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We are back ladies and gentlemen for act two great to have you with us We are talking about movies tonight, and we're gonna segue or pivot should I say to a very cool Rock contest
Our guest Dennis Graham at 720 is trying to find the best garage band ages 7 through 12 in Wisconsin.
It's called Rock-Honson.
That's coming up at 720.
Our question of the night is what are your favorite burger toppings?
It is National Hamburger Day and the text of the night so far I would have to say is from Civic Media's own Melissa Kay who said peanut butter, pineapple and cilantro with a dash of sriracha.
I don't know if that's real or if she's trying to get listeners to vomit, but either way, that's her answer.
And maybe she loves it.
Who am I to question Melissa?
She's fantastic.
And right now we have a few more minutes with our guest, Matt Miller, Milwaukee based film critic.
We're talking about the box office, the crushing box office this last weekend.
Matt, will that be the biggest weekend of the summer, do you think?
It'd be pretty tough to top that, right?
and Mission Impossible, plus Final Destination holding better than expected.
Plus, it was a long weekend.
And you know, Hollywood loves to add that bonus day and be like, ah, yes, big opening weekends when you add an opening day.
Of course, it's going to be a little bit bigger.
I do think Fantastic Four is going to do very well.
I think that is a Marvel movie that people are excited about.
It is the first time the Fantastic Four has been in the Disney MCU.
So I think that will do well.
I also think Jurassic World will do well because dinosaurs always do well.
I'll be interested to see how Superman does.
I don't think they've done a very good job of selling that movie to audiences thus far.
It it weirdly feels similar to the past Zack Snyder Superman movies in terms of the story, it seems to be telling with a brighter color palette, which is.
not a bad thing, but it's just, uh, I just don't think they're doing a good job of making a reason why this new Superman needs to exist.
But the big reason is that a lot of these movies are the only movies coming out those weekends.
Hollywood wants to get out of the way of a lot of these blockbusters.
There's not a lot of good counter-programming that, you know, gives you the kind of barbenheimer weekend or, you know,
the Dark Knight and Mamma Mia runs where those movies both made tons of money their opening weekends.
There's not that smart counter programming that there used to be.
That's why this weekend did well.
You had Lilo and Stitch for Families.
You had Mission Impossible for an older audience.
They just don't plan that way the same way anymore.
So I think that was probably the biggest weekend you'll see this summer But I think we have a lot of big weekends to come still so that's positive.
That's great Yeah, I think it's fantastic and I saw that I can't remember was barbenheimer was at a four-day weekend because this beat Bart this week of the two films Mission Impossible and Lilo and Stitch crushed the barbenheimer number and I think that was a four-day weekend too
that
I think that was just July 20th around there, because that's the Christopher Nolan weekend.
He loves that kind of mid-July weekend.
So yeah, that was just a regular weekend, which the reason why this one was probably bigger was because there were other things to see.
Um, there were other movies in theaters that people wanted to check out this weekend like it sinners is still doing well you had Thunderbolt still drawing kind of an audience, you know, it's It's good to have a variety of things in theaters that people want to see and
Hollywood is starting to remember that, you know, you see the look at the summer.
They've got some romantic comedies.
They've got some dramas.
They've got some, you know, F1 is kind of like an adults action movie.
They've got franchise movies and horror movies and kids movies.
They are starting to remember that there are lots of audiences that you can please all at once if you
want to.
Matt, let's, oh, before we go any further, I want to say you got a great shout out.
on your sub-stack from another friend of ours, Rob Thomas, who gave you this great compliment saying nobody covers the Milwaukee Film Festival like Matt Miller.
That was a great
him.
There
That's great.
But just accept this Hosanna for yourself.
That was a great thing.
You're
Matt, before we let you go, tell us about final destination bloodlines.
You mentioned it earlier, like it's got some serious legs.
It may have had another great weekend.
What are we missing if we haven't even seen any of the bloodlines?
franchise is
It's a fun, hokey, horror comedy, arguably, franchise because it's never scary.
It's very violent, gross, bloody things happening to people.
For people who don't know, the Final Destination franchise is about people who survive a near-death experience and then death is like, no, no, no, I want to kill you.
And it's a slasher movie starring death as the villain, essentially.
It's a great premise.
great Rube Goldberg ways of brutally killing these people.
And so you go to it.
It's kind of like I described it to someone as like live action, itchy and scratchy.
Nice.
horrible, violent things are happening to people but it kind of doesn't matter and it's kind of just silly and gory and macabre and ridiculousness and I think Final Destination Bloodlines is kind of the peak of that form of what it's doing where the kills are so ridiculous and so tense to see how they're going to line all of these things up to
brutally murdered these poor people who've done nothing wrong other than live.
There's just enough tweaks to the formula to make it feel like a different movie, because not every final destination movie does that.
A lot of them are, frankly, extremely lazy.
