SPEAKER_04
0:00

I want to show you this video. I'm just sitting down on the the train at the Milwaukee County Zoo and I don't hear anything. And then I listen back to the video and I'm like, what is that?

SPEAKER_00
0:13

But they have the story of this haunted railroad track, and there's a paranormal dare involved in. So you're supposed to drive and park on the tracks, put your car in neutral, and it said that ghost children are supposed to push you to safety. But what his encounter was circular craft that he described as being brighter than chrome came down, out pops a latch, and an occupant steps out, and he's making what looks like pancakes. They're very thin. People have said these are pancakes from outer space.

SPEAKER_04
0:49

Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. If you love Wisconsin lore, horror stories, haunted places, encrypted. We've got a great episode for you. We've got just the absolute expert in this department. Doesn't get any better. We've got Jeff Finnup of Badgerland Legends everywhere on social media. He does a great job on those platforms, posts, posts a lot of Wisconsin lore content. And he's he's also the author of a children's book, Wisconsin Legends for Kids. And we cover a lot of ground on this one, including the most haunted places around Milwaukee and Wisconsin, many of which you're more than welcome to check out this spooky season. And topics and stories, including the hodeg, Peppy, the Mississippi monster, the little people of Moskego, a potential alien encounter that happened in Eagle River. This is like a true story. I was not aware of this, also. St. Joan of our Chapel, right over on Marquette's campus, um, and a whole lot more. This episode is also co-hosted by Josh Aschenbacher, good friend who runs marketing over at Three Sheeps. And Three Sheeps did a whole Wisconsin cryptid series this year. There were four beers total, including the Gnomes of Fitfield, which is still coming out in November. So they've done three so far. Got that one coming out in November. IPAs, you gotta get your hands on them. And they're also running that series back next year. We love Three Sheeps, great people, and great beer up in Sheboygan. By the way, Taproom up there is a great place to check out this fall. And speaking of three sheeps, I do want to thank our other partners before diving into this one as well. Annex Wealth Management. The fall is a great time to get your life together, and that means looking at your finances. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything: retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. Annex know the difference. Next, we've got Nicolai Law, the Midwest Law firm. Injured, get Nicola and Russell, and the team will take great care of you, including, you know, if you get injured when the when the when the gnomes of Fifth Field are tossing rocks out of the woods at you or any legitimate injury, call our good friends over at Nicolai Law. And if you're looking for a nice canned old fashion this fall, I love a good drink. Wisconsinably beverage company, canned old fashioned, best vodka brandy and canned cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state, including in the corner bar in Wright Field, the damn fam perfect for hopefully a long Brewers playoff run. We were also at Sendex yesterday doing a shooting. They got they got drink Wisconsinable Beverage Company and Three Sheeps right over there. So make sure to check those out. And um, all right, let's dive in with our good friends Josh and Jeff.

SPEAKER_00
3:52

It started at a young age for me. My mom was really into this stuff growing up, and uh she kind of got hooked me hooked on it. She had a lot of stories of like angels and haunted houses where she grew up, and you know, I just kind of caught the bug at an early age. I was terrified of it at first. I never wanted to see a ghost. I didn't want to have any supernatural encounters, but it seemed to have grown on me over the years. And uh I've been doing the Badgerland Legends in an official capacity for uh going on seven years now, just trying to document all the spooky things of the Badger State, people, places, and things that make Wisconsin legendary.

SPEAKER_04
4:32

Very cool. Did your mom have any paranormal experiences?

SPEAKER_00
4:36

You know, she after her mom died, her mom died at a young age. I was probably a baby at the time, and she was cleaning some of her stuff out, and she felt a profound presence while in her house, and the smell of her perfume wafting over her. I think that was kind of a compelling story to tell me as a kid.

SPEAKER_04
4:59

And uh have have you had any? You don't or what's the most you know terrifying experience that that you've had? You do a lot of this stuff now. Probably like Willie Street on Halloween. But they shut that down, didn't they? Oh no, state that's state street, right? State street's no longer going on. I mean, that was that was a banger back in the day.

SPEAKER_00
5:19

Yes, it was wild. Um, but yeah, I get that that question all the time, and I wish I had a more profound story. So I would say that I'm still seeking out those experiences. I've had the opportunity to be in some of the most haunted places in the state. I visited across the country, uh, several haunted locations. You know, I'm looking for that one moment in the paranormal field they call the holy grail, like a full body apparition that's actually seeing the visage of like a full ghost or at least like torso up of an unidentifiable ghost. I haven't had that yet.

SPEAKER_01
5:58

So what place like gave you what what had the most like intense feeling? You know what I mean? Like what was your spookiest or scariest?

SPEAKER_00
6:06

The I would say there is a place in downtown Manitowak. It's called Dead by Dawn's. It is a scare BMB or uh Dead and Breakfast, and you can spend the night there. So the Dawn is the name of the lady that runs the place, and she was a formal former haunted attraction uh person. So she ran like haunted houses. So all of her the items that she had on display at these places are now inside of this building in downtown Manitowk. And I got to hook up with a paranormal uh investigative group and spend the evening and into the late night investigating that place, and that place is very, very active. And since we have our friend here from Sheboygan, the Sheboygan Asylum is also a very active place. And you you've been through that a number of times or before. Yeah, absolutely. I've I've gone on several tours and got to uh visit the property, uh, go with some more experienced people, and the really cool thing is the tour guides there, they have their own relationships with whatever resides there, whether it's a ghost entity, I'm not sure really sure where to put that, but it seems like when they go there, they get responses on their equipment, uh knocks on the wall, uh different lighting triggers lighting up when they ask questions. Uh very, very active place. So dead and breakfasts are a thing. It it is uh apparently in downtown Manitowak, it is.

SPEAKER_04
7:44

And people pay to stay overnight.

SPEAKER_00
7:46

People people spend the night there. They don't get paid to do it as a challenge or anything. You know, that would that would open up a new wrankle in a reality show. Maybe we can get Mr. Beast on the horn and we could get into that. But uh yeah, they have a suite in there with three different rooms that you can rent for the night. Um a friend of mine took one of the rooms. I actually slept out in the living room and just explored the place at night with the team, and it just very a lot of activity. No full body apparitions, a lot of um hits on the equipment, a lot of strange sounds, strange feelings in just kind of a strange place.

SPEAKER_04
8:27

Do you are there lights on or do you have like a headlight and what is what's the equipment setup when you're trying to find something?

SPEAKER_00
8:34

So you want to get your eyes to adjust to the surroundings, so you want to keep the lighting as low as possible. So if you have um like a tape recorder or some kind of EMF meter, that's gonna have a little bit of background light to it, so you can at least get where you are. But a lot of times people will do seances where they will just sit kind of vigil in the dark and wait for something to happen.

SPEAKER_04
8:58

Josh, have you had any paranormal experiences over there? Oh man.

SPEAKER_01
9:03

I don't I don't I can't think of anything.

SPEAKER_04
9:06

Nothing stands out. No. Okay, I wanna I wanna show you this video. Um, both you. So Bree and I were just peacefully recording uh a promo video for the Milwaukee County Zoo for their Cheers um Cheers Holiday Lights event, and I'm I'm uh on the train and then a weird sound comes up on on this thing. I'm curious if uh if you think it's it's something or or nothing. Do you think it you think it might be something, right? Or am I gonna look like a complete idiot? Okay.

SPEAKER_01
9:38

Wait, give us the background one more time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
9:40

Bree and I are just recording a pro Milwaukee Cup promo video for Cheers, which is like a adults' night at the zoo that got the holiday. Oh, Fisher's setup. Cool. Great, great event. We're gonna do it again this year. Yep. And I'm just sitting down on the train at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and I don't hear anything. And then I listen back to the video and I'm like, what the fuck was that? Let's hear it. You can uh I think the vol the volume should be up. You can just press press play.

SPEAKER_02
10:22

Or the train. Or you can ride the train with the beer.

SPEAKER_04
10:34

What what is that?

SPEAKER_00
10:37

You're laughing at me. I'm not sure what that is. It's probably the paranormal though.

SPEAKER_04
10:49

What is that noise? It was not me farting. Oh, I'd like to make that clear. See, I thought that you I thought you were pulling our leg, Jerry.

SPEAKER_01
10:57

Or your finger. I think that's a haunted elephant, right? Okay. The haunted elephant at the monkey zoo.

SPEAKER_04
11:10

Not like that. For me to squeeze into that type position, I'm a very stiff guy. Um do you think that was something or no?

SPEAKER_01
11:20

I think it's pretty wild to air your flatulences online. Is that bad? Paranormal activity.

SPEAKER_05
11:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04
11:28

Um anyway, Josh. So that that was not a mind-blowing encounter to either of either of you two over there. Indetermined.

SPEAKER_01
11:40

Okay, I believe.

SPEAKER_04
11:41

I was I was looking for a little clarity on what happened there. Um, mystery is still out over at the zoo. Uh haunted bowels.

SPEAKER_01
11:48

In the haunted bowels of the zoo.

SPEAKER_04
11:50

Josh, before we uh get into some stories, how how did you come up with this whole cryptid series?

SPEAKER_01
11:55

Yeah, I mean, you know, at Three Cheeps, we just we love to celebrate our Wisconsinists, and so we're always looking for creative ways to do that. And you can only talk about, you know, cheese and sausage so much, and you know, all of our great sports teams. And so this is just another angle for us to kind of lean into our Wisconsinists. And Wisconsin is just full of awesome lore and stories. Uh, you know, I think the Northwoods of Wisconsin are just full of those, like, you know, those uh uh those oral stories that have lived on for you know forever. Um and so yeah, that's that's what this is all about. It's just a fun way for us to uh celebrate all the great stories in Wisconsin. And so we have a rich history of cryptids in Wisconsin. Gotta correct you, it's not cryptic, it's cryptids. They're called cryptids. Um uh and there's I mean, there's just so many. Um, and so that's what we're trying to do. So we had four this year. Obviously, the most well-known one is the hodeg of Rhinelander. That's when you see kind of all over Wisconsin, that's Wisconsin's claim to fame. Um, but we'll have three more next year. We're gonna do the hodeg again, but we'll have three more next year. And uh so yeah, it's just it's just been a fun kind of series to to work through.

SPEAKER_00
13:10

So you got jumped off with the hodeg. Yeah, and then he followed it up with the other big guy, Bigfoot. Yep. We rounded things off with the Beast of Ray Road, yep. And now you have the launching of the gnomes.

SPEAKER_01
13:22

The gnomes of Fife Field, yeah. So we wanted to do um, you know, the gnomes was kind of this light-hearted one, uh, very uh obscure, uh, but a fun one. So the gnomes are known for hiding in the woods and throwing stones at people if they get too close to kind of scare them away. Um, so that's a fun one. But yeah, obviously, you know, Bigfoot, uh, there's a ton of uh sightings of Bigfoot in Wisconsin, um, which has been fun. And then the Beast debray Road is is one that is uh really well known as actually was a Hollywood movie created about the Beast of Bray Road. And um I drove out there and and it's a very unassuming, just kind of country road. You wouldn't really think twice about it, but there is definitely like a feeling on that road. It was, I don't know, maybe I like psyched myself out, but like just driving on that like empty road, I don't know, and there's kind of this like creepy umbrella of trees that come over the top, and then you kind of turn this blind corner, and so I could totally see like how at night you kind of go around this corner and your headlights could catch something, you know, in the uh the tall grass there. So yeah, these have been fun for us.

SPEAKER_04
14:27

And in the last one, the gnomes, that beer comes out in November.

SPEAKER_01
14:30

Yeah, that's releasing in uh the first part of November, yep.

SPEAKER_04
14:33

Jeff, what do you want to dive into the gnomes over here?

SPEAKER_00
14:37

Have you ever heard about the gnomes in Fifield? Yeah, uh in the book, it was booked by Chad Lewis, Road Guide to Haunted Places in Wisconsin. Uh, he talks about the it's kind of a paranormal nexus because there is so many legends built up just about this place. It's called Holy Cross Road in Fifield, Wisconsin. Where is Fifield for those listening and myself? It's between Park Falls and Phillips and Price County. Is that way up there? So if you take if you go up to Rhinelander, visit the Hodag, instead of going right into Rhinelander on Highway A, you take a left and you head east towards Prentice, and then you go up north towards uh Park Falls, and it's between Park Falls and Phillips. And uh tiny little town, uh very unassuming, but they have the story of this haunted railroad track, and there's a paranormal dare involved, which I love that wrinkle. Whenever there's something that you can do to try to put yourself into the story, to interact, to try to to have uh an experience. So you're supposed to drive, go to Holy Crossroads, so it's kind of got a mystical name and park on the tracks, put your car in neutral, and it said that ghost children are supposed to push you to safety because when they were alive, they weren't so fortunate and they were killed on that track. Whether there's any validity to that story, I'm not sure, but it's built up enough legend around it. So that's a long way of saying that this is the place where the gnomes visit. There is a woods along that road, and it's said that if you get out of your car and you throw a rock into that woods, something will throw a rock back at you. Now I haven't done this there yet. I hope to soon. But uh, I would love to get uh a rock whipped out my head just for confirmation. But people say that the party responsible for that rock are the notes.

SPEAKER_04
16:45

Fascinating. So you go up there, you park your car on the railroad track, put it in neutral, hopefully get pushed to safety. Yes. And then go throw a rock in the woods to see what happens.

SPEAKER_00
16:58

Okay, we're in Northwoods of Wisconsin. A lot of people are bored. You know, you really can't tip a cow, uh, you know, much to Chris Farley's sugar and Tommy Boy. It's not not quite possible. But you can at least throw a rock at a gnome if you need something to do on a Friday night.

SPEAKER_04
17:15

You can. You can.

SPEAKER_01
17:16

Do you think that the gnomes are these like grumpy old men like we have depicted on our label? Uh you know, with big long white hair and big.

SPEAKER_00
17:23

I've heard they're your traditional uh gnome garb, as you would see in a garden. But I do like the artwork on the can. I think that that fits well.

SPEAKER_04
17:34

And um since you're releasing the hodeg again next year, and that's such a popular one. Do you want to touch on that? Yeah. The hodeg of Rylander. Which they got that was in Rhylander not too long ago. They got they got hodags all over the place. They got a big one in front of the Chamber of Commerce.

SPEAKER_00
17:50

Um there. Yes, the that's the big guy, and it's right there when you drive in. So the Rhinelander is known for the hodeg, and it comes from the lumbering days of Wisconsin, back when it was just a huge pine forest. And there was a guy by the name of Eugene Shepherd, he was a Chikol timber cruiser, and he would explore the Northwoods near Rhinelander looking for cuts of timber. He did a lot of the early maps and a lot of the surveys of the area. And then he would go to companies out east that were in native timber products, and then he would facilitate uh the transaction and take his cut of that. So he really fell in love with Rhinelander and he didn't want it to be just another soddist city where everything is just cut. He wanted to make it into a resort town. So he thought, what better way to get people there than to have its own monster? So it started as a lumberjack tale of this beast of the Northwoods that lumberjacks would encounter and people would go look for this thing. Well, Gene Shepherd, he decided to actually go out and hunt it. The first expedition, he actually killed one and burnt it to a crisp. But coincidentally enough, right before the inaugural Oneida County Fair in 1896, he captured one and he brought it to the fair and he put it in a darkened tent, and people came and they paid a dime to enter the tent to see this beast. Now, what the people encountered was a darkened tent with a thin tarp between it and a lot of growling and commotion. So people came out of that tent believing that there was a wild animal in there. So he kept the roost up for several years until he finally spilled it. You know, uh it wasn't really a hodag, but the hodag's still out there in the woods of Rhinelander, so come up to Rhinelander. The fishing's great, and if you you get squirrely, you can go look for a hodag.

SPEAKER_04
19:57

So I so I was curious, because yeah, he did actually bring some set up at a fair. Yes. But later at his house. No no one could see it? Was it some other kind of animal dressed up as a hodag or what from anything?

SPEAKER_00
20:12

From my interpretation, it was his kids on the other side. Um slapping at the tarp, making growling sounds, uh clanking around. And there's a modern interpretation of of the legend now. Uh my friend Carrie and Ben from uh Carrie from the Logging Museum, Ben from the Hodag store. Did you stop at the Hodag store while you're up there?

SPEAKER_04
20:34

I did not, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00
20:36

Yeah, next time through. But uh they have a new contraption where it is a a hodag in a crate and it makes all kinds of commotion. The kids absolutely love it. It lights up, it rumbles, smoke comes out, and he does a whole carnival barker act around it at the Hodeg Heritage Fest. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Josh, you were up there.

SPEAKER_01
21:00

Yeah, I I've experienced uh well, shout out to Ben. He uh I got to hang out with him for a couple hours and we were up there. Um, he actually put on a hoodeg costume and led me into the woods for a whole photo shoot. It was absolutely hilarious. That's great. I asked him to get into this like Burt Reynolds pose where he like laid down and like, you know. Um so that was great. Yeah, Ben is an awesome guy. But yeah, I saw the hot egg uh in the box, and it is just as frightening as uh as Jeff describes. It's pretty cool. And wall to wall, I mean hodeg, everything you can think of, wall to wall. Yes, in the shape of a hodeg or with a hodeg on it, or whatever. It was everything is pretty incredible, yeah. Great stop.

SPEAKER_04
21:39

Um, we're gonna get into some Milwaukee stuff, but Josh informed me about um Pepe. Pepe, yeah. The Lake Ma I'd never heard of the Mississippi monster. Yeah. So have you heard of this breeze?

SPEAKER_00
21:52

This is in your neck of the woods.

unknown
21:54

I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
21:55

So Lake Pepin is like a backwater of of um The Mid Mississippi River.

SPEAKER_04
22:01

By like Hudson, Wisconsin?

SPEAKER_00
22:03

Near there, yeah. I think it's just south. And sorry, my geography is not that great with a map. But it's along the river, along the border, because it borders both Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was actually where water skiing was invented. Uh just to put that in your hat. But there is uh supposedly this lake monster living in Lake Pepin, and they call him Pepe. And one of the the um boat operators there, like the river boat operators, um, actually sponsored a bounty that if you could uh provide proof of Pepi, you could win fifty thousand dollars. I believe that's got gone unclaimed.

SPEAKER_01
22:42

So it's still active though to this day. Yeah, I believe so.

SPEAKER_04
22:45

When did when did he bring that up?

SPEAKER_00
22:48

I think it was the mid-2000s. Okay. When when he officially launched that. Have there ever been any sightings or supposed sightings? I I believe there's sightings every year. Whether they're um credible, that's another story. Now there was a folklorist by the name of Charles E. Brown, and one of his quotes was a and this was the 1915, 1920s, he said, uh, a resort town without a lake monster is behind the times. And he kind of you know lifted the veil on the fact that a lot of people, just like Gene Shepherd in, you know, the 1890s with Rhinelander, a lot of people were attracting people to the area with this monster tourism, uh, you know, as we do today with uh with the beer kind of celebrate the folklore of the area. Nobody owns Bigfoot, nobody owns the hodag. But you know, if a product is fine as three sheeps wants to celebrate it on their cans, more the merrier. So Pepe's kind of like the the lachness monster of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Well, the funny thing is they're for just about every lake, including all of the lakes in Madison, they have their own resident, Lake Monster. Uh Winnie, Winnebago, Jenny, Lake Geneva. Creatively named. Very creative. Nessie for Loch Ness, Peppy for Peppin. What about the Man Bat of La Crosse? You must have checked out my Instagram.

SPEAKER_01
24:21

No, but that was crazy timing. I saw, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
24:25

That's funny because I just posted about that. You did today? No, uh earlier this week. Okay. Yep. So yeah, the man-bat of lacrosse. Um, a winged humanoid creature witnessed in, I think, 2006 by a couple native gentlemen, uh, just came upon their truck while driving down Briggs Road in Holman, Wisconsin, and had a freakish encounter with something they couldn't explain. The passenger in the truck, I believe that was a younger gentleman, um, he had a fit of nausea uh right after that. So they experienced something. And uh funny story is my sister lives in Holman now, and she had moved there in 2020 from from Phoenix, and you know, she just got settled in. I'm like, oh, have you heard about the Holman man bat on Briggs Road? She's like, I drive down Brick Road all the time. Don't joke about that. So um apparently it happened, it's out there, it's in the lore.

SPEAKER_01
25:24

So that's like a modern encounter, which is pretty unique, right? Yeah. I mean, what so what do you how do you what do you attribute that to? What did those people see in 2006?

SPEAKER_00
25:32

I mean, you know, a lot of people in they happen along Lake Michigan as well. So from where we're sitting down through Chicago, along, and they call it the Lake Michigan Mothman, and that is seen along the shores of Lake Michigan. A lot of people attribute it to misidentification of large birds, you know, cranes, heron, heron. I don't know if you've run into a crane in the wild, but they are very large birds and they make a terrifying noise. And I think that could be responsible, but you know, I like to hold out hope that there's something a little beyond the strange.

SPEAKER_04
26:07

But like 2005, was that all over the news then I'm guessing?

SPEAKER_00
26:11

Yeah. I'd have to pull the actual uh I read about it in Linda Gottfried's book, Yeah, Wisconsin Monsters, but 2005, that's still pre-camera phones and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04
26:22

Um, but like today you would think if if people see something, they're just gonna go like this, unless it's just in a flash almost.

SPEAKER_00
26:29

Yeah, in a lot of these encounters, a lot of people are stupefied and they won't have their faculties together enough to pull out their camera phone and take it. And some that do, you know, it just ends up as a blurry picture.

SPEAKER_01
26:44

It does seem like every encounter ends with a a picture that looks like it was shot on, you know, a crummy camera. Even now.

SPEAKER_00
26:54

There's there's a great Mitch Head Headberg joke about the Bigfoot just being a blurry creature walking through the woods. Rip in peace. Mitch Hedberg.

SPEAKER_04
27:05

Um, and then I mean one one more encrypted for next year, Wendigo of the North Woods.

unknown
27:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
27:14

So Chad Lewis, the guy that did the Wisconsin Guide, uh Road Guide to Haunted Places, he and his uh writing partner, Kevin Lee Nelson, they really went deep into the legend of the Wendigo. And even after writing the book, they felt like they just didn't know enough. So it is, I believe, an Algonquin tale of a large flesh-eating monster that roams the north woods of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada as well. And it is a winter creature. And uh Chad has done several seminars or talks on this creature, you know, showing his book. And the native people they do not like hearing that word, especially in the winter months, because they believe that just invoking its name could bring it into their presence. And there have been recent sightings really um in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, even during the summer months, uh, a couple young men at a summer camp way up in the Northwoods. Um I I can't remember the exact location at the moment, but they had what they uh thought was the Wendigo. They had seen it and then they looked into what it might be, and then the Wendigo stuff popped up and kind of confirmed it. And and Chad for the book interviewed them and he he felt like they were very credible in their story. Chad Chad believes this is real. I don't know if Chad believes it's real, but he believes that these kids experienced something they couldn't the Wendows Wendigo is kind of having its moment, huh?

SPEAKER_01
28:54

In pop culture and stuff. You see, I feel like you see more and more Wendigo's and like video games.

SPEAKER_00
28:59

The Wendigo uh amateur hockey team. Yeah as well.

SPEAKER_01
29:02

True, yeah. Is it uh is it Eagle River? I can't remember, but I know you are you are correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
29:10

Josh, how did you come up with these cryptids? Which ones to make beers of?

SPEAKER_01
29:15

Oh man, I mean, we tried to do some that are obviously well known, um, some that were a little more light-hearted, like the gnomes, um or like Peppy, you know, a little more lighthearted. Um, but yeah, just I don't know, just the ones that that caught my eye, I think that had um good stories behind them. Um, you know, encounter stories that people, you know, seem to be pretty legit, you know. So that's kind of how we picked them.

SPEAKER_04
29:40

Is there anything you guys do with the flavor depending on the the story?

SPEAKER_01
29:44

Yeah, so I mean, I'm just a marketing guy, so I don't get you know, I don't get into the science of brewing too much. Shout out to Dr.

SPEAKER_04
29:50

Nate over there as a fantastic name.

SPEAKER_01
29:53

Obviously, our owner, our brewmaster, Grant Polly. Um, but yeah, I mean he he's excited, especially this year, about going anywhere, you know, he's gonna fly out to Washington to Yakima Valley and pick out hops specifically for these this next set of cryptid beers, and he wants to kind of match their personalities with the hops and you know, all that kind of stuff, and kind of build it to the character that is gonna be on the label. So, yeah, he's really excited about that.

SPEAKER_04
30:17

Jeff, um, what is your favorite Milwaukee area story? Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying this episode. Just a reminder that the fall is a fantastic place to enjoy the foliage and also get your life together, and that means looking at your finances. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. If you need help with your finances, reach out to our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. Know the difference. That is annexwealth.com. annexwealth.com. All right, let's get back with Josh and Jeff.

SPEAKER_00
31:04

One of my favorites is one that you can experience on any given day in Milwaukee, and that is the St. Joan of Arc Chapel on Marquette's campus. I know Richie's a Marquette alum, so I will ask you have you visited the chapel?

SPEAKER_04
31:22

I have been in the chapel, yeah, right on campus there.

SPEAKER_00
31:25

Okay, and then have you touched the Joan of Arc's stone? I've not touched the stone. You need to you need to touch the stone. Okay. So just to back up, the St. Joan of Arc's Chapel is the oldest building in Wisconsin. It is an import from France, and from that name, um, we know that it is associated with St. St. Joan of Arc by legend. It said that she visited the chapel in the Rhone Valley and she prayed to the Mother Mary. And when she was done praying, she kissed the stone that she was kneeling on. So that chapel was disassembled. It was brought to New York by a railroad magnate's daughter. Upon her death, it was acquired by a philanthropist that thought a great place for it would be right there on the Marquette campus. So they reconstructed it there, and uh they brought in that altar stone and they put it in a wall niche. Now, the interesting thing about that stone is that if you lay your hands on the St. Joan of Arc stone, it is discernibly colder than the surrounding stonework. And I've done it. I don't know if it's just a trick of the imagination. There was a very nice docent showing it off, so I didn't want to like pull out like a thermometer and being like, is this thing really colder? I'm gonna debunk this right now. I didn't do that, but uh I definitely feel like it it felt colder. So I would say to anybody to uh visit the chapel just for the historical sake, uh beautiful old chapel, and then to experience that stuff.

