On The Record

Sixteen pizzas entered. Four pizzas advanced. Nobody seemed to give a shit. For reasons we can no longer recall, Milwaukee Record spent three weeks in March pitting locally manufactured pizzas against one another in what we called the Wisconsin Frozen Pizza Tournament. Our "Savory Sixteen" featuring four regions (Taco/Cheeseburger, Deluxe, Cheese, Specialty Sauce) and found three staff members eating and evaluating four pizzas from each region, before advancing one to the Frozen Four. Following close to $110 in grocery charges and innumerable calories consumed, we found our regional winners. For this extra-special episode of "On The Record," staffers Tyler Maas, Matt Wild, and Josh Hoppert relived this regrettably 'Za-dyssey, broke down each regional, chronicled the Frozen Four, and crowned Wisconsin's Best Frozen Pizza live on air.

Jackson Bradford might have the most interesting job on the planet. The Milwaukee native spends at least half of each year wearing a cop costume and short-shorts and sporting a mustache as part of his lovable "heel with a switch" character that Masked Intruder fans know as "Officer Bradford." The pop-punk villain's unique line of work has taken him to Europe, Asia, Australia, and much of North America. Between Masked Intruder's tour runs with Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, Officer Bradford met host Tyler Maas on the Vanguard patio for an off-duty chat about how he landed the unorthodox occupation, ways the persona has changed with the growing number of police-related tragedies, and the body-positive "Pants Off Dance Off" parties he co-hosts when he's not on the road.

On March 8, more than 30 female-owned Milwaukee businesses primarily located in Bay View are joining forces in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman movement to partake in the inaugural Lady Business. The bars, restaurants, retail stores, and other establishments participating in the consumer-focused affair will donate a percentage of that day's earnings to Milwaukee Women's Center. On The Record host Tyler Maas went to Blackbird Bar (a Lady Business participant) to meet with owner Holly Doar, Goodkind co-owner and Lady Business participant Katie Rose, and Lady Business co-organizer Taylor Thomas to discuss the event itself, issues female business owners and consumers often face, and how focused women's rights activism on a local level can bring about noticeable and necessary change.

Back in February, Milwaukee Record's very own Tyler Maas and Josh Hoppert set out on a strange and delightful mission: to use a leap day to visit, and eat at, every George Webb restaurant on planet Earth. That mission would eventually span 29 Webb locations, 23 hours, $226.61 (not including gas or tip), and over 600 miles traveled. Now, nearly a year later, Milwaukee is the proud owner of a new Webb restaurant. Located on Fond du Lac Avenue in the city's Sherman Park neighborhood, the new diner is notable for two reasons: one, because of its location, which was the site of much controversy over the summer, and two, because it makes Tyler and Josh's previous mission sorely incomplete. But never fear, because the two intrepid heroes (and Matt Wild) recently visited the new Webb location, and came back with this thrilling and informative podcast.

Host Tyler Maas drives down to Milwaukee Avenue to learn about the "proud past, promising future," and the untold story of South Milwaukee's present from Erik Brooks, the mayor himself.

A few months ago, host Tyler Maas met up with the mayor of Cudahy and left with some new perspective on the south shore scapegoat and industrial city. A year earlier, he hung out with the mayor of West Allis, another much-maligned Milwaukee suburb in the throes of an encouraging reinvention. This time around, instead of spending time with the civic leader of a city wrought in harsh stereotypes and a place Milwaukeeans blindly pan, Maas ventured just beyond the Bay View border to spend time with the appointed visionary of a 2.5 square-mile, roughly 9,500-resident locale that seems to struggle for any identity at all. He hung out with the mayor of St. Francis.

To help discuss the evolution of Milwaukee coffee that's helping to redefine what "Brew City" means (sorry!), host Tyler Maas went to Anodyne's Walker's Point Roastery to meet with the business' operations manager, Steve Kessler. They were joined by Hawthorne Coffee Roasters owner, roaster, and namesake Steve Hawthorne. Together, they talked all things coffee: how Milwaukee roasters have grown and improved, the upcoming coffee festival, whether the city is reaching a point of overcaffientation (commercially speaking), and the coffee shop on Friends for some reason.

