Recognize these bands? They’ll all be playing the Terrace. Scroll down to put names to faces.

It’s finally here! The school year’s over, which means it’s time to hit the Terrace. We’re really excited to share the summer Terrace schedule with you, as we’ve been working hard to bring shows that everyone will enjoy.

Before we dive head-first into the schedule, take a second to bookmark TerraceAfterDark.org. It’s a nifty site completely devoted to what’s going on at one of the most unique venues in the country. On top of info for the shows you see here, the site has details on movies and special events going on at the Terrace. Additionally, keep following this blog over the summer as we’ll have plenty of info on the shows and bands, a few more summer concert announcements (along with fall schedule announcements), coverage of festivals, mp3′s, and other music-related content. You didn’t think we could go a whole summer without talking to you, did you?

On to the programming itself. Without fail, from the first week of June to the beginning of August we have free events for you on the Terrace five nights a week. In addition to our featured Terrace After Dark shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we have four weekly series for you to check out:

If your dream is to perform on the Terrace, you can fulfill that aspiration on Open Mic Tuesdays. Acts start at 8 p.m., but be sure to get there early to sign up and draw for order. The next night we have your favorite local bands on A.V. Club Local Wednesdays. Next, throw on your overalls for Bluegrass Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:30. Finally, have no fear Behind the Beat fans, as the jazz and blues series continues into the summer at its usual spot of 5 p.m. on Fridays. All series on the Terrace start the first full week of June and end in early August. Check out the lineups for A.V. Club Local Wednesdays, Bluegrass Thursdays, and Behind The Beat below our main Terrace After Dark show schedule.

If you missed the interim schedule and Isthmus Jazz Fest announcement on Wednesday check that out here, and have a look at the full music calendar here. Alright, without anymore delay, WUD Music presents the Summer Terrace schedule. We look forward to seeing you out there!

Thursday, June 7th, 9:30 p.m.
Aer
with OCD: Moosh & Twist

Friday, June 8th, 9:30 p.m.
Royal Headache
with Heavy Times, The Lonesome Savages

Royal Headache

Saturday, June 9th, 9:30 p.m.
Phat Phunktion

Thursday, June 14th, 9:30 p.m.
Free Energy w/ Little Legend

Free Energy

Friday, June 15th, 9:30 p.m.
Peter Wolf Crier
with Chris Bathgate, The Frenettes

Saturday, June 16th, 9:30 p.m.
Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles
with Save the Clocktower

Thursday, June 21st, 9 p.m.
The People’s Temple
with Psychic Twin, Pale Girls

Friday, June 22nd, 9:30 p.m.
Gardens & Villa

Gardens & Villa

Saturday, June 23rd, 9:30 p.m.
Natty Nation

Thursday, June 28th, 9:30 p.m.
Elephant Revival

Friday, June 29th, 9:30 p.m.
Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons
with Stolen Silver

Saturday, June 30th*
The Promise Ring
*The Promise Ring’s set will start shortly after the Rhythm & Booms fireworks end

The Promise Ring

Friday, July 6th, 9:30 p.m.
WOOK

Saturday, July 7th, 9:30 p.m.
R. Ring

Thursday, July 12th, Time TBA
MADFORK Festival
featuring
Liturgy, Lotus Plaza, Dent May, Milk Music

Liturgy

Saturday, July 14th, 9:30 p.m.
steez

Thursday, July 19th, 9:30 p.m.
Saint Motel

Friday, July 20th, 9:30 p.m.
These United States

Saturday, July 21th, 9:30 p.m.
Maps & Atlases
with Mutts

Maps & Atlases

Thursday, July 26th, 9:30 p.m.
Smoking Popes
with Trapper Schoepp & The Shades

Smoking Popes

Friday, July 27th, 9:30 p.m.
Now, Now

Saturday, July 28th, 9:30 p.m.
Charlie Brooks and The Way It Is

Friday, August 3rd, 9:30 p.m.
Shonen Knife
with White Mystery

Shonen Knife

Saturday, August 4th, 9:30 p.m.
Sidewalk Chalk
with K. Raydio

Friday, August 10th, 9:30 p.m.
Pat McCurdy

Pat McCurdy

Saturday, August 11th, Time TBA
Country Fest
featuring
Hoyle Brothers, Ghost Town Council

