Jay from MKE Shows - Bridging Milwaukee's Music Scene with Gancio - The Lorenzo's Music Podcast (Transcript)
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Tom Ray: Hi and welcome to another Lorenzo’s Music Podcast. I’m Tom on today’s show. Well, first of all, this show is a show where I talk to musicians, mostly in the Creative Commons open source Fediverse sort of realm. And I also talk with people who create things for musicians. And that is actually the person that we have here today. That is what they do, that is how I found out about them. And we’re going to learn more about what they’re doing. So first I’m going to ask them to introduce themselves and tell the people who you are and what it is that you do.
Jay: My name is Jay, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just a bit east of you.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Jay: And I do a lot of things but specifically for this, I run a website called mkeshows .com and it’s pretty much just a, a large community calendar of as many shows in the city as possible. Or at least trying to be. At least, you know.
Tom Ray: Yeah, depends on submissions and, and the other thing too. And I. So I don’t remember exactly how I found out about it. I want to say maybe somebody shared something just because I’m active on Mastodon and I’ve really been into the Fediverse lately. And the thing about it is a lot of the people that I meet, which this is very cool, they are in Europe and I keep trying to find people who use it who are near me and I’ve had success with some people that are involved. But then I found this and you’re literally only an hour a half away from me and I was like okay, cool. And one of the things you’re using is a federated bit of software for websites that’s called Gantio, which is a calendar website. So that’s also what’s really cool about it and that’s what intrigued me. Plus Well, I’ll get into this. How did you, how did you find out about Gancio and start using it?
Jay: So for a while I was thinking was like it’d be nice if there was like a, some sort of centralized place where you can find out about shows in the city. Because like I’ve been going to shows just a little further background. I’ve been going like in the show scene and especially like the DIY so show scene here for. I don’t know, like actually we’re almost 20 years at this point I guess, slowly approaching but, but So like you know, you know things when you’re kind of in the scene and whatnot. And yeah. you know, the pandemic happening and like a lot of, just a lot of stuff got shuffled up and I found myself like having to like jump from different site to site to site and accounts to try to piece together like what’s going on. If I want to say go to a show like on you know, like on Saturday or whatever, it’s like, okay, go through like 20 different sites. And even then like, you know, that’s not even accounting for like any of the basement shows going on in town or anything.
Tom Ray: Yes.
Jay: So you know, it’s, it’s a bit of a task. And you know, some places like you can find out some stuff like if you’re on Instagram or if you’re on Facebook or you know, it’s just everywhere. It’s everywhere. Like you gotta like really know what’s up and you know, some of the DIY stuff that’s little by design just to try to keep it contained a bit and not you know. Yeah, but so I was like it’d be nice if there is some sort of. Some like some sort of calendar somewhere for stuff. And I know people have tried before with like Google Calendars and whatnot and just. Right.
Tom Ray: Which is not. First of all it’s ugly and, and it doesn’t work for everyone. It’s hard to maintain. Yeah, no, I’ve seen people try to do that over the years and a Google Calendar is a mess. Plus the only thing you can do is all you can do is that really crappy like very, very old version of the iframe embed of it.
Jay: No one likes a Google Calendar. so this was on my mind for a while. And then on Blue Sky I saw a post from ah, JJ Skolnick who lives down in Chicago and talking about some like Candler stuff to get off of you know, social media because there’s you know a, a push. You know, one of the many pushes in recent times. You’re like maybe we should you know, get off the social media. Maybe a good idea. and was brought up in. There was There’s a site in Chicago. It’s like chicago.askapunk.net and and also just askapunk.net in general. it started in Montreal and then there’s Chicago and I recently saw there’s like, like Buffalo and Philly has one too but all of them run ah, gancio. So I looked into it and I was like, I can probably do this now as you can imagine I don’t make money from music. most musicians don’t. No I, I do like network admin stuff for actual living so it’s like I’m not much of a coding type of person so I was like I, I can figure this out. Like it just looks like I just need to put it on a Linux server and do some stuff and pretty much like it took me two days it would have been one day but I messed it up like almost all the way through so I had to restart again.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Jay: It was just like I’m not even going to backtrack I’m just going to restart from the top.
Tom Ray: Yeah you can doing that. You never feel right then it’s. It feels broken all the time after that.
Jay: Yeah so I just like started from scratch again but pretty much two days and the site was up nice which was, which was really good for someone that like understands a little bit. I’m not admittedly I’m not like the most Linux versed person but like I can get around here and there. So Yeah so like within two days it was up and that when I was looking into it I was looking into Ganio like It really appealed to me too just because of like the, the origins of Gancio. I don’t know if you’ve looked into that but for anyone watching essentially I forgot when exactly it was but it was pretty much like a group of Italian hacktivists that like made a bunch of open source stuff and one of them was this like calendar system so they can organize and that calendar system they decided to make its own separate thing and they launched it as Gancio and you know they update it here and there I got install new update I think there was one that came out about a month or so ago that I’m behind on
Tom Ray: but I actually was just checking that website. Yeah and it said. I want to say it just came out or maybe it even says one is coming so you might want to wait check the site because it says there’s one coming.