SPEAKER_04
33:06

I've actually not been inside of it before. Okay. I was thinking of J Zoo, which is the very old church on Marquette's campus, but the chapel is yeah, it's tucked away behind the library and in that you know, nice, nice green area.

SPEAKER_00
33:17

Yeah, nice little quad area. Yeah. It's beautiful, and it's it's kind of unexpected because you're in downtown Milwaukee, you walk through a couple buildings, and then you're in this beautiful green area. This old French chapel is just sitting there in the courtyard. And you'll have to check the hours before you go to make sure that you know it's going to be open. But uh it's something that I would say any Milwaukee or somebody visiting Milwaukee should check out.

SPEAKER_01
33:44

Richie told me that he's afraid of chapels because the possibility of bursting in the flames when he steps in.

SPEAKER_04
33:51

I'm afraid of a lot of things that was not top of mind, but uh good good to know now.

SPEAKER_00
33:57

Going to your Catholic schools and um, you know, a Catholic college definitely can develop some phobias over the years, I can say from personal experience.

SPEAKER_04
34:06

Yeah. Yeah. Um what what about the little people of Muskego? That gets some buzz around this area.

SPEAKER_00
34:12

Yes, and that is probably one of my favorites, and that's just a step outside of Milwaukee. So that is in Muskego, a neighboring uh what what would you say? A sub a Milwaukee suburb, yeah. So right by New Berlin. You know, I think this one really cropped up in the 1980s, a place called Mystic Drive in Moskegos. So it already has kind of a spooky notion. It said that if you drive down to the end of Mystic Drive, you'll be greeted by a colony of little people. Now, the story behind the little people is they were retired circus folk. Some say that they were they were disgruntled workers in the circus and they killed the ringmaster. Um, and then they moved to Mosquego, moved in, and there was a farmer on the land. They killed and hung the farmer in the barn there. So there's a lot of spookiness there. Uh at one point there was stone huts there that may have contributed to legend. I think those um those were connected to some of the Finnish settlers that came to Milwaukee um in the mid-1800s. And I think that's kind of what explains them. And then some people say, well, there's uh waist-high stop signs, and uh the best one is there was an albino uh gentleman that guards the end of Mystic Drive to the place called Haunchyville. And that's the name of the colony of little people, Haunchyville. And that's what it's known for. You know, unfortunately, over the years, Mystic Drive has been populated by large estates, uh you know, multi-acre mansions down there. So a lot of the mystique has kind of worn off, but the folklore uh still rings through. And that would probably be a cool beer as well, Josh. What what time period did this take place allegedly? So people would legend trip there in like the eighties or nineties and head down there and search around for the haunches. The first time I heard about the legend was in a book called Weird Wisconsin, and that came out in the early 2000s, and that's when it kind of really came into prominence. I know somebody who grew up in uh Big Bend, and it was well known in high school as kind of uh a place to head on a Friday night for what they called a fright night, uh, where they could go check out something spooky and maybe get a little thrill. Um, and a co-host of mine on the Wisconsin Legends podcast, we did a full one-hour episode on it. Uh, he grew up in Big Bend and he went down to the end of Mystic Drive into Haunchyville, and he went with uh I think his buddy and two girls, and while he was walking down there, uh one of those big birds, not the Mothman, but a crane, uh spooked him and he ran back to the car. And he tells it on the podcast, it's a hilarious story.

SPEAKER_04
37:24

So did they think it was still inhabited by little people then?

SPEAKER_00
37:30

I I think by that time it was well known that the little people may have moved on. Okay. But there was a lot of people that said, yeah, it's it's an abandoned colony.

SPEAKER_04
37:40

So there were no no official sightings of them? No. Okay. Not to my knowledge. What about any um you said the the rave? The rave in Milwaukee. Yeah. It's very popular venue.

SPEAKER_00
37:56

Would people know Rave, they call it the Rave or Eagles Ballroom. It was originally an Eagles Club, it had bowling alley, boxing room, gym, the swimming pool down there, which I think you can still like go into almost not full of water, but it looks cool. A lot of the bands will that visit will do like a photo shoot in the pool, and they'll sign their names along the top of top of the wall. And it's just kind of a creepy uh vibe down there. They open it up for Halloween for ghost tours. Um, the sad reality is though, a 15-year-old boy did die in that pool, and they say that his ghost still haunts it. What year did that take place? Uh, I don't have the era at all. I think it was probably the 1940s, if I had to guess.

SPEAKER_03
38:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00
38:46

So the rave was around back then. It was yeah, it under it wasn't the rave, it was the Eagles Club. So it was a fraternal order of the Eagles who inhabited it. Interesting. And had all of the amenities as kind of a private club, and then eventually it was a music venue.

SPEAKER_01
39:08

You know what I want to hear more about? I want to hear more about the Pfister. Because I know that like sports teams, there are like people who professional athletes who will refuse to stay in that place because they've had encounters that they can't, you know.

SPEAKER_00
39:24

Now, Fister Hotel, that yeah, incredible place, beautiful old world design, Victorian era. It is gorgeous in there. 1893. Yeah, even if you don't stay there and you're in Milwaukee, just pop in and walk through the lobby. I last time I was in Milwaukee, I just popped in and just like roamed the floors until somebody asked me what I was doing.

SPEAKER_04
39:44

Yeah, and I mean Mason Street Grill's a good spot in there. You can take the elevator up all the way up to blue, maybe the best view in the city up there.

SPEAKER_00
39:51

Yeah, it's it's uh a gorgeous old hotel, but it is also in fine accommodations, and that's why it is the choice um housing for the visiting teams for both the Brewers and the Bucks, and a lot of famous uh MLB players in particular. Now, baseball players are probably your most superstitious of all athletes, maybe golfers there too, but very routine-oriented, very superstitious, very, very matter-of-fact. So the fact that they do it is is kind of um it's on par for for them. But um Bryce Harper famously uh stayed there and was spooked out enough that I believe he moved rooms. Mookie bets, he absolutely refuses to stay there and seeks other accommodations while in Milwaukee. Now, if I could ask one favor of Charles Pfister, the proprietor who said to haunt there, is if the Dodgers end up coming in the playoffs to Milwaukee, please, Mr. Pfister, why don't you give Joey Otani a hell of a night? Especially if you see it. We might need that. Because we will need that. We will need that. Let's ruin their sleep, I agree.

SPEAKER_04
41:11

Did they have any very weird encounters?

SPEAKER_00
41:14

So um Bryce Harper said that clothing and furniture was even moved around his room. And I believe when Carlos Gomez, former brewer, when he stayed there as uh a twin when he was with Minnesota before he came to Milwaukee, he also had an encounter there where um I believe stuff was moved in his room. Um a lot of times electronics glitch unexpectedly, um, footsteps in rooms, just uh lights flickering, all kinds of crazy paranormal phenomenon in the old fister.

SPEAKER_04
41:51

Yeah, it's funny. We had an episode with the brewer's wives a few weeks ago, and one of one of them refused to stay here one night before her husband got traded to the brewers when they were in town.

SPEAKER_00
42:01

Yeah. Yeah. And I wouldn't deter anybody from staying there because it's world-class accommodations, beautiful old hotel. And I guess for me, if I had a ghost encounter, it'd just be a bonus.

SPEAKER_04
42:12

You got anything on our neighbor Shakers down the street?

SPEAKER_00
42:15

Yeah, Shakers is an old cigar bar. Um it's I believe it was a barrel stave mill before it was um before prohibition um you know, barreling. And it was apparently owned by Al Capone and his brother. You know, it's unverifiable whenever a high-profile gangster owns something, it's not gonna be in his name, right? But that is at least the legend is that Capone was uh one of the owners of it. Uh apparently Jeffrey Dahmer stayed there, and then uh there is supposed to be a ghost of a little girl, and her name's Elizabeth that haunts the bathrooms there. So Brie, next time you're there, stay out of the ladies' room. They even named a martini after her, the little Elizabeth, the Elizabeth Raspberry Martini. Have people reported any any encounters with her, or it's just rumored. Knocking on the stalls while they're using them. Um some people report to actually have seen the little girl. Um, I guess take that for what it's worth. And, you know, speaking of a little girl, you know, knocking on the doors, uh seeing the little girl, but that's the main one. Apparently in the basement they have also had um activity with a malicious spirit. Somebody not so happy. Kind of activity with the malicious spirit. You know, a lot of times in paranormal, I can't speak to spit shakers, that would be being pushed, being scratched, uh, even hearing disembodied voices that um yell at you and uh Smoky apparitions actually coming with the cigar haze while people are smoking. Um wispy uh figures appearing within that smoke.

SPEAKER_04
44:10

And being in this world, do you have a lot of friends or people who have had these ghost encounters and have actually been pushed or shoved before?

SPEAKER_00
44:19

You know, I've had people that have been scratched for sure. Some people that, yeah, they say that like they were knocked off balance by something or they've had cold rushes of stuff coming through them, uh, people seeing full body apparitions. Uh yeah. So just kind of not like you're getting in a fist fight with something you can't see that doesn't really happen in real life. I don't think you're gonna get knocked out or go like 10 rounds with Tyson on with a ghost, but you know, you might have uh something push you, knock you off balance, or um a lot of people with um you know more vestibular things with something rushing through them and losing balance. Yeah. Yeah. Josh, you have any more you'd like to know about?

SPEAKER_01
45:02

I just I think that the knocking on the stalls is one of the more frightening things that you know an entity could do. Especially that just feels like it just feels like such a private moment and like you're still vulnerable. Like that always freaks me out. I mean, you that's like uh you know, that's like a cliche in horror movies, right?

SPEAKER_00
45:20

You're in the stall and then you see feet and stuff, and oh no, that's yeah, I I seek out this stuff, but the one place I don't want to encounter it, like, is in my bedroom.

SPEAKER_04
45:30

Yeah, it's like just because you could never sleep in there again, or no, it's just like that's kind of my sanctuary.

SPEAKER_00
45:36

It's where I would that's where I want to stay. I didn't want anybody up in my business while you know, trying to get disease. And uh the Maxwell Mansion, Lake Geneva. I stayed there with my wife. Um there is Is it is it a bed and breakfast, a dead and breakfast?

SPEAKER_04
45:53

What is the Maxwell Mansion?

SPEAKER_00
45:55

Maxwell Mansion is uh it was a private residence by a doctor in Maxwell, and since then it has been turned into more of a a bed and breakfast without the the breakfast. So just a uh a fancier hotel in downtown Lake Geneva, and then they have the stables in the back. Now the stables weren't part of the original structure, it used to be like a roadside motel, but they converted it and kind of um incorporated it into the main, and that's where we stayed in the the stables. And uh my wife, me and my wife were there, and the first night went to sleep. Um my wife woke up in the the middle of the night, she's laying on her side, and she felt a hand touch her back, and it was so distinct that she thought it was me. She turned you you were you were in bed with her, I'm guessing. Yeah, so she was facing, so she would have been facing left, I would have been facing right, yep, and then she rolls over to see like what's up, and turns around and I'm sound asleep facing the other direction. Nope. Yeah. Wow. But she's had more paranormal encounters than me, and she doesn't go looking for the stuff. So are you pissed off about that? A little jealous. You gotta be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
47:12

What else has happened to her?

SPEAKER_00
47:14

Is that the worked in she worked in a hospital? She's a she's a nurse practitioner, but she was also uh a a nurse for a while, and she it was a hospital in Madison, and she was walking through an abandoned part of uh an old pediatric unit, and she had felt something on her ankle, and when she got home, she had scratches on her ankle from something inside that hospital. Dude, no. And she was she was just scratches. This was on night on a night shift. She when we first met, she worked a lot of overnight. So she came home and said, You will not believe this. And in that same unit, uh there was a an out a door that went outside, and there was a bell from the outside to that door. So, like if somebody was making a delivery, they'd ring the bell. So several times uh that bell would ring, they would open the door immediately, and nobody would be there. Stop it. Really? Yeah. Hospitals are wild, man. You know, I think just uh the emotion coming through there, the amount of deaths, uh just a primer for spirit activity. Especially in a pediatrics area. She she was, yeah. She's she is now a nurse practitioner and pediatrics.

SPEAKER_01
48:41

The words night shift and abandoned should never be in the same sense. I don't want to go anywhere on the night shift, anything abandoned.

SPEAKER_00
48:47

And abandoned may have been a strong word. It was just like uh the decommissioned, they weren't using the space anymore for pediatrics, but yes, still pediatrics. So some people just die and their spirit hangs around. I would think that's the the most popular opinion is that yeah, they don't you know, either an impression of who they were in this life remains there, or possibly like a lost soul, which is incredibly sad when if you think of children. Other people think that uh maybe more malevolent entities like to be around death and dying. And I'm not sure what to make of that, but that's uh that is a theory.

SPEAKER_04
49:35

Any anywhere else in Milwaukee that is haunted?

SPEAKER_00
49:39

Grant Park. We talked about that as a great place to do a fall hike. Seven Bridges Trail. Seven Bridges Trail. Gorgeous. It's supposed to be haunted. So the um the entry bridge, have you ever heard the entry bridge?

SPEAKER_04
49:53

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've I've I've been over there several times.

SPEAKER_00
49:55

Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature, which I just love because it kind of evokes some emotion. But apparently, each one of the bridges has their own story of some kind of entity or encounter. Unfortunately, some people have taken their lives there and may haunt that woods. I've heard uh scream, people reporting screams from the beach, and they go there thinking that they're gonna find somebody in distress, and there's absolutely no one.

SPEAKER_01
50:27

But you were there.

SPEAKER_04
50:28

Did you encounter anything? I have not. I've been I've been there several times. Grant and I had a had a beer on the beach, which is more pleasant than hearing someone screaming and walking over there and not seeing anything. So um wait for the sun to set and then go. Yeah, no, I I have not I haven't been there like at night or anything. I've just been there during during the day. Yeah, we've we've been over there. It's it's a great spot. Nice little golf course by there too, and a nice beach as well.

SPEAKER_01
50:57

Yeah. So Jeff, you've never had like this you know, mountaintop experience. Yeah. Do you feel like how do you feel like you'd really react? Because it's like one thing to like abstractly, you know, be involved in this stuff and like be curious, but like when something like that were to if something like that were to actually happen, how do you prepare yourself for that?

SPEAKER_00
51:17

You know, I've had enough encounters with this stuff that I guess I would have more, I'm I'm guessing I would have kind of a more kind of wonder, like being like, oh my God, like encountering this, and kind of maybe like not quite in your body experience, be like, is am I experiencing what I'm experiencing? Because and I've had I've had you know several encounters with you know things I couldn't explain. Like the closest thing I've had to like an apparition is like I've saw like a glimmering haze of something, and this was also in an abandoned hospital. It was a hospital, and then it was also a nursing home after that. And that was preceded by a loud metallic bang. And that was uh I was with a group of people and I thought somebody was putting putting it on, and uh there was nothing around us that would make that noise, like a like loud hollow sheet metal, like somebody kicked like a like a ductwork. Do you get terrified during any of this stuff? Or are you pretty chill? I'm pretty chill. Um, you know, there are there are times that you do get the hackles up on your neck, um, you get an uneasy feeling. But you kind of like that. You definitely go in seeking that for sure. Because you you are trying to encounter whatever is there, or else you wouldn't do this. But yeah, there are times where it's you you get a little anxious and you get a little disturbed.

SPEAKER_04
52:57

Are there like any low-hanging fruit encounters around Wisconsin where you have a higher probability of having that experience, and then some that you're kind of like, oh, this probably isn't gonna happen at all, but like let's chase it because it would be something.

SPEAKER_00
53:14

The the Sheboygan Asylum would definitely be up there just because you know it's publicly accessible. A lot of this stuff is either you know close to the public, private residence, or maybe it's not um open at night, but you know, places that have a specific, you know, aim to experience that stuff. Old Baraboo Inn in Baraboo, obviously, also has a lot of uh legends about um that was another place that was purportedly owned or at least visited by El Capone. Um a lot of murder in Mayhem, uh a lot of just kind of unbridled crime has happened in that area, and you know, back when we were the wild, wild west out here.

SPEAKER_01
54:02

So that's just downtown Baraboo. Downtown Baraboo, yeah. There's some circus law around Baraboo, too, right? Only a couple bunches.

SPEAKER_04
54:08

Yeah, it's a cute little downtown.

SPEAKER_00
54:10

Yeah, they they've done a lot. Um, they've I believe the Wisconsin Historical Society bought the theater, the Al Wrinkling Theater. Um, there is a brewery that there now, they make their own beer. Um the uh interesting story there is when they were renovating the Al Wrangling mansion, which is now the brewery, um, they found uh a box hidden beneath the floorboards that had an old Bavarian beer recipe. So now that is one of their beers that is um that that they brew. I tried just randomly in this house. But it it was yeah, the wringlings and apparently somebody left uh their beer recipe there. That's cool. I'm not sure. I can't remember exactly who they attributed to that, but it was a family beer recipe for the ringlings. And uh have you been there? I have not. Okay, but I tried the beer, it was very the old world bavarian taste. Yeah, not not really my cup of tea for beer, but you know, to some people that might be kind of kind of a stale schlitzer papst tape flavor.

SPEAKER_04
55:16

Do you have like a favorite uh true story that happened in Wisconsin?

SPEAKER_00
55:22

So I don't know how true it is, but my favorite story from Wisconsin is 1961, Eagle River. Now you've been up to Eagle River, uh resort community, but if you get off the beaten path, off of the main lakes, it's very rural, it's very like cabinet, resorty. Um 1961, there was a guy, he was a plumber and a chicken farmer, and he lived out in the country. His name was Joe Simonton. Real person, real person, okay. Uh you can actually see videos of this gentleman talking about his encounter. But what his encounter was, is uh it's about midday on an April day, he's outside, and a circular craft that he described as being brighter than chrome came down and landed, but not quite, just hovered on his property. Out pops a latch or a hatch, and an occupant steps out, and he's holding a jug that looks like water. And uh he's kind of waving in at Joe. Joe walks over and thinks, okay, this guy wants some water. He's not really sure what to think about this at the moment. So he retrieves the jug, fills it up, returns it to the occupant. And while he is making this exchange, Joe Simonton being a plumber, he's a mechanical guy. He looks inside the craft and he sees another occupant at what looks like a flat top grill. And he's making what looks like pancakes. And he says something to the effect of what you make in there. So the other occupant takes these off of the griddle and hands them to Joe Simonton. And uh they look like almost like coasters, they're very thin, um, but almost pancake-like. And people have said these are pancakes from outer space, and that's Joe Simonton's experience. And he actually kept the cakes, he actually tried a bite out of one, and this was back in the 1960s. So there was a lot of kind of um homebrew uh uh UFO, there's a lot of UFO settings around the Cold War um UFO societies, and somebody retrieved one of those cakes, sent it off to be tested. It seemed to be just like a regular buckwheat pancake, but uh its origins are unknown. Uh as far as Joe Simon, if you watch the the newsreel clippings of Joe Siminton, it sounds like he is forthright. He's a very soft-spoken guy, very metered, very logical. And whatever he experienced that day, I believe he experienced it. I don't know what to make of it, but it's uh one of my favorite stories from Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_04
58:20

I'm an you know about this.

SPEAKER_01
58:22

I don't know, but I'm thinking that that's either a great beer name or a great band name, Pancakes from Outer Space.

SPEAKER_00
58:27

That's that that definitely has to make it into your cryptid.

SPEAKER_04
58:30

That's a good one. So I'm I'm envisioning like a flying saucer.

SPEAKER_00
58:34

That's how he described it, almost like yeah.

SPEAKER_04
58:36

He said Did he say how big the inhabitants were? Was it tiny? Was it?

SPEAKER_00
58:41

I'm glad you asked that because he said that they were they were small men with a swarthy complexion. What is swarthy would be like a dark, he he called he referred to them as Italian-looking men. So like uh Mediterranean-looking guys, but they were they were smaller than him. If you look up Joe Simonton, he's kind of like a big burly dude that you'd see like up north Wisconsin, right? Uh real round face, he was probably mid-50s at the time, balding, heavier set guy. And these guys were a lot smaller. They were wearing jumpsuits and hats, and he he referred to them as Italian looking.

SPEAKER_01
59:23

That's pretty bold of him to walk up to these. I mean, that's that takes curves.

SPEAKER_00
59:27

The guy waved the waved the jug, and you know, it's just a Midwest courtesy. You know, would Midwest night somebody needs something, you're gonna get it for them, right? They didn't look like aliens. They didn't look like little green. And this was before the time of like the little green men trope.

SPEAKER_04
59:44

Are you thinking they were like if he's a big guy, are you thinking they were like five, five, five, or are they like two feet tall? Do you think that's a few more?

SPEAKER_00
59:51

I would say closer to because he didn't say like they looked otherworldly, he just said they were small, yeah Italian-looking guys. So I I would think probably like you know, like low fives.

SPEAKER_04
1:00:02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00
1:00:04

And you know, I think if he experienced something, it may have been like some kind of government test craft, and these guys needed the water for something, but you know, they've since then we haven't released any craft that looks like that.

unknown
1:00:19

That we know of.

SPEAKER_00
1:00:21

Well, I mean, to the public, right? So that's probably my favorite story of this nature from Wisconsin. You get you got anything else you want to tell us before we let you go here? No, I think we covered a lot of ground. Um I would say to anybody who's interested in this stuff, Milwaukee has three ghost walks uh done by American Ghost Walks. Uh let's see, they got Third Ward, Brady Street, and City Hall or the shadows of City Hall. Uh hop on one of those, see what you have to learn. We got the Milwaukee Paracon coming up, I believe that's October 18th. That's at Kachansky's this year. So a new venue, smaller, more intimate venue. Kachansky's in Stallus, I think. I think so, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
1:01:08

I think that's wrapped by the dog shelter.

SPEAKER_00
1:01:10

Um volunteer over there anyway. My are you gonna be there? I'll be there speaking.

SPEAKER_05
1:01:14

Nice.

SPEAKER_00
1:01:15

Not sure what I'm gonna talk about, but it's it's on the agenda. Yeah, it's always always a great event. It's free to the public. So come out, you know, if you're interested in this stuff. Lots of people to talk to about this, a lot of literature, a lot of local lore that you can learn.

SPEAKER_04
1:01:29

What are what are you uh what are you chasing this fall?

SPEAKER_00
1:01:32

Or are you going anywhere? Not specifically. I just wrapped up my uh ghost paddles and my ghost pontoon and you know, just kind of gonna hit a couple. Um, there is a another event in Green Bay called Potography. I know you like the the dogs, um, that goes to uh one of the local shelters there, all the proceeds. So I'll I'll be donating my time as far as um giving a presentation and you know talking about um spooky stuff. So it's a paranormal conference slash benefit. Very photographs, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
1:02:08

Cool. Josh, when when does the gnomes of Fiftfield drop?

SPEAKER_01
1:02:13

That one is releasing uh in November. So that'll be the fourth, the fourth beer completing the set for those who have been collecting them. We'll be releasing in November, and then we'll have four more uh next year. So that's a nice label.

SPEAKER_04
1:02:28

You guys won all IPAs this year, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01
1:02:30

Yeah, I mean these these 16 ounces are usually our like our foray into um you know kind of like that premium IPA yeah um kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00
1:02:40

It's uh can you give us a teaser on the on maybe maybe a reveal or a teaser for the next cryptid in the season?

SPEAKER_01
1:02:49

Well we did them all already, actually. So next year we're doing the Wendigo of the Northigo, okay. Uh Peppy and Lake Monster. Okay. And um Running the Back Code Dag. Yep, running back code egg, and then the man bad of the cross.

SPEAKER_00
1:03:01

Oh, you are doing the man bad.

SPEAKER_01
1:03:02

Yep. Awesome. Yep, yep. So that's uh leak, we're leaking that now. Because of the first people in here. All right.

SPEAKER_04
1:03:10

That was a fun one. Hope to have you back sometime. Alright everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Milwaukee Uncut before signing off to someone thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. Three sheeps, the beer Wisconsin drinks, drink Wisconsin with the beverage company in ex wealth management in Nicolella.

SPEAKER_01
0:00

Our first stop was Culver's. Unfortunately it was a Friday night so it was busy so I had to wait for an hour. And then we went to the high school football game.

SPEAKER_04
0:06

Clean bathrooms.

SPEAKER_01
0:07

The bathrooms are immaculate. That was nice. Normally you go into like a gas station bathroom and you just kind of like brace yourself.

SPEAKER_04
0:13

The food isn't that great.

SPEAKER_01
0:16

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_00
0:17

Uh oh. You're gonna anger people.

SPEAKER_04
0:19

Bumpy roads.

SPEAKER_00
0:21

Are they bumpy outside of Milwaukee or just in Milwaukee?

SPEAKER_01
0:24

I think it was kind of all over the show a little bit.

SPEAKER_04
0:26

Just through the wo Wisconsin state.

SPEAKER_01
0:28

But Milwaukee's probably worse. And I kind of have to be like, oh, coming up.

SPEAKER_00
0:32

It went through your mind in the Wisconsin Delps.

SPEAKER_04
0:36

We were kind of like, what is this place?

SPEAKER_01
0:38

Kind of like half town, half amusement park, half fair ground. Like every every store looked like it was, I think there was a store that just did like cheese croquet.