Friday, August 17th, 5 p.m.
Blues Fest, Day 1
featuring
Cash Box Kings, Rockin’ Johnny and Mary Lane

Saturday, August 18th, 5 p.m.
Blues Fest, Day 2
featuring
The Right Now, Kane Place Record Club, Johnny Chimes and Gatur Bait

The Right Now

Friday, August 24th Time TBA
Funk Weekend, Day 1
featuring
Tweed Funk, The Mustache

Saturday, August 25th, Time TBA
Funk Weekend, Day 2
featuring
Afro-Zep

Friday, August 31st, Time TBA
Reggae Weekend, Day 1
featuring
Roots Collective

Saturday, September 1st, Time TBA
Reggae Weekend, Day 2
featuring
Taki Allstars

Wednesday, June 13th
Anna Vogelzang, Count This Penny

Wednesday, June 20th
Whiskey Farm, Blessed Feathers

Wednesday, June 27th
Problem Child, Golden Donna

Wednesday, July 11th
Pushmi-Pullyu, Icarus Himself, and El Valiente

Wednesday, July 18th
Giant People

Wednesday, July 25th
Double Ewes

Wednesday, August 1st
CONTROL, Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps

Thursday, June 7th
Northern Comfort

Thursday, June 14th
Cork ‘n Bottle

Thursday, June 21st
The Henhouse Prowlers

Thursday, June 28th
Daylight in the Swamp

Thursday, July 5th
The Oak Street Ramblers

Thursday, July 19th
Cork ‘n Bottle

Thursday, July 26th
SpareTime Bluegrass

Thursday, August 2nd
Daylight in the Swamp

Friday, June 8th
Boo Bradley

Friday, June 15th
Green Means Go

Friday, June 22nd
Composers’ Quartet

Friday, July 6th
Alison Margaret Quartet

Friday, July 20th
The Lost Cartographer String Band

Friday, July 27th
Deconumisms

Friday, August 3rd
Michael Vlatkovich Trio

Friday, August 10th
Cork ‘n Bottle

This Friday night you do not want to miss Dirty Beaches and Xiu Xiu when they occupy the Terrace stage. Nice weather, great beer, and avant garde music? Let’s do this.

Dirty Beaches consists solely of Alex Zhang Hungtai, originally from Taiwan but now throwing it down in British Columbia. If his reputable locations don’t wow your socks off, his low-fi and swooning sound will most definitely do the trick. “Drum loops, Hungtai’s croon, and the yearning melodies draped overtop belie as much a sense of haunting mystery as they do romanticism and wry humour,” says Last.fm’s Joshua Frank. Those yearning melodies helped Dirty Beaches gain critical acclaim with debut LP Badlands in 2011, which you can check out with all his various other shorter releases over at his bandcamp. Watch Hungtai destroy with “Sweet 17″ at SXSW 2011 in the video at the end of the article.

Hailing from San Jose, CA, Xiu Xiu is comprised of Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo, Bettina Escauriza, Marc Riordan, and Devin Hoff. The band got their name from the 1998 Chinese film, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.  Polyvinyl Records describes Xiu Xiu’s newest album, Always, as “Always relevant, always provocative, always surprising, always evolving, always glittering.” Stewart’s songs are known for combining avant pop sound with cut-throat, honest lyrics. Download “Hi” from Always at the end of the article to hear what that sounds like.

Finally, Father Murphy describes themselves as at three-person “non-band,” made up of Freddie Murphy, Chiara Lee, and Vitorrio Demarin. Currently living in Italy, the group experiments with a plethora of instruments like kid drum sets, chinese toys, and violins. Father Murphy isn’t just a hit in Italy, however; they’ve played over 200 shows in the past few years and made their mark on the U.S. psych-pop scene as well, drawing the attention of some indie heavy-hitters. Their most recent album, Anyway, Your Children Will Deny It was mixed by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof. Known for their mysteriousness, Father Murphy’s last.fm page even claims that band member Freddie is actually a “reverend who sings a song from this world and the other one.” If that description doesn’t make you curious, I don’t know what will.

