I arrived at my desk this morning to find a little gift from Milwaukee band Jimmy at the Prom.
The hard-hitting local rock (with a capital R) quartet has a blood red-vinyl 7" out with two tracks recorded at the Riverside Theater.
The platter marks the emergence of the first material – namely "Escape" and "Fist of Doom" – produced by Chuck Garric, an honorary Milwaukeean who was just in town in his role as bassist for Alice Cooper's band.
Chuck's wife, Lindsay, of course, is an OnMilwaukee.com blogger and recently announced that she's hitting the road this summer to work as a roadie.
You can buy the limited edition vinyl 45 here. A link to purchase the band's 2011 full-length CD is there, too.
Streams of "Fist of Doom" and "Escape," are also at Jimmy's site.
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.