SPEAKER_00
0:50

Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee on Cut. Um, so Bree and I decided to make the very wise decision to go up to Minneapolis for the Vikings Packers game a couple weeks ago, which um, you know, it was a it was a disaster. Not only did the Packers lose, but we went up there to get content, and then um, you know, we go into the stadium, which by the way, very nice stadium. Need to give it to the Vikings. Doesn't have the tailgate atmosphere Lambeau does, but night, nice stadium. So we uh, you know, we get it get in and uh sit down, and then Cody, our editor, texts us about midway through the second quarter, and we, you know, we want to get those clips out as quick as possible while the motions are high during the game and uh informed us that the mics were not working well on about 60 to 70 percent of what we got. Um, so not only did that happen, then then we all know what happened in the game. I don't need to rehash any of that. Big win against the Jets last week, and hopefully we take care of business against the Falcons. But something good did happen. We we got to meet uh two Packer fans from New Zealand that were in town, Katie and Grayson, and then we found out they were coming to Milwaukee a couple days later, the Tuesday after the game. So we met up with them, took them around a little bit, and then had them on the podcast to talk all about their experience. They went to Green Bay before Minneapolis, then went to Milwaukee. They were in New York before that. They're kind of going all around, all around the country for seven weeks. So they were great to hang out with. Got to have them in here. It's a fun episode, and it was awesome. Spending time with those two. And before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We'll kick it off with Annex Wealth Management. The fall is a great time to get your life together, and that means taking a hard look at your finances too and finishing the year strong. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around the Milwaukee area that helps you with everything from retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. That is Annex Know the Difference, AnnexWealth.com. Next, we got Nikolay Law, the Midwest Law firm injured. Get Nikolay and Russell and the team will take great care of you, including, including, but not limited to if you get injured on any of the quote bumpy roads that we have around Milwaukee and Wisconsin. That was that was a quote from uh from Katie on this episode. They're not used to to bumpy roads in New Zealand, apparently. If you end up in an accident, give Nicolay a call. And I mean, if you're looking for a nice canned old fashioned this fall, great time of year for an old-fashioned or 10, like our friend Nate Moody, drink Wisconsin Obliv Beverage Company, best vodka, brandy, and canned cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state. And in the corner bar and right field over at Ampham, perfect for hopefully a deep brewers playoff run that is Drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company. All right, let's dive in with our New Zealand friends, Grayson and Katie.

SPEAKER_04
3:58

Kyoda from New Zealand.

SPEAKER_00
4:01

Randomly ran into you guys. I think I I think I approached you on the street in Minneapolis. Um we don't need to rehash what happened that afternoon, but it was an honor meeting you two. You you were here. Um you've you've been in in the States for a little while. You were in Green Bay, Minneapolis, now now Milwaukee for over 24 hours. And um, yeah, I we've never had I I have personally never met anyone from New Zealand, and I don't know if we ever had any foreigners on the show. Um who have just been passing through town? Oh no, yeah, I don't think so. So well uh welcome. Yeah, I mean, first time for everything. Thank you. It's been fun. It's nice seeing you guys this morning popping by, and um yeah. We were just at Sobelman's in Great Lakes Distillery.

SPEAKER_01
4:52

Yep. It was a guy it was a great little experience. Uh thanks for taking us along.

SPEAKER_00
4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
4:57

I had my first Bloody Mary.

SPEAKER_00
4:59

What'd you what'd you think? Had you heard of Bloody Marys before coming over here?

SPEAKER_04
5:03

I I'd heard of them, but I've never had one. And I liked it.

SPEAKER_00
5:08

Did you think there would be a cheeseburger coming out of it?

SPEAKER_04
5:10

I didn't expect that.

SPEAKER_00
5:13

You didn't like it as much.

SPEAKER_01
5:15

No, I mean, I used to work in a bar and I've made them before and I've tried them. Uh to be fair, this one was a little bit nicer than this. I I don't really like it, but the kind of display of all the food sitting on top was pretty good, but not for me.

SPEAKER_00
5:28

We didn't get the one with the entire chicken in it. We just got the one with the cheeseburger, some celery, some shrimp, sausage, cheese. Yeah, it was like a whole meal over there at Silverman. So that was uh I think that was the lowest end one you could get to, or maybe one one above from there. Um how's the states been so far?

SPEAKER_01
5:49

Yeah, no, it's been good. It's been good. Um obviously our first couple days were in New York and that was chaotic. And then obviously we've traveled up to we traveled up to obviously Wisconsin. And uh we originally planned to go to a game at Lambo, but then the schedule came out, and then we had to kind of shift our plans, and that's when we met you guys in Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04
6:11

Um we stopped in Green Bay. We did stop in Green Bay, and we did the Lambeau Stadium tour.

SPEAKER_01
6:17

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
6:18

What was it like seeing a Lambeau? Okay, and um Grayson, you're you're a big Packer fan. Yes, very big. Yeah, and that's that's why you guys came to Wisconsin in the first place?

SPEAKER_01
6:29

Pretty much, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
6:30

Why are you a Packer fan?

SPEAKER_01
6:32

Uh I started watching football with my friends probably 10 or so years ago, and it was during the Rodgers era. Um, Aaron Jones is playing, and I just love the team, and I kind of stuck with it. So um you also don't have any outside influence when you're in New Zealand because we don't have football there at all. So you kind of just gravitate towards the team and you stick with it.

SPEAKER_00
6:53

How do you even find it or watch the games there? Um you said 17 hours ahead of the game.

SPEAKER_01
7:00

Yeah, yeah. So originally you couldn't really you'd have to like find a legal stream and watch it or something like that. Um, but now Disney Plus has everything available for like ESPN. So we can just kind of watch Red Zone. But it is awkward because it is during work hours. So I kind of just hope I'm in the office and I pull it up on my second screen.

SPEAKER_00
7:18

But I'll on Monday morning.

SPEAKER_01
7:20

On a Monday morning, yeah. Uh sometimes if we have to wake up, I wake up at like five o'clock um before my normal wake-up time, and I'll just start watching the games in bed while Caitlin's asleep.

SPEAKER_00
7:30

Yeah, and you and your friends is is your you have a podcast. Is it specifically about football, or do you guys just talk about that?

SPEAKER_01
7:37

Uh it's specifically about football, yeah. The tackle American football. Tackle for loss podcast, yeah. Um we talk about American football, and that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_00
7:45

And for those listening, we're coming off our week one loss against against the Vikings in in your your your mates. Do you call them mates or friends or what do you want to do?

SPEAKER_05
7:54

Yeah, mates, friends, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
7:55

Bros. Burros.

SPEAKER_00
7:57

Oh, so you use you use some American term terms over there. Okay, great. Um, they rated the Packers second to last in the NFC. They did, yeah. Uh without my influence, I don't really have it. We should phone, we should see if we can get one of them on the line to explain them. That'd be funny. We should see if we can do that to have them explain themselves. Um yeah, um, so Green Bay, did you fly into Chicago and then drive up?

SPEAKER_01
8:20

Yeah, just rented a car, drove, drove up. Um, and I'll uh we drove up in the afternoon, and I kind of had a plan for a month because it was on a Friday night. Uh our first stop was Culver's after we got to ABB, so we dropped our bags off, went to Culver's. Unfortunately, it was a Friday night, so it was busy, so we had to wait for an hour. Um that's wild.

SPEAKER_00
8:40

I've never waited for more than like 30 minutes, but it was right it was right by a high school football game.

SPEAKER_01
8:45

Yeah, and then we went to the high school football game, uh Notre Dame Academy, and uh they absolutely smoked the other team 52 no. So tell the people about your first culverse experience.

SPEAKER_04
8:58

Well had you heard of had you had you guys had you guys heard of culvers before you came here? No.

SPEAKER_01
9:03

I had. Okay. I kind of she had New York all planned out, and then this portion of the trip was kind of me. She had the city of New York, and you had culvers in Notre Dame football. That's high school football. That's right, yeah. I had the big job.

SPEAKER_04
9:18

Yeah, well, I love the custard at Culver's. That was really good.

SPEAKER_00
9:24

What kind did you get?

SPEAKER_04
9:26

Just the vanilla. Vanilla, was it called concrete?

SPEAKER_01
9:30

Vanilla concrete, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
9:31

The concrete mixer. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
9:34

Cookie dough and caramel.

SPEAKER_01
9:35

Yeah, salted caramel.

SPEAKER_00
9:36

Oh, you didn't you didn't just get vanilla then? No. So you had a how had you heard of Culver's? Just on social media? Yeah, social media. Because you get you saw some of our clips on there, right? Yes, I did, yeah. The just the Packer ones, probably circulating.

SPEAKER_01
9:51

Well, no, I saw some of your other things uh pop pop up every now and again when I was obviously looking up for stuff to do when it was my portion of the plan trip.

SPEAKER_05
9:58

So nice.

SPEAKER_00
10:00

Now you're here. Yeah, yeah, now I'm here. Crazy. Um I got the concrete mixer. You you got a butterburger.

SPEAKER_01
10:08

Yeah, it was great. It's kind of similar at home to like a Wendy's, but like ten times better.

SPEAKER_00
10:15

You're comparing Culver's to Wendy's.

SPEAKER_01
10:17

Yeah, I said it was ten times better.

SPEAKER_00
10:19

Okay, okay. Okay, what would you prefer, Culver's or Solomon's?

SPEAKER_01
10:24

Oh no, Soberwoman's is good. I like Soberman's.

SPEAKER_00
10:28

You'd go Sobleman's or something.

SPEAKER_01
10:29

Yeah, I think the atmosphere was great. Okay.

SPEAKER_04
10:32

Because they had sport playing.

SPEAKER_01
10:33

Well, they'd have sport playing. But I think the conversation was they had the brewers game on it since the conversation was great. We didn't have any conversation at Culver's. We had to wait around for an hour. So we didn't really have the basic experience.

SPEAKER_00
10:43

Yeah, I mean, Soberman's had great service. They brought out a drink with a a meal placed into the drink and another burger. And yeah, good service down there in the valley. Um, so you do that. Any other highlights from Green Bear? Do you guys just go to Minnesota the next day?

SPEAKER_01
11:00

I think that's pretty much it. Yeah, we went to the high school game. Which was great. Uh, we don't really have high school football over there or the same atmosphere for any high school sports, so um that was good to experience. So I was very hyped for that. Uh, and then the next day, yeah, we just drove to Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00
11:18

What was that drive like? That's like a four or five hour drive. Four and a half, four and a half, right across rural Wisconsin. Yeah. Was it weird seeing all the farms and stuff where you kind of do you see a little bit of that in New Zealand?

SPEAKER_04
11:31

Uh cornfield after cornfield.

SPEAKER_00
11:34

And then Red Barns. You see some animals too?

SPEAKER_04
11:38

Some horses and cows.

SPEAKER_01
11:39

Some dead raccoons.

SPEAKER_00
11:41

Saw a dead raccoon.

SPEAKER_01
11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
11:43

You didn't run over a raccoon.

SPEAKER_01
11:45

No, no, that was good. It was dead before we got there. Um, and then yeah, I think that's when we also made our first stop at a quick trip.

unknown
11:53

Oh.

SPEAKER_01
11:53

Which was an experience.

SPEAKER_04
11:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00
11:55

Caitlin, what did you think of Quirk Trip?

SPEAKER_04
11:56

We like Quick Trip. We like it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
12:01

What'd you like about it? Did it was it mind-blowing or was it like, oh, this is just a nice place.

SPEAKER_01
12:06

What was kind of like a gas station in New Zealand or a petrol station, as we call it. Uh you just kind of go in, you pay for your gas, you maybe grab a snack and then you leave. Um, you don't really have a whole assortment of food on display. Um, and then you don't have a whole like coffee bar at the back and um clean bathrooms. The bathrooms are immaculate. That was nice. Yeah, shout out to Quick Trip. The bathrooms are amazing. Why? Normally you go into like a gas station bathroom and you just kind of like brace yourself. But no, that was nice.

SPEAKER_00
12:41

So the the pet the petrol station bathrooms are probably similar to most American BP bathrooms or other gas stations. Yeah, we have BP. You go you go in, you you you kind of lock it and just hope you can get out.

SPEAKER_01
12:55

Yeah, then find some uh hand sanitizer afterwards.

SPEAKER_00
12:58

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Did you get any food from Quick Trip or just admire the the selection?

SPEAKER_04
13:04

The food isn't that great.

SPEAKER_00
13:07

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. You're gonna anger people. Hopefully you'll be allowed back in the state, Caitlin. What what did you try and you did not like at Quick Trip?

SPEAKER_04
13:16

A crispy chicken burger. I think it was uh maybe a day old. Maybe that's why. Uh Quick Trip.

SPEAKER_01
13:25

Uh yeah, that was the first time. Uh, and then the second time we just had like a breakfast croissant.

SPEAKER_00
13:32

Is that a little better?

SPEAKER_01
13:32

That was hex better.

SPEAKER_04
13:33

Okay, so Quick Trip redeemed itself.

SPEAKER_00
13:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
13:37

So yeah, we carried on along the bumpy roads.

SPEAKER_00
13:42

Are they bumpy outside of Milwaukee or just in Milwaukee?

SPEAKER_01
13:46

I think it was kind of all over the show a little bit.

SPEAKER_04
13:48

Just through the Wisconsin state.

SPEAKER_01
13:50

But Milwaukee's probably worse.

SPEAKER_00
13:53

Did you run into any any they're called potholes.

SPEAKER_01
13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
13:57

Where there's a hole in the road, hence a pothole.

SPEAKER_01
14:00

We call them potholes too.

SPEAKER_00
14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
14:02

Yep. Uh there's there's a couple of those here and there. Uh and then Caitlin, when we're driving kind of along the road, sometimes she's on her phone while I'm driving. And I kind of have to be like, pothole coming up, just to warn her that she doesn't just get a fright when we just hit the hit the pothole in the road. Yeah, but when it's large enough.

SPEAKER_00
14:21

Oh man, you run into some big ones in rural Wisconsin. Yeah, a couple of them.

SPEAKER_04
14:26

And not when there's cars driving way faster than we are.

SPEAKER_00
14:30

Oh yeah, you made a comment about the speed limit when we were talking here.

SPEAKER_01
14:34

Yeah. Yeah. So like back home, the speed limit's kind of the speed limit. Yeah. Like by definition of the word speed limit. Whereas here we notice that if you're going the speed limit, you look a little bit like a dick because everyone kind of just goes speeding past you.

SPEAKER_00
14:50

Yeah, we got ten ten over is the speed limit. We know that now. Yeah. Alright, you're learning. Probably just don't do that. If you get pulled over back home, you just get a a ticket and keep going.

SPEAKER_01
15:01

Pretty much. Yeah. Well, you either get a warning depending on how fast you're going, or you do get a ticket.

SPEAKER_00
15:06

No, okay, so it's nothing too bad. No, nothing too bad. What'd you think of Minneapolis?

SPEAKER_03
15:12

We liked it. We liked the city.

SPEAKER_01
15:14

It was nice.

SPEAKER_03
15:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
15:15

Yeah. Were you all just there two nights?

SPEAKER_01
15:19

Uh yeah, it was two nights.

SPEAKER_00
15:21

Um was Saturday and Sunday, probably.

SPEAKER_01
15:24

Yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, after the game, we kind of had like half a day.

SPEAKER_04
15:29

Yeah. We went to the Mall of America.

SPEAKER_00
15:31

Oh, what'd you think? A Mall of America.

SPEAKER_04
15:34

There's a theme park inside.

SPEAKER_00
15:36

We did go on the American American American. Yeah, there is a theme park inside. We grew up an hour away from there.

SPEAKER_01
15:42

Uh we did go on a couple of theme park rides, which were kind of the mall? Yeah, we're a bit more extreme than we first anticipated, but um uh it was good. It was a good experience. The mall does seem like a little bit run down. Was anyone there or was it just uh not as not as busy as you'd expect it for the size of it, I think.

SPEAKER_00
16:03

Okay. Yeah. Any other highlights from Minneapolis?

SPEAKER_01
16:08

Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_00
16:13

What do you think of the game? Have you been to many major sporting events before?

SPEAKER_01
16:18

Just at home. Um yeah, nothing to the scale of like an NFL kind of production, I guess as they call it. Um that was insane.

SPEAKER_00
16:30

Um that stadium's massive. Yeah, like you watched. Those are those are you hadn't been there before, had you, Brie? Yeah, those are first time there. I think that was my first time ever going. It was my first time ever going to a Packer away game, too. Um the fans were really nice. At least they were to me.

SPEAKER_04
16:50

I was a little bit worried about helping. I was like, how are the Vikings fans gonna be?

SPEAKER_00
16:57

Because the Vikings fans I know around Milwaukee, like Shane Krangle, who wears Vikings overalls and paints his face, is so fucking annoying when the Vikings are doing well. At least he wasn't. I thought I thought a lot of Vikings fans would be like that. And um at least before the game, Bree and I had to leave at halftime because we had technical difficulties on the production we were doing. So um we didn't have a very good performance there, similar to the to the Packers in that sense, but we got to miss the meltdown. But so I can only speak to the the pre-game experience in the first half, but like yeah, I mean, people yelled skull at us and stuff, but in in a in a in a friendly jabbing way. And every everyone was nice. We talked to at the bars. I mean, ever mostly everyone talked to us, or they were polite. Yeah, I remember the first place we went, I think it was the crooked tap. Um, that was a good good brewery that we stopped at. Yeah, some guy like bumped me while ordering a beer and apologized, and he was a Vikings fan. I was like, they got some Midwest nice. Yeah, yeah. You're in Minneapolis. So um Minnesota nice. Yeah, shout out to the Vikings fans. I did not I did not expect that at all based on the Vikings fans I know in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_04
18:08

So and we we joined a really nice tailgate. Yeah, most of them were Vikings fans, and yeah, they were all really nice towards us as well.

SPEAKER_01
18:20

Yeah, because we weren't too sure we wanted to tailgate, we weren't too sure where to go the day before. So Caitlin actually just posted in this Facebook group, um, the Die Hard Packers fan group or whatever. And we got so many responses, and yeah, we had I think Jill read read Jill reached out to us and said come along. So after running into you guys at at one of the uh one of the bars, we ended up going there, and yeah, we did our first shot ski.

SPEAKER_04
18:48

Um it was a pickle shot.

SPEAKER_01
18:50

The pickle and vodka shot shot ski, and that was fucking Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00
18:54

At least at least at least give the New Zealanders something nice to drink.

SPEAKER_01
18:58

Yeah, it wasn't great. Like I don't I don't dislike pickles, but I did for about a day or so after that.

SPEAKER_00
19:03

We'll give you a better shot ski at Lambeau when you come when you come back. Yeah, that'd be nice. We can do that. Probably can't get too much worse than the uh the pickle vodka shot in Minneapolis. Um but yeah, that was uh that was a cool experience going there for the first time. And uh yeah, I I think Lambo, I'm looking forward to you seeing Lambeau at some point because it's such a special place, it's like in the middle of a neighborhood which is completely foreign. Like the thing about US Bank is um really nice stadium, but it's in the middle of downtown. And there it surprised me that there was only one bar. Yeah, what seemed like around the entire stadium because that place must just print money on game days, and you'd think it would get other traffic, you know, on the off days. Um you'd think there'd be more bars around, and then they had that concert going on, which was cool, but that um shuts down when the game starts. So uh yeah, even like the Pfizer, if you go to a Bucks game, kind of very close to where you guys are staying, like yeah, you can literally walk to like 30, 40 bars within a few blocks of there where you know I was kind of surprised it wasn't like that in Minneapolis. Um but then you came back, you've spent the last 24 hours in in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_04
20:18

Well, yeah. Where have you gone? We hit the road and came through the bumpy road and came through.

SPEAKER_01
20:23

We go we hit the bumpy road and we stopped in the Wisconsin Dells on the way to Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_00
20:27

Oh geez.

SPEAKER_01
20:28

Uh tell me about it.

SPEAKER_00
20:31

What went through your mind in the Wisconsin Dells?

SPEAKER_04
20:34

We were kind of like, what is this place?

SPEAKER_01
20:37

Yeah, because we just wanted a place to stop over on the way through, and Caitlin found a boat tour, but then we started driving into town, and it was kind of like half town, half amusement park, half like fair ground. Like every every store looked like there was I think there was a store that just did like cheese croquet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
21:00

Do they give you an actual cheese ball? And then you get to play croquet.

SPEAKER_01
21:04

I've never heard of cheese croquet. I can't say I have either until that point. You you you read it correctly? I I I read it a couple times just to be sure, yeah. Um but we uh then we just did the the boat tour with the rest of the old folks.

SPEAKER_00
21:19

That was the Dells boat tour.

SPEAKER_01
21:20

It was lovely, it was really nice. We went through uh the Upper Dells Tour and we went to the Witches Gulch, did the walkthrough there and to the Stand Rock. And Stand Rock, uh and I was just photographer for most of the time.

SPEAKER_04
21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
21:37

Oh, Witches Gulch is really pretty, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01
21:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
21:40

Yeah, I've never been there.

SPEAKER_01
21:41

It's kind of a weird, surreal place to kind of walk through, and it just doesn't seem like it should be there, but it is next to all the amusement parks and Noah's Ark and And yeah, the water parks and everything else, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03
21:54

Because he said that it's the water park capital of the world.

SPEAKER_00
22:00

Yeah, I believe so. I think Noah's Ark was the largest water park at one at one point. Yeah, there's a lot of them there. Got the Kalahari Mount Mount Olympus, right? Great Wolf Lodge. Great Wolf Lodge.

SPEAKER_01
22:15

Yeah. Can't say we're in the mood to do any water parks.

SPEAKER_00
22:18

Got all sorts of them. Have you been to you guys haven't been to a supper club here, have you? No. Probably not. Okay. We'll have to do that when you get back.

SPEAKER_03
22:27

Supper club.

SPEAKER_00
22:28

How'd you describe a supper club? Usually you kind of step back in time almost. Almost kind of like you're if it's a good one. You'll feel like you're in the 60s or 70s. Get nice old fashioned. We just had one of those over at Great Lakes, so at least you got one of those. Usually a fish fry. Yep. Some steaks. You usually see taxidermy on the wall. Like, you know, just deer heads on the wall staring at you. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good time. Oh shit, we forgot to get pull tabs, Bri. There's put there's pull tabs at those places as well. Um yeah, those are good spots. How's Milwaukee been?

SPEAKER_01
23:09

Milwaukee's been great. Yeah. Kind of uh it would have been good to see a brewer's game. Uh, but just the timing obviously was off.

SPEAKER_00
23:18

Yeah, I can't believe you guys came. No, the Packers were away and the brewers were away.

SPEAKER_01
23:22

What are the what are the chances? I think it was just poor time, poor planning on my part. I'll I'll take responsibility for that one. But um, yeah, that would have been the one thing extra I would have liked have liked to see. Um, but we did uh the lakefront brewery today. Got some uh fish curds, uh some cheese curds and some beer. Uh what else did we do? We saw the market.

SPEAKER_04
23:43

Yeah, walked along the road front.

SPEAKER_00
23:44

Well the public the public market.

SPEAKER_01
23:46

Yeah, went and had a look at that. Uh and then yeah, walked along the roadfront. It was lovely.

SPEAKER_00
23:53

What did you think of the lakefront curds?

SPEAKER_04
23:56

I really like them.

SPEAKER_01
23:57

Yeah, they're the best ones we've had.

SPEAKER_04
23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
23:58

Yeah. By far. But did you get them from Culver's? Yeah, we did. Okay.

SPEAKER_04
24:04

The Lakefront ones top the MS.

SPEAKER_00
24:05

You probably didn't have to wait an hour. No, it was back there. It was about instant. It was about a minute and a half. Yeah. Good service over at over at Lakefront. Um, yeah. Any and at public market, you go anywhere in there and just walk around. Just had a walk around. Yeah. And then did you walk around the third ward area?

SPEAKER_01
24:23

Uh unfortunately not.

SPEAKER_00
24:27

Came over here, went to Soberman's, went to Great Lakes. Or you went you went to the lake.

SPEAKER_01
24:32

Yeah, well, yeah, we stopped off at the lake before coming here.

SPEAKER_05
24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
24:36

Uh I think we just pulled up by the uh the art museum and just kind of had a had a brief walk along the waterfront. It was nice. It's kind of weird seeing a lake and then not being able to see the other side. Just seeing the horizon, that's about it.

SPEAKER_00
24:48

It's like an ocean, right?

SPEAKER_01
24:49

Kind of, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
24:51

How would you compare the uh Milwaukee Art Museum to the Sydney Opera House?

SPEAKER_04
24:56

You haven't seen the Opera House.

SPEAKER_00
24:58

I haven't actually seen the Opera House then. Have you seen the Opera House yet?

SPEAKER_04
25:01

Oh yeah. Uh I would go to Sydney to see yeah, the Opera House. If you want to go to Australia, go to Sydney.

SPEAKER_00
25:10

Quick Trip makes bad chicken sandwiches, and you take the Opera House over the art museum. And there's bumpy roads.

SPEAKER_01
25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
25:20

I love the honesty. Yeah. I love the cheese curds, though. She doesn't like the cheese curds, though. Yeah. And you'll be hitting Mars Cheese Castle on the way tomorrow. Yeah. Um, do we want to try and get one of your guys on the line who just trashed the Packers? I can try.

SPEAKER_01
25:35

Yeah. Yeah. There's no he answers. You hello, boss man. How's it going? I'm good. Uh you're currently on a podcast show. What's his name? Oh, awesome. Sweet. Sweet. What's his name? His name's Cree. Crete? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
25:56

Crete, welcome to Milwaukee Uncut. Oh, Milwaukee, I hate that player. I heard you hate the I heard you gave the Packers a rough ranking this week.

SPEAKER_02
26:09

Yeah, look, I mean, when you have the loss that they had, it's hard to put them much higher than where we put them.

SPEAKER_00
26:15

It was the first game of the year. You put them second to last in the NFC.

SPEAKER_02
26:21

Yeah, I yeah, I did. I just did the perfectly hype that you guys are walking upon.

SPEAKER_04
26:30

How come you didn't have Grace and say?

SPEAKER_01
26:35

Might have why didn't you have any uh you didn't contact me for any input?

unknown
26:41

No, no, you're busy, man.

SPEAKER_02
26:42

I don't want to disrupt you. You're having a lovely time over there. I just I thought I'd better let you get on with it and you know we make the hard decisions over here.

SPEAKER_00
26:49

Is he going to Vegas? Yeah, he is going to be. Are you excited to come to America?

SPEAKER_02
26:56

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I can't wait. I'm I'm absolutely stoked for it. It's gonna be a great time.

SPEAKER_00
27:00

W what are you most looking forward to?

SPEAKER_02
27:04

Um most looking for football. I mean, we're going to bingo the Miami play, um going to Universal Studios. Um, just having a good time. I'm excited for the whole thing, really. There's not one thing that I'm kind of I'm looking forward to most. It's just gonna be a great time no matter what.

SPEAKER_00
27:24

What's your favorite NFL team?

SPEAKER_02
27:28

My team? I'm a I'm a Seahawks man.