So grab a pitcher or some Babcock ice cream from the Daily Scoop, have yourself a seat on one of the new and blue Terrace chairs, and let yourself be overcome by the sounds of Dirty Beaches, Xiu Xiu, and Father Murphy.

Download Xiu Xiu’s “Hi”

As the story goes, in 2006 two friends walked past the Apostolic Faith Mission in Brooklyn and jokingly reconsidered swapping Apostolic with Alcoholic; thus conceiving the indie lo-fi band Alcoholic Faith Mission. After all, an alcoholic has faith in his booze, just as a devout has in his religion (lol at that analogy). Copenhagen natives Thorben and Sune, the band’s founders, released their debut album Misery Loves Company just six months after their formation under a few conditions: by candlelight at night- with alcohol- and whatever they recorded (using just a laptop) was not to be changed. After the release of the band’s sophomore album 421 Wythe Avenue (named after where their first album was recorded), the duo took on four more members. A year later they released Let This Be The Last Night We Care- tracks like “Got Love? Got Shellfish!” and “Should’ve Left Before She Woke” evoke seriously sad emotions while keeping lasting and refined melodies. The Danish band’s most recent album Ask Me This was released on Tuesday, May 1 under Old Flame Records and was given 4/5 stars (ok, they’re technically circles) on tinymixtapes.com. Wistful vocals and alluring instrumentals make Ask Me This my personal favorite album so far. They’ll definitely be rockin’ Der Rath on Friday night with both new and old hits so come check them out!

Also playing at Der Rath on Friday is You Won’t; consisting of two Massachusetts natives John Arnoudse and Raky Sastri. The band is indeed developing a growing fan base with the release of their debut full-length album Skeptic Goodbye in February, also under Old Flame Records. Tracks off the album display both affectionate control and precision while still delivering the loving and fun but sometimes-melancholic melodies that listeners crave. Arnoudse’s vocals are both captivating and powerful; also, mad respect for their multi-instrumental skills. This duo is sure to put on an entertaining and gratifying show, so don’t miss them.

Blackbird Blackbird. All photos in this post by T.J. Matzen.

We had another great weekend, and luckily there were cameras to document most of it. There was lots of dancing at Blackbird Blackbird, Canopies, and Kiazma. The energy of the acts from the Surgeons in Heat record release come through in the pictures below. The Dear Hunter brought the prog to the Sett (These pics were sent along to us. They weren’t able to be included in the post, but check them out.) Ezra Furman brought the cool to Der Rath. No pics from that show, but if you have some to share, please send them along to wudmusiccom@gmail.com.

Surgeons in Heat

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Hey everyone! Come and see how good these bands look! (Anchorman reference anybody?) Anyways, yes, Der Rath will see a magnificent lineup this Friday night. Coo Woo (their name is just fun to say), Chamberlin, and Ezra Furman are all bands who have their own distinct sound and together will make your Friday night beyond enjoyable. 

First up, Coo Woo is a punk band that also incorporates some electronic beats into their instrumental-based sound. They do resemble that of Vampire Weekend when you hear the light and happy feel found in many of their songs. “Love Exposure” is a perfect example of this because there are no lyrics in the song at all, just instrumental combinations. “The Fave” is a positive listen that contains many snippets of harmonized voices. It also makes me want to go to a beach on a summer night. 

Following Coo Woo will be Chamberlin, a band originating from Vermont that instead focuses on the voices going through to the listener instead of the background instruments. Their own songs, “Sixty Days” and “Fools,” mainly contain either acoustic guitars or subtle electric instruments with a prominent voice. The lead singer’s voice can go from soft to high in pitch in a smooth transition, much like Caleb Followill from the band Kings of Leon.The band has done covers of other songs by artists such as Cults, Kanye West, and Passion Pit. Chamberlin “cabinizes” these artists’ songs, which means to “take a song with unique, modern elements and strip it down at their cabin, showing the strength of the song at its core,” according to the bands bio.

