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Marquette Golden Eagles vs Villanova Wildcats
Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:00:00 +0000

When: Oct 1, 2012 8:00:00 PM in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Aesop Rock with Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz, Edison, Dark Time Sunshine
Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Music: Clubs:


When: 07/27/12 @ 9:00pm
Cost: $20
Call: 241-8633
Web: aesoprock.com

More Information:
AESOP ROCK w/ DJ ROB SONIC and DJ BIG WIZ
with special guests
Edison
Dark Time Sunshine
Friday, July 27, 9pm
Barrymore Theatre
Tickets: $20 adv and dos
All Ages
Tickets On Sale Friday, May 11 at 12 noon

aesoprock.com
www.myspace.com/aesoprockwins
twitter.com/#!/aesoprockwins
www.facebook.com/pages/Aesop-Rock/104163806285550

www.myspace.com/robsonic1
www.myspace.com/djbigwiz
www.myspace.com/bearless
darktimesunshine.com

AESOP ROCK TO TOUR NORTH AMERICA THIS SUMMER WITH ROB SONIC & DJ BIG WIZ


SOUNDSET APPEARANCE AND 22 NORTH AMERICAN DATES IN SUPPORT OF UPCOMING SKELETHON LP OUT JULY 10th ON RHYMESAYERS ENTERTAINMENT


Renowned rapper and producer, Aesop Rock, is preparing to wax poetically to throngs of fans across North America this summer as he makes his way across the continent touring in support of his upcoming release, Skelethon. The New York-bred, San Francisco-based master of all flows atypical is set to kick off his tour, along with Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz, July 13th in Los Angeles and will traverse across the US and Canada through August.

Aesop Rock's upcoming tour directly follows the July 10th release of his sixth LP, Skelethon on Rhymesayers Entertainment. This release not only sees the artist back rapping on his own (after multiple collaborations with Felt, Hail Mary Mallon, The Uncluded, and more) but also marks his first wholly self-produced effort. Aesop's new album follows in the wake of several deep personal losses and highlights subject matter that deals with the sometimes-futile ways people try to cope with serious issues. While the sounds are familiar, we see Aesop venturing in some exciting new directions with guest appearances from indie rock archetype, Kimya Dawson, as well as Allyson Baker of Dirty Ghosts, Hanni El Khatib, Nicky Fleming-Yaryan, Rob Sonic, DJ Big Wiz and the Grimace Federation. Aesop will assuredly amaze concertgoers with his lyrical algorithms and starkly raw live energy.

San Francico-based producer and live beat maker Edison will support on the full tour with Seattle rap duo Dark Time Sunshine opening on US dates only. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 11th.

When: Jul 27, 2012 9:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $20

M. Ward, Chris Scruggs
Wed, 23 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Music: Clubs:


When: 05/23/12 @ 8:00pm
Cost: $25 ($22 adv.)
Call: 241-8633
Web: mwardmusic.com

More Information:
M. WARD
Wednesday, May 23, 8pm
Barrymore Theatre
Tickets: $22 adv $25 dos
General Admission -- All Ages


Tickets On Sale Wednesday, February 22

mwardmusic.com
www.myspace.com/mward
www.chrisscruggs.com

M. Ward

“I can trace all my songs to a specific moment,” M. Ward told a New York Times writer in February of 2009, as he was about to release, Hold Time, his acclaimed third release for Merge Records. “Sometimes it’s as insignificant as a friend of yours saying something, a turn of a phrase. Other times it’s like an epiphany moment or just something beautiful that you see.”

A Wasteland Companion forms a diary of sorts, of the singer and guitarist’s journeys here and abroad since Hold Time was released three years ago. That action-packed period has included tours and full-length discs with Monsters Of Folk (his ongoing collaboration with Conor Oberst, Jim James and Mike Mogis) and She & Him (his celebrated duo excursion with singer Zooey Deschanel) as well as leading his own band. Despite the greater demands on his talents as performer and producer, Ward made sure to build in time away from his hectic touring schedule so he could visit studios along his various routes. He’d call upon whomever was in town to join him – such longtime musician friends as Mogis, Deschanel, Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb and P.J. Harvey producer John Parish or new players with whom he’d been keen on working, like Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Doctor Dog bassist Toby Leamen. Ward made states-side stops in Austin, Los Angeles, Tucson, Omaha and New York City. While he was playing in England, he took off to record at the Toy Box in Bristol, where he was joined by Parish to cut the track for “Primitive Girl,” which he later completed at Arc Studio in Omaha with Mogis.