Jay: Yeah I’ve been keeping my eye on that new update because apparently it’s like a real big update and it’s going to change a bunch of stuff so I’m like like kind of seeing when it drops it’s I think it’s an alpha so like not they’re like don’t use in production it’s like I’m I’m waiting, I’m not. I’ll wait until they know it’s good and I’m not gonna have any problems.
Tom Ray: but yeah, okay, that makes sense. I can see that.
Jay: Just, just the kind of like that sort of mentality of they came from. I was like, yeah, this is perfect for what I’m trying to do. Just for someone that’s been like, that’s worn so many different hats in the music scene here, and also have like some tech know how and just personal beliefs and whatnot. It’s like, yeah, this is, I think this is, ah, this should work. so the getting it launched was the easy part. It was just then it’s like, all right, now let’s try to get people to actually use it.
Tom Ray: Yeah, it’s. And that’s very similar to one of the people who I spoke to, in Europe I found out about, about Gancio. God, I’m gonna mispronounce it every time. I always want to say it a different way. I don’t know. And they were talking about how they run it and it was specifically kind of the same sort of thing for the scene to try and help promote people. And a lot of them didn’t. He knew how to set it up, set up some sort of tech thing. He didn’t want to build websites for every single one of them. So instead he built a calendaring system. Because everybody’s like, that’s all we really want. Because they’re not going to update a website if they don’t know how to make one anyway, you know, so it’s going to be useless to them. It’s going to have like new posts coming soon type post, you know, for like 12 months. But, yeah, and, and so I found out about that. And that’s why I was really excited to find out about this one also because, so me being in Madison now, for people listening, Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, but Milwaukee is an actual city. We like to think we’re a city, but we’re not. We’re, we’re. We’re. We’re a cute little like, oh, he thinks he’s city. You know, I.
Jay: To describe it as like, pretty much Madison is a glorified college town because the capital makes it a city, but it’s a college town that just happens to be the capital.
Tom Ray: Yeah, no, and I know people who live here who would be offended by that. And I’m like, no, come on, I can.
Jay: No, no offense.
Tom Ray: No, no. there are people who live downtown who, when they go like, maybe to the east side of Town think they’re on the east side of Madison. It’s like, no, I grew up in the east side of Madison. It’s like miles from here. So that’s how small we are. Whereas in Milwaukee, I don’t know where the hell I am half the time. So that’s. That’s. That’s the comparison there. And you guys have bridges that go over the whole city. Anyway, we don’t need to get into that. That wasn’t my point. My point was, is here, like, even this weekend, it’s what you were talking about. Everybody, including clubs and bands, the way that they update their shows is like, MySpace still exists. Everybody was just. Just post it to your MySpace and everybody just know about it. Well, here, everybody’s like, there are clubs who are like, oh, just check our Facebook when they update it. Or, oh, just follow us on Instagram when you can find it, for crying out loud, you know? Or if it’s a story, you have to go through all the stories. It’s not as simple as that. And that’s the thing is, it’s a nightmare to try and find shows on the weekend around here. You don’t know where to look. And that’s if the band promotes it or if the club promotes it. So having this page, I look at this calendar after I discovered it. I look at it all the time in envy, going, like, oh, that would be fun to go to. Am I really going to drive all the way down to Milwaukee to go see these shows? Yeah, but it’s awesome. And it gets updated all the time now, so kudos to that. And it’s like, literally, I’m going, why don’t we have that here also? I feel like we don’t have as many shows. I mean, when I’ve played into Milwaukee, like, Joe, Cannon from Resurrectionist was doing a show with us and literally packing up. And I was telling him, good show, and he was in a big hurry. And I’m like, why are you trying to get off the stage so fast? And he’s like, I got to run down the street and play another show. Like, that’s a Milwaukee scene right there. And, so that was cool. Now, how are you promoting this? How did you get the word out? You were saying, like, now that it’s up there, what do you do? How did you find people?
Jay: So, okay, so I would say, like, I’m not quite where I think it should be yet. So. Okay, I’m. I’m bad at promoting, like, just straight Up. I used to book shows. Bad at promoting, like just. Just bad at it. I’m lucky just because I. So I’ve been going to shows, so I know like a fair bit of people and I always consider myself kind of like a, an outsider. But I always like, kind of like, I just touch on like a bunch of different scenes. So like. Okay, I know a fair bit of people around here. so like some of it was just like I would post and you know, kind of slowly trickle through. Now I don’t, I still don’t think like the reach is where it probably should be at. I have no idea. I, You can implement insight stuff. I’ve chosen not to do that just because as someone that does look at like looking at that stuff, I don’t want to. I’m. We’re just not gonna like bother with that because I, I will spend way too much time looking at it.
