U.K. band Vega4 -- who played in Milwaukee a couple months back and whose disc "You and Others" is one of the year's best so far -- uses one of its songs to help raise awareness about climate change.
As a nod to Earth Day, the band's song "Life is Beautiful" is iTunes' features Single of the Week. And the band itself has launched a contest that encourages fans to use the song as the soundtrack to a video or photo slideshow that addresses environmental concerns or issues.
Submission details can be found on the Vega4 YouTube group. The contest ends May 31 and the winner will get two tickets to the July 7 Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
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.
