In contrast to the local musicians who are highly visible and have become Milwaukee's popular icons of music, there are some inconspicuous music geniuses roaming the streets of this town.
Three of these low-profile music wizards are Jeff Baumann, Mark Moore and Erik Kowalski, the trio behind Wobblyhead, a home grown record label derived out of a pure love for music absent of pretension or quests for fame and fortune. Wobblyhead works closely with musicians so that the final product upholds the artist's original vision. By paying to help the artists produce and distribute their albums, Wobblyhead allows musicians to get their stuff out there and be heard.
"We're talking about really good, quality music that in a very unstudied way is very accessible. The music we're pushing is not difficult to get into," says Moore. "There's a certain notion of mood setting music that is nice to have. There's a certain type of place in space where that takes you."
What these three have done is build a public transportation system to take you to the music that will carry you to that mood, and the experience of listening to the music in and of itself feels a bit like travelling.
Sprouting in the fall of 1998, the seeds of Wobblyhead were planted out of the union between Baumann and Kowalski, who work together at Atomic Records. Before Mark Moore moved back to Milwaukee and completed the trio, Baumann and Kowalski bonded over evenings filled with sonic powwows. Earlier that year, Kowalski, and his former roommate, Scott Beschta (ex-bassist from Milwaukee's The Promise Ring), began making music. Moore's and Baumann's reactions to this provided the impetus for creating Wobblyhead, a label that could provide a platform for creative, unheard music.
The name Wobblyhead embodies what the record label is all about. "The term implies something a little off kilter, something's that's a little bit surreal or psychedelic," says Baumann. To Moore, "It's vague, open-ended, and it rolls off the tongue well."
Wobblyhead's first release was a collection of Beschta's and Kowalski's tracks issued in the summer of 1999 on a 12-inch EP called "Roommates."
"I remember thinking the music that we were listening to at (Kowalski's) house, at 1:30 on a Friday night was hands down better than 95 percent of the stuff that comes into Atomic and we're selling," says Baumann.
Their focus is not so much on production as it is on melody. For both "Roommates" and Casino versus Japan (Kowalksi's own brainchild), there are no sung lyrics, rather obscure samples and collections of layered sounds.
"We did it very hands on, without computers. It was all very grassroots and raw," says Kowalski about "Roommates". After that came the National Anthem 45 which utilized more original ideas and instruments.
Kowalski and Baumann, working at Atomic, experience what it is like to sell Wobblyhead albums first-hand. What's ironic is that most often those who buy the records have little or no idea that the dark haired men ringing up the purchases are the music makers themselves. No one really knows that they even do what they do and unless they're asked, they're most likely not going to talk about it. They're too modest.
This same modesty is part of the magic behind Kowalski's music. His technology is bare bones with no fancy equipment. He uses a four-track cassette recorder. Yet listening to either of his albums, his self-titled Casino versus Japan album released in July, 1998 by the Milwaukee label Star Star Stereo or his "Go Hawaii" album issued by Wobblyhead in January of this year, it's virtually impossible to understand how only four layered tracks can be so rich in sound.
As Baumann says, "You could be a guy sitting in front of a 64-channel mixing desk and have every option to do whatever you want and write a bad album. Then you have Kowalski who is working with minimal to no gear and you listen to that "Go Hawaii" album and it sounds like there's 19 tracks on it. He's put himself so completely into the four tracks. It's so limited and yet he has made it sound so much bigger than it is."
To Kowalski, his obsession with melody and music lies in the quest to give life more
meaning and an extended sense of beauty. "There's a difference between making art to make it available and making art to be profitable," says Kowalski.
In a city as small as Milwaukee, where the music community is quite small, they have all had to make efforts to remain unbiased. Making a commitment to contributing to Milwaukee has been the main goal.
"The yardstick by which you judge this music is the standpoint of asking yourself if you didn't know these people, would you still like it," says Moore.
None of this is about the money, or the recognition, rather it is about the philosophical notion of contributing, and at this early stage, they all feel that they have accomplished that. "If some kid ten years from now digs through a used record bin and buys a Wobblyhead album and has his mind blown, we've accomplished everything," says Moore.
Their love of music and their dedication to make it accessible knows no boundaries. On the first Friday of every month, Wobblyhead hosts a euphonic experience in the upstairs lounge at Dish. Mainly it keeps with the homebrew notion of a local music celebration, focusing mostly on djs and musicians from Madison and Milwaukee. The Dish thing is mostly electronic, but it encompasses many varieties.
"It's sort of schizophrenic, which makes it fun," says Moore. As opposed to most club experiences, where the music selection can be repetitious and stale, Wobblyhead aims to create a unique sound experience "We try to bring in different types of music and give different people access to expose their music," says Baumann. "Everything that we have done has been somewhat electronic but it feels very organic," says Moore. "It's not so sterile. It's looser," says Kowalski. To Baumann it simply has soul.
Kowalski is the only one of three that makes music. For Baumann and Moore, the intent behind Wobblyhead is purely to make impacts on the ears of the community. "Starting a record label is sort of a geeky fun thing to do. It certainly is not a recognition/ego thing. The main key is just to contribute to something," says Moore.
It's still a hobby to these three. The whole point is not to make and sell thousands of records or to take over the world. "It just feels right and we've been really lucky to encounter extremely talented people," says Moore. "The music in and of itself is like a niche within a niche within a box within a deeply locked box. It's not like you're ever going to turn on the radio anywhere in the world and have this be a Britney Spears type of thing." Only they're not trying to be different. They're not really trying to be anything. They're just doing the same thing they've always done, loving quality, independent music.
You can pick up the following Wobblyhead releases at Atomic Records (1813 E. Locust St.)
- Roommates EP 12" vinyl
- Roommates "National Anthem" 7" vinyl
- Casino Versus Japan "Go Hawaii" CD
- Def Harmonic "Transmissions" 12" vinyl/CD (limited to 100)
- Mix Trinity Brown "Where's Home" CD
- Mix "Wobblyhead Presents: Propaganda" CD
Also can check them out on the first Friday of every month in the upstairs lounge of Dish (235 S. 2nd St.)
