The Quilz “Are You Still Out Tonight?”

sfilzen — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:29:31 +0000

The Quilz “Are You Still Out Tonight?” split 7″ with Xposed 4Heads “Ultra Cloud” 2020. Milwaukee synthpop /new wave retro 80’s mash up: each band performs their original track along with a remix/redo of the other’s song. We caught The Quilz last weekend at our neighborhood park’s annual Pumpkin Pavilion, where they performed an electric selection of spooky – but danceable! – Halloween-adjacent songs.

The Quilz’s “Are You Still Out Tonight?” is electro-dream pop, shimmery bright with a few dark-edged touches and nods to the early 80’s Euro-synthpop sound. The Xposed 4Heads version of the track has a driving beat and bass background, making it way less dreamy and much more urgent, but keeps the synthpop vibe. Xposed 4Heads are heavily influenced by Devo so their “Ultra Cloud” absolutely has that keyboard/guitar 80’s dancey space geek mood. The Quliz’s remix sounds pretty similar to the original, with maybe a bit more emphasis on the bleep-bloop synths plus an intro that maybe had some Duran nods (always a good thing). Both bands are fun to see live – I don’t remember if they’ve done a joint show but it would be a good one.

While neither of these songs is on this video, here’s a bit of The Quilz performance from last week filmed by man-about-Milwaukee Juan:

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The Quilz “Little Red Riding Hood”

sfilzen — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 18:04:26 +0000

The Quilz “Little Red Riding Hood” 2023. Prickly Records. Dream-pop new wave synth duo from Milwaukee. They will be debuting a new song this evening at Cactus Club but in the meantime I’m spinning their almost-most-recent release (they have a Christmas song from late ’23 but ’tis not the season for that). “Little Red Riding Hood” is their interpretation of the malevolent 1966 hit single by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. The Quilz version still has more than a touch of evil, but singer Becky Heck adds a sunny 60’s girl group vibe with her clear layered vocals. Side B is “Whole Wide World” (originally by legend Wreckless Eric, 1977): guitarist/bassist Sage Schwarm does a faithful and respectful rendition of the original while Becky’s vocals keep the rawness of the original, adding in an 80’s style femme vibe (it’s great!). I cannot find The Quilz’s version of “Whole Wide World” online so here’s a video for their 2022 song “Where Evil Grows” (the video shot in the park a block or so from our house; the song appears on The Quilz LP Beneath the Covers With the Quilz) originally by the Poppy Family (1971).

The post The Quilz “Little Red Riding Hood” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

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The Quilz “Are You Still Out Tonight?”

The Quilz “Little Red Riding Hood”