And there's even just a little bit of actual character work in this new movie, too.
There's just a little bit of seasoning to it.
So I think it's the best in the franchise.
I had a lot of fun watching it.
I know the crowd that I watched it with was having a blast.
And in this era of very important, this movie is actually about an important topic, horror movies.
It's kind of fun to watch a horror movie that's just like, I don't know, man, death sucks.
And I think that's why people were drawn to it, you know?
It's a franchise, sure, but it's not connected really in any way, meaningful way.
And it's just a horror movie about, man, dying sucks.
Death is good.
And fate is cruel.
probably take a pass, but
Okay.
Conn, go ahead, buddy.
And that's maybe the second or third best kind of big set piece kill in the movie.
But it's just they've really kind of mastered in this movie the art form of like, we're going to get all these weird Rube Goldberg things going on in a scene.
And you don't know where things are going to break and what's going to end up killing Boo.
But you just know it's going to end real bad for somebody.
And it's just this
funny stress and release.
And I know I had a really good time with it.
It's not going to be for everybody, but if you are kind of a goofy horror movie fan, you can't do much better than Final Destination Bloodlines.
It's such a good, silly, gory time at the movies.
Matt, what did you think of the accountant too?
You mentioned you saw that earlier.
I saw it too.
I like the first one better.
I like the caper parts of the second one, but the brother stuff really kind of threw me.
It seems like it's trying to be a more fun movie than the first movie.
It's trying to have this kind of fun brother banter.
It's trying to be kind of have these comedic set piece moments.
But it is paced so sluggishly that the comedy should have some pop to it, should have some wit, and those scenes just take forever.
And for ostensibly an action movie, there's very little action in it, I found.
So I was kind of disappointed by it.
I kind of wanted it to be either the ridiculous sequel to a very straight-faced, ridiculous movie that the first accountant is.
And it kind of just ends up being this odd,
man's land of like, we tried to be goofier, but we didn't have the right tone.
Ben Affleck is weirdly thinking like, for some odd reason, he kind of has a British accent.
Yeah, I was going to
ask you about that.
It is.
He turns to his brother at the end.
He's like, what are your plans?
It's like, wait, you didn't have the accent in the first movie.
What is this?
Right.
And
I'm glad you said that.
I thought it was like, it was driving me crazy.
And there are a couple of scenes in that movie that made me angry.
The one of Bernthal in his underwear rehearsing his speech and then Ben Affleck with the line dance.
And it just, it was like really hard to watch at times.
And
you
that
guys.
Even if you're wearing hokas.
Matt, one more question for you.
The film centers, the more distance I have from it, the more I liked it, and I'll probably see it again.
Is that an Oscar film?
Will that get nominated?
I'm sure it will on the fringe stuff, effects maybe, but acting, script, directing.
What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, it's an interesting case because this is a new Oscars era where a movie like Get Out can get nominated, a movie like The Substance can get nominated.
Yeah, great point.
I think this movie...
has really become a cause of celebration for a lot of Hollywood because it is a original movie that had a very passionate creative mind behind it.
Ryan Coogler, somebody who has been due, he didn't get really the flowers he deserved for Creed and really for Black Panther.
The Oscars kind of gave those movies kind of, you know,
complimentary nods,
but
I hope so.
I would love, I think this was, that's going to be kind of the Dune part two of this year or the get out of this year.
I would love to see get, you know, other nominations as well.
I would love to see Cougler get, I bet he gets an original screenplay nomination because original screenplay, they oftentimes have to reach because they just, there just aren't that many original screenplays that they unite behind.
I'd love to see Michael B. Jordan get nominated, but Best Actor is hard to get into, especially if you're in a movie that came out early in the year.
If you're not top of mind.
I do think it's gonna get a lot of below the line nominations.
I think you'll see a production design nomination, a special effects nomination for impressively putting two Michael B. Jordan's on screen.
If it doesn't get some sort of music sound, if it doesn't coordinate for all of those categories,
I would be stunned.
I don't know how original the music.
I don't know enough about the blues music in it to know how much of that is original and how much of that is, you know, previously made material.
But this is not the last you will hear about centers this year.
You will hear that coming up through the awards season.
And I'd be shocked.
At this point, I'd be shocked if it doesn't get a best picture nomination.
Well said, buddy.
As always, so much fun.
Thanks so much, Matt.
Always, buddy.
We'll talk soon.
That's Matt Miller.
Check him out at A Man About Film and read his stuff.
He's a great writer.
We're coming right back with some rock-ons and talk.
It's Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Baba, you got nightlight on the Civic Media radio network.
The perfect way to spend your Wednesday night is you wind down midweek and we talk about the things in life that make us happy.
Barb from Waukesha said, the Elvis burger is delicious.
It sounds disgusting, but I love the sweetness of the peanut butter.
