Two nights a month for the past seven years, three of Milwaukee's best DJs have hosted the city's biggest -- and certainly most booty shakin' -- dance party at The Mad Planet in Riverwest.
Now, Andy Noble, Brent Goodsell and Opiated Black celebrate the seventh anniversary of The Get Down funk and soul dance party on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 10 p.m. at, yes, The Mad Planet.
"It has been really inspiring to see that an event in Milwaukee, not based around something totally commercialized or trendy -- well, if it's trendy now we had a big hand in it , anyways! -- achieve success," says Noble, who is also the bassist for Kings Go Forth and co-owner of Lotus Land Records.
"The fact of the matter is that this music has stood the test of time -- not due to marketing or media buzz, but down to sheer quality and emotional resonance."
The event was born as a weekly record spin -- drawing on the trio's collections of amazing soul and funk rarities, most on original 45s released in the 1960s and ‘70s -- at Quarter's. It morphed into a monthly affair at Riverhorse, and later did a stint at the now-defunct Red Light, above Trocadero.
The spin found its greatest success at its current venue, says Noble.
"We now regularly draw between 250-400, playing strictly funk and soul obscurities, all on original press 45s," he says.
"We had to expand to two nights a month recently -- now the second and fourth Saturdays -- due to demand. Also, 88.9 broadcasts the first two hours of the event live on every second Saturday."
At the event, which costs $4, Noble says the first 100 patrons will get a free mix CD -- "not a cheapo CD-R," he promises, but, "a well-done thing with artwork, track listing, etc." -- of super-rare songs otherwise unavailable.
And they'll get to help mark the anniversary of what Noble believes to be, "to the best of my knowledge, the longest running underground -- non-hit music based -- DJ event in Milwaukee."
The Get Down Facebook page is here.
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.