Tom Ray: I get that.
Jay: Okay. It’s self control, like no insights. but yeah, it’s. It’s been kind of slow. Admittedly at the moment, a lot of the things getting posted, it’s me doing that. there are people that dude submit. I will say. I’m still trying to work it to a point where more people will submit and I think that’s Like that’s when I know it’ll be like truly a sustainable thing. It’s still early days. It’s been like. I want to say the. It’s like January 31st I think was the one year anniversary of it. So. Okay. Or January 30th, January 31st, something like that. One of those two. so it’s only been live for a little over a year, I think. I’ve built in a few different things because the nice thing about Gancio is like it’s. Yeah, it could be a standalone site, but they designed it too. So it’s like it can be decentralized so you can like shoot off alerts like I’m. You being on Mastodon. I’m sure you see the updates whenever something gets posted there, updated or whatever. I’ve pretty much over the past year I made a Blue sky, like connector. So when I do post, it’ll post a Blue sky on an account that I made there from Mastodon. Yeah, yeah, well, it does Mastodon and I have it on Blue Sky. They’re separate things. The, the Mastodon one, the Fediverse one is actually, It’s actually already built into Gancio. So you don’t even have to do anything about that.
Tom Ray: That was going to be my next question because I was going to be like, but you’re maintaining a server.
Jay: Why.
Tom Ray: Why is your account on Blue Sky? But that makes sense then.
Jay: Okay, Yeah, I. The way I see it is that I’m trying to get it onto different things so people are aware of it. and then hopefully when people are like, I need to get off of this, you know, whatever social, media, they’re like, well, I could just go to the site and look up shows. Because that’s a big, Like, I know, for example, there’s a lot of people that are still on Facebook, and the only reason why they’re on Facebook is so they can find out about shows.
Tom Ray: Yes.
Jay: This is for them. So they can get off of Facebook finally. They really need to do that. but, yeah, and. And even, like, I feel like even 10 or so years ago, I hear about people that try to get off of Facebook and there’s like, I stopped hearing about shows, so I rejoined Facebook because I need to know about shows happening.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Jay: So, you know, I’ve. It’s a way that you can kind of get your information, like, if you choose to be on whatever social media you can still get. Like, the. Pretty much it’s limited because, like, here’s a new show that got posted or this show got updated. Whereas if you go to the site, you get, like, you can actually look through the calendar. a few months ago, I actually made an Instagram, connector. so it posts to Instagram as well. it’s a little. It’s a little more clunky, and I want to improve it whenever I’m able to and can wrap my head around how to do that. But there is an Instagram connector for whenever there’s a new show.
Tom Ray: is it an official one? Because I know sometimes when stuff, especially with Instagram, when stuff like that gets built, it’s because somebody found a way to do it. And then Instagram goes, hey, somebody found a way to do this. And then they go, ch. And chop it.
Jay: Right? Yeah. So. So the connectors. So Blue sky, recent. Recently, they actually, Gancho implemented an actual Blue sky plugin. So I can just do it straight from Concho, which is great. before it was connected in with what I like, pretty much what I started with the Blue sky, then I forked off of that to make the Instagram one. So for Instagram, now, it’s very clunky, and I would like to find A better way to do this as possible. when I post, it gets sent to a scenario that I made in Pipe Dream. and it, you know, filters all the, you know, data and whatever how I want it to display. And then. And then I send it to make.com In a scenario I have there. And then in make, they actually have an official like Instagram connection thing. So it’s for. Through make that it actually posts. I’m not.
Tom Ray: Is make one of those things, like if it. Or, Zapier, where it kind of has. Okay, I gotcha. Okay.
Jay: I don’t like it because it’s too automated and probably AI ish for my taste. I. And it’s funny because, like, I say that like I’m not the most verse in coding. It took me ages to figure out the pipe dream bit. But now that I understand it and then I go to make. I’m just like. I’m. I was like, trying to see if I can like, take Pipe Dream out of the equation. I can’t figure out for the life of me how to make this. Just only in make like this. It confuses me. And. Yeah. So, like, at some point I’d like to see if there’s a way I can get it off there and get it more native into my server. For now, that’s what it is. So.
