{image1}If you visited OnMilwaukee.com yesterday, you may have read a story about Appleton band Number One Fan, which is making its national label debut. That quartet's disc was recorded in Green Bay with producer Justin Perkins, whose own band The Obsoletes is also prepping for the big time.
The Obsoletes, unlike their cohorts, have a sound more heavily rooted in good old Midwestern rock and roll than in melodic punk, although the band has roots in the up north punk scene. Shades of Springsteen, Mellencamp and Petty color "Is This Progress?," the band's debut disc for 145 Records.
Although the band is new, its members are no newcomers. Drummer Jon Phillip was in The Benjamins, and Perkins and guitarist Timothy Schweiger were members of Yesterday's Kids. In fact, it was that band's reputation that helped The Obsoletes land their deal, according to Schweiger.
"The man who owns (145), Steve Malk, liked Yesterday's Kids and wondered what happened to that band so he tracked us down. Once he found out about The Obsoletes, he wanted to put something out by us."
{image2}And so we have "Is This Progress?" with its wailing B-3 organ, high-energy tempos, crankin' guitars and lovely minor chord choruses. Listening to the melodic, lyrically-interesting songs, it's not hard to guess who the band would list as influences.
"Beatles, Big Star, Replacements, Everly Bros, Petty, etc.," Schweiger offers. "It's an unconscious thing. We don't really try to sound like anything. Whatever comes out of us is strictly stream of consciousness type stuff. What we do with it -- i.e. the riffs and/or melodies -- probably has to do with what we're listening to at the time."
Milwaukee listeners might get a special kick out of "Down to Milwaukee," a song about trekking down to the "big city." The band, Schweiger says, does indeed get down to Milwaukee pretty regularly.
"That's probably the city that The Obsoletes play the most."
But with Number One Fan, The Obsoletes and a host of other bands working hard up in the Fox Valley, they don't seem to need to go anywhere to find inspiration and success.
"We don't have to put up with the hipster BS of the big city," Schweiger says. "That allows us more energy and time to make the music good."
The Obsoletes have a busy schedule at the moment. Earlier this week they performed live on a morning news program here in Milwaukee and followed it with gigs in Oshkosh, Green Bay and Neenah. They play a CD release show Saturday night at The Mad Planet and a live in-store concert at Atomic Records on Sunday at 6 p.m.
After that?
"Tour, tour, tour," says Schweiger. "And work on the next release."
The Obsoletes' Web site is theobsoletes.com.
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.
