Spokane's own The Globes were slated to play The Rave this weekend with The Get Up Kids. But now that's not happening.
I was excited for the gig because the quartet's full-length disc, "Future Self" – out now on Barsuk Records – is a great guitar record that is a little hard to pigeonhole.
The eight-song disc – which follows a couple EPs – starts out with "Haunted By Bears," which is the sort of jangly post-punk pop ballad that might have you thinking these guys are disciples of The Smiths.
But then the guitars get more scratchy, the rhythms more varied, the arrangements less directional and the mood darker and it gets harder to conjure useful comparisons. I like that.
"Future Self" – produced by John Goodmanson (Blonde Redhead, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney) – clocks in at just under 35 minutes, so it's concise, and the moody songs are melodic.
But now The Get Up Kids show has moved to Summerfest and so there's no gig for The Globes. Instead, it looks like the band will use the date to travel from a July 8 show in Iowa City to a Minneapolis date on the 10th.
I hope they'll swing back this way soon.
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.
