MKE 80: Milwaukee Singles from 1980

Ama-Dots (Bill Moco photo)

A new documentary about Milwaukee's music scene called Taking The City By Storm (named after the Haskels' song) is currently screening in film festivals. Feral House just released a new book about women in punk called Hit Girls; its title is a reference to the Ama-Dots' song. Brick Through The Window (named for an Oil Tasters' song) is an excellent recent book which documents Milwaukee's music history from 1964 to 1984.

1980 was the annus mirabilis of the Milwaukee scene.  Several holy grails of punk rock record collectors came from the Cream City: 7 inchers by The Haskels, The Shivvers, The Lubricants, and Muscle Beach can fetch 3 figures apiece. MKE bands are comped on Killed By Death, Hyped To Death, and Bloodstains.  

Bruce Pavitt featured the Ama-Dots and Oil Tasters on his Sub Pop tapes.  Chuck Warner championed Milwaukee power pop with releases by The Shivvers, The Sidewalks, and The Orbits on his Teenline series (named for a Shivvers' song).

The Shivvers' unreleased album has been reissued by Bachelor Records and Rerun Records.  The Ama-Dots' unreleased recordings and a compilation of The Ones were also issued by Rerun (as well as new pressings of the singles by The Lubricants and The Ones).  Scavenger of Death repressed The Prosecutors' single.

Two outstanding albums of unreleased Haskels tunes and one from The Prosecutors have been issued by Milwaukee's own Splunge Communications. And the fine folks at Splunge are sharing the OOP two disc anthology History In Three Chords for free at mkepunk.com. 

MKE 80 (today's share) includes all the Milwaukee singles and EP's released in 1980, plus The Appliances (a band from Madison that regularly played MKE clubs). The Appliances' later records can be found here.

It took a few more years for the world to recognize the Dairy State's talents. The Violent Femmes' LP came out in 83, as did Die Kreuzen, followed by Plasticland, Timbuk 3, The R&B Cadets, and the heartland rock of The BoDeans, Fire Town, and E-I-E-I-O. 

The Starship (Ron Faiola photo)

More on Bandcamp: Boy Dirt Car, Couch Flambeau, Die Kreuzen, E-I-E-I-O, F/i, Frogs, Haskels, Laytons, Prosecutors, RPM's, Sidewalks, Spooner (old garbage from Madison), Surfin Fuhrers, Violent Femmes, Vocokesh, and Radio Ready: Wisconsin (Lost Power Pop Hits from 1979-82).  Radio Ready includes songs by The Baxters, The Dominoes, The Tyrants, The Valiants, The Wigs and some of the bands mentioned above.

MKE-TV 77-83: Those X-Cleavers, Tense Experts, Shivvers, Ozone (aka The Ones), Oil Tasters, more Oil Tasters, Haskels, more Haskels, even more Haskels, Die Kreuzen, Couch Flambeau, Arousing Polaris (pre-Plasticland), and Ama-Dots captured live. Many of these videos were preserved and posted by Ron Faiola.

Check out the trailer for Taking The City By Storm!