Author Matt Wild

Watch John Oliver take down Bucks arena in takedown-iest takedown ever

July 13, 2015

How is it that Last Week Tonight host and indestructible “takedown” cyborg John Oliver hasn’t already ripped the idea of public financing for sports stadiums—and, by extension, the arena proposed by the Milwauk...

UWM Union Theatre announces new name, admission policy

Matt Wild

July 13, 2015

The UWM Union Theatre is one of those hidden-but-not-really-hidden gems that makes Milwaukee (and Milwaukee’s East Side, in particular) such a wonderful place to live. Since 1972, the unassuming movie theater l...

Here’s a picture of that new apartment complex planned for Brady Street

Matt Wild

July 10, 2015

Every Friday, Off The Record looks to other Milwaukee publications (and beyond) for bits of news we missed throughout the week.• Take a look around town and you’ll notice that once-distinctive streets and c...

Cocoon Room is closing

Matt Wild

July 9, 2015

Lame news for Milwaukee’s music and art scenes: Riverwest’s Cocoon Room, located at 820 E. Locust St., has announced it will be closing up shop at the end of the month. The building’s landlord is electing not t...

Heed the call of Siren’s “Queen Medusa”

Matt Wild

July 9, 2015

Milwaukee event planners have a knack for cramming in as much entertainment as possible into the year’s three or four non-awful months—i.e. summer. The same can be said for Milwaukee artists. Take Siren, for ex...

Summerfest on low attendance: “It’s not my fault!”

Matt Wild

July 8, 2015

There were a lot of weird things (including “Weird Al”) about the recently wrapped Summerfest, but one thing we welcomed was the absence of crushing crowds. Even on the fest’s biggest days, it was possible to m...

Exclusive: Get lost in the childlike psychedelia of Ravi/Lola’s 20-song sophomore album

Matt Wild

July 8, 2015

The psych revival currently sweeping Milwaukee and the rest of the country tends to lean toward a heavier, rock-inspired sound. Reverb-drenched guitars, reverb-drenched vocals, reverb-drenched...well, you get t...

Milwaukee Film announces grant program for cash-strapped local filmmakers, i.e. all local filmmakers

Matt Wild

July 8, 2015

When it comes to things that are really, really expensive to do well, making a film ranks somewhere between building a house and raising a child. Even in the gleaming future of relatively inexpensive digital eq...

Let your freak flag fly with D’Amato’s awesome “BPA Free”

Matt Wild

July 7, 2015

With modern home recording technology and this thing we call the Internet, it’s entirely possible to write, record, and release a full-length album in the span of a long weekend. Whip up a few songs, track them...

Bacon Bottom Porker Pizza, “Hot Mess” burger top list of 101 new State Fair food things

Matt Wild

July 7, 2015

Wisconsin is filled with many traditions—the first day of Summerfest, the rubber-duck race at Mayville’s annual Audubon Days—but none reach the giddy and artery-clogging heights of the Wisconsin State Fair. Whe...

Dearly beloved, Gabriel Sanchez and The Prince Experience will play Turner Hall November 28

Matt Wild

July 6, 2015

If the just-wrapped Summerfest 2015 taught us anything, it’s that there is no shortage of cover and tribute bands playing in and around Milwaukee. U2 tribute bands, Led Zeppelin tribute bands, The Who tribute b...

Some questions (and answers) for last night’s glorious “Weird Al” show at Summerfest

Matt Wild

July 5, 2015

“Weird Al” Yankovic is a national treasure. The wild-and-wacky song parodist has been lightly skewering popular music (and culture) for more than 30 years, turning radio hits of yesteryear into songs about food...

Local H and The Faint heat up chilly night at Summerfest

Matt Wild

July 2, 2015

If there’s one thing Summerfest does well—and let’s be honest, it does a lot of things well—it’s stock its overstuffed schedule with plenty of hidden gems. Take Wednesday night, for instance, which found Illino...

Peeper & Le Play made one of the best, weirdest Milwaukee albums of the year

Matt Wild

June 30, 2015

A common gripe against music coverage in Milwaukee—and music coverage in general—is that the media pays attention to only a small handful of bands. These bands tend to be safe, predictable, and career-oriented....

Hating Summerfest, loving Summerfest

Matt Wild

June 29, 2015

Sometimes you hate Summerfest. Sometimes you get to the grounds on a late Sunday afternoon and note that there are more people waiting to see Paris Hilton in four hours than there were to see Public Enemy all o...

Dustin Diamond is not a “knife-wielding madman,” says director of two Dustin Diamond movies

Matt Wild

June 29, 2015

As you may have heard, former Saved By The Bell actor, onetime Behind The Bell wordsmith, and occasional ’90s-theme-party host Dustin Diamond is in jail. Well, he’s supposed to be in jail, but he filed an appea...

Who Said It Best (And Worst): June 22-26

Matt Wild

June 26, 2015

Who Said It Best (And Worst) rounds up the week’s best and worst quotes from notable Milwaukee figures and folks-about-town.SAID IT BEST Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey, on the push to remove the C...

Public Enemy brings the noise (with help from Rusty P’s) on day two of Summerfest

Matt Wild

June 26, 2015

Early in the Rusty P’s warm-up set for Public Enemy Thursday night at Summerfest, DJ “Madhatter” Lee announced the group would be digging deep into their old albums for the next few songs. “And when you’ve been...

Dustin Diamond sentenced to appear in Saved By The Bell: The Prison Years

Matt Wild

June 25, 2015

When you wake up in the morning for your sentencing hearing and the alarm gives out a warning that yes, today is the day you will learn your fate after being convicted of stabbing some dude in a Wisconsin bar o...

Celebrate the first day of Summerfest with 6 videos of people screwing around on the Sky Glider

Matt Wild

June 24, 2015

If there was a website called “Is it Summerfest yet?” today it would read “Yes.” The 48th annual Big Gig kicks off today at noon, and brings with it all the sights, sounds, smells, and jorts Milwaukee has come ...