For this self-effacing artist, who has created most of his recorded work in or near his Portland, Oregon home, this was a unique and ambitious undertaking, designed to take him away from his comfort zone. As Ward admits, “Between now and when I made Hold Time there has been a lot of traveling which requires a lot of reckoning with what to leave behind and what to carry – material and otherwise – and thinking about what I want versus what I need, creatively and otherwise. I wanted to get a reflection of that on the album. It was a process of stripping away my security blanket, which is the same four walls I always record in.”

Though Ward laid down tracks in so many different locations, with an ever-shifting roster of players, he’s nonetheless managed to create a seamless disc. It feels more like a shared reverie than a literal travelogue, documenting an emotional landscape where the moods shift as dramatically as scenery outside a tour bus window. As with Hold Time, there is a dreamily romantic, yearning quality to some of this work, accentuated by Ward’s gravelly yet gentle voice, esp. on the solo track, “There’s a Key,” recorded at The Magic Shop in lower Manhattan, and the gorgeous, piano-driven “Crawl After You,” cut in Portland with his frequent cohort, the multi-instrumentalist and engineer Mike Coykendall. (Amanda Lawrence also contributes a simple heartbreaker of a violin solo on that one.) But the tone grows darker, more ruminative, at the disc’s mid-point, though it never becomes quite as bleak as the album’s name might suggest. The spare guitar-and-strings arrangement of the title track evokes a stark windswept plain before seguing into the intriguingly claustrophobic, electric-guitar shuffle of “Watch The Show,” which could have been inspired by a half-awake hotel-room viewing of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Conversely, “Wild Goose,” which comes late in the set, is all about wide open spaces, boasting a downright angelic arrangement, with orchestra bells, layered vocals and gospel-style hand-claps, Ward likes these abrupt tonal shifts: “There should be some surprises, some sharp turns. That’s what my favorite records, like the Beatles’ White Album, have built into them. You’re not really sure what you’re going to hear next.”

In spirit, A Wasteland Companion has Austin, Texas as its departure point. Opening song “Clean Slate” is dedicated to Alex Chilton of Big Star, who passed away from heart failure in March 2010, merely days before he was to perform at South By Southwest. Ward and several other artists agreed to step in to make sure the show went on, transforming the evening into a moving tribute to the Memphis rock legend. As Ward recounts, “Alex was supposed to have been there. Everyone agreed that it would be better to have people playing his songs than to have an empty room. It was a very memorable night, a very heavy night. So ‘Clean Slate’ seemed like a good place to start the record.” As if to cap the journey that A Wasteland Companion represents, Ward returns to Austin for SXSW this year, to play his new songs and launch his tour.

On a rollicking cover of Austin-based Daniel Johnston’s “Sweetheart,” Ward pays tribute to another indie rock icon, mashing up country rock twang with girl-group sweetness as he duets with Deschanel. (“I believe Daniel’s entire catalog needs to be listened to,” Ward notes. “It’s just ripe for elaboration.”) He also delivers an exuberant rendition of “I Get Ideas,” an early fifties pop number adapted from a Spanish language hit and made famous by Louis Armstrong. Says Ward, “It’s a song I’ve loved for a really long time. I tried covering it with my band and it’s turned into something we did every night.”

Ward doesn’t have much to say about the evocative album title he chose (though he does acknowledge that he’s inspired by T.S. Elliot’s epic poem of almost the same name). But if words might sometimes elude him in conversation, his songs invariably succeed in speaking volumes – about where he’s been both as an artist and a traveler and about the many fellow artists who have facilitated his journey since old pal Gelb released Ward’s first solo effort, Duet For Guitars #2, in 2000.. As he concludes, “whenever you come back home – photos always seem to fall short of telling the whole story of places you’ve been or people you’ve met. I love the idea that music can tell a truer and maybe more balanced story.”

When: May 23, 2012 8:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $25 ($22 adv.)

Smokin' Bandits, White Iron Band, SweetGrass, Chicken Wire Empire
Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Music: Clubs:


When: 07/21/12 @ 8:00pm
Cost: $15 ($10 adv.)
Call: 255-0901
Web: www.majesticmadison.com

More Information:
MID-SUMMER MELTDOWN
FEATURING SMOKIN' BANDITS

Bringing the summer festival feel to one of the Midwest’s premier music venues, the Mid-Summer Meltdown presented by Hundredth Monkey Productions is set to shake the roof off of the Majestic Theatre showcasing four of the Midwest’s top touring bands: Smokin’ Bandits, White Iron Band, SweetGrass, and Chicken Wire Empire! The event is proudly sponsored by Pearl Street Brewery who will be conducint a special Madison release of their Smokin’ Hemp Porter as a part of the event and will also have other award winning beers on tap all night.