SPEAKER_00
27:30

Oh gross. Why? Yeah, why you know you know Russell Wilson went to went to University of Wisconsin. You're a Russell Wilson guy?

unknown
27:40

He did too.

SPEAKER_02
27:41

Yeah, I was a big I'm a big Russell Wilson guy. Yeah, what he did for the team. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00
27:47

Okay, we'll we'll give you that. Yeah, you guys beat us in some NFC championship games.

SPEAKER_02
27:55

Absolutely. Uh yeah, never forget that one.

SPEAKER_00
27:58

Brian Bostick, I think, fumbled the onside kick.

unknown
28:04

It's funny if you still remember that.

SPEAKER_00
28:06

Oh, I I can't get it out of my memory, and whether how long ago did that happen? A long time ago. Green, unfortunately, I can't talk much shit to you after what the Packers did against the Bears last year and in week one in that year Seahawks fan. This this call's not going too good for me.

unknown
28:22

Yeah, you chose the wrong guy.

SPEAKER_00
28:24

That's true. We chose the wrong guy. Well, you uh yeah, you you have a what time is it down there or over there?

SPEAKER_05
28:34

Uh it's one 1 p.m.

SPEAKER_00
28:35

just about I'm sorry. 1 p.m. All right. Well, you you have a wonderful rest of the day.

unknown
28:40

Well, awesome. I appreciate you. I appreciate that call. Uh uh, thanks for the time, fellas.

SPEAKER_03
28:45

Shout out Tackle for Loss.

SPEAKER_00
28:46

Yeah, thanks, thanks to Tackle for Loss, boys.

unknown
28:48

Yeah, shout out Tackle for Loss. All right, we'll see you later.

SPEAKER_00
28:51

Thanks, Gray. Is that the name of your show? Yeah. What is it? Tackle for Loss. Tackle for Loss.

SPEAKER_01
28:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
28:58

Love it. If you want to get some American football analysis from a New Zealand perspective, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
29:05

Uh yeah, we give some football analysis. Our our to be honest, it's a bit some unhinged thoughts and then some random betting tips. That's that's what we kind of do.

SPEAKER_00
29:15

What would you say your guys' favorite place or moment of the trip has been so far each year?

SPEAKER_04
29:21

Uh mine would be in New York. Um, at Top of the Rock. We went out for sunset, and that was pretty nice.

SPEAKER_01
29:30

Top of the Rock.

SPEAKER_04
29:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
29:32

What is that? The Top of the Rockefeller Center. Oh, yes. Very cool.

SPEAKER_04
29:37

Beautiful views over the city.

SPEAKER_01
29:39

Uh, mine would be doing the stadium tour at Lambeau and then doing the walk out through the home team tunnel. That was that well, that that got the heart feeling things. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
29:51

It was cool. Was your heart feeling things during the Lambeau tour?

SPEAKER_04
29:55

Just because I think Paul Grayson, I was emotional for him.

SPEAKER_00
30:00

All right.

SPEAKER_01
30:00

Well, it was uh anything else you guys want to say? No, I've I've enjoyed being here running into you guys, obviously. It's been a great time. Thanks for showing us.

SPEAKER_00
30:09

Yeah, it was so good meeting you all and showing you around a little bit this evening and bumping into you in Minneapolis. And uh, yeah, we wish you the best on your adventure to uh Disney World, Hot Springs, Arkansas, Vegas, Nashville, Chicago, and Vegas. Yeah. These guys are here for seven weeks living.

SPEAKER_04
30:30

Yeah, and we look forward to seeing you in New Zealand, hopefully.

SPEAKER_00
30:34

Yeah, we would love to come someday. Yeah. We would love to. Well, you might see Gary and Sue Barnett there. When are they going? Next next October. Next October, I think. All right. Well, thank you, guys. All right, thank you. Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to Milwaukee Uncut. Just want to give our partners a shout out before signing off Annex Wealth Management, Nicola, and Drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company.

SPEAKER_05
0:00

So he shows up the email and he's like, guys, we just got invited for Battle of the Bands and like I think we could win this.

SPEAKER_01
0:06

The atmosphere was amazing. So many people showed up for it. It's a very special place to be being there with all the other bands and getting to connect with, you know, everyone who had qualified for the finals and then getting to hear them all perform was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_04
0:21

That is like I know that's a huge goal and a very lofty goal, but also gives us a lot of stuff to aim for and let's align like those actions to that goal.

SPEAKER_05
0:29

To know that you were able to create something that connected with someone and made them hopefully feel less alone. Like I don't think it's about changing the world, I think it's about changing someone's world.

SPEAKER_02
0:40

Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. We've got a cool episode today with it with a young band that is on the rise. Secret menu. They recently won Three Sheeps, Les Paul Three Sheeps, Battle of the Bands, which drew contestants from all across the state. They want a trip out to LA to record at Les Paul Studio, and they've been going viral on social media lately. So it was really good to have them in here. And our friend Josh Oschenbach, who runs marketing at Three Sheeps and spearheaded the Battle of the Bands, co-hosted this one with me. It was great having him in as well. We got to learn about the group, talk about what it's like being a band working hard, trying to make it while balancing their normal day jobs, their growth trajectory, most memorable fan interactions, ultimate goals, and we got their favorite venues to play across the state of Wisconsin and some of their favorite up-and-coming artists in the area as well. Before diving in, I want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We'll kick it off with Annex Wealth Management. The fall is a great time to get your life together, and that entails looking at your finances. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything from retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. Annex, know the difference. Next, we've got Nicolay Law, the Midwest Law Firm. Injured. Get Nicolay and Russell and the team will take great care of you. Also, I personally want to thank Russell. We just posted a uh how your wife greets you when you get home from golf video on social media where I gave him a call. Um, not sure I liked his verdict, but the main message at the end was if if you're actually injured and want to go after an insurance company, not your spouse, give Nicola a call. So any legitimate injuries, call Nicolay and make sure to check that video out. And if you're looking for a nice canned old fashioned this fall, drink Wisconsin Ablee Beverage Company, Best Vodka, brandy and canned cocktails in the game. Available at bars and liquor stores across the state and in the corner bar in right field over at Ampham. Perfect for hopefully a nice long Brewers playoff run coming up. And last but not least, big shout out to our friends at Three Sheeps, including our co-host on this episode. Fall is a great time to have a beer or two or ten, like our friend Nate Moody. Three Sheeps, the beer Wisconsin drinks, great people and beer over there. All right, let's dive in with Secret Menu, the band. Here, who took the title for Three Sheeps Battle of the Bands? They won three grand in cash and a recording session at the Les Paul Studios, all the way out in LA. You guys went very viral on social media this week. Couple million views on a couple different reels, I believe. We got 1.6 on one of them. If you add them up a couple of things, we'll give it to you. They're just blowing up. We got them before they've really blown up on the on the show today. You got a show coming up at the beloved cactus club October 5th.

SPEAKER_04
3:58

Yeah, yeah. We're opening up for uh pertinence. Um he's on tour, so that's gonna be really exciting.

SPEAKER_02
4:03

Nice. Yeah, very cool. Um names we got we got Josh Raphael goes by Raf. Yes, correct. Andrew, who is the lead guitar vocals right there. Got Matt, keys guitar vocals, and Evan, right across from me in the shorts over there, and then who plays drums in the ratings, who who also plays drums and does vocals. Looks like all you guys do vocals. Um vocals. I got to see you in in Milwaukee, those amazing performance. A lot of talent at that show. And speaking of co-hosting the episode, we got Josh Ashenbach from Three Sheeps, head of marketing over there, who really spearheaded Battle of the Bands. Um just just an all-time performance MCing in best I have seen.

SPEAKER_06
4:55

Um we we should get into that. Yes, I've been thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02
4:58

Yeah, so I, you know, Josh was like, hey, do you want to throw some Milwaukee on cut gear? And we we were there, so I was all about it. And um I went up on stage and I I saw him take a swig of a flask while walking up the stairs, and then I just I just knew I just knew it was game on. I think you made an announcement, and it was either you flung a hat or a t-shirt to the man in row five who was giving who was giving you zero respect. I think he was on his phone or something. Josh just pegged him.

SPEAKER_06
5:26

Were you guys out there when we were on stage or were you still in the green room?

SPEAKER_04
5:30

Uh I I was on on stage when you were throwing, but I missed you.

SPEAKER_02
5:36

Like was rudely on his phone during the t-shirt.

SPEAKER_06
5:39

I just got on the stage and like my I my mind went blank. Like I had like all that like adrenaline and like excitement of how well it's been going, and I just got up there and I just my brain shut up.

SPEAKER_02
5:48

Out of the crowd, could you remember if it was a t-shirt or a hat united?

SPEAKER_06
5:50

So it was actually two different there were two different situations that objects because the first one was a hat and I flung it blindly and it nailed this guy right in the face. And then later when we were throwing out t-shirts, you know, I was getting bored of just throwing them, you know, normally, so I like whipped one behind my back and it hit the first girl in the very first row, just like nailing her. And then I felt so bad that I gently threw another t-shirt to her.

SPEAKER_02
6:17

And then I remember to cap it off. You threw it through the box. Yeah, they were asking more. I didn't have any more.

SPEAKER_06
6:24

They were asking next time you give the crowd thing.

SPEAKER_02
6:27

No, I was I was just very impressed with your MC performance overall. It was iconic. Um, but anyway, can you all tell us about how the band came together? How long have you guys been going at it for?

SPEAKER_05
6:38

Raph, you want to take that one since you kind of uh assembled the events, yeah. So assembled the events.

SPEAKER_04
6:44

Assembled the events, nice, I like it. So yeah, we we came together late 2022, and we basically put out our first song in 2023. Um that was 18. And so how we all came together was was you know, just a series of random events as it goes. Um, I met Matt first. We were um we went to college together and we met, we were in a performance group called Wisconsin Singers. He was in the band, and I was um a singer, and so we kind of connected there, didn't make music together initially for a while, and then Matt was like, I got this program called Ableton, you know, maybe we can make some music. And so we we kind of started making music together, and then fast forward many years, uh, I met Evan. Um he was in your drumming in a cover band, yeah. And I came to this gig and I knew that you kind of had a studio, you know, you was doing some work, and I was like, let's let's work together, let's see what's happening. And I'm always interested in learning from from people, and Evan knew a lot about the mixing world, so that was really cool. And then fast forward a little bit longer, you know, I'm living in Madison and I'm at an open mic, and Andrew and I crossed paths, and I mean he was absolutely shredding and and singing on the guitar, and we kind of hit it off. And uh I somehow convinced him to join uh this musical project that at the time was called Raffin Company, but then later we all made something together, and that was the the Bourne of Secret Menu.

SPEAKER_02
8:08

Very cool. And how's the evolution been the last last few years?

SPEAKER_01
8:15

I think it's uh yeah, for me, I feel like it's just been a whirlwind. It seems crazy that it's been even that long up to this point. Uh we've just been you know putting as much time into it as we possibly can. We're meeting twice a week, basically a second job for all of us. And uh I think the I don't know, for me personally, like the experience we experiences we've been able to have through the last uh like f almost four years have been pretty incredible. You know, starting our our first shows where we're playing all this brand new music that we've been working on for months and nobody's heard to now where we get to perform and people are singing the words back to us is just an insane experience. So it's it's been a blast, but I think we've just been, you know, just trying to make you know make music and and have fun together, and it's just gotten us kind of to this point and to a spot where we got to be in a battle of advance, so it's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_02
9:15

Yeah, and speaking of Josh, do you want to uh tell people a little bit about that? How many first year you kind of guys launched this out of nowhere? Yeah. A lot of people from Wisconsin submitted entries and yeah.

SPEAKER_06
9:27

Yeah, so I mean we have this great uh beer brand called Wisconsinitis, and it's kind of a stupid name that just means you know, we believe that like Wisconsin has this ability to like get under your skin. It's almost like this disease, this like Wisconsin loving disease that we all have. And so part of that beer brand story is like we just want to highlight um you know different things around Wisconsin that are awesome, and you know, uh certain people or certain you know events like like legends, you know, like Les Paul is just a legend, so why wouldn't we want him, you know, representative um on our beer can? And so Yeah, so we reached out literally. I just like blind called, like cold called the Les Paul Foundation. I was like, hey, you have no idea who I am, but like we want to put Les Paul on our beer can. Um and they were like super into it, and they actually said that they heard of three sheeps, even though they're located in in New York because of their Wisconsin roots, you know, they still have representatives here in Wisconsin, and so they knew who three sheeps, you know, they knew who we were, and they thought it was a great idea. And so kind of fast forward, how do you put that in how how do you, you know, give that life so it's not just like a name or a a logo on a can. How do you give that life? Is we thought, well, you know, let's have a battle of bands. Like what better way to honor Les Paul than to actually make music and you know do something new? And so that's how the Battle of Bands came to life. We just wanted to put it into practice, put you know, Les Paul's legacy into practice by you know giving uh these bands a platform.

SPEAKER_02
10:57

And you had different different sites around the state. You all were at Vivarium in Milwaukee. Do you do you remember uh seeing these guys entry for the first time? And did you have any any initial thoughts?

SPEAKER_06
11:07

Yeah, I mean we had we had over 60, I think it was like 65 bands who entered, and we only had you know 18 spots between the three locations, so Madison, Appleton, and Milwaukee. Um and so we got all these entries, and we had you know we had different teams that were kind of working with each venue to pick, you know, the ones that were gonna be at that venue at that battle. Um and secret menu was at the top of my list and at the top of many people's lists, and so that's obviously why uh why they were there.

SPEAKER_02
11:35

How how confident were you all getting selected and then and then going into the actual show?

SPEAKER_05
11:42

I mean, I remember when you brought us because he runs the email account. So he shows up the email and he's like, guys, we just got invited for battle the band, and like I think we could win this. And we talked about it, and you know, um I think we're pretty these group of guys are pretty good at like uh locking in when we really need to lock in. And of course nothing's set in stone, but you know, I think we came through, we did we did our practicing, we did our vocal warmups, annoyed my neighbors. And uh it felt it felt good, man. It just felt like I don't know, every s as Matt said, every step of the way, we're constantly surprising ourselves, um and it just felt right.

SPEAKER_06
12:22

My first experience with you guys actually was in your submission, you um sent the link to your the the video that you guys did on the frozen lake or frozen. What was yeah, can you talk about that? I mean that I was like when I saw that, I was like, okay, this is an awesome video. It sounds great. Like this is a complete package. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
12:40

I mean that that was so that's our Irish Goodbyes music video we shot on Frozen Lake Minona. That was, I don't know, two years ago now.

SPEAKER_05
12:48

No, dude, more more seniors, remember? This is year four. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04
12:51

Yeah, so it was, I mean, the whole shoot was an insane experience. We got really lucky because it had been frigid cold and it was like a warm day. We went out, we lugged all the gear out on the lake. I mean, it was it took not only us but also some of our friends to help us out, and it was just such a really unique experience. We had to like buy um ice spikes to like make sure we weren't falling over.

SPEAKER_01
13:16

So I mean, yeah, we were we were doing scouting for it, you know, looking at the ice fishing holes, how much how how thick is the ice? Everyone was pretty worried about that, I remember. And then quickly as we got there, we were like, we are gonna be falling everywhere unless we're we are bolted into the ground. It was like 45 degrees that day. Yeah, it got super low. It came in clutch, it was still freezing after a couple of hours of being out there. It's so cold. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06
13:41

All right, so I've always wanted to ask this for bands who do music videos. What is that experience like where you're playing your electric instruments with no amps and just like shouting into the void for the music video? So uncomfortable. Have you seen that like trend on social media where people like what it would actually sound like? Like, I want to hear that. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00
14:00

It's so funny how many people don't understand that though, either. Like, we we get comments all the time from like friends and family that's like, how did you how did you get out there and like and how many times did it take you to play it? Or what and it's like, no, no, no, you don't understand. It's just we're just pretending for lack of a better word. I mean, we're still playing what we're playing, but it's still like that's not what you're hearing, you know. So the drums are probably echoing off of everything.

SPEAKER_01
14:24

In that shoot in particular, so all the guitars and our vocals, you can just sort of hear us like coldly singing and playing. And at that time, since then, we've gotten a lot smarter about it. But at that time, it was just the full drum sound echoing across the lake, and we actually had somebody uh bike over on a fat tire bike from the other end of Lake Monona coming over because he was like, I just wanted to see what was going on. I heard some music, but you could literally hear the snare like all the way down the lake because nothing was stopping it.

SPEAKER_04
14:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
14:54

This was before we had the silent heads and silent symbols for video shoots. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
14:59

Yeah, we we just did a video on uh the Milwaukee River uh and now it's much better. We have much quieter, much quieter drum heads and uh makes it a little easier to get in the world.

SPEAKER_04
15:12

It would make the the sound you it would make the sound you would hear though, like without very funny. It's just tapping and and us kind of thinking and half singing, half making sure that you know we're giving a good performance. So that's quite funny.

SPEAKER_05
15:25

I can't get the the sound out of my head when we shot Snow in Heaven. Yeah. And I just like I don't know why, but just the craziest sound escaped my mouth. And you just hear think, think, think, think, think, think, and then I like scream, and then like the song ends, you know. And like that's what the that's what the actual camera hears, you know.

SPEAKER_06
15:42

Yeah, yeah. Oh man, you should release those videos.

SPEAKER_01
15:45

Uh we might absolutely got some archived footage we can properly open the phone. Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_02
15:54

Yeah, stay hot on Instagram. You gotta yeah, put a reel out of that. That that could be a good idea. I like that idea. Um going going back to Battle of the Bands, after just being at the Vivarium show, there was a lot of talent. There was a lot of good bands. Did you guys after the performances? I'm guessing you saw or listened to the other ones, did you did you think you were going to win? And I mean, Josh made people sweat a little bit up there. You had a nice dramatic announcement. What was were you guys nervous? How are you? How were you feeling?

SPEAKER_04
16:21

Uh I mean, I was I was nervous. I feel like we were all nervous. I think I was when we were talking, I feel like we we make music because we love to make music, and it's so rarely like a competition in the direct sense. And so when I mean everyone was amazing from from all the performances, the genres, the the vibe, you know. So I mean, were we did we think we were gonna win? I I know I don't want to say like we never know, you know. It's it's it's up to the judges and the and the fans, and the best thing that we can do is present our music the best we can, hope you connect with it and just just love the experience. And that's what we did.

SPEAKER_05
16:56

Actually, I have a funny story for you.

SPEAKER_04
16:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_05
16:58

It got ruined for me. What did the the winner? Really? I went up to this one guy at the end. I was like, hey, you know, I don't drink before shows, so I was like, hey man, can I get a beer? And he's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he goes to the back and he gets one. He's like, by the way, I saw the judges scorecards and you are at the top. Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_01
17:17

Well, and then Andrew decided to come walk. Andrew walked over to me and he goes, We won. And I thought he was like, I thought this was like some positive affirmation. Like, we got this man. So I he he straight he straight told me that. But I was I was I I thought he was just saying that, so I I had no idea he had actually had it spoiled.

SPEAKER_02
17:36

It's this guy who leaked it.

SPEAKER_01
17:37

I didn't know that. Oh, so you guys are I was I was still fully surprised that you can't really can't like completely trust that judgment either.

SPEAKER_05
17:47

But until that moment, I was like, I dude, I was so freaking nervous, man. Like you said you blacked out on stage and we were performing. I remember just like coming to, and I was like, oh my god, I'm like in the middle of playing this song right now. I forgot I gotta take a breath soon, you know. But then when he told me that, it just kind of like snapped me back in reality. It was it was funny, man.

SPEAKER_02
18:06

Have you guys done a battle before or many of them, or was that a first for you all? I mean, I did one in high school. This is one high school. Yeah, it's a first room. First one with like something on the meaningful on the line. Yeah. Yeah. And then how how is the show in in Sheboygan?

SPEAKER_04
18:22

I mean, it was so sick.

SPEAKER_02
18:24

That was my first that's a cool venue. Yeah. Not to shamelessly plug, but if people haven't been up to the Three Sheeps Brewery, it's it's an hour away from here and it's it's worth the drive.

SPEAKER_01
18:33

Yeah, the the atmosphere was amazing. So many people showed up for it, which was just a blast. There were people, you know, we were there early on in the day and just got to hang out with Josh and and um as we were setting up is like Yeah, just a very special place to be, and I think the environment, you know, even though it was a competition, like being there with all the other bands and getting to connect with, you know, everyone who had qualified for the finals and then getting to hear them all perform was really, really cool. It was a super fun night.

SPEAKER_06
19:05

It was cool for us too, because I mean we've never done anything like this, we've never seen our tap room look like that. Um, you know, so that was super fun to just we took so much seating out and just made standing room and then it got filled, and like people were just so into it. It was so fun for us. That was that was a cool moment. Oh, yeah, dude. That was yeah, that was the culmination. I think first thing I said when I saw you guys pull up, I was like, dude, tonight is like the culmination of a lot of work for all of us. It was we just got to like sit back and enjoy it, you know what I mean? It just it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02
19:33

You guys should have seen the event. They they put a full amateur wrestling setup in the middle right there.

SPEAKER_06
19:39

Yeah, that was that's awesome. Coming back again in 2026. Wow. Heard of your best.

SPEAKER_02
19:45

That was that was insanity. Handful. Yeah, whole rest. Wasn't bad either. Yeah, that's coming up in October. So plenty of opportunities to get up to Sheefs. Great, great, great venue up there. Um, what would you say the biggest misconception people have of like either your band or bands in general that are kind of at this point and climbing and trying to make it?

SPEAKER_05
20:11

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01
20:15

Should we all answer or like one? Yeah, I well, I can I can go. I would say I think there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that is not really related to writing or playing or practicing music that that we're doing.

SPEAKER_00
20:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
20:34

Yeah, we have band practice, but that's not necessarily the right name for it.

SPEAKER_00
20:38

We barely play our instruments. It's like the ratio of playing to doing other things is is astounding, I think, if you were to So what are the other things?

SPEAKER_04
20:47

See the numbers. I mean, we talk about social media posting, we talk about upcoming shows and like when can we fit in, you know, the rehearsal and also what does our set list look like, music video shoots, making sure that we're coordinating with like a videographer or photographer if we want them here. Um also just like general band vision for like making sure that we have a plan kind of going into not only the next week or month, but maybe a couple months out, because you want to have you know a good release plan um so you can properly promote and get your music out there. So I mean I'm missing a ton of things. I know I am. I mean, editing the videos is is so much time and work, mixing masters, mixing mastery.

SPEAKER_05
21:29

Even just finding the right textbook to go over the video, like finding the right moment, extracting that from sifting through hours upon hours of live footage and then finding some text to put over it. I mean, it takes way longer than you think.

SPEAKER_04
21:42

Booking shows, coordinating with venues, coordinating with bands.

SPEAKER_06
21:46

Oh, yeah. So you guys kind of all have your own roles, you know. It's like one person like do this, one person does that. Like yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_05
21:53

I do the social media, Raph does the booking, Matt does kind of like a lot of things merch, graphic design, um, long. Form videos, anything you see on YouTube, that's Matt editing that. And Evan has done some editing as well. And then Evan does all of our production like on stage and then off the stage. So all of the songs you hear on Spotify were mixed, mastered, produced by Evan. Super, super talented.

SPEAKER_06
22:15

Which is like super unique for a band to do their own recording and like editing and mastering it. Not as much nowadays.

SPEAKER_00
22:20

No, not as much, yeah. I mean, if if there's any member of a band, uh like smaller bands like us, like that knows how to do it, a lot of people are opting to do it themselves.

SPEAKER_06
22:30

And um maybe what's unique is that you do it so well. I mean it sounds so professional.

SPEAKER_01
22:36

Yeah, Evan's too humble, but yeah, we're we're incredibly lucky to have both Evan's skills and the like amazing space that he's built that we get to practice and record in as well.

SPEAKER_00
22:46

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, a lot of bands do it themselves um and and succeed and and it saves a lot of money, a lot of time. It's I mean, I've had bands come to my studio and pay me for studio time, pay me for mixing, or some combination of the two, and and um and even at my level it's still it's still hundreds, if not in the thousands of dollars, depending on how much time you spend. So it's like you know, that's where that's where bands I think find roadblocks, but now that those roadblocks aren't as prominent because there's so many ways you can record at home and so many great videos out there and how to learn how to do it yourself, and and I mean that's really where I started too. Like I just got obsessed with it and spent god knows how many hours on YouTube and then even more hours just trying it and doing it and sucking and trying again and taking the mix to the car, and I've literally turned around on my way home to go back to the studio to fix stuff in the in the early days because I would just be obsessed with it, just like still isn't right, I gotta go back and fix this thing, you know. It's just like it becomes it becomes an obsession for sure. But um yeah, bands bands can do it themselves for sure.

SPEAKER_06
23:57

So what's it like to balance like a normal work life with all of this?

SPEAKER_05
24:04

I mean, I was just talking about this the other day with a friend. Like I wake up at uh seven my ship starts, and I'm just working, working, working, working, working. Sometimes I go to the studio and then I get home at eleven and that's it. So it's um it's definitely a lot of work, but it doesn't really feel like it when you're doing something that is I mean the heck, even making the videos is just super inspiring to see like those numbers climb and you feel like you're moving towards something. Um but it is a lot of work, it's a lot of tinkering, as Evan said, and playing my instrument, as I said earlier, doing vocal exercises, guitar exercises, all the things that aren't super glamorous is you know, being on stage and winning a nice check in a trip to LA, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
24:47

No, it's like three minutes out of the hundreds of hours that was three minutes, and then like you gotta perform in those three minutes too.

SPEAKER_04
24:55

Oh yeah. There's a balance, and there's also uh I would say I've been feeling this recently, just like a duality with like we'll play an amazing show and it'll feel really good, and like the weekend will be, you know, we'll be riding this high, and then I'll kind of have to like snap back and be more in like my work mode with like doing it. That's more the Josh type mode, you know? Yeah, exactly. Duality of man, Raf versus man.

SPEAKER_06
25:20

And so it like so you're right, Raf is when you're on stage, but Josh is when you're at your job.

SPEAKER_04
25:25

Um yeah, I guess in some capacity, I'll be right back. In the insider info here. Okay, I'm largely the same person. But I don't know. Um it's very interesting. I think it's something we we all experience differently, even as all of our roles are different, um, and what is asked of those roles um in our job, but it is certainly something that up to this point we've been able to manage, and as we continue to grow, we'll have to have conversations about how to continue that.

