Milwaukee/Chicago band Kid, You'll Move Mountains is back to play Summerfest this year, in the wake of garnering great reviews for its 2009 disc, "Loomings."
But the band is hoping to do a value-added performance at the Big Gig when they play on the Cascio Interstate Music stage at 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 27. Noting that Justin Bieber headlines the fest that night at the Marcus Amphitheater, Kid is trying to get Bieber to join them on stage.
"Because of Justin's love of drumming, which he's demonstrated here with the Roots earlier this year on 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,' we thought it'd be ridiculously fun to invite him -- one of the world's biggest stars -- to play with us -- a group of unsigned, 30-ish, bearded unknowns -- even just for a minute at the 'world's largest music festival'," writes the band on its Web site.
"We mentioned if off-handedly to a few pals and our friend, Chicago resident Scott Schaaf, took it upon himself to create a Facebook group for this insane but worthy cause."
So far the group has 243 members (if you include me). A quick glance at Bieber's Facebook page, however, shows that the call for collaboration may not actually have been picked up by the youthful superstar's radar ... yet.
"We're not attempting to cover any of his material but assuming his management actually takes notice and can make this happen, I think keeping what we'd all agree to play close to the vest makes it more fun," says Jim Hanke, who was a member of El Oso before he left Milwaukee three years ago.
"We just think it's a fun idea. He has no reason to know who we are, but if he's like any normal kid, just doing something secretive or off-the-cuff or unexpected at such a large festival would be cool, we think," says Hanke.
"And throughout the '90s, I had seen lots of collaborations at Summerfest, where someone playing on another stage earlier would jump on with a headliner kind of randomly. I personally just love that kind of surprise. It ads an element to someone's set or the festival itself where you don't know what to expect. He's arguably the biggest singer in the world right now and we're just a random Midwest five-piece with day-jobs and patchy beards that love chili omelets. It'd be a nice 'Odd Couple' sort of thing and obviously an incredibly surreal thing if it all worked out."
In the meantime, Kid, You'll Move Mountains has created a Twitter hashtag, #BieberYoullMoveMountains, and is writing a new record that it hopes to record by the end of summer. The band was also recently filmed by The Travel Channel for a show on the American music scene, called "The Last Adventure."
The Times Cinema hosts a free screening of "Stones in Exile," a documentary about the making of the Rolling Stones' landmark 1972 double LP, "Exile on Main Street." The 65-minute film, directed by Stephen Kijak, screens at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, June 21. Whether or not the film will unearth any skeletons is unclear, though The Times of London recently referred to it as "the group's new sanitised, self-produced documentary." Stay tuned to OnMilwaukee.com for a review in advance of the showing.
In completely unrelated news, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway releases his first solo record, "Familial," on Nonesuch Records on Aug. 31.
Selway credits the "7 Worlds Collide" charity record he made in 2001 with Neil Finn, Johnny Marr and others, as the impetus for this debut. The project was jump-started two years ago and Selway made his debut as a lead singer on his "The Ties That Bind Us." That, and another song off "Familial" appeared on the 2009 disc, "The Sun Came Out."
Afterward, Selway brought Lisa Germano, Wilco's drummer Glenn Kotche, Patrick Sansone and erstwhile Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg into the studio to create this set of haunting, heartfelt songs, on which there is virtually no traditional drumming.
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.
