{image1}It's not unusual for a young band to start out by building up a set of songs gleaned from band members' favorite records. It's a good way to get to know one another musically and get together enough songs for gigs, while still honing your own songs.
But here in Milwaukee, where original music is often a hard sell, some bands have discovered that mixing originals and covers is the key to hometown success.
Take Crazy Man's Basement, a quartet that just released "There and Back," its first disc of 11 original songs.
"We started playing all covers," says drummer Mark Kindler. "We added a couple of acoustic-based originals in the first year and got a good response. Since writing the songs for the CD we have been playing six or seven of them at most gigs."
When the band played Summerfest this year, serving up about 25 percent originals and 75 percent covers, according to Kindler, response was good.
"Summerfest was fantastic! The crowd was bigger than expected and, according to the stage crew, even a little bigger than a typical noon slot at the Miller Stage," Kindler says. "The originals went over very well and probably helped us sell dozens of CDs and t-shirts."
In fact, Kindler says, although most of the audience may be at a Crazy Man's Basement gig to hear familiar tunes, most of the crowd is open-minded.
"Reaction has been great to the originals, but we also know that people like to hear some stuff they recognize. We're happy to mix it up."
The group -- which also includes bassist Bob Hedgcock, singer Tom Klubertanz and guitarist Andy Zietow -- formed about two years ago, cramming to get a set together for its first gig, at the Milwaukee Ale House. That meant relying heavily on covers. But, when the originals starting coming, the band wasn't necessarily eager to alter its path.
"We're happy to mix it up with a little of both," Kindler says. "When you're covering great bands like Dave Matthews, U2 and The Police there is still plenty of challenge and enjoyment in playing it right.
"We really enjoy and respect the bands we're covering so it's not one of those deals where you're playing the junk that you hate but you know 'they' want to hear. I wouldn't say that any of us are frustrated, at all, to be playing a combination of covers and originals. (These) bands ... are major influences in our own music, and it's fun to put our own spin on the stuff that motivated us to do this in the first place."
The Crazy Man's Basement Web site is crazymansbasement.com. You can catch the band Sunday, Aug. 1, at Waukesha River Fest on the Leinie's Lodge at 3:30 p.m.
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.
