One of the best surprises recently in Milwaukee music has been the emergence of Conrad Plymouth, which released its debut EP for free, digitally, a few months ago.
At that time, I talked to Christopher Porterfield, the band's frontman and songwriter, which was fresh off an appearance at South by Southwest.
That EP is now also available as the debut release on Ten Atoms, a label launched by Ryan Matteson of Muzzle of Bees fame. The vinyl 10" is the kind of item that seems stellar now but 25 years ago was considerably more common.
Tonight, the band -- which also includes Damian Strigens, Travis Whitty and Nick Berg -- officially releases the vinyl version of the four-song EP.
Also on the bill is Knit Delicate, though since it's a solo acoustic gig, we can probably just say Charles Jordan, who has issued at least two (maybe more, I've only heard two) really great gritty pop records as Knit Delicate. The latest is "Fulton Hill." I reviewed that record here.
Golden Coins and Josh Scott also play at the 9:30 p.m. gig at Linneman's tonight.
According to Strigens, there's a special price on the 10" at the show.
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.