For another completely random—though decidedly less slipshod—Facebook Live episode of On The Record, hosts Tyler Maas and Matt Wild set up shop at Bay View's venerable Cactus Club to discuss a whole bunch of shit: the recently wrapped 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival, Saturday's Beet Street Harvest Festival, next week's inaugural Milwaukee Record Beer Club, and spooktacular Halloween shows. Tyler admits to getting teary-eyed during the film fest, Matt discusses his "Halloween mood table," and a mystery viewer/listener (Dori Zori) playfully (?) calls the pair "two jackasses."

To dive into Milwaukee Cocktail Week, detail the rampant growth, and examine the encouraging developments in local mixology, distilling, and bars, host Tyler Maas met Cocktail Week founder (and Alcoholmanac founder/editor) Brian West at Goodkind. They were joined by Goodkind co-owner, Food & Wine Magazine's reigning Best New Mixologist, and Milwaukee Record shirt model Katie Rose. The trio talked about all-things imbibing, went through some of the events planned for the week ahead, and talked about what's to come.

To help run down the list of fall shows, host Tyler Maas was joined by busy Milwaukee freelancer Joey Grihalva. The frequent 88Nine, Urban Milwaukee, and Wisconsin Gazette entertainment writer came by Milwaukee Record headquarters and the guys talked about what they're looking forward to this coming season. (Note: We've discovered that a microphone issue makes it difficult to hear Joey at some points of the episode. We apologize for the inconvenience)

Mike Mangione is a pretty interesting guy. The namesake and bandleader of Mike Mangione & The Union and Marquette alumnus moved to Los Angeles with his sights set on making it in the music business until he piled his life into a van and spent years touring all corners of the country (and beyond). Eventually, the folk musician wound up back in Milwaukee, where he's started a family. Though his life has settled down a bit, Mangione still hits the road with some regularity, and along the way, the musician/father/philosopher found time to add "podcast host" to his repertoire. Mangione and host Tyler Maas met—like, literally met for the first time—at Milwaukee Record headquarters and engaged in a winding conversation about the music industry, perseverance, faith, and (for some reason) Rockford, Illinois. After an inspiring hour of conversation, the singer-songwriter discussed his "Time & The Mystery" podcast, which boasts professional musicians, Major League Baseball players, prominent religious leaders, a

Though Mondo Lucha! is the Super Bowl of Milwaukee wrestling, it's not even close to the only match in town. From indie shows in bars and ballrooms, to appearances by ex-wrestlers, and WWE shows in arenas, local wrestling is in a good place. To help examine the state of the sport in the city, host Tyler Maas was joined by Mondo Lucha! founders Andrew Gorzalski and Jay Gilkay, as well as wrestling blogger/musician/occasional Milwaukee Record contributor DJ Hostettler.

A few weeks ago, we ran a Q&A with Michail Takach, a local researcher, historian, and freelance journalist who just released his first book, LGBT Milwaukee. Since Michail gave us too much great information to possibly fit in one post, we invited him back to tell us more about the ambitious project of collecting decades' worth of photographs, articles, and firsthand accounts related to Milwaukee's rich and nationally significant LGBTQ+ past. He didn't disappoint, as he provided interesting information, humorous anecdotes, and a great history lesson that all Milwaukeeans should be able to take something from.

In accordance with the 11th annual Milwaukee Comedy Festival, Milwaukee Record recorded a special live episode of our On The Record podcast at The Underground Collaborative, a wonderful 120-seat venue in the basement of The Shops Of Grand Avenue. We were joined by a tremendous trio of guests. Comedian, promoter, and Milwaukee Comedy Festival co-producer Kaitlin McCarthy led things off, followed by Tim Higgins, a veteran improviser and co-star of Old Milwaukee's popular "Pass Me A Beer" ads that have been seen by millions of people. Spud Butler, frontman of The Blue Mooners, played us out with some fanny-focused compositions in a rare solo performance. Between the bits, beer-passing, and butt songs, it was a weird, wild, and unhinged show for the ages.