Tom Ray: Okay. Yeah, but, yeah, well, I. And also a, quick question here. So on your server, and you said that right now you’re. You’re putting the stuff up mostly yourself, you’re finding out about the shows and essentially just like going, I want to share. Kind of like you were saying before, like you were promoting shows. Well, now you really are. And, and, so do you. Do you have any idea, even though you didn’t put insights on it, what. I mean, you got it at least from the amount of the server shows you how much bandwidth is being used. Like, do you have any indications somewhat as to how much traffic you think you’re getting?
Jay: I probably could look at that because. So I. I have like a Linode Debian server, which is what it’s running off of. I could go in there and look at like the traffic. I just know that I haven’t hit any caps.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Jay: So, once I hit those caps, it was like, okay, now I gotta like, spend a little extra. Okay, we’re. We’re getting, more traffic, so I guess that’s okay.
Tom Ray: So. So it’s not doing anything that’s like breaking the bank for you yet, because I mean, not yet, because I know with other stuff which, to a lesser extent, the. The bands in towns and the song. I don’t even remember the name of the other one. those sites where bands were supposed to put their shows and everybody could subscribe to bands that are on tour and all this, and they all still exist. And then one of them like all of a sudden just goes, hey, let’s pay for everything with ads on every section and inside there’ll be a little line that shows the show you’re looking for. and that’s the main problem with those things. And that’s how they pay for themselves. And also they fall in and out of favor or they get bought by Live Nation like everything else in the world.
Jay: Yep.
Tom Ray: And now, Any plans to sell to Live Nation? No, just kidding. but, so with that, I mean, you’re doing this out of the love of shows and wanting to promote shows. Now you said you’ve been involved in the scene for 20 years. What is your background in the scene? What do. What do you do outside of this?
Jay: So, okay, this is. There’s a lot. so I’m in. I’ve done a lot of different bands and projects. the. I probably the most or the one that I’m doing actively now, is this band called Milorganaut. It’s a, like a, Like a fast, heavy, like grind, power, violence kind of band. We’ve been playing together since, well, technically we started off as a different band in like 09, I think, but we started doing Lorna in 2012, I want to say. so that’s like the main band that I’ve been in. I’ve been in a bunch of other bands. I used to have like a noise project too called Blessed Sacrifice. and then, outside of like. And I. And I also just spend so much time just working on my own stuff just because I have like 30,000 different ideas floating around my head at a given time. but other than that, I used to, be one of the people involved at a venue in town here called the Borgward.
Tom Ray: Oh, I’m not familiar with that one.
Jay: Yeah, so it was a, ah, DIY venue that existed from 2000. I think they started in 2007 because I got involved in there 2008 and we somehow we made it all the way to 2016.
Tom Ray: Actual.
Jay: like 10th anniversary of the last show was just like a couple weeks ago.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Jay: But yeah, so I was very involved there. I also used to, Film a lot of bands in town under the pseudonym Bull Art. okay, now you can find that on, YouTube and Vimeo. And I also record bands here and there and I, I do a lot of stuff. Yeah, I’ve done a lot of different things and I. Yeah, I also mess with video. Like, I’ve made a couple of like, music video type things for my stuff. like Milorganaut. But yeah, I just. Just a lot of different things. Also. I used to, I also booked shows in. Obviously a lot of them were at the board, but elsewhere I also was one of the people that used to run, for a few years the, the Milwaukee Noise Fest.
Tom Ray: Okay, I gotcha.
Jay: Yeah, like the kind of last handful of years of that. Because I was originally started by Peter, J. Woods. And then he moved. I took it on and then when I burnt out, it died.
Tom Ray: You didn’t even go like, here, you take it. You’re just like, I would have loved
Jay: if someone would take it on. It just. It didn’t, it just didn’t happen. But you know, also like the Borg died and I took a year off from that just because like, the Borg was like kind of where the noise shows were happening. So it was kind of all a weird thing, but, you know. Yeah, good old brain things.
Tom Ray: Well, and the reason I wanted to ask what else you do too is because as I’m looking at you, you’ve got a stack of three keyboards, you got like six guitars behind you. So, I’m like, you’re clearly doing other stuff. So, yeah, band as well. So you’re releasing. Are you also releasing solo stuff or are you mainly working just with the group that you’re in or.
Jay: I recently started a new project called Fall Tragedy. it’s, it’s pretty much. I’m making it where it’s more so like, not one specific type of music. Kind of different from release to release. just. I don’t want to think of more names. They’re hard enough to come up with. Like, I was just like, this is. I can get by with this one. We’ll just, you know, different releases. I’ll change how the logo looks. And then if people care enough me like, oh, that logo looks familiar. It’ll probably sound like this, right?
Tom Ray: At some point you’re the Michael Scott paper company. And then remember, like, I can keep coming up with names. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the Office, but when he. His own company, his whole thing was that like, he’ll he’ll run that company into the ground and then he’ll come up with another one called this. And he’s like, I can. I have an endless supply of names to call my business. So it’s the same with metal bands. They can keep coming up with names and I love that.