SPEAKER_06
25:56

So speaking of that duality, it this just made me chuckle. So you guys had won, you know, won the the battle of the bands, you had this big great moment, had this check, you got to celebrate your fans, all these pictures and stuff. And then what did you guys do after all that? What did you do? What did you have to go back and do? You had to go back and pack up all your stuff. It was just like to me, it was just so funny. It's like these guys are like working their butts off. Like they have a room full of people who are screaming their names and like you know, celebrating with them, and then they have to like still have to go and pack up all their stuff and put it away by themselves. Like, you guys need some roadies now, yeah. Right. That's just how that's just life for you know an up-and-coming band.

SPEAKER_01
26:37

It's like everyone else goes out to get a drink at the bar, and we're like, ah, well, we're gonna be packing up here until 1 a.m. probably.

SPEAKER_04
26:45

Like you come into the bars like we have literally an hour of packing up here to do. Oh, maybe.

SPEAKER_02
26:51

Um, you you said you you don't drink while you're on stage or before. What's the what's the pre-show routine? Are any are any of you guys uh drinking or doing anything before? Is it all just interesting out there soberly? Hey everyone, it's your host, Richie Burke, and I just wanted to to remind you that fall, good time. Good time to get your life together and great time to look at your finances. And if you're doing so and you need some help, talk to the experts at Annex. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything from retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. That is our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. Know the difference. Just head to annexwealth.com. That is annexwealth.com. And all right, let's get back to the episode with Secret Menu, the band.

SPEAKER_01
27:52

I think there's a limit on the drinks generally. Yeah, that would probably be good. You don't want to go overboard. Yeah, it can be dangerous when you get an open tab at a venue. You gotta especially if you're going on later.

SPEAKER_02
28:03

But uh yeah, yeah, I went back. I went back there. I mean, some people were drinking beers, some people were not. I was I was just curious if you guys yeah.

SPEAKER_05
28:10

You know what's funny, as our music got more and more complex, I found it increasingly more difficult to actually perform like two or three beers deep. Like I wanna know, man. I gotta be locked in for that one. Totally.

SPEAKER_04
28:23

I'd say, yeah, I mean, pre-show rituals uh largely are like making sure that we do a vocal warm-up. We always do that like 10-15 minutes duration, usually 30 to 45 minutes before we're playing. I'm definitely drinking a lot of water to dehydrated. Um, if I do have a drink, it's like probably only one and it's like on stage. But typically, like if I'm drinking beer when we're playing, like I'm burping, and so I'm trying not to be burping when we're singing.

SPEAKER_05
28:48

Dude, if you ever see us making a face like it's because I'm like holding back on that. So we gotta sing through it sometimes.

SPEAKER_04
28:54

Largely just water for me. Um, I mean, I feel like Evan's running around doing 80 things like he's got like, you know, Evan's in the audio world too, so he's making sure that, you know, we're we're sound checked, we sound good, and if we have lights, the lighting is set up, all that stuff is is dialed.

SPEAKER_00
29:10

Yeah, it's it's probably more energy drinks than beer for me, you know. I feel like it is with drummers.

SPEAKER_06
29:15

They're the ones who have a pile of monster behind them.

SPEAKER_02
29:17

Yeah, that's my bad habit. You're probably doing it at like 7, 8, 9 p.m. too. No, like 11 in 2000. 11 p.m.

SPEAKER_00
29:26

You're going open at the end of band just, yeah. Yeah, the 9 p.m. booster is what uh it's been dubbed, I think. But it's not it's not as bad as we portray it online, I swear, guys. Like, I don't I'm not like three monsters. Damn. Look into the camera and ask Monster Lynn the sponsor. For real. Celsius, yeah, yeah, Celsius has been one. Hit him up.

SPEAKER_02
29:50

Uh C4 hasn't got any REM sleep in a decade.

SPEAKER_00
29:55

It's tough out here in this industry though, for real, because you know, like last night I was at the Sylvie until midnight. Yeah. And the night before, I actually all four days this week so far have been twelve to fifteen hour days for me at at the venues. So that's I mean, we we show up at nine o'clock and or so, and we don't leave until midnight at least. And that's how that's how it is, you know, in in the industry working. But um yeah, I don't know, pre-show ritual. I gotta eat something. You gotta eat something. I learned that if I don't eat something, I I almost throw up. That was I opened for Bear Tooth a couple years ago in 2020 in my last band, and I I learned then that I did not eat enough. So the the coupling of not eating enough and then the nerves for playing on such a large. No, no, I didn't. I held it, I held it in, but man, I wanted to. That would be pretty hardcore though. Yeah. That that would be. Yeah. I've seen it. I've seen a drummer throw up on stage and keep going. You kind of have to almost. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
30:56

Yeah, you gotta play through the pin. Um anyway, what it what is you all's craziest or funniest or most memorable fan interaction or interaction at a show.

SPEAKER_01
31:09

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02
31:10

Any anything pop come to mind?

SPEAKER_05
31:12

The first thing that came to mind, this wasn't at a show, but I thought this was super funny. This was like a couple months into us starting, right? So we have zero following, and we get these like series of Facebook VMs. And it's like, is this the empanada guy? The empanada guy guy. Oh yeah, like I'm gonna sell my truck to come to one of your shows. Not a bunch of girls, it is the empanada guy. It was like all these pictures of him, like I mean, like tons and tons of empanadas.

SPEAKER_01
31:43

And then like fresh babes, like, hey, this is what I got. It's what this is what you could be getting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05
31:49

Never came to a show. You know, it was like literally pages and pages and pages of DM, and then that was it.

SPEAKER_04
31:55

He just kind of went ghost after that. Never another time. I think we should hit him up. Empanadas.

SPEAKER_06
32:00

Empanada guys are out there. Come on, reach out to us again.

SPEAKER_04
32:04

Or scroll all the way back and do like. I think it's tricky too, is like the the the notification that you have a message on Facebook if you because you have like multiple, you have your personal and you have like the band page, it kind of gets weird sometimes. And so I always responded to him, and I we have like a conversation, but he was very passionate about empanadas. It was multiple like you know, DMs about it. And we were, I mean, I would have tried some of it.

SPEAKER_02
32:27

It was a few years ago. I would say for probably not a sophisticated AI bot at that point.

SPEAKER_04
32:36

Where does he live? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_05
32:38

No, I thought it was something. Can we get him to LA?

SPEAKER_00
32:42

Can we get him to LA? Empanada merch. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we need him to come to the session, I think, with Empanada.

SPEAKER_01
32:50

We need an empanada shape sticker. Could have been a crazy collab on the secret menu with empanada guy.

SPEAKER_06
32:56

We love food trucks at three sheep, so empanada guy reach out. There we go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
33:01

Um one question. You you guys were obviously in Madison, you've you've been all over the state. What are what are each of your favorite music venues either to play or watch a show in Wisconsin? Would love your answer on this too, Josh.

unknown
33:16

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01
33:19

I think if we're talking about venues, honestly, Cactus Club is is top tier for me. Why is that? The you know, it's not a it's not a giant place, but every show we've ever done there, you know, even like not depending on how many people there, just feels so energetic and the you know, the room's kind of tight and everyone's kind of squished in. Um they just yeah, it's it's a really just a good vibe in there. And the green room is like this old 70s apartment. I think it's an Airbnb that you can that you can rent out if you're a band coming through.

SPEAKER_02
33:59

So is it above? It's above, yeah.

SPEAKER_01
34:03

They've got an organ sort of like jamming out before the show. It's it's fun.

SPEAKER_05
34:09

Yeah, I second that. I like active.

SPEAKER_04
34:12

I mean, I was gonna say cactus club too, but I I'm gonna give a I want to give another venue like a shout-out too, as well. I mean, personally, this I had a ton of fun at Three Sheeps, like that's not just because you're here, I would have said that outside of this. Like, just like it so much of what I enjoy when we play shows is is like the vibe uh and the people who were there, and like that's what made the the battle of bands so exciting. It was just people were there and they wanted to hear music, and that and that you could feel it in the room, you could feel the energy there, and so like that makes a space great in addition to like the things that are also required, like a good sound system and making sure that the room can, you know, give people a proper listening experience. Um it's also just like a really good atmosphere.

SPEAKER_00
34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
35:00

I mean, I have you been at tons of venues, so is there some that stick out to you?

SPEAKER_00
35:05

Uh I mean, yeah, I could definitely give some shout-outs. Um our first show we played like legit uh secret menu is the Rigby. Oh I would say where's the rigby? In Madison. Okay. Yeah. Um it's it's yeah, right right near the Capitol. But it it's I I wouldn't love to like from first glance, I wouldn't love to play there or or you know, have a show or see a show there. But it's I think it's an energy thing. From the energy perspective, like that's a good vibe.

SPEAKER_05
35:38

And we got in trouble, do you remember?

SPEAKER_00
35:40

Because the first show we had, yeah, we we oversold the room, and and the floor was literally they had to t come up and tell us to make sure people wouldn't jump, we wouldn't have people like jump up and down because the floor like bowed up and down. And uh we had like some light stands with some light fixtures on them, and you could see the lights moving side to side uh during some of it. Yeah, it was it was a little scary. But that was a good vibe.

SPEAKER_04
36:05

Yeah, and it was very interesting because the owner was pissed, but the booking um you know, the person who books a show uh was so like chill.

SPEAKER_02
36:13

So like the booking person was probably happy you filled the room. The owner was probably scared shitless that you were sure. The owner makes a lot of sense, yeah, doesn't want to deal with that.

SPEAKER_00
36:25

Some more would be like X-ray arcade. Yeah. Um I've I've mixed a bunch of shows there. I got some good friends in some metal bands and hardcore bands, and that that room is always a good vibe. Uh what else? I mean, I I gotta shout out the rave. I mean, I'd uh uh hopefully someday we'll be there as well. But um yeah, that that place is is a little polarizing, I think, because you know people have mixed experiences at every venue, but it is something special going to see a band in the ballroom. I just worked this b uh uh show for this band called Turnstyle, if anybody out there knows Turnstyle, and um it was their first show of the tour. I was there for all the rehearsal days as a tech helping the tour out, and they they put on a absolutely sick show. And when you when you do it right in that room and you get a good engineer, that's the toughest part too. Those rooms aren't easy to mix, and the ballroom has like a seven second reverb time naturally. So this is him getting into that technical side. We're getting deep. Yeah, you're well, hey, you're asking me the question. So that but that room's magic too. If if you get the right engineer and the right band and the right experience, and um, yeah, good room, Sylvie. We played what Miramar? Miramar in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_04
37:42

We played the Majestic, the High Noon, the Cooperage. Um Cooperidge is a good spot. I was gonna say I really enjoyed that show. We played like a cr a Christmas time show there. It was um we played with Alley Eyes and the Keystones. No, it wasn't Motherwind. And Motherwind, I think it was four band.

SPEAKER_05
37:59

No, Alley's was there.

SPEAKER_04
38:00

Uh yeah, yeah, they were there. Oh yeah, they were there. Uh it was it was it was a good spot. Motherwind, Alley Eyes, um The Keystones. And uh it was uh I really like that that that venue as well.

SPEAKER_02
38:14

Josh, what would you add?

SPEAKER_06
38:16

Alright, so this is a deep cut, but if you uh ever find yourself in Sheboygan, the Wild Center is such it's a gorgeous, you know, old uh theater that has been you know renovated and it's actually expanding. Um just such a hidden hidden gem on A Street in Sheboygan. Uh they bring in all kinds of, you know, uh, you know, I'd say semi-big name acts, but such a cool location to go see a show or you know see uh some sort of performance or musical or whatever it is. Super cool place.

SPEAKER_02
38:45

Nice. Nice. I was I was gonna give a shout out to the rip too. I think um maybe my favorite concert there was Snoop Dogg in 2008. I remember bringing a uh water bottle of vodka to the Marquette dorm, pouring some in some lemonade, walking over there very early, and we ended up in the front row. Let's go. Came out in like a handkerchief material pimp suit with like Snoop Dogg and diamonds across the mic, and uh him and the dog pound just just tore that show up.

SPEAKER_03
39:14

So Richie, could you still put off a move like that? Bringing a bringing a bottom of the show.

SPEAKER_02
39:20

I try I try not to do that. I've thought I've thought about doing that at the Pfizer because the cocktails are like $24. But I've restrained myself. I don't want to be the guy to get caught doing that, so I haven't done that in the world.

SPEAKER_03
39:34

They do, they do. Some was Wisconsinitis Tall Boys.

SPEAKER_02
39:38

14. It might actually be 16, but that's 14 you can spend for my uh I always make sure to grab one or two of those over there. I'm curious to hear your guys' take on this too. Any um, other than yourselves, any other artists to watch in in the Milwaukee or Wisconsin area?

SPEAKER_06
40:00

Can I answer while you guys are thinking? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
40:02

We just saw a lot of them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06
40:04

Well, yeah, one of the bands that completely blew me away at the Milwaukee show was Hot Mess. Those guys are new, they know they're relatively new, they're up and coming. Shout out to the ball. Oh man, they were so good.

SPEAKER_00
40:17

I talked to the singer after the show and I told him he reminded me of um uh beauty school dropouts, and he's like, that's one of my biggest inspirations right now. I was like, I see it, I see it.

SPEAKER_06
40:28

Yeah, they just came out with a couple new singles too, which are awesome. So I think those guys are gonna be a big name in Wisconsin before we know it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
40:36

Yeah. Um hardcore scene again, maybe, but Still Stair. Still Stairs coming back with their with their sequel to uh their their album they put out recently. So All Heart is the first one, and No Breaks is the second one. No breaks is coming out, so shout out Marcus. Still Stair is pretty sick. I like working with those guys.

SPEAKER_01
40:54

You got yeah, I'll I'll give a couple shout-outs. One one Milwaukee and one uh a little bit further, but Moon Glow. Um, I don't know if you guys have have heard of them, but we've played a couple shows with them, and I really, really enjoy listening to their music and also just their energy uh live is is amazing. And then also this is a Chicagoland uh band, but Natarosynth, who we played with a couple times. Uh they're I would say like you know, they clearly are super passionate about like really working on their craft and and making amazing music and amazing live music. Um super nice guys, also really nice guys, and uh yeah, really enjoy them too.

SPEAKER_04
41:40

Um I'd say uh I gotta go with Alley Eyes for me. Like I have a long time friend of AJ, and just like I always enjoyed just their kind of sound and what they've got going on. Um we've played some shows with them and I just enjoy chatting with them. Um I would say like for me, completely dark horse of the whole competition. I was completely blown away by Axe and the Hatchman. Is that correct? It was the last band on the first night. The Taxman? The taxman. I said meant taxman. The full band name was It's just the Taxman. Oh, it's the Taxman.

SPEAKER_05
42:15

You're thinking of Axe and the Hatchetman, okay. You're confusing the two. I just said the Taxman.

SPEAKER_04
42:19

I was completely blown away by their sound, how good they were, and like I would I need to go to C show. I went up to them was like, we need to play a bill together. Okay.

SPEAKER_02
42:28

So were they the kids in college or younger? Am I thinking someone else?

SPEAKER_06
42:34

I think they maybe seemed a little younger than you guys, but I think they're from. They've actually played at three sheets before, so that would be fun to get you guys together. Yeah, together.

SPEAKER_05
42:43

That was gonna be my answer too. Like listening to them, they reminded me a lot of um There's this guy still woozy. He was in this band prior to that called And It's Escaping Me, Feed Me Jack. And it's like very much like you know, clean guitars, really good melodies, you know, some time changes, stuff that like we kind of do as well. So I I thoroughly enjoyed them. That was the answer to that.

SPEAKER_06
43:03

Yeah, they always had this like like throwback like Beatles type sounds.

SPEAKER_04
43:06

Yeah, the songwriting was really cool. Yeah, yeah, the hollow body bass, and it just kind of gave that vibe. It's like so sick.

SPEAKER_02
43:13

Um, do you do you guys have any ultimate goal or dream as as a band? Go ahead, Raf.

SPEAKER_04
43:19

I mean I always well, okay, it's a tagline, but I I felt like when we created Secret Menu, we were always extremely direct and passionate about like where we're going, you know, because I think as a musician, there are many different paths you can take. And I said, I want us to sell out Madison Square Garden. That is like I know it's a huge goal and a very lofty goal, but it also gives us a lot of stuff to aim for and let's align like those actions to that goal. So we've always been moving with that sort of intention, and hopefully one day all things will it'll it'll make sense and it'll happen.

SPEAKER_02
43:54

Love it. Josh, you got anything else for these guys?

SPEAKER_06
43:56

Here's a question, kind of similar. If if Secret Menu were to cease to exist tomorrow, like what would be the lasting impression that you would hope people would remember about you guys, your music, but also just like your impact on the Wisconsin music scene.

SPEAKER_05
44:11

I think it's about community like honestly, we've been approached by a couple people who have been like, I just did it. I know what your song is about, but that resonates with me. And that like as a musician, that is the biggest compliment you could ever get. To know that you were able to create something that connected with someone and made them hopefully feel less alone. Like, I don't think it's about changing the world, I think it's about changing someone's world. And if we can do that as a mu as musicians, like that's all that's all I want to do.

SPEAKER_06
44:43

Dang, that was deep. That's that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02
44:46

Yeah, where hey, where where where can people find you guys?

SPEAKER_04
44:49

Okay, so yeah, I mean you can find us basically everywhere at Secret Menu the Band. Um, and our website is always up to date with all of our upcoming shows, uh, which is just www.secretmenuband.com. Uh and yeah, we just on all socials.

SPEAKER_01
45:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02
45:04

Very cool. Well, uh, congrats on all your success so far. We look forward to following you, and it was great meeting you all today. Thanks. Thank you for having us. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Milwaukee Uncut. Thank you to Josh from Three Sheeps for co hosting this one with me and to Secret Menu for coming on before signing off. Just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. Annex Wealth Management, Nicola, Drink Wisconsin Abel Beverage Company, and Three Sheeps.

SPEAKER_00
0:04

Hey everyone, welcome back to our fall preview episode. A lot going on in the Milwaukee area this fall. So Claire from Visit Milwaukee was nice enough to come down. We recapped the summer a little bit, and then we've got over 11 must-checkout fall festivals, events, activities, things to do. So if you are looking to have an amazing fall in the area, we've got you covered. Before diving in, just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We will kick it off with our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. The fall is a great time to get your life and your finances in order. So make sure to reach out to the experts at Annex. That is annexwealth.com. Annex know the difference. Nicolaw, the Midwest law firm injured. Get Nicola and Russell and the team will take amazing care of you over there. And we we've got a we've got a great video coming out with Russell, coming up on social media if it has not been already. So keep your eyes peeled for that. And if you are injured, make sure to reach out to Nicola. And last but not least, Drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company. I mean, the fall is a great time to have a nice brandy old-fashioned best brandy out there, Drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company. They've also got vodka and canned cocktails available at the Drink Wisconsin Bleed Pub across from the Pfizer and at bars and liquor stores across the state. All right, let's dive in with Claire from Visit Milwaukee. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee on Cut. What an absolutely loaded fall.

SPEAKER_02
1:47

Loaded.

SPEAKER_00
1:48

Loaded.

SPEAKER_02
1:48

Truly loaded.

SPEAKER_00
1:49

That we've got coming for you after just just a magical summer here in the Kareem City. So on this episode, we're gonna just recap a few of our favorite things we did this summer here, and then let you know all the events to check out this fall.

SPEAKER_02
2:06

Mm-hmm. Calendar doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_00
2:08

No.

SPEAKER_02
2:08

When school's back in.

SPEAKER_00
2:11

Claire, what was what was your favorite thing about the summer?

SPEAKER_02
2:14

Oh my gosh. So many things. Um, I will say on the activity front, I did an e-bike tour of Milwaukee. First time on e-bikes, first time like seeing the city from that uh vantage point. So fun.

SPEAKER_00
2:29

Who puts that on?

SPEAKER_02
2:30

So fun. Chris and he was amazing. And it like we truly off-roaded, and um it was it was just super fun. I mean, all over Harbor District, uh Walker's Point, downtown, up to the um Lake Park, um back around Brady Street, Pfizer area, um, cloth but like brewery district a little bit, and then back.

SPEAKER_00
2:57

All over the place. Like truly all over. Um, I bet you can still hop on an e-bike tour in the fall as well.

SPEAKER_02
3:02

Oh, 100%. Yes. And it is it's really fun and not as exhausting as you may think if you're scared of biking like me.

SPEAKER_00
3:09

So I went to Pride Fest for the first time ever.

SPEAKER_02
3:12

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
3:13

Sure did.

SPEAKER_02
3:14

Super fun.

SPEAKER_00
3:15

Yeah, yeah. I mean, everyone was very welcoming there. We got some good in-the-field content, and um I didn't know it was the it's the largest Pride Fest in the world on festival grounds.

SPEAKER_03
3:28

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
3:28

I didn't know that's like over 40,000 attendees, so that's amazing. Shout out to Wes and uh yeah, we did a we did a top gay bars in Milwaukee clip, nice, which was amazing. One guy had a uh a necklace that was uh the penis where he pulled down and it went. That was that was entertaining, and we got we got a lot of right, Bree. You're looking at me. It was it was good. Uh you could show the clip, but um great guy. Yeah, he was good and then so I mean we had that in the top gay bars video, and then we did one just overall on Pride Fest interviewing Wes and talking to a couple other people about what they think of Pride Fest. It was a nice wholesome video. Nice in Michaela on our team put put that guy in that video, and I was like, hey, maybe we should save this for the bars one, but I appreciated her enthusiasm. Um I feel like it is it was an eye-opening experience, and uh everyone was very nice, and it was it was it was a good time.

SPEAKER_02
4:22

I feel like it's the official kickoff to summer now. Like it's okay, we're in it, we're past Memorial Day. It's like major festival kickoff season, I think.

SPEAKER_00
4:35

Speaking of Pride Fest, um, I mean, not directly a Pride Fest event, but Sugar Maple, I feel, is a very Pride-friendly bar. They have a hot dog sucking contest.

SPEAKER_02
4:46

Yeah. Um that's what I heard.

SPEAKER_00
4:47

I didn't participate, but we didn't either, and we didn't even know it was happening. So we put out a video on it last year, and then uh apparently we missed the one this year, but we reposted that video in honor of it. Okay, it might have been our most viral video of the summer. Just highlighting the great things going on in Milwaukee. I'm sure the team that visit is proud to proud to know that our best video of the summer might have been the hot dog sucking contest one over at the Sugar Maple.

SPEAKER_02
5:15

We're a sausage town, and Sugar Maple has one of those best beer lists in the country. Like it's a match made in heaven.

SPEAKER_00
5:24

Yeah, yeah. I mean, some guy said he was the glizzard wizard. I don't think he won though. No, he didn't win. He was dressed up in a wizard costume.

SPEAKER_02
5:35

The real winner probably wasn't playing around with nicknames. They were probably like, get out of my way.

SPEAKER_00
5:39

No, he he was he was good, he got a trophy that said he was the throat goat. So shout out to the sugar maple. Just um well, well, well done. Well done. Um, please invite us next year. We'd like to create round two. What else did you enjoy this summer?

SPEAKER_02
5:58

I mean, Summerfest was amazing um this year, it I as it is every year, but I thought their lineup was fantastic. We took a big group of people to Ed Sheeran, which was like, I mean, amazing. Such a good way to see the city. State fair. I'm I love State Fair. I thought it was great this year.

SPEAKER_00
6:18

Honestly, and pre-went three times. I only went once. To the fair, yeah.

SPEAKER_02
6:22

I yeah, I love it, man. Like the animal barns, the baby barn. Catch me in the baby barn every time.

SPEAKER_00
6:30

Wait, they have a baby animal barn, yeah.

SPEAKER_02
6:32

Yeah, and like the young ones, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
6:35

Can you pet them or is it just uh some of them, yep.

SPEAKER_02
6:38

You can get pretty close.

SPEAKER_00
6:39

I'm I'm bummed I missed that. We went we went and did a uh the fat facts video at the state fair, and we that was just basically running around, um, which was fun. We got to eat a cream puff and a grilled cheese and some other stuff. But I didn't, I didn't I didn't get to go back.

SPEAKER_02
6:54

I mean, I just kept thinking the fair looked so beautiful. And the last time I was at the fair was the thousand-year flood day, and they did such a good job. It just kept hitting me over and over, like, oh yeah, I remember hiding for cover in this bar. Like, but they said did such a good job of repairing everything, and then they, you know, volunteers, all those flowers, they do those are volunteers who do all of those plantings. That I mean, there's like I don't know, uh, thousands of them. It feels like a ton. It just looked spectacular. And given what had happened the year before, I thought, oh, good job, good job, Dane.

SPEAKER_00
7:32

It was good, it was a good bounce back for that. I mean, they had a good run last year too. Obviously, the the hundred-year flood came through. Was that on the final day? If I remember, it was the final weekend. It was the final weekend for sure.

SPEAKER_02
7:44

Yeah, it was no, it was the final Saturday, so they canceled the Sunday. Yeah, that's which is a big deal when it's you know the 11 days or whatever. Um, but to come back and then for their major anniversary year, I think it was the hundred and seventy-fifth. I mean, props to Sherry and the team.

SPEAKER_00
8:01

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Summerfest, Rufus de Soul last week. We can give them a shout out.

SPEAKER_02
8:08

Um I heard that was amazing.

SPEAKER_00
8:10

I I did not make it over there.

SPEAKER_02
8:12

No, me neither. No, but I saw lots of people I know did and they loved it.

SPEAKER_00
8:17

I heard great, I heard great things. I I got to golf with one of the guys before the show. Cool, that's a super nice guy, John from Australia. Wow. And his manager, uh, Grant.

SPEAKER_02
8:27

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00
8:28

Good good guys. Yeah, you just wanted to get some holes in before playing in front of 20,000 people.

SPEAKER_04
8:32

Where did you golf with him?

SPEAKER_00
8:33

Uh Blue Mount.

SPEAKER_04
8:35

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00
8:36

We we had our river cruise with the Duffy boats and nice, nice to help launch our beer, which I think is still available. The Milwaukee Uncut Tropical Pale. Delicious. People can go to MilwaukeeUncut.com and see where it's at.

