Having great songs is one thing, but being the right thing — a cool, catchy band from Austin, Texas, on ahead-of-the-pack Seattle label Barsuk Records that tours with The Whigs and will play Lollapalooza and Sasquatch — at the right time — 2008 — doesn’t hurt. The curiously named What Made Milwaukee Famous has all of these in spades.
On “What Doesn’t Kill Us,” the quintet’s sophomore effort, Milwaukee deals in poppy and palatable indie rock in the vein of Spoon, The Shins and Illinois. There are moments of twitchy hipster dance-rock and emotional preening, but mostly it’s a pop-rock album that rides the vocal talents of Michael Kingcaid to great effect.
The record opens with “Blood Sweat & Fears,” more of a dramatic prelude than a proper song; there’s big, loping drones a la Pink Floyd’s “Free Four” from the “Obscured By Clouds” album, harmony vocals, fuzzy guitars and tambourine. “Blood” leads to “Sultan,” an airtight piece of pop aided and abetted by mariachi horns. “Cheap Wine” has serious single potential, thanks to Kingcaid’s pleading vocals and a syncopated feel that kicks in for the second verse. “The Right Place” conjures The Spinto Band but is a bit too derivative, and “Self Destruct” is a thoughtful Keane/Snow Patrol-ish power ballad.
“And The Grief Goes On” is one of “What Doesn’t Kill Us’” more ambitious moments. The band — Kingcaid (vocals, guitars, keys), Jeremy Bruch (drums, percussion), Jason Davis (guitars, vocals, bass), John Houston Farmer (bass, guitars, vocals) and Drew Patrizi (keyboards, vocals, guitars) — manages to maintain its pop appeal while juxtaposing a shuffled acoustic guitar pattern with a more straightforward piano and rhythm section. The band gets back on the same page for a few jaunty lines, but then organized chaos reigns — there’s three or four different rhythms at work at once before a big, dramatic build at the end. It’s probably the album’s most “important” track, but it’s also one of the most enjoyable. That’s commendable.
The only thing wrong with “Middle Of The Night,” a simple pub anthem, is that it’s not the final track. After such a joyful song, anything else would be anticlimactic, and that’s just what “The Other Side” is.
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