Even though he does not have a term for it, Ezra Furman does his own “showing of the strength of the song at its core” through his raspy but soulful voice and instrumental use. “The Year of No Returning” is an unusual combination of instruments (guitars, strings, bells) that makes you feel as though you are walking into a Wild West movie. Now and then you hear the shrill sound of his voice in songs such as “American Soil,” which in fact should be named “American Soul” because of the strong, rock ‘n roll-but-bluesy feel. Don’t be frightened by his nose-bleed picture on the album, The Year of No Returning, because it contains great listens for any mood.

Since you’ve just been bombarded with all of this information, you should really just go listen to these bands for yourself and see what you get out of their creative songs. Yes! Friday night plans made!

Watch Ezra play “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” for the Buzz Basement Sessions below.

All Nick Offerman photos by Stacey Lansing of Mixtapes Heartbreaks

For those that crave familiarity and are alarmed by this post being named “Week in Photos” instead of “Weekend in Photos,” don’t worry; it’s going to be ok. This post is only titled the way it is because it includes photos from the weekend plus some from Nick Offerman’s sold-out Union Theatre show. You wouldn’t want to deny people his majestic frame just for consistency of title, would you? Of course not.

Thanks to Stacey Lansing of Mixtapes Heartbreaks who lent her photography talents to us for the Nick Offerman show.

All photos from Kimya Dawson/ Adelyn Rose by Molly Palzkill.

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Got plans tonight? You do now. Der Rath is throwing it down with some of the indie community’s most serene talents.

You’d be flabbergasted by the sheer number of Jason Reeves’ past collaborations with some of the music industry’s biggest pop artists, like Colbie Caillat and American Idol’s Kara Dioguardi and Katharin Mcphee. While Reeves is a highly sought after collaborator, his solo music career has been just as successful. His debut album  wowed the iTunes community, snagging the title of one of iTunes’ best indie albums of 2007.

Anais Mitchell could be described as the haunting combination of Cyndi Lauper and Ani DiFranco. Last year, she opened for Horse Feathers in Der Rath, persuading the entire crowd to sit on the floor in a sing-along style. With Righteous Babe Records, Mitchell has created four albums. Mitchell says her newest album, Young Man in America, is “inspired by American manhood, British ballads and my father.” As a huge fan of Anais, Justin Vernon collaborated with her on her folk opera titled Hadestown. Mitchell has also recently been on tour with Bon Iver in Europe. Bon Iver also recently covered her song, “Coming Down.” Vernon says the song “takes you to a very far away place, away from where you are.”

Brooklyn’s own Cuddle Magic will also be performing Saturday night. This is no regular indie band, however. With twangy vocals, string instruments, and a trumpet, Cuddle Magic brings new meaning to tasty indie harmonies.

Come check out Jason Reeves, Anais Mitchell, and Cuddle Magic in Der Rath at 9:30, and check out Reeves’ video for Back With Me below.

The time has come for the ultimate battle. UW-Madison bands have shown what they’ve got to a panel of Emmie staff, and the candidates who were deemed the most worthy to advance in this competition will take over The Terrace tonight.

It was a brutal fight filled with sweat and rhythmic talent, but there are only five left standing. Coldspring Drive, Aquafunk, Griswald, The Lazy Reason, and The Shadows will all compete in front of a live panel, starting at 9pm. Your support will be needed, for the energy coming from a crowd channels through to a band, giving them strength and encouragement.

Winning this competition will not only give the band bragging rights (which are pretty essential), but also the title of Emmie’s Student Band of the Year. In addition, there will be a review of the chosen band printed in Emmie Magazine. Who doesn’t want to see five bands battling it out for a title? Let’s see who steals the ears of the crowd and is granted due recognition for it.