Like everyone else, we've got some musical opinions and some songs just hook us and pull us in and we play them over and over again. For the past four years or so, Julie Lawrence and I have been the catalysts for this. Previously, others were in the mix.
In our old office, it took only the initial swooping bleeps of Placebo's "Peeping Tom" to get Pablo Doro and Mike Brenner saying, "turn it up," and Zach Karpinski sending an approval via AIM from the office next door.
Clem Snide's "Your Favorite Music" got a lot of play back then, too, but nothing like Placebo.
Later, in the new digs, I'd say, "we haven't heard this in a while" (in an ironic tone) before cueing up The Decemberists' "Picaresque," usually skipping over the first track, "The Infanta," although I'm not sure why. Death Cab's "Plans" also was in heavy, heavy rotation.
Next it was Phoenix's "It's Never Been Like That," which at just under 37 minutes cycled over and over again for days at a time.
Even shorter and therefore cycled even more frequently was The Sounds' "Dying to Say This To You."
But none of it could beat M.I.A.'s "Arular," which led me to attempt to do megamixes in iTunes, much to the amusement - and perhaps later, dismay, and then concern - of my co-workers. If one could wear out an mp3, we'd have done it with the 12 of them that form "Arular."
When it came to The Handsome Family, we rarely rocked the entire "Last Days of Wonder," preferring to focus on "After We Shot the Grizzly," with its "Lost"-like lyrics of survival.
We played Maximo Park's "Our Earthly Pleasures" quite a bit, too, but I fear that era was the start of ear buds starting to take over in the office and now, more than in the past, we often are lost in our own musical worlds many days.
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.
