The Pukes “Murder” b/w “Execution” 2016. Tire Fire Records. This past weekend was our neighborhood party, Bay View Bash. Free music on multiple stages, local vendors and businesses promoting their wares (I worked the booth  for the yoga studio that I teach at for a couple of hours), good cheap beer and food trucks.

Local Milwaukee boys, The Pukes, hit the Rush Mor Records stage at 3:00, after the Mercurys finished their awesome set (and I made enough room on my phone to record their entire performance of “New York”). The band’s name suggests punk, and they kind of are, but in the irreverent and snotty definition of punk, not the hardcore scream-sing thrash guitar meaning. They describe themselves as “boogie woogie rock-n-roll,” also true, who enjoy “dancing around in our underwear, using hairbrushes as microphones as we sing Shagri-La’s tunes.”

“Murder” is a happy, bouncy surf punk song with just enough edge to justify the song’s title. “Execution” has a rolling beat, early 60′s flavor sweet as sugar along with the melodic growl of “I want my execution to go down in history.” The description of the 45 from the band’s website is “Something every nose-picking loser should have. With the hole just the way you like em’, BIG. This garbage comes wrapped in artwork by Eric Von Munz!”