SPEAKER_04
8:49

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_00
8:50

Great job by the Duffy boats, and just wanted to selfishly plug our beer right there. There you go. About three sheeps.

SPEAKER_02
8:56

We did, we did a really good um the visit crew did a really good Adel Weiss um cruise, river cruise for our like company summer outing. And I will say the team, they were great sports because I wanted to film one of those um like shot as if it were a reality TV drama type content um of our team out on the water for the afternoon, and they nailed it, I'd say. So find it on our channels. But the Adelice people are awesome. It was a great, great afternoon.

SPEAKER_00
9:29

Nice. And then um one of our highlights outside of Milwaukee, we got to go outside of Milwaukee uh uh a decent amount, but um by Bree's parents in Menominee got to go to this place for dinner called the Enchanted Barn. Oh, and uh they have Highland Cows and Pizza.

unknown
9:47

What?

SPEAKER_00
9:48

It was really cool. We're gonna put a video out about it soon. It might be out by the time this goes live.

SPEAKER_02
9:53

In Menominee near Marinada.

SPEAKER_00
9:55

Yeah, by Eau Claire.

SPEAKER_02
9:56

Oh, by O'Clain, not Menominee, Michigan, Menominee, Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00
9:59

It's like, do you remember what town that is in?

SPEAKER_02
10:02

Oh, it's by Chipua Falls, right? Kind of.

SPEAKER_00
10:05

Yeah, it's past Chipua. This place was, I think, about a half hour north of Menominee, if I remember correctly, but just a Wisconsin hidden gem to throw up out there. The Enchanted Barn. Claire, what was your favorite summer memory?

SPEAKER_02
10:18

Okay, top three easily was when we um so we launched some shoes this year. You might remember.

SPEAKER_00
10:26

Twice. Uh not once, but twice.

SPEAKER_02
10:29

Yep. And we did um with Adidas and Summerfest and Shake James and local legend, Shake James, and each shoe had that chip, if you'll remember, that you scanned with your phone, and that was your access to Summerfest. So we did a really cool event with Shake, with AJ, who actually designed the shoes, and he's the one who's designed for like Beyonce and Jay-Z and all of these amazing people with Adidas. Um, and then Adidas came and we did a little like party at Summerfest for other people who had the shoes. And so you like got like a one-time email that was like, hey, if you're coming to Summerfest on this day with the shoes, you can come to this thing and meet all these cool people involved in this collaboration. And we got to do it on the rooftop of the Summerfest offices, which is a really cool spot. And they just had like showed us great hospitality. But um, when we launched it, like brought full circle this thing that we um realized when we launched them at South by Southwest in Austin in April, that um there was a lot of people who were like, Oh, this is so cool. You're creating sort of community by doing stuff at Summerfest just for people with the shoes. And if you could say, like the people who are watching this who are from Korea and they were talking about this, they were like, So if I came to Milwaukee for the festival, I would already kind of have friends there because like I'd find these people that were also sneakerheads that love these Adidas shoes and wanted to learn about Milwaukee and go to a music festival and like you had that built-in group waiting there for you. And we were like, exactly, exactly. So to see that then like come to life at this party was super cool. And just seeing Shake and AJ talk about the city and how they took the city, they took our cultures, and they turned it into this like really beautiful set of shoes. Um, that was that was a fave. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00
12:35

All right, so for the fall, what should people be looking forward to?

SPEAKER_02
12:39

More festivals. Like if you They just don't stop. No, if you put your comfy shoes away, get them back out, put your sneakers on. Um, we've got a festival. I mean, the festivals just don't stop at the summerfest grounds or on the streets, I'd say. So I'm looking forward to some of those and in and in the burbs.

SPEAKER_00
12:57

Speaking of Summerfest Grounds, Chef Adam in West have teamed up for the Freshwater Food and Wine Festival.

SPEAKER_02
13:05

Yep. So freshwater, it's like mid to late September on the Summerfest Grounds. Chefs from not just Milwaukee, but some of Madison's top chefs will be there. Um, no pun on that, but some of Milwaukee's top chefs will be there. And um, and like doing way more than showcasing their food, but there's all sorts of like cooking demos and Q ⁇ A, so you get to see what it's like to live and work and create in one of the best food cities in the country. Um, I personally think this is perfect as we get closer to the launch of the American Great Lakes Michelin guide. Like people are super excited about our food scene. They travel to come and taste it, they plan their trips around it and to have a full festival celebrating that with some amazing entertainment, like uh, you know, DJ Shauna, Charlie Barons, just bring in the music, the laughs, and then there's a whole host of other like um live musicians. It's gonna be amazing. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00
14:10

A lot of wine from Italy and first year, first year ever, and Wes went all out on this one.

SPEAKER_02
14:16

He did.

SPEAKER_00
14:17

It's he said he maxed out his Amex card to put this thing on. So thank you, uh so go support, go support Wes on this one and have a great time.

SPEAKER_02
14:29

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
14:30

So we got that coming up. Um, got Oktoberfest back, which Julian and Samson, Julian from Kegels and Samson from Swarm Events.

SPEAKER_01
14:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_00
14:39

They I think it was the first, it was the first time they were at Summerfest grounds last year. Yep. And they'll be back there for year or two. They do a really nice job with that event. So if you like drinking beer and participating in German activities and eating some of that good food, like a nice pretzel.

SPEAKER_02
14:54

Heck yeah. We have so many good Oktoberfest um opportunities out there, like right, Bavarian Beer House always has a really good one that runs for a few weekends. But to have been missing one on the lakefront for as long as we were, that's like, come on, what are we doing? So to have it back, I think, is one of the perfect ways to sort of like cap off the end of the big festival season with an incredibly Milwaukee festival and you know, the perfect activity to do in early October.

SPEAKER_00
15:26

So we got the uh the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon coming back. Really cool. The only opportunity you have to run over the hone bridge and see that view.

SPEAKER_02
15:36

Yep, outside of the like UPAF ride, and that's on a bike. That's okay. So it's like your only run opportunity. So if running is your thing, all you healthy fitness people out there.

SPEAKER_00
15:47

They have a 5K. I might even do that.

SPEAKER_02
15:50

Or for the walking community, which you're looking at right here. I've never walked over the home. I would totally do this.

SPEAKER_00
15:58

Yeah, I could, I could, I think I could light jog up and down the home.

SPEAKER_02
16:01

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_00
16:02

I've heard it's steeper than it actually looks, but they do have, I think the first day they have a 5k and then the full and half are on the second day, and they got a nice little after party in the uh in the park right by Discovery World. So a lot of people from outtown are coming in, they do a nice job with the.

SPEAKER_02
16:17

Oh, fun. Okay, well, you said party, and so now I'm and walking.

SPEAKER_00
16:22

And you've you've earned you've earned several beers after you did that, even if you just do the 5k like like I will probably do.

SPEAKER_02
16:29

Roll straight to Oktoberfest because you're right there, and it's going on at the same time.

SPEAKER_00
16:34

Fucking magical.

SPEAKER_02
16:35

It's Milwaukee. What a tie-in. And that's how Milwaukee does a marathon.

SPEAKER_00
16:40

And right around that time should be another brewer playoff run. Hopefully, a deep one.

SPEAKER_02
16:46

Oh my gosh. Hopefully, hopefully.

SPEAKER_00
16:48

I don't want to jinx us, but I'm feeling it this year. I it could be the first World Series since 1982.

SPEAKER_02
16:56

Oh gosh, that's giving me goosebumps. Um, I think with the Miz, and then I happen to have been at the 22 to nothing shout out, shout out against the Mariners. Oh my gosh. I mean, it was it was just so fun. It was like kind of playoff vibes in the stadium. Everyone stayed past that tornado warning, like it was absolutely nothing. And it, I mean, it was at some point you're like, are they gonna is there a mercy rule in MLB? Like, do we stop? Are they gonna cry soon? Um, but yeah, it was so fun. And I cannot say it to enough people. Brewers games are such a big deal for tourism. There are so many businesses in Milwaukee who have some of their best weeks because of baseball fans. We got the Cubs series coming up. That is huge business for breweries like Lakefront Brewery. Um, beer history tours like best place, like the Paps Mansion, the Harley Museum. I mean, Cubs fans just get out and about cards fans too, as much as I hate to say that.

SPEAKER_00
18:02

But they're Do you hate the cards more than the Cubs?

SPEAKER_02
18:05

Well, I went to Mizzou during the um, and they won the World Series when I was a freshman.

SPEAKER_00
18:12

Okay, I don't know that's that's understandable.

SPEAKER_02
18:14

It's a particular level of insufferability that you witnessed.

SPEAKER_00
18:18

See, I grew up in Madison and then I went to Marquette, which is all Chicago sports fans. So I didn't hate the Cubs and the Bears that much before then. Then you go there and it's just obnoxious. Yes, my first for no good reason either, usually.

SPEAKER_02
18:34

Right. My first job ever was selling lemonade at Miller Park. Um, shout out the Lef's crew who ran the lemonade stands at the time. And Cubs games and cards games. I mean, you just saw like they would just get crazy and crazy fun because the like energy was super high, but also you know, also a little crazy crazy. Um, anyways, yeah, Brewers in the World Series would be a killer, and with um the Miz as a contender for the MVP, right? Or the Cy Young. Yeah, the Cy Young. The Cy Young. I mean, it we it's just like a magical team.

SPEAKER_00
19:15

Since this is a fall show, what are what are you launching this fall to follow that up?

SPEAKER_02
19:19

So pretty soon we've got the official grand opening of the Brew City Trail, which is this amazing trail of for people to explore just our brewing culture, its history, which is the thing that makes Milwaukee stand out from any other city who's got breweries, is our history as the world's brewing capital. Um, no one else has that. And we have so many amazing ways that you can still explore that and learn about it in ways that even would surprise OG locals. And that officially opens with over 50 stops.

SPEAKER_00
19:58

We got some early September ones coming right around the corner.

SPEAKER_02
20:02

Mm-hmm. So just around the corner, Silver City Fest. This one is typically on National Avenue. It's in its 15th year, by the way. And if you are new to the Silver City area, like if you love pho, if you love noodles, there are like some of the best noodle shops in the entire region. And there's a ton of them all in Silver City. Anyways, they're moving the festival this year to 35th and Pierce. Um, and there will just be dozens of vendors out there, and this is a really, really good opportunity to support a lot of businesses, small mom and pop businesses that have been really badly affected by the road construction on National Avenue. It's a major project. Um, and of course, will result in some much better roads, but it's been They're hurting right now. They're hurting right now. Yeah. And so I really recommend I'll be out there, I'm bringing the kids, but I recommend everyone get out there and order some pho, get some great Thai food.

SPEAKER_00
21:03

And whether you make it to that or not, those businesses are still open and operating. So it'd be important to go support them right now.

SPEAKER_02
21:10

Yep, very much so. And actually on our website, if you just search Mocky Keeps Cooking or on the city's website, you can see how to find parking in and around those areas so you can still go and get your takeout or dine in. Yeah, also early fall fest. Um, we've got Puerto Rican Festival that same weekend, September 12th.

SPEAKER_00
21:30

Where is that one?

SPEAKER_02
21:31

This one is on the Summer Fest grounds, and it started, I want to say in Humboldt Park a few years ago, and it's just grown ever since. And as you know, Richie, for a festival to grow from a park to the the main stage, that's a big deal. Um, so I think they've got about 15 Puerto Rican restaurants that'll be there. All of the cool cultural elements that we love at all of our summer festivals. Um, I'm really Really excited for this one. And it's a one-day fest, so you gotta go. Saturday, I'm guessing. Just Saturday.

SPEAKER_00
22:06

Yep. And what what else? Do we have one more early?

SPEAKER_02
22:09

Tosa Fest.

SPEAKER_00
22:10

Toast. Is that in Hart Park or where's that at?

SPEAKER_02
22:13

Yep, it it sure is, but it kind of like spreads throughout the village. I gotta say, this was probably Baby Claire's first festival in Milwaukee. I've been going to this one since I was a kid. I was a Tosa kid, and it was like the kickoff of fall. It was, I just love it. But actually, as an adult, it's awesome too. It's just a big street fest.

SPEAKER_01
22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
22:34

Yeah. And like, but really good restaurants, really good bars, the live music. They have those like twinkle lights now that are all throughout the village. I mean, it's it is really nice, but a a ton of fun no matter the age.

SPEAKER_00
22:47

Bree and I went to uh restaurante Bartellotta for the first time a couple weeks ago. Isn't it phenomenal? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the place was really good.

SPEAKER_02
22:55

Yeah, fantastic food. That was yeah, my homecoming dates would take me there.

SPEAKER_00
23:02

Good dates for high school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02
23:03

Well, well, you know. Yeah, yeah, once a year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
23:08

Brian and I have lived in Tosa for about five years, and that was the first time I took her there. So I've been getting shown up by Claire's high school dates. That reflects really well on me. Um, anything else people should check out this fall?

SPEAKER_02
23:20

I mean, I think it's like one of the most beautiful times of the year in Milwaukee. Hit the lakefront, hit the parks, go golfing in one of our like best, you know, amazing county golf courses.

SPEAKER_00
23:34

Um I think I drive up to Holy Hill.

SPEAKER_02
23:37

Oh, do the Holy Hill drive. That's a good one. The skeletons on the side of the road on the way to Holy Hill. The guy does like 200 skeletons on bicycles and costumes. They're really silly. Um, go to all of these fall festivals. Apple picking has started already. The moms know. I see.

SPEAKER_00
23:56

I don't know anything about this. Do you want to shout out a couple apple picking spots?

SPEAKER_02
24:01

Oh, there's the classics, the um peckin' bushels, there's elegant farmer. Um, there are many more, but those are I'd say what I hit up most frequently, but you want to go before it's like been fully picked over. And you know, it it's now the time is now until about October. Um, so great. But also like still beach days. It's like such a good time of year. You go to the beach, you go pick some apples.

SPEAKER_00
24:29

We were talking about this. I think September, October are my favorite months of the year.

SPEAKER_02
24:33

100%. Same.

SPEAKER_00
24:34

It's a little crispy out, you know, it's not overly hot. Still great to be outside.

SPEAKER_02
24:38

Humidity is has like pretty much gone, and I feel like this has been a summer of humidity. Um, so yeah, it's it's like go pick. I mean, I haven't been in Lake Park for a while. I feel like I gotta go there. I've never golfed the course there.

SPEAKER_00
24:52

It's a fun little track.

SPEAKER_02
24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02
24:54

I would like to.

SPEAKER_00
24:55

Have you ever done is it do they have bocce ball there or croquet or what's next to Lake Park Bistro?

SPEAKER_02
25:00

Yep, that's that's bocce. I just did um Grant Park, which was really pretty. And Grant Park.

SPEAKER_00
25:08

Grant Park's beautiful. That's a that's a fun little golf course too. Oh, yeah. It's got character.

SPEAKER_02
25:13

It's not, I think it's like a par 68 or 69, but um real quiet holes and the um you're right by the beach, which is that's my favorite beach in Milwaukee. It has, I think, the best like food beer garden situation of all the beaches. I love it. I'm a big grand park stand.

SPEAKER_00
25:31

Do those uh beer gardens stay open through September or when do those close?

SPEAKER_02
25:35

I believe so, and then a little into October, even. Um, but I would definitely, and that one is run by Firches, so just check their like Facebook page or website because they have all the dates.

SPEAKER_00
25:47

Another good one. Speaking of toasts, so then we can wrap up the Hoyt Park has a good old one. It's kind of tucked away in there.

SPEAKER_02
25:54

Speaking of places I grew up going to, Hoyt Park, pre-renovations and post-renovations, but that beer garden is it, and actually, their um their big beer hall screens a lot of Packers games, so it's kind of like a hidden gem. I've never been inside the games.

SPEAKER_00
26:11

I've never been inside.

SPEAKER_02
26:12

It's really beautiful, but I I love the beer garden there.

SPEAKER_00
26:16

Sweet. Well, that that'll wrap it up. Everyone, go out there and have an amazing fall around Milwaukee. Hey everyone, thank you for tuning into this episode of Milwaukee Uncut. Thanks to Claire for coming on. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. Annex Wealth Management, Nicola, and Drink Wisconsin will be beverage company.

SPEAKER_01
0:00

So will you allow Milwaukee rap? Have you talked to the staff yet? Is that the only question mark on the opening date right now? Only question is. Hey guys, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut for a little bonus episode here. As many of you know, one of the biggest and most controversial local news stories over the last few weeks, maybe even over the summer, has centered around the garage, an absolute institution over on Brady Street. For those of you who may not have been following along or need to get caught up, I'll just go over a quick recap of what happened. So on August 23rd, our friend Ishtar posted a video to his TikTok account, Ishtar Spam, showing a document titled No Playlist. The document prohibited DJs at the garage from playing music from 40 mainstream artists, which all happened to be black hip-hop artists. And then in bold at the bottom, it said very clearly, no Milwaukee rap. That video has now been viewed over 1.1 million times, and after it got posted, it quickly attracted national attention. The Garage then issued a statement on social media apologizing for the list. They said they had spoken with the employee who created it, explaining that the original intention was to remove music with lyrics about guns and violence, but acknowledging that creating a specific list of artists was the wrong approach. Then on August 27th, so just four days later, if I'm doing my math correctly, the garage and hi-hat announced that they were temporarily shutting down. Then a few days after that, on September 1st, it was announced that the garage had been sold. Now one of the two owners was reported as Scott Schaeffer, who happens to be the owner of Herd Hospitality. Herd Hospitality owns a number of venues around Milwaukee, including Wenaki Golf Course and the Brat House, and just right kind of across the street, Kitty Corner, Jack's on Brady. Now I know Scott. I gave him a call and he was nice enough to invite us inside the garage to sit down and you know let us know what he's experienced the last few weeks and how this came to be. So we talked about just how the sale happened and if it was already in the works or if it was very sudden. We go over his backstory a little bit, which is which is very interesting. He's got a great backstory. Why he wanted to buy the garage in hi-hat, just Brady Street as he's operated a business on that street since 2013. The new opening date for the garage. We also talked about retaining the garage's staff, and as a lot of you are wondering if Milwaukee Rap will be allowed moving forward. Before we dive in, I just want to take a quick second to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We will kick it off with our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. The fall, after a nice long summer, is a great time to get your act together and take a nice hard look at your finances. And if you need some help, you should contact the experts at Annex Wealth Management. Annex, know the difference. Just head on over to annexwealth.com. Nicolay Law, the Midwest law firm, injured. Get Nicolay and Russ and the team will take great care of you. We've got a got a good video coming out with them this week that I'm excited about. And last but not least, Drink Wisconsinably Beverage Company, best vodka brandy and canned cocktails in the game available at the Drink Wisconsinablee pub across from the Pfizer, over in Wright Field at the Corner Bar at Ampham Field and at bars and liquor stores across the state. All right, let's dive in with Scott Schaefer. Hey guys, welcome back to a special emergency podcast of Milwaukee Uncut. We're here with my friend Scott Schaefer, the owner of Herd Hospitality inside of the currently closed but soon to reopen garage, which has had a very eventful two weeks. And Scott was nice enough to let us in here, talk a little bit about the ownership transition. But I a lot of people don't know who you are, so wanted to talk to you and about your story, and you've done a lot for Brady Street and the Milwaukee community. So I thought it would be good for people to get to know you. Um but before getting into that, I will kick it off. Did you uh, you know, two weeks ago did you think you'd be be owning this place? Is there an opening date?

SPEAKER_00
4:31

No, not two weeks ago, but this has been in the process for a while, and um although what happened to sped up the process, uh we still hope we plan to open here in like the middle of the middle of October.

SPEAKER_01
4:41

Middle of October. So when uh when did you start having conversations about purchasing the garage at the end?

SPEAKER_00
4:46

Sure. Serious uh conversations began earlier the summer of May. Um we were looking at uh purchasing another spot in the area on Brady Street, and um I've been in the conversation with Leslie, the old uh owner for a while, uh having interest in Hayek Garage, and uh I just I just checked in with her before I moved on to my other idea. I want to make sure she had no interest in selling and and uh that one email led to where we're at today.

SPEAKER_01
5:12

And for people who don't know you, what is your backstory? Are you a Milwaukee guy? How did you get into this industry and what spots you currently own?

SPEAKER_00
5:20

Yeah, um I'm from Brookfield, uh born and raised. Um I own uh Milwaukee Broadhouse downtown. I own the Broadhouse in Sherwood, uh Wurst Bar, Jack Sprady, Wanaki Golf Course, and uh Nettie's Irish Pub in Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_01
5:35

And how how did you get your start?

SPEAKER_00
5:37

Yeah, I got my start my my brother. My brother uh his dream was to own the broadhouse down in Milwaukee, he lived in New York, and he he uh he loved a bar called McSorley's in Manhattan. And his idea was to bring that concept to Milwaukee. And um back in 2008 he moved from New York to Milwaukee and opened the broadhouse and shortly after open he uh he got diagnosed with skin cancer and and passed away. So I was 20 years old when I inherited the broadhouse.

SPEAKER_01
6:03

And you were a student at UWM at that point in time?

SPEAKER_00
6:06

Yeah, I was a s I was a senior UWM. It was very interesting at the time.

SPEAKER_01
6:10

Yeah, what was what was that like to take over a bar as a senior and your brother who I'm I'm guessing just by this you were very close with passes away relatively unexpectedly.

SPEAKER_00
6:20

Yeah, it was um my my dream was to be an airline pilot, and I had my pilot's license. I've been I was flying planes since I was like 14 years old. So uh I really want aviation. Aviation's still my passion. That's a little airplanes and that and whatnot. But uh my brother passed away. I started running the broadhouse. Um probably should have failed quite a few times those first couple of years. I was very trying, I was going to school, um, probably like to have a little too much m fun over work, and um it just things started to work.

SPEAKER_01
6:49

Yeah, I could think if um myself at that age inherited a bar or any number of my friends did did that at age 20 or 21, it would have been a disaster. So I credit you a lot for keeping that place open and it's thriving, and you got a shorewood location now as well. Um and then owner of Jackson, Brady, too. Where when did when did you start that and and why?

SPEAKER_00
7:12

So uh Jack's on Brady Street was um that occurred in 2013. Uh my brother's name was Jack. Uh he was a Marine, he was very patriotic, loved America, and um I thought it was very fitting to be called Jack's American Pub. He was he was a bar guy, he always wanted to own bars. So I thought that location had to throw it back to him.

SPEAKER_01
7:30

Expanding the Brat House to Shorewood, getting Wanaki, just trying to build a little empire around around Milwaukee here?

SPEAKER_00
7:38

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it's it's I feel like it's every two to three years, you kind of you get hungry and want you want to do more items, or what can we do as a team? We have a great team. Uh, I work with some great people and and uh we're kind of always looking to explore for new opportunity.

SPEAKER_01
7:54

And uh what what excites you about owning the garage and hi-hat? This is this has been a staple. I lived off Brady for about eight years. I I came here quite a bit to to both spots.

SPEAKER_00
8:06

Sure. Garage Hi-Hat's been a staple, you know, it's it's been here forever. Growing up in college, me, I I this was a spot that uh we always loved. And and owning Jackson Brady Street, you look over here and uh you just think of the great space. You got you got the hi-hat, you got garage, and you got this awesome patio, which there's very few places in the city of Milwaukee that have great patio space for the summer, and this is possibly one of the best.

SPEAKER_01
8:29

Any other favorite things about these these two spots?

SPEAKER_00
8:32

Um the parking lot out back. I've been I've been dying to find parking on Brady Street, and and with this purchase, we get 16 parking spots out back.

SPEAKER_01
8:40

I didn't know there was a parking lot out back.

SPEAKER_00
8:42

It comes with it comes with the congratulations, congrats, congratulations.

SPEAKER_01
8:46

Um you've been in kind of negotiations since the summer. Did you have any initial reaction after news broke about the no playlist that oh this could happen faster? Did did Leslie reach out to you after that? Did you reach out to her? How did that work?

SPEAKER_00
9:05

Uh Leslie reached out to me first, and I I so happened to be out of town, so I was I was unfamiliar with it. And then when she told me I I started looking online to see. Um and uh I I didn't learn about it until it it broke and and um it was it was an unfortunate situation.

SPEAKER_01
9:22

Do you feel like you're going to need to uh do any any damage control on that one? Reopening, or is it just kind of like a fres fresh start or carrying on what the garage has been? Do you have any thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00
9:33

You know, we think uh Hyatt Garage is a great bar. It was it was we have no problems with how it was it was being run. We're we're gonna still hire DJs, we'll respect the music the DJs play. Uh we want a fun atmosphere, and uh we will control, you know, work with the DJs uh on however they view fit for the for that night.

SPEAKER_01
9:50

So so will you allow Milwaukee rap?

SPEAKER_00
9:53

Yes, we will allow Milwaukee rap.

unknown
9:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_01
9:54

And what does Brady Street mean to you? You're you've been very invested in it.

SPEAKER_00
9:58

Yeah, Brady Street is is a street that um is a Milwaukee nightlife hub. Um we love the street. It has it has its challenges up ups ups and downs, but uh we all work really hard. Uh my partner Daz, who who owns us with us, he's on the Brady Street bid. Uh we're invested in the neighborhood. We take great pride in what we do. We try to run a very clean operation.

SPEAKER_01
10:19

Nice. And any is there an opening date right now?

SPEAKER_00
10:22

We are hoping, we're saying October 15th. It's a Thursday. We're gonna open up maybe some live music and then go into a DJ set at night.

SPEAKER_01
10:29

And it seems is this a little under construction? Are you doing doing anything?

SPEAKER_00
10:33

There's there's uh a water issue, the based on a water main issue that's getting the fixed right now that uh we knew about during the DLC.

SPEAKER_01
10:39

Okay, so nothing nothing exciting changed to the structure, just a water issue being fixed.

SPEAKER_00
10:44

A water issue being fixed. Um we're gonna we're gonna clean up, put a little bit of our touches to it to have a more fresh, cleaner opening.

SPEAKER_01
10:50

And you need to get the liquor license by the 15th. Is that the only question, Mark, on the opening date right now?