Jay: I want to do the opposite. Just, I don’t want to think of names. I just want to make like 30 different types of music.
Tom Ray: Yeah, no, there you go. I mean, that’s essentially what I’ve done. I’ve kept the same name the whole time and I’m pretty much one of the only original members.
Jay: Yeah, there you go.
Tom Ray: And I created it. So it’s like, essentially it’s much, like. And I feel like this is more popular in Milwaukee. Not to get all insider location baseball here, but I feel like Milwaukee has more bands, that are named after the person in it, or at least they used to. Have you ever noticed that Milwaukee, there used to be so many where it’s like the something or other band and it would have the people in it.
Jay: There’s a little bit of that, for sure. yeah, there’s definitely a little bit of that, I would say.
Tom Ray: Yeah. just something. I’ve always noticed I used to run a. Or not run. Jesus. That would have been nice. No, I used to get barely paid to work at the club here in, Madison. Many years ago. Doesn’t even exist anymore. It was called the Paramount Music hall and we used to get a lot of bands in from Milwaukee. And yeah, most of them were like you thought you were. It was a solo musician because it would be one person’s name and they’d show up and they’d have like 12 people with them and it’s like, okay, I guess you guys are all right with this.
Jay: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Going after that name. Anyway. All right, back to what we were talking about. Now, another thing that’s on the site, along with the DIY scene, which I love that I feel there probably is a DIY scene here in Madison that I’m not aware of. But in Milwaukee. I know I follow so many people who. The DIY ethos, which also the federated and self hosted thing is very much in sync with.
Jay: Yeah.
Tom Ray: that sort of thing. So you running this calendar. That makes sense. There’s another thing that’s at the bottom of this calendar and I wanted to ask you about it. It’s called Freak Scene.
Jay: Yeah.
Tom Ray: What is Freak Scene?
Jay: Okay, so, I don’t. So last time I logged into it, there isn’t much activity going on there, but there’s someone at some point launched like a, I want to say it’s almost like forums for like, different DIY scenes.
Tom Ray: Yeah, it’s a Zen4O sort of forum. message board or something like that.
Jay: Yeah. So, like, not every city has one, but, like, if you get enough people talking in a certain way, you can like, work out something where they make like. I don’t know exactly know how it works. There’s at the same time that I was making this calendar, I believe it was Fern, one of the people from here that does a lot of music stuff and runs shows. they were, they were looking into Freak Scene and starting that up. So I was like, well, I’ll. You know, I was like, I should probably just put the link in the. Like on the bottom there. Just so you know.
Tom Ray: Yeah, I mean, that’s how I found it.
Jay: Yeah, exactly. So, I don’t. I’m curious how active it is in other scenes. It’s just. I know when I look into the ones here, it’s like, pretty, like it’s not super active. You know, there’s a lot of attempts to try to like, get, like outside of social media. So in it, the effectiveness of it kind of varies, unfortunately. that’s. Everyone’s too used to just going to Instagram or.
Tom Ray: Well, and it even kind of seems like a Discourse or a discord. Ah, sort of server. Just. It’s because I kind of always felt like discourse or discord or, The hell’s the other one? I don’t remember. But those are kind of like the new message boards of today.
Jay: Yeah.
Tom Ray: You know, and this is kind of like, here’s still a message board, definitely. And I wonder, if that’s why. Maybe. But it’s still the same activity. God, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s really weird to think of, like, why it wouldn’t. Why message boards still won’t exist. I was actually having this. So I drive a lot and my mind, basically, I have to think about weird things. Otherwise it’s one of those things where you’re just stuck in silence with your. With your brain and things can go south. So I have to think of really weird things to focus on. I got real suddenly, I’m in therapy here. but anyway, so I was thinking about. So I was, I was thinking about message boards and I was like, whatever happened to message boards? And then that’s when I started going like, well, isn’t that what discourse is? But it’s not. But it is. But it’s not. And then I just got stuck on that loop.
Jay: So, yeah, Discord’s kind of message. I feel like Discord’s like if you like, just took a message board and IRC and just like combine m them.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Jay: Because it’s like you have like your like, threads or whatever, but. But like they’re more like just live chats, all of them. Not like, here’s a post and it’s like, you know, it’s blocked off posts. It’s just messages. So it’s kind of like a mix of the two. Yeah.
Tom Ray: Okay. I forgot all about irc. And IRC is even older. Like, I feel like there’s probably an argument when people made message boards, they’re like, why don’t you use irc? It’s the same thing.
Jay: It’s just there’s people that do that with Discord, and all of them are, I think at least 50.
