The Milwaukees

Groovin' On Grove

Friday 9/11, the weekly Groove on Grove music series at the Grove Street PATH in Jersey City moved from Wednesday to Friday and featured Brooklyn's Overlord, Jody Porter & The Mens Magazines, and the Milwaukees.

Overlord performed a set of perky pop-rock propelled by the rock solid drumming of Matt "Hands" Hauser and the effervescent synth and electric organ of Mr. Tris McCall. Jody Porter (of Fountains of Wayne fame) came off as a bit of an obnoxious rock snob with his snarky remarks about "commuters" and being in "Jersey City" (pronounced with the same condescending amusement as an old Bugs Bunny cartoon using "Hoboken" as a punchline.) Porter's set started with retro 60's psychedelia in the style of Jersey City's (much better) Black Hollies and then settled into a set of solid if unremarkable pop-rock (most of which could have been - and probably were - FoW leftovers.)

Overlord

The Milwaukees came to rock and rock they did, mixing familiar tracks from their American Anthems album with as-yet-unreleased rockers like "Rich And Famous" (see www.jerseybeat.com for a video of that one) and "Victoria." Frontman Dylan St. Clark announced that American Anthems Vol. Two is "sitting on a hard drive in Hoboken," waiting to be finished up and released. I'm guessing we'll see it sometime around Christmas.