SPEAKER_00
10:56

The only question is the liquor license. Uh, we met with the aldermen. Um we're moving towards the process of just the liquor license, and there's no fast way of doing it. The timeline is a timeline.

SPEAKER_01
11:06

So on the the garages statement, it said they were still paying employees for two weeks and I think offering two weeks severance. Have you talked to the staff yet? And are a lot of them going to remain on board?

SPEAKER_00
11:17

We are uh meeting with the staff this week or this coming week after the holiday, and uh we'll we'll work through that. We are we're hoping to retain as many people as possible that want to be part of our team. Um and whatever whatever gaps we got to fill, we'll go to the hiring.

SPEAKER_01
11:30

Great. Any uh any closing message to the people of Milwaukee?

SPEAKER_00
11:33

No, well uh we'll hope to see you all here on Brady Street uh Garage and I.

SPEAKER_01
11:38

Hey everyone, thank you for tuning into this episode of Milwaukee Uncut, and a big thank you to Scott for letting us inside the garage and sharing his story. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible Annex Wealth Management, Nicolay Law, and Drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company.

SPEAKER_04
0:00

It was like $8,000 for the worst seat in the house. It was people paying $157,000 for a courtside seat. And you realize like if you could reprice it and resell those tickets, people would have paid more than it was kind of wild. I would, you know, text Carmelo or text Amari or text Jeremy. John Starks is on the bus and LJ's there. And Timothy Chalamet was on the bus with me.

SPEAKER_03
0:20

Kind of looking around like, you know, this is a wild scene.

SPEAKER_04
0:24

I get to my house, my boy texts me, like, hey, congrats on your new team. I put my name in Twitter. Can't even figure out which team I'm going to yet. 7 o'clock a.m. the next morning. There was a PJ waiting for us.

SPEAKER_00
0:36

Is there a Dwayne moment where you're like, oh, this dude's different?

SPEAKER_04
0:40

When I was a sophomore in high school, Coach Crean had started recruiting me.

SPEAKER_00
0:47

Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee on Cut. We've got a Knicks slash Marquette legend in the building today. Steve Novak dropped by, and it was co-hosted by Anthony Molochek from Annex Wealth Management. We talked about the Knicks finals run and the parade, which Steve was all part of. And we got some great stories that I'd never heard before. I don't even know if these are out there. They were about his former teammates Dwayne Wade, Jeremy Lynn, Enos Cantor, who's been in the news quite a bit recently, and Russell Westbrook. He's played with all those guys and many more. We also got to talk some Bucks and Marquette Hoops, and he lists the greatest Brown Deer High School athletes of all time. Did our guy, SimGod, make the list? You will have to listen through to find out. Just a great episode with Steve Novak. Before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee on Cup possible. We'll kick things off with our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management, which includes our co-host Anthony and their CEO, Dave Spano, who we just put out a very nice wedding budgeting skit with on social media. You'll have to check that out. Anyway, Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything: retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. Annex, know the difference. You can just visit annexwealth.com. Nicola, injured. Get Nicola and Russ, and the team will take great care of you. We got to hang out with the man himself last Friday. He threw the first pitch at the brewer game. He was even warming up with our dog Oakley, who kept taking the ball from him and Cody in our backyard beforehand after we shot a skit at our house on Friday. And he got to the game, went right up to the mountain, safely got it right in the catcher's mit. Well done, Russ. And again, if you are injured, call Nicola. And last but not least, drink Wisconsin Blee Beverage Company, Best Vodka, Brandy, and Canned Cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state and at the corner bar in right field the damn fam. So get yourself an old-fashioned next time you're watching a Brewers game and hopefully a deep playoff run ahead for the crew. All right, let's dive in with Steve Novak. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. Absolute legend in the building today over his 11-year NBA career. Attempted over 1,336 three-pointers and 27 shots from the paint in 467 games. Meaning you'd shoot from the paint once every 17.3 games.

SPEAKER_04
3:33

Wow. Yeah, I thought you were going to give like a one every half.

SPEAKER_00
3:36

I needed a calculator for that one. Um 17 games.

SPEAKER_01
3:42

Mix one in there, right? I like it.

SPEAKER_00
3:45

That's fantastic. I also did some research. I think 95% of your made attempts were assisted.

SPEAKER_04
3:53

Yes. I needed guys pass me the ball. Or are you saying that I couldn't create my own shot?

SPEAKER_01
3:58

Is that what are you saying? I think that's what he's saying. I think that's what he said.

SPEAKER_04
4:00

Was that a passion?

SPEAKER_00
4:02

Such an elite catch-and-shoot player, you didn't need to create your own shot. Does that sound better? Okay.

SPEAKER_01
4:07

Also, uh keep moving while without the basketball.

SPEAKER_00
4:10

I like how we're just working back up. Absolutely. Um 2002 Gatorade Wisconsin High School Player of the Year. I I do have to I I did see you did not win a state championship. You fell to my Edgewood Crusaders.

SPEAKER_04
4:23

Look, he had to bring it up. You see how we're starting out. I didn't talk about Madison High School.

SPEAKER_00
4:27

Was that that game in eighth grade, I think? Yeah. The Hansbrough Twins. I don't know if you remember. Oh, yeah. No, good play. Alva and Adriel, I believe. They played corner at uh um Northern Northern Illinois.

SPEAKER_04
4:38

Yeah, they played a little triangle in two on me. I didn't appreciate that. They put both of them on me. It helps to have a twin brother, both athletic.

SPEAKER_00
4:45

You were like a foot taller than the foot taller. You were dealing with you were so you were you were against two football D1 football cornerbacks trying to play basketball basically. I was.

SPEAKER_04
4:54

They won. They were a good squad.

SPEAKER_00
4:57

Okay, well, back on a better note, he may not have won the state title, but did make it to the final four with with Dwayne Wade and Travis Diener and the crew in 2003 Conference USA, sixth man of the year as well, and then led the NBA in three-point percentage. 11, 12, just a magical year in New York. Um in current Knicks TV analyst for MSG Networks, formerly with the Bucs in that role, did an amazing job. And two-time NBA champion analyst.

SPEAKER_04
5:28

That's true. Yeah, I had I'd never actually heard it said that way, but I'll take it. Add it to your resume. I would include it. I think so. Probably put that on the resume. Probably.

SPEAKER_00
5:40

Well, if you get anything out of today, that's that's a new thing you can say to people to flex on them.

SPEAKER_04
5:45

You're a good hype man. You know, you started out with the Madison Edgewood, but he brought it back to my head.

SPEAKER_00
5:49

I didn't start with that. I started high, then you know, they tried to take you on a little roller coaster through the intro. Also um joined by Anthony Molatchek. Again, back for the second time in three or four episodes recently. Um, over at Annex Wealth Management, also founder of 24 and Up, was was a very good basketball player in his own right, has done a lot of skills training over the year, coaches his kids now as well. So thanks for coming back for this one, too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01
6:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_00
6:18

Steve, should we start with the Knicks finals run? Yeah. What a ride.

SPEAKER_04
6:22

Yeah. It was a ride. It was a ride. I think every year you just know that there's, you know, come the end of the year, there's four to six teams that have a chance to win it all. And it's not always a team you expect. And I think the Knicks were in that group, and so you thought, like, wow, what a what a fun year it's been so far. 50 plus wins, you know, some great personalities. It's New York City, it was great. But uh, I think then what happened in the playoffs was was beyond I think what a lot of people expected. I think if you were close, closely watching the team, you felt like it was a a group that could win it, but there were there were stretches during during the year, like most teams, where you're like, I don't know if this team has it, they're they've lost the last three games, they're not playing well, and we'll see what happens. But then they won 13 in a row and won what was it? They lost you know two to Atlanta, but then they only lost one more playoff game against San Antonio the rest of that stretch before they won it. So uh it was a special run, and obviously 53 years is a long time to go without winning a championship. I know Bucks fans can relate to that with their last championship taking a while as well, and so you know, New York is just uh it's got a little different energy to it when there's a long time waiting and you know, some serious basketball fans. So it was it was fun to be a part of and some special uh performances, some comeback wins to to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00
7:38

Were you in the building for game four?

SPEAKER_04
7:41

Good question. So I was doing pregame, postgame, four games, three and game. Well, for all the playoff games, but for the two home games, the first two are in San Antonio, the Knicks won both. It comes back games three and game four. And game four, like you're alluding to, is the OG Ananobi tipping at the end off of Jalen Brunson's miss. I'm doing pregame, postgame across the street in our studio. And so we're in the building to watch the game, and I'm sitting next to Jeremy Lynn and Eddie Curry and some of the other former guys, and with seven minutes left in the game, I gotta get back to the studio. I gotta get back and get ready. We get to compare our notes and start talking about what we're gonna talk about in the show, get a rundown together. And it's like they had finally chipped back, they were down 29, down 27 and a half, they're getting closer and closer. When I left the building, I think they were down like 17 with seven minutes. With about seven minutes. And I got back across the street after getting through the barricades and everything and crossing the street like five minutes later. And it was like an eight-point game. And I'm thinking, this is crazy. Like they're within reach after thinking it was a 29-point deficit and 27 and a half, it's never gonna happen. And my wife was in the building, and when it happened, it was like I texted her, Do you know where you are right now? I am so mad that I just had to run across the street and be in the in the studio for this, because it turned into like this basketball gala where it was like they put on Frank Sinatra, celebrity row is on the court at Madison Square Garden, and it was like everybody was just hanging out, having a good time, and you just you knew you experienced like one of the most magical, memorable, historic moments in sports history, much less New York or Garden or Nick's history. And so uh it was it was really cool. But I was almost in the building, I was right across the street, and it was well, what a moment. It was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01
9:28

You could almost feel it too, like you know, playing basketball, like once you're playing kind of behind, and you're like, okay, there's really nothing to lose. You get down 17, then you get to eight, you're like, okay, like and it was, I mean, watching that, or uh how late was it East Coast time at that point?

SPEAKER_04
9:48

I was probably my body clock was already reset when I had been there, but it was pretty it was late. It's late night here for sure.

SPEAKER_01
9:53

It's like glued into that. We were sitting there just like with my kids, and like we jumped up and we're celebrating, and not even a New York fan, but kind of like got on the bandwagon just because I've never I've never seen New York, you know, win before. And that was my Bucks fan that I was like, all right, I'm going on in the Knicks here.

SPEAKER_04
10:13

Yeah, and and and to your point, it's like you could so I it was down, they're down 29 at the most, and then at halftime it's 27. And with about five minutes left in the first half, I'm sitting next to Jeremy, Lynn, and I said to him, jokingly but kind of serious, do you just want to go into the back where we kind of have a little player's lounge? Do you want to go in the back into the lounge and just get some sushi? Like this is brutal right now. I'm serious because in the first half, when you're down by the. Antonio couldn't miss. I felt like the calls were all going their way. It was the first game back in New York, the first final. People had just that was the game where they were putting up all the prices that people were paying. Oh, and they were astronomical. It was like $8,000 for the worst seat in the house. It was people paying $157,000 for a courtside seat, and they were posting them. And you know, people on Twitter are legit are saying, like, this is a real transaction, this really happened. And so you're thinking, like, this is you know, game three is crazy. Game four, obviously, you fast forward, and the the numbers were pretty much the same. They were selling for that much. And it's like you look back at the moment that it happened and you realize like if you could reprice it and resell those tickets, people would have paid more than they actually probably for that game, for that comeback.

SPEAKER_00
11:25

For that comeback.

SPEAKER_04
11:26

And and I'm and I'm like, Do you want to go back and just get some sushi or whatever? And he's like, Do you want to go back? Do you want to show it? I was like, No, no, we can't like we can't leave a seat. We're back at halftime. And he says to me, because he's doing some ESPN pre-game, post-game stuff, he says to me, Do you know that there's never been uh road, never been a finals where the road team has won the first four games. And obviously the Knicks had won the first two on the road in San Antonio, and then San Antonio came in and won game three. So if San Antonio won game four, would have been the first time in finals history the road team won each of the first four games. And I said, We're down 27. You're giving me a little hope, but are you serious? And he's like, I'm just telling you, like, that's what one of the stats I found interesting. And then lo and behold, it's like it takes that miracle tip into to make it happen. So it was it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00
12:14

Yeah, I I was indifferent on the team. I was kind of pissed because we do our Pottawatomy parlay of the week, and I remember I needed that one. I just put like I had Spurs money line. I was like, they they could win this one, and you know, would have been a decent amount of money, and uh went to sleep and woke up and was just like, what the fuck happened? That was um yeah, happy for you to get to experience.

SPEAKER_04
12:35

That's what gambling does, it takes the joy.

SPEAKER_00
12:36

Anyway, you did get to participate in the parade, though. Yeah, you had a nice tweet. I think you said something like it transcended the way you view humanity.

SPEAKER_04
12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00
12:45

It was that looked crazy.

SPEAKER_04
12:46

What was the parade day like for you? Yeah, it was uh it was it was kind of wild because you started to get like assignments where it was like I would you know text Carmelo or text Amari or text Jeremy.

SPEAKER_00
12:59

Were you working during it, or did you get to just enjoy it or a combination?

SPEAKER_04
13:03

It was a little combo where we were doing some interviews on the float bus with some of the guys that were there. So it was like John Starks is on the bus and LJ's there, and Mello is on there, and Timothy Chalamet was on the bus with me, and you're kind of looking around, like, you know, this is a wild scene, you know, where it's like this is just one bus. It's like Jalen Brunson has his own bus, Carl Anthony Towns. It's like Chris Rock is over here, right? Mike Breen is over on his bus. It's just like Ben Stiller, right? I don't know whose bus he was on. And it's just a wild scene. But you basically got assignments like you're gonna be on the alumni bus, you're gonna be on you know, Jalen's bus. People started figuring out where they were gonna be, and and then it was like, hey, you got to be, you know, over at MSG at about uh 7.15. We're gonna take the buses over to City Hall, you're gonna get on the buses, then we're gonna do the loop and come back to to City Hall. So it was just this like really cool environment to start the day where it was like everybody was at City Hall. And then we loaded up on the buses, and then you go down the canyon of heroes, which was just I mean, that that tweet I had sent out about like it just like changing my view of humanity because I've never seen so many people, and it was millions of people so excited about a common thing. And and not just like on board with something or like we all aligned with that view. It was like people, you know, reaching their hands out for these guys and getting to see them for the first time, you know. Not everybody that's at the parade gets to go to games. And so it was this like really cool spectacle of I think it it meant so much to the city, you know, it was such a special moment. I think it was like this wild playoff underdog story that so many people, you know, got to be a part of. And the parade, it just went on and on. And some of the like you know, photos and videos I think that a lot of us put out, you couldn't even capture just how far the people went and how excited and how loud they were. And then you'd have those moments where you just would turn and look and you'd be like, that's Chalamet on the back of the bus as the hype guy. You know, he's like, New York City, like let's go. And you're like, what is going on? We're out of right now. And it was when it ended, you were like, that's a bummer. We should do, I want to do that again. Yeah, right. So it was yeah, it was a it was a cool, cool scene to be a part of, and uh something that feels like only New York City could put together. So it was uh it was special.

SPEAKER_01
15:24

Yeah, it takes me back kind of to to the bucks, you know, like a totally different level. But yeah, when they won that game six, as much as it was about the basketball, like the city, like you just walk around and it did not matter, you know, and high-fiving talking to different people that probably would never talk to, you know, it was it was such a good moment for the city and for kind of bringing people together. But that's what sports can do, too. It definitely brought New York together, you know.

SPEAKER_04
15:55

Like no, it did. And it was funny too, because you'd see some wild stuff on Twitter, you know, like people acting crazy and doing crazy stuff. But it was like all I knew was being there. I was like, this is the most loving, peaceful time I've to your point. Yep. About you know, when when the Bucks won the championship too, it was it was like everyone you you saw at lunch or if you're out at dinner, you knew you had a common topic and a common something to celebrate. And so it felt like that in New York too, where it was like, oh, there's this violence or there's something bad going on. I'm like, whatever's going on, it's the lowest percentage of something bad or violence going on ever in the history because everybody was so happy. And uh, like you said, I think it's you know, sports can be magical. And you know, when it's those kind of comeback stories like that, where it's like they were the Knicks were down in every one of those San Antonio games. When you saw those stats where it was like they trailed 72% of the series, yeah, you're like, I've seen teams win championships, I've seen you know the better team win. But at the end of that series, you were like, I don't know if we saw like quote unquote the better team. You heard Kenny Atkinson with Cleveland saying stuff like, well, analytically, I saw that. You know, and you were like, Well, if you're watching the series, you were like, I hear what you're saying, that's not how it works. Kenny's a friend of mine. But everyone was like, that's not how it works. But you were like, Yeah, they keep coming back.

SPEAKER_02
17:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
17:20

So I think that just I think it adhered a lot of people to kind of what was happening. Made it uh a little different, more religious experience because you're like, I can't believe it happened.

SPEAKER_00
17:31

Yeah, analytics doesn't always win games, it's just kind of pulling it out and hitting shots when it when it counts. And they squeezed a lot of those out. They did. They did. And I think I think whenever you know better than me, but um whenever a team wins, even looking at the Bucks winning, like there was a bunch of luck that was involved in that. Yeah. Maybe the years before when they arguably looked better and did not win, like there was some stuff that happened in those. But you know, if KD's foot's not on that line, none of that happens. Exactly. At all. So it's yeah, sometimes you need some breaks too, not saying the Knicks got a ton of them, but they like, you know, you miss a shot, you make a shot, you get a tip ball, or you get a cow, like a little tip in bio. Like the one thing Lendy did at the end of that one game, and I think Jalen stole it and went to the line. Yeah. Yeah, it's I think if you ask, you know, there's a small margin for error at that high of a level. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
18:24

And it's, you know, like you're saying, the the it's not guaranteed when you're the best team. No. It's just not. And I think I've heard so many like Hall of Fame high-level coaches say, look, of course it's about preparation and it's about personnel and it's about adjustments, and it's about all these things, but it's also, like you're saying, always a little bit about luck.

SPEAKER_00
18:42

And I think the Knicks just seemed a little looser too, like everyone thought the Spurs were gonna win. They had just gone through a grueling series with the Thunder where the Knicks kind of cruised and were arguably, I mean, fresher. They had a long break before that.

SPEAKER_04
18:56

But yeah. Yeah. Stars aligned. They did. Yeah. And when you start sweeping teams, like the Knicks swept Philly, swept Cleveland. It's like they're playing some good hoops, and then you're watching, like you said, San Antonio and Oklahoma City go at it into a beating each other up. Yeah, game seven was wild. Game one might have been one of the best basketball games I've ever seen in that in that series. And so you just you don't know how it ends up, but yeah, it was a magical year. And I think good for the NBA, good for basketball, too. You know, it's like for the Knicks to win in New York City and all that. It's like it's a unique champion. Yeah, it was good. It was good.

SPEAKER_00
19:33

Um, let's jump to this. I don't want to spend a ton of time on this because we got some ground to cover, but you you've you have quite the lineup of teammates you played with in the NBA. Yeah. Yao Ming, yeah, team Mac. You went to the conference finals with Westbrook and Durant. Yeah. Giannis, obviously, when you came back to the Bucks, Melo and Amari on the Knicks. I mean, Wayne, Wade, Deaner, Mike Kinsella, when you were with Mike. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04
20:00

A little shout out to Mike Kinsella.

SPEAKER_00
20:01

I swear to friend of the program. Apparently had a higher three-point percentage than you there. Yeah, I don't know. We're gonna have to look at minimum five attempts. Three for five careers.

SPEAKER_01
20:14

Casa Microsoft. Casa Micos.

SPEAKER_04
20:17

Um time goes on, we allowed stats to be the threshold to be even lower.

SPEAKER_00
20:22

You were involved in that. Um anyway, uh we don't have time to go through all of them, but if there was like one thing that surprised you most about one of those guys, yeah, what what would it be? Who would you choose and what would that be that like people like us would not be aware of?

SPEAKER_04
20:41

Yeah, like you said, I think you know the Hall of Fame guys are I I was fortunate to to play with a lot of guys. Unfortunat I got traded a bunch like five times and played on nine teams in 11 years. But you know, playing with those guys is is such a cool thing, I think, when your your dream is to be an NBA basketball player because those were guys, all those guys you listed were guys I looked up to. And so I think it's like, you know, when I first played against Kobe, when I first matched up with, you know, Tim Thomas. Those were both guys I had like Tim Thomas from the Bucs? Oh, I had posters of them on my so did I, you know, and and T Mac was one of them too. I had a poster of T Mac in my college dorm room. And so, you know, that list that you ran off, I think it it really is one of those, like when you playing those guys, you have to just take a step back and go, like, all right, we have to I have to compete.

SPEAKER_00
21:30

I gotta realize this. I have to somehow compete with Kobe Bryant.

SPEAKER_04
21:34

Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I mean, I would say honestly, playing against those each for each one of those guys, and especially with the ones you list that were my teammates, those were all just like dreams dreams come true. You know, for me, as I got older in my career, they weren't all idols to me. But when I first got in the league, they were. Um But I would say, you know, like of my basketball stories, the the kind of the story that happened in my career that Was that stands out the most was like Lin Sanity. It was the lockout shortened year where we we unlocked basically to start Christmas. And that Knicks team ended up being with Jeremy Lynn and the year of Lin Sanity. And uh, you know, when when I look back at that year and playing hoops with Jeremy and kind of what that ended up becoming and the impact that you know being in the Knicks organization for me has meant, Jeremy and I were actually in the in the D-League. It was not the G League, it was a D-League at the time with the Reno Bighorns the year before that. I had gotten released by the Dallas Mavericks and I signed with the Reno Bighorns. I think he had been released by the Golden State Warriors, and he ended up on the Reno Bighorns. We were teammates and basically both not good enough or not enough room for us in the league. You know, and so I think seeing who he became and the phenomena that Linsanity was, I think might have been like the coolest basketball experience, most unexpected that you know I I definitely had, and is a story that I just continue to share with people because it was like I was with him the year before in the D-League where he wasn't, I wasn't, we weren't good enough to be at the playing in front of like 97 people in arena. Yeah, and then a year later it's like he is putting up whatever the 20, you know, 25, 8, and 7 on Kobe. Rest in peace on a you know, on a Friday night or up, was it a Saturday night at the garden, and he's in game winners against Toronto and putting up numbers on Darren Williams and going against John Wall. And so I think it's one of those stories that it's just like everyone can relate to where you're like, wow, he could do it, and you were with them. You didn't even realize. I'm like, he didn't realize he couldn't.

SPEAKER_00
23:42

You said on a show, he was like a day away from getting cut before that happened.

SPEAKER_03
23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
23:47

Yeah, his 10 day was up. And Kenny Atkinson was our uh our player development coach, so it was like myself, Jeremy, a few other guys in the mornings getting our like we call our vitamin in, our pre pre-practice workout in. Dan Dantoni, coach Mike Dantoni's brother, was in the gym with us getting workouts in as well. And you know, there's the coaches are seeing, you know, who Jeremy is and they want to give him a shot and they like him, but there's just not room for him. And then we have enough injuries, and that it's coming close to the end of his 10 day that Dan Dantoni, Kenny Atkinson are like going to bat with our head coach Mike Dantoni, and saying, like, give him a shot, put him out there. Like, he's gonna get cut tomorrow. What do we have to lose? You know, I mean, it really, if you look at the it was actually the next day. So it's like fine, you know, go start against I think it was, I think it was Darren Williams. Yeah. And he put up a monster game, and it was obviously what ended up being the start of Linsanity, but it was like, all right, well, re-sign this guy. I think he's gonna be all right, and then played good enough through that stretch to get that that poison pill contract offered by the Houston Rockets, where they I think they they front loaded or backloaded, I think they backloaded the contract and put like 80% of the money in the third year because they knew the Knicks were in a bad spot salary cap-wise in that third year. And so it got a little messy and Jeremy had to go to the Houston Rockets, but it was uh just an incredible story of what you know the the human spirit can do, the belief in yourself, you know, even when people are telling you, like, ah, you went to Harvard, nobody really comes out of Harvard and doesn't, ah, you're Asian. We've not seen a lot of Asian guys do like this. And to hear Jeremy talk about it, he's like, Yeah, that's that's what I heard. And he was like, I just believed in myself, kept pushing, and then made some magic happen. So it's cool now.

SPEAKER_01
25:31

We get to be confident, yeah. Right? You probably saw that the year prior. Like he put the work in, he was confident. Yeah, so when that moment came, he cut he probably just kind of blacked out in a way, like he was just hooping, but he was a confident person.

SPEAKER_04
25:45

Yeah, he he was. He always did believe in, and he always said, like, you know, he believed in what he could do. No, when people ask him like that, but you know, did you think you would you do what you did? And he's like, Oh, no, no, no. No, I never you know, I never thought that, and it's and that I think it's is being just candid and honest, you know. It's like you don't think you can do it at that level against a Kobe Bryant against a Darren Williams, but but he did. And he's he's finally retired. Now Jeremy's retired from from hooping, he's doing analyst work. We'll see where he ends up, but it's uh it's wild just to see, you know, everybody I played with retiring. Yes, that makes me old.

SPEAKER_00
26:22

Hey everyone, the season is changing. We've got football. I I just saw some pumpkin beer on tap last weekend. Bree would love to go apple picking and and hopefully a nice deep Brewers playoff run. With all this change, it may be, it probably is, a great time to take a hard look at your finances. And that's where Annex Wealth Management comes into play. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm with offices in and all around Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies, all under one roof. That's our friends at annexwealth management, annexwealth.com. And let's get back to the episode with Steve Novak and our co-host, Annex's own, Anthony Milochnik. Steve, you put nine different teams in 11 years. What's the side of that that people don't really see that you have to go through? Because the NBA is so glamorized. Like we just see what's on TV essentially.

SPEAKER_04
27:25

No, it is. And rightfully so. You know, it's like the but but to your point, there is definitely another side of it. You know, it's like you could probably do a whole show with NBA wives. You know, it's saying like, tell us what you just said the Brewer's Wives on this week.

SPEAKER_00
27:38

Oh, did you? It was a great episode, but it was it was cool like hearing their perspectives and uh what they go through. And I remember one of them talking. Um, Erica hosted it, but I I listened through it, and um, yeah, like guy gets a call up at midnight. He has to be on the next flight at 5 a.m. going to a different city that they don't have a house or an apartment in, and then the the wife is like getting a U-Haul and moving the dogs and the kids all the way across country. And yeah, it's that was just one example.