Tom Ray: Oh my gosh. And then you got Matrix too. I just remembered Matrix. And Matrix is supposed to be more like irc. It’s just that it’s web based. Okay. Now I have more stuff to think about when I’m driving. All right? So got to do something. All right? And, and so going forward with this, I mean, right now you’re. You’re hosting this out of the goodness of your heart, and you’re doing it because you support the scene. Now going forward, do you have any plans to expand it? Like, what are your thoughts on trying to promote it more and maybe even. And this is to a lesser extent, but it’s always a nice to have fund it, you know, that sort of thing. Not that it’s probably one of your priorities, but what are your plans in the future for this thing?
Jay: So really the big thing is just trying to make it so more people will, like use it and actually post to it. Just so then I don’t have to, like, I, I’ll do all the pushing out and whatever. Yeah, the, the nice thing with it too is, which didn’t state before is that. And I’ve alluded to it, but Dennis explicitly say, anyone can submit a show to the site anonymously. obviously I have it set up so like, it hits like a moderation stage first. So I can change like, I could change the Fortnite heading. Because sometimes people will put like this person’s birthday show. It’s like, well, if someone’s trying to see like a specific band, like you can’t really search that. Like, so I just, like, put all the bands, unless if it’s a fest, you know, different story. But, like, you know, I’ll. I’ll reformat it if I feel like, just to keep it somewhat consistent looking. so, yeah, which. Which is great. That’s. That was also. The other big thing is, like, you just fill out all the stuff and you just submit. And then I get an email. It’s like, all right, cool, we got another show. Let me look through this and push out whenever I think, ah, like, is convenient, for me or whatever. But, yeah, so I’m really. The big thing is I’m hoping more people will get to use it. I think I’m at a. I’m. I’m at a decent spot right now with it. I think that, since. Since I’ve built out the Instagram connector, I definitely got more eyes on it, but I don’t know. And the insight thing would help if I actually did that. but, I don’t know how many people think that, like, I’m running an Instagram account versus I’m running a. A, like a actual, like, site.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Jay: so trying to. If there’s anyone that thinks I am running an Instagram account, I am running a website that just happens to have an Instagram account, that the stuff just gets automated to.
Tom Ray: I would say 90% of what Instagram is, is people just promoting a website or a place. I mean, it really is kind of that. Unless, of course, you’re an influencer who actually does, like.
Jay: Yeah.
Tom Ray: You know, actually turns on the camera and films yourself. Other than that. Or at least the people I follow anyway. I digress. Continue.
Jay: Yeah, so I think just. That’s like the main thing.
Jay: there’s a couple things that I’d like to do eventually to add on to it. just because I think knowing what’s going on now is good and you can, like, look back in to the shows that happened since the site started. I would like to figure out a way to add, like, some archival, stuff to it. Now Gancio itself is made, so it’s like, not like, super customizable. which, if it was, that bottom bar would be at the top. if I had my choice. Okay. But, I have not figured out how to move that. So, I gotta get better at coding. But, Yeah, so. But it’d be nice if I could get some more archival stuff now. One of the things that recently I mentioned, the Borg Ward, which I used to help run since recently it was a 10th anniversary of it. I want, I want to figure out a way to make like, ah, archival site of like show flyers from there. just because I feel like the show flyers is, you know, it’s always neat looking at old show flyers.
Tom Ray: Oh yeah.
Jay: Especially younger, you’re like, oh, I could have saw this band. Like, That’s crazy. Like actually a good example. so the last show that we ran, was. It was a. The. It was the last show for this hardcore band from Illinois. They had it up here. the people that ran that show, which I wasn’t at it, but the people that ran it, I was like kind of slowly, like trying to get out. I was like, all right, I’ve been running this long enough, let’s hand the reins off. they didn’t follow the instructions very well in the. The cops came because there was like 300 or 400 kids at this spot that super can’t hold more than a hundred people. And even then, like, the permit probably would not have been 100 people. so, but one of the bands on that show, I think it was the band before them was knocked, loose. which very big band now. They were nominated for a Grammy last year. really wild that. Sorry if I. I don’t know, swear he’s fine.
Tom Ray: That’s fine.
Jay: but it’s the Internet.
Tom Ray: Keep it clean.
Jay: I don’t know. Some people, you know, some people are, But it’s. It’s just wild that like this band that played and I think they were the band that was actively playing. Maybe I could be wrong about that. It was either them or the last band though, they were actively playing when the cops came. so it’s just funny to think about how that show happened and Knocked Blues played and they almost got a Grammy last year, right? Like, and there’s just like a, some crappy building on the south side that like, I’m surprised didn’t fall over from the weight of people in it. so yeah, but you know, for someone younger, like say if they’re like 20 or something that they would have saw, they’re like, oh, that would have been crazy to see.
Tom Ray: Right.