SMOKIN’ BANDITS
Partnering with Hundredth Monkey Productions as well as headlining the event is the Smokin’ Bandits who have been a staple on a powerful Midwest scene for nearly a decade with their original, high-energy form of music they call “Grass n’ Roll.” With a catalog of original material mixing influences ranging from The Allman Brothers Band to Leftover Salmon, Rolling Stones to Gov’t Mule, the band brings a powerhouse performance each time they take the stage sure to make you move, shake, and promising for every show to be one of different complexity and form. Forming as a string band in La Crosse, WI in 2003, the Bandits electrified in 2004 to form a sound that is uniquely theirs but reaches to music lovers of all different genres and generations.

In nearly a decade of touring the Smokin’ Bandits have shared the stage with the likes of Little Feat, Dr. John, Great American Taxi, ekoostik hookah, Jazz Mandolin Project, The Big Wu, Melvin Seals & JGB, Steve Kimock, Bill Miller and Trampled by Turtles amongst many more and each of the last six years have hosted their Bandit County Fair Music Festival featuring the best regional and national talent the Midwest has to offer. Past performers at the Bandit County Fair include Great American Taxi (featuring Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon), Willy Porter, steez, Heatbox, Natty Nation, Fat Maw Rooney, Stealin’ Strings, Roster McCabe, Shoeless Revolution, Two Many Banjos (featuring Dave Caroll of Trampled by Turtles), The Grasshoppers, White Iron Band, Nicholas Mrozinski & The Feelin’ Band, Clovis Mann as well as dozens of others who have graced the stages with their talent.
http://www.myspace.com/thesmokinbandits

WHITE IRON BAND
The night also features outlaw country rockers White Iron Band. The White Iron Band is a high-energy renegade American roots band specializing in foot-stompin, forget-what-troubles-ya music. With energy to blow your face off and enough soul to well your eyes, the band is best taken live with friends and strangers. Their shows combine lyrical accessibility and explosive musicianship to produce a rich experience for the head, heart, and legs.

Originally formed in Ely, MN, by frontman Matt Pudas, guitarist Sammy Weyandt and keyboardist Eddie Juntunen, the White Iron Band embodies the triumphs and struggles of the everyday man. Their songs carry a tinge of the old cowboy legends canonized by the Highwaymen, with stories ranging from tales of love, pain, jail, work and whiskey. Now based in Minneapolis, the group has established a passionate and equally as rowdy fan-base throughout the Midwest and has traveled further to spread their unique mix of blues, country and Americana roots music.

After over ten years together, the band has played over a thousand shows and released five full-length, original albums. With a long road behind them, the White Iron Band has shown they are worth the wait and is on the brink of breaking into the national music scene. The White Iron Band has supported and shared the stage with such acts as David Allen Coe, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, North Mississippi Allstars, Shooter Jennings, and many more.
http://www.whiteironband.com/

SWEETGRASS
SweetGrass is a Wisconsin-based bluegrass quintet uniting the traditions of American roots music with youthful creativity. Their playful temperament, energetic live performances and diverse original repertoire have earned them attention and respect beyond the Midwest’s premiere festival and club circles. Whether they’re raising a ruckus in barrooms or serenading crowds in lawn chairs, they’re making waves wherever they go – simply put, SweetGrass is the people’s band.

SweetGrass cut their teeth busking on the street corners of Madison, and in the process conjured a multigenerational bluegrass following almost instantly. In 2009 they became MBOTMA’s (Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Association) “Race for a Place” champions, catapulting them onto the festival scene. Last summer they were runners-up at RockyGrass in Lyons, Colorado and supported Blue Highway at the Minnesota Bluegrass Festival (IBMA nominated “Event of the Year” three times). SweetGrass has also shared the stage with the Infamous Stringdusters, Bearfoot, Greensky Bluegrass, Bruce Molsky & Big Hoedown, Danny Paisley and SouthernGrass, The Gibson Brothers, Pert’ Near Sandstone, Cormeal and more.
http://www.myspace.com/sweetgrasspickin

CHICKEN WIRE EMPIRE
Milwaukee quartet Chicken Wire Empire (feat. members of Stealin’ Strings, Honest Monday, and R.A.S. Movement) will be starting the night off right at the Majestic. Influenced by Bluegrass, Folk and Roots/Americana music, Chicken Wire Empire was started as a side project in the fall of 2008. By combining acoustic experimentation and traditional bluegrass, CWE provides an upbeat and unique experience onto itself.

