LIFE & TIMES
"The Life and Times' spacey post-hardcore stomp is a galvanizing force. Long since removed from the shadows of past bands like Shiner(who were fronted by Allen Epley), the Kansas City trio has a reputation that exceeds its lineup. Promoting their latest, No One Loves You Like I Do, the band will slap your senses around, with frontman Allen Epley's subdued vocals giving way to a flurry of guitars and drums." Dallas Observer

SLEEPCOMESDOWN
The ominous cool of Sonic Youth and Unwound is an easy ploy for a band to hide behind, and so is the circuit-stabbing experimentation of Health and Black Dice. To merge the two takes a little more dedication, and surprisingly doesn’t mean getting swallowed whole in pretension, at least for Milwaukee-via-Kenosha band Sleepcomesdown. As clearly as these influences come through, they also inspire the group to expand and revise its palette of textural gadgets and reverb-laden effects with each song. On 2008’s Vapor Kicks EP, Sleepcomesdown tries to tweak and frizz out its well-orchestrated static of electronics and sinister vocals, filling “Visual Tactics” with throbs and drones, and covering Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper.”

DISGUISED AS BIRDS
"Disguised As Birds’ New Demons EP was one of the most sorely overlooked Milwaukee music releases of 2009, which is too bad, since it’s exactly the kind of abrasively loud yet melodically accessible record that Milwaukeeans historically have gone gaga over. Few local acts pledging allegiance to ’90s noise rock and post-punk do it with the skill and grasp of dynamics that Disguised As Birds displays on the slow-building epic “Cigarette Ghost” or the pleasingly lumbering “Paper Doll.” New Demons was re-released in 2011 as the flip-side to a similarly terrific new EP, Black Circles." -The Onion