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Taking their name from Jerry Lee Lewis’ best country song, one might wrongly assume Austin’s What Made Milwaukee Famous would fall squarely into the alt-country camp. Instead, this quirky quartet draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Television, Jeff Buckley and the Cars while still remaining contemporarily stylish in a Death Cab for Cutie/Arcade Fire kind of way. Their debut, Trying to Never Catch Up, is full of impressive hooks that walk the tricky line between challenging and comprehensible, and singer Michael Kingcaid gets extra kudos for somehow managing to sound gloomy and welcoming. Currently receiving the kind of overhyped online and in-print buzz that can raise a dubious eyebrow or two, WMMF are, nonetheless, worthy of praise for shifting the typically sunny Austinite disposition toward a definitely darker path.
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