CWE has begun spreading their eclectic blend of Folk ’n Grass around the local Milwaukee music scene, recently recorded their first full-length demo and has quickly become a force to be reckoned with amongst the Midwest live music scene.
http://www.myspace.com/chickenwireempire

*PEARL STREET BREWERY*
Based out of La Crosse, WI, the Mid-Summer Meltdown is proudly sponsored by the Pearl Street Brewery who will be having their special Madison release of the one batch a year “Smokin’ Hemp Porter” named in homage to their good friends Smokin’ Bandits and released every year for their Bandit County Fair Music Festival of which the brewery is also a sponsor. PSB will also have multiple other award winning beers on tap and on special throughout the entire night.
www.pearlstreetbrewery.com

Special Notes
Ages: All Ages

Show Date:
Sat, July 21
Special Guests:
White Iron Band
SweetGrass
Chicken Wire Empire
Show Time:
Doors at 7
Show at 8
Tickets
$10 Advance
$15 Day of Show

When: Jul 21, 2012 8:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $15 ($10 adv.)

Billy Bragg
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Music: Clubs
Woody Guthrie tribute

When: 07/10/12 @ 8:00pm
Cost: $25
Call: 241-8633
Web: www.barrymorelive.com

More Information:
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.
True Endeavors & Frank Productions present
AN EVENING WITH
BILLY BRAGG
"Ain't Nobody That Can Sing Like Me"
Billy Bragg Wishes Woody Happy 100th Birthday
Tickets: $25.00 Advance

Ticket price includes $1.00 donation to We Are Wisconsin

In Celebration of the Centennial Year of Woody Guthrie's Birth Nonesuch Releases Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions
In Record Stores April 21st.
Set includes two original Mermaid Avenue albums of Guthrie lyrics and music by Billy Bragg and Wilco, plus a third disc of previously unreleased material from the sessions and Man in the Sand documentary

When American folk legend Woody Guthrie died in 1967, at the age of 55, among his stored belongings were thousands of complete song lyrics for which he had not written out music or made recordings. Many of them had been written in the 1940s and '50s, in the Guthrie family home on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The lyrics remained in boxes for decades, but once his daughter Nora found them in the 1990s, she knew they had to be shared. She approached English singer-songwriter and activist Billy Bragg to select some to set to music.

The Chicago rock band Wilco came aboard soon after, with Jeff Tweedy writing music - along with his late bandmate Jay Bennett on some songs - and the band recording with both Tweedy and Bragg on vocals. Natalie Merchant joined the group to sing a duet with Bragg and two solo songs, and guitarist/singer Corey Harris, who wrote two songs and co-wrote one, performed on many tracks. In 1998, the first batch of songs was released to critical acclaim as Mermaid Avenue, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Mermaid Avenue Vol. II followed in 2000.

April 21, 2012, finds the release of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, which includes: Mermaid Avenue; Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (re-mastered); Mermaid Avenue Vol. III, comprising 17 previously unreleased recordings made during the Mermaid Avenue sessions; director Kim Hopkins' 1999 film Man in the Sand, which documents those sessions; and a 48-page booklet with new liner notes by Nora Guthrie, full lyrics, archival photographs, and facsimiles of lyric sheets and sketches by Woody Guthrie.

Bragg told NPR in 1998, "The words are so powerful, they're so evocative to many people - That's the strength of Woody, it's the simplicity." Tweedy added, "I'd have a really good feeling about things if [the album] did lead a certain number of people back to discover Woody Guthrie."

When: Jul 10, 2012 8:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $25

Ben Sollee
Fri, 25 May 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Music: Clubs:


When: 05/25/12 @ 7:00pm
Cost: $14 ($12 adv.)
Call: 255-0901
Web: www.majesticmadison.com

More Information:
BEN SOLLEE

Ben Sollee wants you to experience all the beauty and banality that life has to offer. It's a serious request, and his enthusiasm is genuine. Armed with a cello, Sollee is canvassing the country, sometimes by bicycle, imploring folks to rediscover the connections between music, art, film, dance, their community, and personal relationships.

These factors ultimately translate to the mindset and making of Ben's new project - Inclusions. Beyond bridging genres and demographics with earnest, dynamic songwriting and passionate performances, Ben Sollee seeks to intertwine his music with art and life. The theme of Inclusionsis large, humanistic and universal - how relationships influence us all whether intentional or not.

The classically trained pop cellist recognized his community and relationships in every facet ofInclusions. Collaborating with local visual artist Phillip March Jones, the album art for Inclusionsbrings a visual reference to the allegory of the album. Ben's newfound rhythmic intensity comes courtesy of a compositional backbone provided by his old friend and tour confidant, Jordon Ellis. Listeners are also treated to the voice of Cheyenne Marie Mize, who threads soaring harmonies throughout, as well as songwriting for "I Need."

