The .357 String Band has come a long way from playing on street corners and basement shows since they formed four years ago. They've recorded two albums, 2006's Ghost Town and last year's Fire & Hail. They've also toured both coasts and gone on three European tours, taking their high-octane acoustic act as far as Serbia. The String Band is where new meets old. It is cowboy hats and nose rings, a hootenanny with a mosh pit. The songs play like...

"Avast, you scalawags. Bilgemunky Radio is preparing to air…" A robotic female voice with a British accent repeated this a few times shortly before 8 p.m. on a recent Monday night. Meanwhile, Gerard Heidgerken was cueing up to broadcast his weekly Internet pirate radio show. In this case the term "pirate" doesn't refer to a broadcast that taps FCC-sanctioned airwaves, but rather to literal, swashbuckling pirates. Bilgemunky Radio features songs about pirates from mainstream bands and a surprising number of songs from...

For the 5 Card Studs, every show is a festival, but the holiday season is a favorite time for the band and their fans. "We have our act, our shtick," lead singer Cesar Palace says. "For some reason with Christmas you can just go that much more over the top with it." The Studs' only two recordings, in fact, are Christmas albums. The Christmas Wishes album features the Studs covering classics like "Blue Christmas" and "Merry Christmas, Baby." North Side of the Pole, a CD EP...

On his new DVD, Lil' Rev is shown seated with a ukulele, coaxing a big sound from that tiny instrument and finding a measure of complexity in its four short strings. Along with his DVD, Showpieces With Lil' Rev, the Milwaukee multi-instrumentalist and singer has just published a pair of ukulele instruction books through Hal Leonard. Anyone associating the instrument with the camp of Tiny Tim or Don Ho's Hawaiian lounge will be surprised by the contents. It's the Great American Songbook with folk-blues selections such as "Goodnight Irene" and "We Shall Overcome" next to Elvis' "Love Me Tender," Hank Williams...

Jonathan Burks says his songs are mostly about Milwaukee's drinking culture. It's a subject that pervades his material, evoking both good times with your drinking buddies and introspective moments of clarity. On the song "20 Dollar Bill," Burks celebrates taking full advantage of $1 beer specials, while "Brew City Blues" describes Burks' difficulty with staying out of the many bars between his day job and his home. "Drink My Mind" tells of going to the bar to mend a broken heart...

With age, Melissa Czarnik has found it harder and harder to enjoy the albums she used to listen to, even some of her favorites. "When I was younger, I could listen to just about any MC and not criticize what they had to say," the Milwaukee rapper explains. "Growing up, I didn't listen to anything but mainstream rap, and until I was 18 or 19, I would go out to the clubs, get all dressed up, and just shake my ass." But, she says, as she grew older and exposed herself to more underground hip-hop, she could no longer gloss over the disparaging references to women...

The family that plays together has been common in country and gospel music, rarer in rock and unusual in our city. Milwaukee's Rocky Mountain Beaver Pond consists of brothers Mike and Marc Callies (guitar and drums respectively) and their dad, playing bass under the stage name of Papa Beaver. Ties of friendship bind the family to Brendan Shea (guitar) and Mick Pavlovich (keyboards). "For the most part it works, but we have our moments," says Mike Callies. "One of the hardest things is telling my dad no." Apparently Papa Beaver, a veteran...

"We're not under the illusion that people will buy music anymore," Cody Litkey says, describing the business model (or anti-business model) of his band Year of the Scavenger. Instead of charging for their music, the trio plans to give it away through their Web site, www.yearofthescavenger.com. "We want to record and release as fast as we can, so everything stays fresh," Litkey explains. "And we want to do it for free: Record, mix, release, repeat." The band owns...

As the youngest of the DJs on Jammin’ 98.3’s “Basement Crew” program, the only show on the station that plays hip-hop, Antonio Criss is always looking to update the playlist. “We do old-school hip-hop, ’90s and ’80s,” says Criss, who DJs under the name 2 Tight Tony. “I’m always pushing for more ’90s—more Death Row.” Lately, though, he’s also been pushing to give airplay to music he’s even more invested in: his own. Criss has long been rapping under the moniker Immortal, opening for acts like T.I., Ludacris and Slick Rick and co-recording a rally song for the Green Bay Packers, “Bringing the Pain.” As his first album, Shook Up My World, nears...

Being something of a perpetual adolescent, I remain a fan of both Halloween and hardcore punk. To me, the holiday and the musical genre are emblematic of unfettered youth, of the appeal of danger and of letting your guard down and fully enjoying the moment. They are also both things that many older people still just do not seem to "get" (and often actively campaign against)-a reality that, 20 years removed from my teenage years, rekindles my love of rebelliousness and disregard for authority. The folks at Sky High Skateboard Shop also seem to note the potential...