To help kick off the 11th annual Milwaukee Comedy Festival, Milwaukee Record invited an impressive group of local comedians and media professionals to Club Garibaldi to make fun of our fair city. Among those who took on Milwaukee's neighborhood differences, flag debacle, segregation, drinking tendencies, and upstart entertainment publications were Big Show radio host Ramie Makhlouf, OnMilwaukee senior writer Molly Snyder, as well as comedians Ton Johnson, Marisa Lange, Jacob Bach, Tyler Menz, Chastity Washington, and Christopher Schmidt. If you weren't among the 120-plus people who attended the Tuesday night affair, you're in luck. We recorded it.

Host Tyler Maas went to the home of prolific local saxophonist Jay Anderson of Foreign Goods and, like, 500 other bands, who (with some help from Milwaukee pianist Anthony Deutsch) got Maas up to speed on jazz's origin, the state of jazz in Milwaukee in years past, where it sits today, and where he thinks it's headed. Anderson also talked about his upcoming Strange Fruit shows, which will take place at The Hotel Foster, Company Brewing, and Cactus Club next weekend.

With the fourth place Brewers fresh off the All-Star break, the Bucks still months from action, and the Packers season almost as far away, there's probably no worse time in the year to talk about Wisconsin sports. However, that's just what host Tyler Maas and OnMilwaukee writer/Sports Editor Jimmy Carlton did. Together, they discussed the Brewers rebuild, pondered the Bucks draft, looked into the life of a Packers player, and made fun of the St. Louis Cardinals and tired sports clichés in the process. Carlton also talked about his time covering sports in Dallas and Chicago, the way outsiders view Wisconsin fans, and how he hopes to expand the way he covers sports in Milwaukee going forward. He and Maas also made tons and tons of obscure references to '90s and early '00s players.

For yet another endearingly slipshod Facebook Live episode, hosts Tyler Maas and Matt Wild take a breath, wipe their brows, and recap the first half of Summer 2016. Items discussed include the best Milwaukee albums of the year (so far), Summerfest, Summerfest food, all that flag bullshit, eating at every George Webb in the world, and random soul-crushing experiences. Maas and Wild also take questions from viewers, and, in what makes for thrilling live audio, grapple with nagging technical difficulties.

Steven Hyden is no stranger to followers of Milwaukee music—or to followers of this podcast, for that matter. Hyden is the former city editor for A.V. Club Milwaukee, the former music editor for the national A.V. Club, and a former staff writer for the gone-but-not-forgotten Grantland. These days he's living in Minneapolis and hosting an excellent music podcast called Celebration Rock, and preparing for a new writing and editing gig with Uproxx. Oh, and he just released his first book, Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, which uses famous pop music rivalries to explore bigger themes of identity, growing up, growing old, and Axl Rose threatening to kick Kurt Cobain's ass. Host Matt Wild sat down with Hyden last week in front of a live audience at Cactus Club for Milwaukee Record's inaugural Book Club. They talked about Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me—which includes chapters on everything from Blur vs. Oasis and Prince vs. Michael Jackson to Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West and Roger Waters vs. everyone else in Pink

Having played more than 200 shows last year and continually booking both cross-country and cross-continental tours between rock-solid releases, Brett Newski's work ethic is indisputable. However, before his latest record, Land Sea Air Garage, sees the light of day late this summer, the ever-determined Newski decided now was the time to ask for a little help from friends and listeners. Like so many musicians before him, he opted to do so through a crowdfunding campaign. Unlike many, Newski's "Punchstarter" includes unique rewards like buying the right to hit him in the face with a salmon or set his car on fire. Also setting his campaign apart from other local movements is the $25,000 goal. Days after the Punchstarter's launch, Newski dropped by the living room of host Tyler Maas to explain the rationale behind his hefty asking price, talk about the growing need for fan support in the modern music industry, and get into both the rigors and the joys of the road.