller Lite Oasis on Friday at 1 p.m.)
Haise can be considered one of the “busy people” he alludes to in the title track of his band’s fifth album in the last five years. Despite this stunning production, his songs are consistently good from start to finish; here, too, Haise adorns his clever, thoughtful lyrics, expressed in a Dylan-esque vocal, with the rich folk-rock arrangements of his equally talented bandmates.
The irresistible low-end banger “Bad Bitty” is the most popular song by a Milwaukee artist since Coo Coo Cal’s “My Projects” — with nearly 19 million streams on Spotify this year and media coverage of JP in Pitchfork, Billboard and more. But that’s no accident; JP’s album, “Coming Out Party,” may be the most entertaining by a Milwaukee artist this year. (JP will open for Lil Uzi Vert at Summerfest at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater on July 6.)
Experimental rock trio Exitstatements makes quite a statement with their eponymous debut album: In the opening song “Letterheads,” droning guitars create a menacing mood, and in later songs like “Drones,” ethereal vocals and cathartic guitars heighten the grandeur even further.
Emily Dickinson probably isn’t the person who first springs to mind when listening to the clever lo-fi rockers, but Alex Shah’s singing about his discomfort with success in “Posthumous Fame” and his conclusion that “some dreams are better left unfulfilled” reminded me of the reclusive nature that characterized one of America’s greatest poets. But even if you’re not focused on the lyrics, the jangly guitars will keep you entertained.
“I will dissolve for you,” MD McNally
McNally swims into Phish territory at the start of his new album with the opening track “Easy Mark” without ever slipping into extended jam sessions. Still, as with Phish, it’s not easy to categorize the singer-songwriter’s sound across the album—a compliment in this case, considering McNally’s ability to slip into rousing folk-rock on “Near Eau Claire,” crisp power-pop on “Stadia,” and other styles.
Kevin Bush has made some of the most exciting music in town with his brother William in the ’80s-inspired synthpop duo Immortal Girlfriend, and he’s doing it again with his solo country project Matthu. The production was pretty sparse, but “Lasso,” his first song since a debut EP in 2022, was worth the wait. Bush does traditional country his own way, with some electronic beats shuffling around the whistles, handclaps, and Justin Vernon-like vocals.
If you’re in the mood for some new local music for the summer days, you might want to start by listening to Shorelining’s eponymous debut EP, a colorful collection of songs by Jesse Harmon of the recently disbanded emo and post-punk project Piles.
“Must-Hear Milwaukee Music” appears on or around the first of each month in the Journal Sentinel and on jsonline.com. If you have a new album, EP or song coming out, contact Piet Levy at [email protected] for a review. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or on Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
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