Jay: and even then, like, there’s other bands that like, you know, were smaller bands, I got bigger or even like more cult bands or whatever. It’s like, oh, that would have been sick to see. Like, I could have saw them at like a small little like punk place, like just play A show, like, on the floor or whatever. And. And also for, like, the older heads. Like, oh, yeah, I remember that show. Like, you know, they go through their nostalgia phase or whatever. yeah. But, yeah, so I’d like to do that, maybe at some point, like a more expansive one, just for shows in general. Be cool. The other big one I want to do, which I. I don’t want to do, but I feel like I’m the only person that can make this happen, which scares me. Okay. There is no good archival place for Summerfest. now Summerfest, for anyone that’s not aware there’s a wonky, has about 30,000 music festivals in the summer, and the biggest one of them is Summerfest. if you look at the lineup, you would think that it’s AI Generated. Yes, it is clearly a hodgepodge of. You can go see, like, Megan the Stallion and Blue Oyster Cult and, like, Benson, Boone and Stryper or something like that. Like, it’s just. It’s just. You’re like, what is this? This, this. Who booked this? Yeah, the Summerfest, like, it goes back to 2014, and Summerfest existed since, like, like 69 or 70 or something like that.
Tom Ray: Okay. Yeah. I guess I never thought about how far back it went. It’s just always been there.
Jay: It’s always been there. And there’s no good place to find out, like, like who played and when and what stage. Like, and I beg Summerfest to actually just do that. So I don’t do it. I don’t want to do it. Don’t say you do it.
Tom Ray: Don’t make me do this.
Jay: Don’t make me ruin my life like this. I don’t want to do this.
Tom Ray: I’m just picturing some sort of Lethal Weapon esque standoff. You in Summerfest in some tower. Don’t make me do this. Don’t you do it.
Jay: it’s actually pointed at myself. I’m just like, I don’t want to do this. Oh, yeah, there you go.
Tom Ray: We got dark real fast there.
Jay: I don’t want to do this. Please do this. You have the information. I know you do.
Tom Ray: now, with that and here, hopefully, people listening will go check out this site. And, then you’ll have to start moderating people who are posting shows to it that aren’t in Milwaukee, but, which is, you know, that means it’s growing. The other thing I want to do too is, I. I would like you to mention some of the. You spoke about some of the Musical things that you’re doing yourself. would you like to, tell people about anything you have coming up? Anything you currently have out that they should check out?
Jay: So currently. Well, really what I’ve been working on, a lot the past few weeks is, I’ve been remixing, all of Milorganaut’s older stuff because, And there’s not really going to be, I’m hoping it’s not super available here because in April we’re actually touring Japan somehow.
Tom Ray: Oh, wow. Nice.
Jay: I’m pumped. I’m so excited. I like going over there. still, you’ve been before. I have been before. Okay. I went there last year and went to a bunch of shows and just by chance, at the end of it, like, I got, like. We got asked to play a fest there in April and I was like, the other guys better say yes.
Tom Ray: So. Do you know Ty from Lords of the Trident?
Jay: I do not.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Jay: All right.
Tom Ray: Because he’s. He’s in a metal band that has gone there a couple of times too. So I’m like, wait, are you one of the bands that went with him? Okay, move on, Carry on.
Jay: I. I just went on my own volition just to, you know, just. Just a vibe or whatever. I don’t gotcha. All right. But, yeah, so, we got that. we’re kind of, ah, currently we’re working on new songs. At some point we’ll have like a new EP and eventually an lp. I don’t know when that will be though. We gotta. We got a lot of writing to do. personally, I think it was July I put out the first album, under Fall Tragedy. It’s more like experimental, that album. Like, some of it’s droney. Someone gets a little. A little harsh. I have a bunch of different ideas of what to do with that project that I’ve been like, I’m gonna do it now and then just things keep popping up. So hopefully in the next few months, once I’m past this busy stretch, like past April, I’ll have some, like, I’ll start working on some new releases for that. But yeah, also, every once in a blue moon, I stream on Twitch. Every once in a blue Moon. Okay. it’s, ah, Naray Cordings. N A R E C O R D I N G S Is it. That’s also the. The kind of, you know, everyone has like a. A label. that’s my label that I’ve like, put all like Fall Tragedy and like some Other stuff of mine. So, yeah, but you can follow that on Twitch. And the once every, like, one to four months that I stream me, like, messing around with, like, probably like a synth or whatever. I don’t. I don’t know. It’s just. It’s just a fun thing.
Tom Ray: You’re really talking it up here. I do something, I occasionally show up, whatever.
Jay: Yeah, yeah, you know, it’s. It’s not like I’m trying to be a streamer or anything. I think it’s just kind of fun, you know?
Tom Ray: Oh, yeah, it is fun. Yeah.
