While Mike Brenner's gallery has operated on a shoe string budget to bring great art to Milwaukee at affordable prices, Hotcakes has also quietly become the place in town to hear music on the edge.
Audiotrope is the perfect example. For nearly a decade Hal Rammel, Steve Nelson-Raney and Thomas Gaudynski have performed together in addition to their numerous other projects. The trio's latest CD, "TriCyle" was recorded live in November 2005 at Woodland Pattern Book Center.
Other musicians who have performed at Hotcakes include Jon Mueller, Carol Genetti, Jack Wright, Jim Baker, Nathan Hanseon and Federico Ughi. The setting is a great one for improvised and experimental music. The vibe is friendly and the venue cozy.
So, on Dec. 1 check out three of the city's most exploratory artists and support the continuation of the city's edgiest music series at the same time.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
