It's something our parents never had to think about: ringtones.
For decades the phone just rang its high-pitched, familiar ring and that was that. Today, it's more like sifting through your iTunes library when determining if you'd prefer Beyonce, Green Day or the theme song from "Sex and the City" to alert you of incoming calls.
It's a competitive digital world out there, so when Mastermind Productions' Trevor Sadler told Joe Neumann of local band Fuzee that he wanted his band's 11-second trombone track "Los Huesos" to play every time he received a phone call, Neumann, of course, was touched.
"It's pretty funny. Our bass player 'tried' to play trombone and it was one of those things where you're screwing around in the studio and you end up keeping it. But it actually is the perfect length for a ringtone, so we'll see."
"Los Huesos" is three songs in on Fuzee's second full-length album, "Shed," which is slated for release this Saturday, April 28 via a release party at the Points East Pub.
For fans of this power pop trio's earlier work -- the band's been together since 2000 and gigging since '02 -- you are in luck. Neumann admits that the bulk of the record he's spent the last six months self recording with bandmates John Schneider and Brian Rutowski is older, previously unreleased material.
After toying with the idea of releasing "All Agog" as a double-disk debut album in 2005 -- a bold yet interesting move for any band, local and otherwise -- Neumann and crew decided to hold off on the second batch of songs, reworking and perfecting them into the 16-track "Shed."
"The songs actually were all written around the same time, but they have changed and evolved over the years, so they are new in that sense," he says. "Or, if you've never come to see us play before, they'll be new to you. Actually, there are four songs on this album that we never play live, so no matter what, they're be surprises."
Fuzee has been known in Milwaukee as purveyors of hooky, harmonious, power pop -- or "prock," as Newman has affectionately labeled the genre -- but with "Shed" comes a bit more of a crunchy bite and a few added nuances, such as a melodica intro on the album opener and, of course, the aforementioned trombone attempt. But for the most part, the sophomore release plays out as thoughtful, catchy and accessible as anything fans have come to expect.
The band has played the Summerfest Mountain Dew Rock Stage for the past two years and will return again this summer on June 29 at 3 p.m.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