Jay: Yeah. It’s, I’m not trying to do things to make money. It’s just like, oh, let’s try that. Why not?
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Jay: See what happens. And, you know, it’s always kind of bed me where it’s like, ah, let’s see if. Let’s see what we can do with that. Seems fun. Even if, like, nothing really happens of it, which I don’t have any expectation of anything. I really do. But, you know, I’m just, just curious and, like, trying new things.
Tom Ray: Yeah, no, and that’s really cool. And if people wanted to check out some of this music, where could they go do that?
Jay: So, Milorganaut has a band camp just, Milorganaut. M I L O R G A N A U T. they were named after Milorganite.
Tom Ray: you say that like I know what that means.
Jay: Fertilizer.
Tom Ray: Oh, okay.
Jay: Malorganite, is fertilizer that’s made here from. It’s a byproduct of the sewage filtration process. so pretty much if you, if you use the bathroom in Milwaukee, it. It’s getting made into malorganite eventually.
Tom Ray: It’s poetic.
Jay: but, yeah, so we got a band camp. There’s a fall tragedy band camp as well. my NAR recordings, Twitch page. I also have a YouTube account where I have a few random, you know, music videos and random stuff. I might take some videos while we’re abroad and I might upload them eventually. like, whenever I edit it. We’ll see. I. I’ve. I’m someone that has, like, a bunch of ideas. I’m just like, can I. Should I really do this? Like, do I really want to put myself through all this? I know that kind of. I’m that kind of person where it’s just like, do I really need to do this? And everyone’s like, stop stressing yourself out.
Tom Ray: Oh, man.
Jay: but, yeah, and I. Yeah, MKE shows. Like, obviously, there’s the blue sky, MKE shows dot com. There’s the, Fediverse, which I think it’s like MKE shows@MKE shows dot com, I think it is correctly. And then, it’s on Instagram as well. Just Nke shows. my. My band, Laura. It’s also on Blue, Sky and Instagram and Facebook. But I. Who looks at Facebook?
Tom Ray: it’s one of those things where it’s like, you know, they’re just the people who, You know that there are people who, like, that’s just what they use. You know what I’m talking about? Like, they’re the people who. It’s like they’re not going anywhere. They. They’re at the point in their life where they went, I picked a social network, and now you’re telling me I have to do something else. Hell with that. That’s too much. That’s too much to do. Like, you’re lucky I’m on here.
Jay: I have a. I have a slight spicy take on that type of mindset. Yeah, you like, I feel like anyone that, does that, especially with social media, where they’re just like, this is where I exist and I cannot go anywhere else. That’s when you become a boomer.
Tom Ray: Yes.
Jay: The moment you become…
Tom Ray: Those are the same people that did the whole. If shows were at 7pm, I’d go to them all the time. No, you wouldn’t. You’re not going to shows because you don’t want to go to shows.
Jay: Yeah, I mean, I mean, thankfully.
Tom Ray: Thankfully a trigger for me.
Jay: Thankfully, here shows actually happen at 7:00pm so, like, that’s true. There’s no excuse for. If you live here.
Tom Ray: Yeah. No, here it’s like the shows are usually the band doesn’t even start playing until 10.
Jay: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Is the. Is the argument. And it’s like, well, then go at 10. I don’t understand. It’s the weekend. You’ll be fine. And it’s like, if that’s a problem, then you really don’t want to go. You’re just blaming it on something else. Again. This is. People try not to get me started on this subject.
Jay: No, no, for sure. I. I feel that because honestly, like, I. I mean, if I live somewhere else where they did start at like 9 or 10, be like, all right, I guess I’m gonna be able to. Super late.
Tom Ray: Yeah, I know. That’s what I’m saying.
Jay: I feel like the only two places I’ve been to where the shows have been at, like, times that I think are, like, more reasonable times is here in Buffalo. Everywhere else, it’s like nine or ten Buffalo.
Tom Ray: That’s so random.
Jay: Yeah. There’s a. There’s a weird Milwaukee, Buffalo, like, connection that I haven’t quite understand. I do like Buffalo. I used to like a lot of. I had a lot of friends that lived there before, but I feel like I see other people that they, like, go back and forth between here and Buffalo, and there’s just some sort of connection between there. It’s some sort of cosmic connection, for
Tom Ray: lack of warmer there.
Jay: No.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Jay: There’s more snow there than here. We get, Milwaukee gets spared by the snow, but we’re still absurdly cold. Yeah, they get way more snow because of, like, where they are on. On,
Tom Ray: Yeah, you guys have the lake, which has some weird effects sometimes.
Jay: Yeah. But.
Tom Ray: All right, now we’re just talking about Midwest weather, so. Anyway, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today. This has been great.
Jay: Yep. No problem.