"I love this record," Ben admits. "I love it for all of its meanings, explicit and incidental. I love the people I got to work with and the sound they helped create. I love how challenging it was to excavate some of the musical ideas and how others washed up in conversation. In these songs, I can hear the city I grew up in and the people that lived down the street."

Ben Sollee first emerged with his inviting 2008-debut Learning to Bend. Saturated with sweeping moods and visceral maturity, Learning to Bendshowcased a wild mixture of musical approaches that Ben describes as "classically influenced folk with leanings of R&B and soul." The album caught the ear of NPR's Morning Edition, which heralded Sollee as one of the "Top Ten Great Unknown Artists of 2007."

While people were getting their first listen ofLearning to Bend, Ben was out touring with banjo player and songstress Abigail Washburn as part of the Sparrow Quartet. The ensemble, also featuring Grammy-nominated fiddler Casey Driessen and multi-Grammy winning banjoist Bela Fleck, explored the congregation of eastern and western folk music. The critically acclaimed ensemble toured throughout the world, including a US Ambassadorial tour of Tibet.

In 2010, Ben collaborated with fellow Kentuckians Daniel Martin Moore and My Morning Jacket front-man Yim Yames on the Sub Pop released Dear Companion. The album explored Ben's desire to use musical encounters as a catalyst to inspire environmental stewardship.

Additionally, Ben works with regional non-profits like Appalachian Voices and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth to help preserve a cornerstone and major influence of his songwriting - his ancestral Appalachia. This past summer, Ben teamed with his Dear Companion collaborators for the Appalachian Voices tour - an eight-date tour to raise awareness about the destruction caused by mountain top removal coal mining in central Appalachia.

"I never expect to see that cello in one piece after Ben gets done playing it," says Yim Yames. "He bows and beats and works it over with a passionate fury rarely seen. Don't get me wrong - he can play it and hold his own with the most schooled and delicate scholars out there, but more importantly, Ben makes it live." He continues, "Ben's songs speak worldly wisdom and stand on their own, and he is out there in this world with those songs and that cello and that god-given voice of his, riding his bike and fighting the good fight and doing all he can to help make the world right."

Later in 2010, Ben embarked on the "Ditch The Van Tour." Ben and his band abandoned the comforts of a motorized vehicle and hauled their gear and instruments (yep, the cello too) across the country on bicycles. Ben's mission was to engage a greater sense of community involvement at every performance. By huffing it on two-wheels between cities, instead of driving or flying, Ben and his crew were able to discover people and facets of our country in ways that traditional touring could not allow. "It's not about being green or even sustainable… we want to exploit the limitations of the bicycle to slow down and experience the rich communities and people that I've spent years flying-by and driving past."

Ben Sollee is not satisfied with just being a musician. It is absolutely paramount to him to incorporate collaborations, regardless of age or credentials, in his personal and professional life. "I'm such a mutt myself, biologically and socially, that it just makes sense to express that as my pedigree. In the end, that's what folk music is all about; each of us telling our own story."

Special Notes
Ages: All Ages
Presented by: Majestic Live


Show Date:
Fri, May 25
Show Time:
Doors at 6
Show at 7
Tickets
$12 Advance
$14 Day of Show

When: May 25, 2012 7:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $14 ($12 adv.)

Natasha Leggero
Sat, 22 Sep 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Comedy:


When: 09/22/12 @ 8:00pm
Cost: $20
Call: 255-0901
Web: www.majesticmadison.com

More Information:
SAT, SEPTEMBER 22

Natasha Leggero

A Majestic Night of Comedy
Doors: 7:00pm
Show: 8:00pm
$20 | All Ages

When: Sep 22, 2012 8:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $20

Tim Heidecker, Neil Hamburger, DJ Doggpound, Kenny Strasser
Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Music: Clubs:


When: 07/28/12 @ 7:00pm
Cost: $20
Call: 255-0901
Web: www.majesticmadison.com

More Information:
Jul 28 Sat

Tim Heidecker and Neil Hamburger
The AV Club welcomes:
Tim Heidecker and Neil Hamburger
More Info
Purchase

Special Guests
DJ Douggpound
The Kenny "K-Strass" Strasser Yo-yo Extravaganza

Tickets
$20

Show Time
Doors at 6
Show at 7

When: Jul 28, 2012 7:00:00 PM in Madison, Wisconsin
Cost: $20

Frankie Valli
Sun, 23 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000

When: Sep 23, 2012 7:30:00 PM in Appleton, Wisconsin

Chicago
Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:30:00 +0000

When: Jul 1, 2012 7:30:00 PM in Milwaukee, Wisconsin