SPEAKER_04
28:06

Well, and it sounds like, you know, I feel like when I used to hear that kind of thing, I'd go like, I bet it's not like that. Like, I bet they're saying that they got a U-Haul, but someone else did it and whatever. And after being traded five times, and you know, there was one example that comes to mind, and I know our guy is a little bit controversial right now, but NS Cantor, NS Freedom Cantor. He we were in Utah.

SPEAKER_00
28:26

Do you mean the number one WNBA prospect?

SPEAKER_04
28:29

This that would be what he'd be considered at this point right now. I think we'll see how that ends up. We should probably leave that alone. Um we can leave it alone, but you can still tell a cantor story. No, but so we were teammates in Utah, and he in in only uh an Ennis Cantor Freedom way, he actually, on the last game before All-Star Break, slipped a reporter a note and it said basically, I'm gonna demand a trade. I want out, more or less, of Utah. And we were all like, well, we didn't know at the time we did it. We get on the bus after the game, we're in Dallas, and the reporter was supposed to, he had done a little verbal, like, you gotta wait until we, you know, take off or we land back, or it's all start break until you release that I'm gonna demand a trade and whatever. The reporter put it out before we got on the bus. Phones, guys, phones are going off. They're like, Yenis, this guy's saying that you just gave him a note in the locker room, and he's like, you know, pretty much like, yeah, I did. And you know, some of us kind of knew that he wanted to be traded anyway. We I go to Hawaii for All-Star Break, don't think anything of it. It's a great time. Come back. First practice back, practice is at one. Practice gets postponed for an hour. We're like, oh boy, here we go. Like stuff's going down. And you don't move practice an hour right after all-star break unless there's some action. Two o'clock, we go and we practice. Ennis is sitting out of practice. At the end of practice, I leave, I see the assistant GM in the parking lot. Hey, I'm always getting traded. I know there's movement on Ennis. Would you just tell me I'm going home? Or am I gonna be traded again? Am I in any of this? He says, No, you're not in it. You're good. I get to my house, my boy texts me, like, hey, congrats on your new team. I put my name in Twitter. I it's a three-team deal. I can't even figure out which team I'm going to yet. And this because he put that note in that reporter's pocket, because that news broke and he demanded a trade. We got traded that afternoon, 7 o'clock a.m. the next morning. There was a PJ waiting for us, and I had to pack my stuff to go to Oklahoma City with basically three to four months of of my belongings. And it was like goodbye to my wife and my children, like, figure it out. Come visit me on the weekend. I hope that uh you guys can come see me. But in season, I mean that is what it looks like. It's like it's a business, you got a game the next day, you better hurry up and get there, get your physical done, and and make it happen. Off seasons a little more calm. You can go get your stuff, you can move your stuff, you can get established. But that side of it is is real and I think entertaining if you're not a part of it. So if you are, it's pretty brutal though.

SPEAKER_00
31:03

Any any good Westbrook Durant stories?

SPEAKER_04
31:08

Yeah, those guys were were both such competitors, and no question, it's I mean it's well documented. I think it's they were both running kind of in the same lanes, a little bit literally, but more figuratively, where it's like they both wanted the shots, and rightfully so. They both wanted the ball. They both were kind of like attack mid-range and to the rim players. KD could obviously stretch it out a little more, but there was almost, it seemed like when I was teammates with them, just a little too much overlap. And it was like you never faulted either one because you saw Russell when he was downhill, it's like he was averaging a triple double. And KD could score from everywhere, in the mid-post, in the mid-range, you know, like from three. So you almost never faulted either of them for wanting the ball every time and wanting to go to work, but there just was this not enough, you know, room for both of them, it seemed like. And so, you know, I think they they got along, but not as well as they needed to to, I think ultimately win the whole thing. Like everybody thinks that they were talented enough in the primes of their careers to to get it done. So, you know, both guys that I would say this, as far as you know, what I saw guys get on the inside get to see it's like Russell Westbrook after the game was a completely different human being than he was in the game. He was a guy who had a light switch, or he was a monster, an animal. He was crazy to the reporters, he was crazy on the court, he was going act out right, and we've all seen it. For sure. And after the game in Oklahoma City, the court is like is lined off, and only the players' families and kids get to go on the court after the game. And it's kind of a cool tradition. And Russell, when he would come out, he went right to the kids, not even just his kids. He would go play with you know my son and all the kids, and he was the most gentle, loving. He's my son's favorite player to this day. When he retired recently, he was devastated. And so I think that's one side that's uh you know, was he like that in the community too? Yeah, big time. And so I think that's one thing, you know, on the inside you get to see is you're like, he's crazy on the basketball court, talking trash, doing crazy stuff, but just one of those.

SPEAKER_00
33:18

And to the reporters, maybe he felt like he needed to project that because it's kind of like the kind of player he was out there and didn't want to show the the soft side to anyone.

SPEAKER_04
33:27

Yeah. No, but I I always appreciated that you know that I think it's it's hard to have like that I'm this sometimes and I'm this other times. You know, it's almost I feel like it it fights against you being yourself. But I found it very cool that he was kind of the epitome of that, where he had to be that ultimate competitor and was always with like no apologies. And then immediately after the game, it was like no matter he might have just cussed a reporter out and had a bad game, whatever, and he was like out there on one knee, yeah, you know, like rebounding and and hanging with the kids and so I just always thought I just always thought it was a cool thing to see.

SPEAKER_00
34:07

Should we go to Marquette? Let's do it. How are you feeling about the squad this year? Any anyone or anything you're excited about?

SPEAKER_04
34:14

Yeah, I am excited. I think, you know, coming off a year last year that was obviously down and disappointing because I think the you know, the four years, especially before that, the team played so well. And there's gonna be down years when you've got that many NBA draft picks, and you know, Shaka just did such a good job with with those guys, especially in in this NIL era where there was so little turnover. You know, you got the the Tyler Colex and the Cam Jones and the uh and all those guys who were the starters, you know, it seemed like for all four years almost. Um and then last year was a little bit down, but you know, I do think, you know, having having a lot of the experience like this group has, where it's you know, Adrian Stevens coming back, who I know the Shock is excited about, and Nigel James is obviously someone that's on a lot of people's radar as you know, one of the top players, you know, in college. Obviously, Sonanda Fru, the big transfer um coming through. I saw there was also a guy from Liberty that just signed today, a little backup, a little 5'10 5'10 uh guard who's coming in. Um so you know, I just think the development of guys like like Josh Clark, even, you know, it's like I just think this is gonna be a very different year from last year. And the NIL environment and you know, going and getting different guys at turnover is a little different, you know, than we've seen at Marquette over the last few years, but obviously with the with the down years, I think a lot to be excited about.

SPEAKER_00
35:38

Shaka does a great job at retaining people in this environment. He does. Like even Nigel James. There there was never he, I'm sure he could go get a ton more money somewhere else, but then it seemed like there was never a question he was gonna leave. Yeah. And that was after the year they had that year. So I just when you talk to the guys, they all speak so highly of him. I think it just speaks volumes of what he's doing. And I think it's good he's finally going in and getting some guys from the portal. You kind of have to now.

SPEAKER_04
36:02

But yeah, I agree. And and I think that retention, it like to your to your point, I think it just really speaks to the development that these guys are they personally feel they're experiencing. They want to play at the highest level. There's money to be made in college. But if your dream is to play in the NBA, it's like and you're being put around good guys and you're in a good place and you believe in your coach, it's like, you know, there's a reason. You know, guys like Cam Jones stayed. There's a reason guys like Tyler Kolek, you know, played his three years after he came in as a sophomore and stayed, you know. And so I think it's it was unique for sure over the last few years. And and now going to the portal, I don't think it's a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01
36:39

Yeah, it seems like NCAA is getting older, NBA is getting younger. For sure. So if you figure it figure that balance out, like Shaka seems to be figuring out, you know, you can be competitive it's kind of like even like the Knicks, right? Talent-wise, they were probably not the most talented team in the NBA last year, but they found their culture and they they had that defensive mentality. And they had a couple of guys that could go hit buckets in big moments. And it seems like to me that's the route that NCAA is going. And you take a Marquette, you could really build around that. Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna lose, you're not gonna get a top, you know, five guy, top ten guy, right? But you could you could keep one and build structure around that person or two, and that that is a winning approach, I think.

SPEAKER_04
37:28

Yeah, and it's challenging, you know, to your point. It's like it's just not what it used to be. I think about, you know, like you mentioned earlier, you know, the Final Four team, where it's like, you know, Travis Deaner and Dwayne Wade and myself. And you know, I think about if was there any chance that Duane would have still been at Marquette after his first season? It's like he showed the the talent that he was, he would have got a bag and he would have ended up, you know, getting all these offers. It was hard to play at Marquette. It was a uh you worked hard, Coach Korean was pushing us. It was like they were not friendly days. You know, like Dwayne talked about leaving, Travis talked about leaving, I talked about leaving, but I think about we all stayed and went through like how difficult that was and the adversity and me thinking I'm not good enough. I'm going against Rob Jackson, this big guy who's a senior and I'm a freshman, and Dwayne, I'm coming in and he's looking like some NBA All-Star. And Travis is one of the toughest dudes you ever played with. And I'm like, I don't know, man. Like, this isn't the right thing. Right. And it would have been easy to be like, ah, they're gonna give you a million and a half, or I don't know, maybe seven million now. I don't know. You know, to go over to here. You might want to.

SPEAKER_01
38:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_04
38:36

And so, you know, I think those stories and those kind of teams, I think, are gonna be I'm not sure there'll be any, you know. But but to your point about Shaka's job, you know, retaining guys and keeping guys in the program, it speaks to the environment he's creating, which is in I think still very, very important.

SPEAKER_00
38:53

Is there a Dwayne moment where you're like, oh, this dude's different?

unknown
38:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04
38:58

When I was a sophomore in high school, Coach Crean had started recruiting me. And Brian Wardle was the captain of the team, guys like Cordell Henry, Luminomica was there, John Harris, and uh Brian Wardle would text me. I think I just had my first cell phone or call, and he would say, like, hey, you want to come down and get some runs in over at the old gym at Marquette? And I'm like, oh god, like I guess, but these are grown men, like that's so intimidating. But coaches, Coach Crane was like, you know, go play with them, have a good time, get to know these guys. And there'd be some recruits that would, you know, come and play or whatever sometimes too. And one time there was some guy named Odarte Blankston, who was like this prized recruit out of Chicago, and he was gonna bring another guy who was from Chicago, Dwayne Wade. And Odarte was the the guy, and he was a legitimate, you know, high-level recruit, and he ended up going to Marquette, was a very good player. He ended up transferring to UNLV, but he brought some guy named Dwayne Wade with him. And I was in that run when Dwayne first came and played. And I didn't kind of know the story of like O'Darte's the guy at the time, and Dwayne's being brought along. I just was like, these are two recruits from Chicago, you guys can mix in and figure it out. And I went home to my house in Brown Deer that night, and I'll I'll never forget, I told my parents, like, I just played with, and it sounds silly, but I was a sophomore in high school. I was like, I just played with an NBA guy. A guy that's gonna be you know, I'd play with NBA guys, I don't know what that feels like. Of course, now I'm on the other side, and it's like a silly thing to say, but like I just saw a guy who's gonna be in the NBA, and he was so good. And he was still not like a highly recruited.

SPEAKER_01
40:37

He was was a senior at that point, too, right? Yeah, probably he was two years, yeah.

SPEAKER_04
40:42

He didn't have many other options, did he? No. No. I think DePaul was on the radar, I think Bradley was on the radar, but neither. He was Dwight was a partial qualifier, so he sat his first year, academic only his first year, and then played his second. So I think it you know scared some schools off that if I think if he had to do it all over again, I think he might have had some more offers and some more people willing to say, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00
41:01

We'll invest in you a little bit and and get it right. Um spe speaking of him, can you can you play this clip and and react to it and give your answer? Oh, geez. All right, let's see here. You would have added to that roster if you could take one from all of the years. We could go after you all play.

SPEAKER_03
41:17

It's easy for me. For me, it's easy too. I wonder if we're gonna say, Tyler. I don't know if another point. No, I definitely wouldn't go out with that one.

SPEAKER_02
41:26

I'd like to play with you.

unknown
41:29

Jake Rober for me. I mean, Tyler could have given us some. Yeah, we didn't have a backup point.

SPEAKER_04
41:36

I love it.

SPEAKER_00
41:37

Who is one market?

SPEAKER_04
41:39

Who would you take added to that roster if you've got to be able to do that? Boy, one any any market player in the in the history of the program?

SPEAKER_00
41:46

We could go history. Yeah, with them, I think we did it after after they played to make it more current. But you could go history. We could open it up.

SPEAKER_04
41:54

No, no, yeah. It's a I I love that question because I do you want a different point guard as well? Yeah, no, I'm sticking with Deaner. I would never talk that kind of trash. You he lives close to him. He lives close to him. That's right. I gotta watch it. He knows where I live. Oh, that's a great question. You know, I do think about how well-rounded we were, which I think is what makes the the question tough. It's like that final four-year, I was I came off the bench. You know, we had guys like Todd Townsend and Rob Jackson and Scott Merritt, and Duane was obviously playing all the positions, and Deaner at the one. So I'm trying to think, other than talking trash and saying we need a new point guard or a new backup point guard, it's hard to replace the two guard because he was pretty good. The five man was Rob Jackson. He had a pretty big game against Kentucky, and Scott Merritt was all the things, the Swiss Army knife. So, you know, I would say I think if I had to pick a guy just based on who I am and who I would have thought would have especially been like a hybrid guy during that time, and Anthony Pieper put another guy in the corner. Anthony Pieper. Spot up in the corner. What year was he, Steve? He was before he was before us. I'm going back to those Kevin O'Neill sweet 16 days.

SPEAKER_00
43:01

You're taking him over Jimmy Buckett's, etc.

SPEAKER_04
43:03

I yeah, I mean, I'm thinking, right, if if we're going with Tyler. I like the pick. I don't even know the guy.

SPEAKER_00
43:10

I think about You know who this is, Anthony? Okay. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01
43:13

Yeah, he's legendary. All-time scorer in Wisconsin history, I believe.

SPEAKER_04
43:17

Yeah. Big time. Sweet 16. What year? Play with McIvane, okay, Kevin O'Neill, maybe with Mike Dean as well. I'm not sure what total years he was, but mid-90s, if I had to guess.

SPEAKER_01
43:28

See, look, you know your stuff.

SPEAKER_04
43:30

I like that. I I gotta go with the shooter. And uh and I just gotta think, you know, in that Missouri game when Rob Jackson fouled out and we were in our our final four run, I was banging down some threes, and I just think if we had another guy in the corner, space the floor, me in the other corner, we probably wouldn't have even been in overtime. So I'm gonna keep it real. I'll go with I'll go with Peeper shooting shooting the three ball.

SPEAKER_00
43:51

I want I want to go to a few uh uh list questions with basketball players and stuff. But before that, and would like both of you to answer, what what advice would you give? to younger hoopers looking to make it but also as as basketball parents yourself maybe to some parents too for it.

SPEAKER_01
44:08

Yeah I mean I think surrounding yourself with with good people um is key and so getting good direction like anything it's not practice makes perfect it's perfect practice makes perfect so if you're learning a technique or doing something the wrong way you're probably gonna build bad habits so it's really important early on the younger you are is to have a really healthy foundation because once you have that foundation and it sounds boring and it's repetition and all these things but once you have that you can really expand upon your skill set too.

SPEAKER_04
44:40

I love that and I would honestly echo a lot of what you said because you know you talked about the foundation the fundamentals and the skills. I think when I think back to you know how I was raised and the reason that I love basketball it comes from the environment that was created you know around basketball for me. And I think like not to bash any parents or talk trash but I I think that what what I often see now is the is it the uh what is the the King Richard documentary? What is the the the the Williams sisters where it's the it's the dad just forcing it into the girls saying like you're gonna be a dead the Tiger Woods story where it's like here's the club the reason I didn't make it I didn't get enough reps I didn't have enough muscle memory we're just gonna pound it into you and you're gonna become that I think is the opposite of my story and I think is what I believe is so powerful and impactful is creating positive environments and calling them basketball. Because for me it was like my dad was a high school coach he was at Brown Deer High School I was with him at all the practices from kindergarten on my mom would pick me up from school bring me over I'd go to the vending machine get some candy and I would think I was at the gym playing basketball. And maybe I was you know dribbling around or shooting or whatever. Yeah. And obviously as the kids get more get older and I take it more serious yeah there's real development that has to take place but I think creating that love of the environment wanting to be in the gym wanting to be with these coaches wanting to be with those players in this program I think is important. So finding the right program, the right environment and uh you know not not turn it into something that's like if you don't do a million reps, the truth is if the kid doesn't choose to do a million reps it's it's never going to work out anyway.

SPEAKER_00
46:24

Yeah you you get those outlier stories like a like a tiger but that is also a recipe for burnout and anxiety for probably the majority of people and just putting so much pressure where which it's harder to perform under that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01
46:39

I like going back real quick your your D Wade story is similar to mine and I was lucky enough to come work out with Marquette going into my freshman year at Chicago State because Bo Ellis was was my coach there and didn't really know who Dwayne was in an open gym all of a sudden he makes a move and just takes off a foot inside the free throw line and dunked on some freshman I don't know who it was like Travis I remember like started running around the gym and jumped on somebody's back and I was just like went home I'm like who is this guy? What was that I just like he is an NBA player for sure and then sure enough that was I think that your freshman year right is really where he took off yep and what year was that was that like the year he was sitting that was the year that uh he must have played as a sophomore what when did he leave to go to the league? Junior so he played two years two years but he wasn't as good the first year I think that he played like the notoriety he really like his stock rose quick his Steve's year freshman year. Right the triple double against Kentucky helped too but I I just remember walking out of the gym like man that guy that was impressive I've never seen anything like that in my life.

SPEAKER_04
47:57

Yeah he would he was there was some you know as the years went on and you would see him match up with when he was at Marquette some of the Bucks guys would come over and I remember Desmond Mason who was a cowboy yeah he was a D-Wade esque type player a long wing who could do so many things he could dunk over guys could dunk it was a it was a spectacle for sure those two guarding each other and neither could stop each other and it was just like the things they were doing the finishes the dunks the stuff on the break and you're like so hold on so if he's on the bucks and he's a however many million dollar a year guy and you're like then who is that Ryan Wade like who is he about to be and you know that was his the year he sat out and I think the year his first year playing where everyone was like in-house was like we know we know how good he is we've seen him go against NBA guys.

SPEAKER_00
48:43

So for sure well it's cool you guys ran with the Bucks a little bit back then. Yeah in the summer those guys would come over and um you know especially when guys were getting back in shape and remember it was like TJ Ford who I think is back on the Buc staff cool to see that yeah yeah with the shorts down here back then exactly I hope he still has a photo he should he should yeah those yeah some of the is Darvin Ham still on the staff yeah yeah Darvin still he could dunk oh yeah I liked watching him back then yeah the ham slamwich the ham slamwich come on now back in the lighted up days I believe oh yeah yeah he was nasty nasty remember some of the he was the fact that the stanchions yeah couldn't even stay up he was trying to rip the rim off yeah when you see him now you're like he's the biggest dude you'll ever see still I was a huge Bucks fan in the 90s and early 2000s I made my dad drive me like from Madison even before the the you know Ray Allen Glenn Robinson Cassell days that little period before where like Terrell Brandon and Ellie were the point guards and and those guys and you know I'd buy some stuff off eBay back then and I have an autographed Darwin Hamm Sports Illustrated. I think he was at like was he at Arizona or Texas Tech or something and yeah shattered the backboard I might still have it somewhere in the basement where um I think all that stuff still is it loves it I'd bet she does I want an autographed Ricky Weeks jersey in a golf outing this week. How excited are you for that? It's gonna go in the basement is that where that's gonna go it's probably stashed away in in there um if anyone would like one. Anyway um let's get to some of those list questions. Steve, you'll be back in New York um soon. Yeah where would you recommend people go if they fly out there?

SPEAKER_04
50:30

Any any insider spots if people are looking to get food or drinks or anything in New York City Yeah I'll give some pics I'm I'm I usually stay close to Madison Square Garden, which is in Midtown. The area that I stay is usually uh it's like the Hudson Yards area beautiful Pendry Hotel would be my my first stay there. Stay there really nice would be my first recommendation uh Hudson Yards has some great restaurants there's a carbone that's right in there walking distance uh that's really become a nice part of New York especially post-pandemic I mean they they've done a great job in that area they have they have it's like the little Peloton studio in there people getting their workouts in there's the Highline park you can walk to right there Whole Foods is right next to the next to the Pendry Hotel in the Hudson Yard so I check out that so travel to New York to go to Whole Foods yeah I mean Whole Foods why go to North Ave when you can go to New York City it's just one flight exactly one quick flight direct in Milwaukee airport too I'm telling you that that commute Milwaukee Airport's like a private terminal right LaGuardia if you fly Delta it's the easiest brand new terminal you fly in it's like driving to Green Bay flying to New York driving to Green Bay it's like same commute but that would be my first pick Pendry Hudson Yards uh Avra is a really good Mediterranean uh restaurant that's right there a couple blocks from the garden right by Hudson Yards as well one of my other favorite spots in uh West Village would be Cafe Clooney C-L-U-N-Y-U just a good relaxing spot West Village you walk around a bunch of young people in neighborhoods and you kind of just feel like you're hanging in the third ward a little bit and got some New York vibes so yeah those would be my my neighborhood picks. And you gotta check out the garden obviously go walk around see what see what kind of action's over there.

SPEAKER_00
52:26

Next one do you have any top brown deer high school athletes of all time oh yeah I got a I probably have a wild list.

SPEAKER_04
52:36

But no one's gonna know who these people are they're all right we might we might let's hear it all right let's hear it and I have a few I would have some inklings for who you might know so I might I might add a few in. So obviously there's the Zach Bonds okay right legend T Palmer legendary female stud athlete football player Justin Austin stud athlete. Those are more recent which I'm saying because I know that those maybe maybe are who the people know but if I go back to who my my heroes were when I my dad was coaching Brown beer high school when I was born and he's coaching football and basketball like these were my people always say like who are your NBA heroes who are the guys you looked up to and I didn't watch that much NBA. I didn't watch much college I was with my dad every Tuesday and Friday night watching all of his games and these guys are like grown men right his high school players and they're my heroes. So guys like Brian Lamy really from Lamy Sports Marketing he's not gonna want to well maybe he would want to hear this. But it's like those were the guys that it's like my dad had me up in the bleachers filming the games and he's shooting the three and he's running the wing and Brian Lamy could ball. He could ball I think if you ask him he'd probably tell you he can still ball I don't know that for sure he would he would he would yeah he's not that big he'd he can shoot yeah okay there's a guy Chad Fisher who was his who was his teammate could shoot it. He lives in Whitefish Bay now. Regular guy super nice he was for sure one of my hooper heroes because he was shooting the three guy named Chris Kite he was running with him he played football for my dad and basketball there's also a couple football guys that I remember uh Mike Shepherd there we're looking for Mike Shepherd if you'd if you'd have worked out a little more I probably would have been higher on the list I'm not sure he had I'm joking because it's a guy in high school who had no neck he was just the most jacked high school guy you ever seen. Stimmer or Michael Shepard Shepard Shepherd of course guy named Andre Renault legendary football player running back but yeah there were some other guys.

SPEAKER_00
54:42

I think uh Michael Shepherd I think was cook coaching university school like five years ago in his early 40s or late 30s apparently he'd still put the pads on and run high schoolers over. Yeah you don't you don't want to see that because I bet he's still got I mean he's still got some power I went to his um Cinco de Drinco party a couple years ago at his house and he won he wanted me to invited the closet I didn't get invited yeah yeah once you guys are on my level you get invited to these kind of things you can talk all you want about these nice spots in New York but when you get invited to Michael Shepherd's Cinco de Drinco that's when you know you have a rack you've made it there we'll get there. But but anyway he wanted me to spin the pinata so I'm like a buck ninety five uh he picked me up like I was a feather you know threw me around and yeah then I uh you know hit the hit the pinata it opened and um there was candy Jack Daniels mini shots came out of the pinata Cinco de Drinco this is how brown deer people parted this is how brown people if you do you know Joe Vilmo the Muffin man I know the muffin man he ran track at brown deer he didn't make your top athlete I wasn't done Joe was on there muffin man has to he um cracked an egg over my head and said it's good luck in Mexican or in Spanish yeah even though he was do you think he just totally made that up or do you think that's a real thing? I think I asked one of my friends who's actually Mexican and they said it was pretty made up or there was a much different variation of of that stuff. Was this at the Cinco de Drinco? Oh it all was and then Bree and I retreated where I remember we retreated and Cheesecake Factory was still open and I had never been that happy and relieved to be in a cheesecake factory or a chain restaurant overall in my I feel like don't you think this is its own episode the Cinco de Drinco's bring bring back Cinco de Drinco get these guys on the exclusive invite list and um we'll watch our emails for that I think I think sugar Shane Blackman was probably there. Yes you know that I have a good Shane Blackman store. I mean that guy's phenomenal who who else can attend 203 Christmas parties every year wow is that a thing is that a real number I think so he's he's he's just he just he just hits hits them all I mean the guys in 203?

SPEAKER_04
57:04

I I don't know it's a big number he stole a meatball from me at Mo's one time.

SPEAKER_00
57:08

Did he what'd you do did you crack an egg over his head?

SPEAKER_04
57:11

I didn't crack an egg but I I did turn and I was at the bar and I said I was you know we were socializing with someone and then Shane was there and my meatball one meatball was left on my plate and he helped himself to it and I turned and I said I said Shane where did my meatball go?

SPEAKER_00
57:29

And he just looked at me like I said you ate my meatball and he said he only he might have had a little Tito's before then potentially thank you for listening to this episode of Milwaukee on Cut a huge thank you to Steve Novak for coming on and Anthony Milochnik for co hosting and just want to thank our partners before signing off annex Wealth Management Know the Difference Nikola the Midwest law firm and drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company best vodka brandy and canned cocktails in the game