We had issues with that, all in good fun.
And Barb just texted back, try it with about eight exclamation points.
And she sent a picture of the burger.
It looks interesting.
person.
Sweet burger person.
Lori from Hayward says, my favorite burger toppings are fried onions, mustard, and lots of pickles, and even more delicious when the bun is toasted.
But if people have never tried pickles and peanut butter, I think she means, they should definitely get out of dill pickle and a jar of peanut butter and give it a try.
That's Lori from Hayward in the 715.
Thank you, Lori.
I hope people do.
People, it's like, this is a hill they're going to die on.
Peter Barron of Burger.
Craig, we'll get to your text soon.
It is my pleasure, folks, to... We're going to move into music, another beautiful form of entertainment.
We don't talk about probably enough on this show, even though we talk about it a lot.
Dennis Graham is the founder and producer of Rock Hudson, a really cool program, and he joins us now over the stream to talk about it.
Dennis, how are you?
Very good.
Thanks so much, Pete, and Civic Media and Conrad.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk to your audience
tonight.
Hey, this is great.
I love when I meet someone who had an idea like you.
There's nothing else like this based on my limited research, but research nonetheless.
You've created a really cool thing here.
So let's, before we get into the actual event and what rock rock constant is, tell us a little bit about your background, if you would.
Well, very eclectic background.
Actually, I've been involved in building programs from scratch, whether it's sports programs like the Wisconsin Amateur Sports Corporation, Badger State Summer and Winter Games, or whether it's
working with the national congress of state games and creating an athlete of the year program or working with the late Otto Breitenbach with the western collegiate hockey association the frozen five up in minneapolis with everything from well as I said a lot of sports I've worked with bands in the past you know taking them to south by southwest in Austin and I
worked on in quite a few campaigns.
I worked out, I started out many years ago, I'm longing the tooth Pete, out in Washington DC, working for a congressman from your area, the eighth congressional district actually was hired by Dave Prosser, who just passed Congressman Freilich.
And I worked with him that was
during the impeachment of Nixon, and the reason that Congressman Freilich in 1974, so I'm dating myself brother, is that, and by the way, everybody got aligned together.
Democrat, Republican, we played on the same softball team.
It's a
different
time.
It's, it's shameful.
It is,
I
agreed.
But the reason that Harold Freilich lost and he was on the judiciary committee, which is quite unique for a freshman.
congressman, but he was the majority leader, I believe it was up at that time, or minority at the Wisconsin State Assembly, was because he voted for the impeachment of Nixon.
As a staffer, I was able to go, and this is way beyond a lot of your audience, even knowing any of this, but I was able to go to the House Judiciary Committee because I was a staffer and listened to the Nixon tapes.
remarkable.
So remarkable that a 22 year old called up his mom that night and said, wow, I didn't think he would swear the ways.
And let's just say it's as bad as it could be as a drunken sailor.
I was shocked.
But so I've been involved in politics.
I was Tony Earl's main driver in his campaign in 1982, went all around the state up in your backyard Green Bay.
I was then worked on his staff, but then from there went and worked for a business association.
And then Badger State, as I said, Summer and Winter Games, and a lot of sports events.
And this is the most fun I've ever had, Rock-Onsen.
And it really came about when I was approached, Pete, by an organization that said, you know, we're trying to raise awareness about the music teachers, what they do, and hearing the state.
And at that time I said, well, you know what?
Because I had put on some other, helped out with some other lifetime achievement awards.
I said, you know who's somebody that's not recognized here in the state?
He only was invented multi-track, tracking, dub, reverb, echo, what would reggae be without dub?
Oh, and the electric guitar.
So I'm talking who?
The Wizard of Waukesha, Les Paul, Les DePaul.
And he's actually not the real last Paul.
His son is the real last Paul.
Rusty.
He's Lester Poulfus when I flew him back here.
That's his illegal name.
But yeah, the visitor walked Shaw.
And I said, you know, you ought to consider, he's a Wisconsin boy, bringing him back to Wisconsin to honor him.
He's never been honored for a while, but he had done.
They said, hey, that's an idea.
At the same time that I brought up this idea, and now it's my 21st year, is a program for a forum, a showcase for young bands in seventh to 12th grade.
They have an opportunity to show their love of performing and of music.
And so that kind of took off from there.
I've been raising millions of dollars over the years over all these programs.
I don't need, I don't need millions for this program.
But I have, you know, 25 radio stations, Civic Media is a wonderful supporter.
I have six TV stations.
I've always had a lot of media and I never pay for it.
If you don't have passion, then, you know, that's cool.
I
understand.
but I'm not going to pay for it.
And so I have a lot of TV, radio, newspaper, support.
I just tip of the hat every day to the music teachers.
Yeah,
absolutely.
Hey, Dennis,
let's pick up there.
We got to do the news.
Shout out to Terry Barr, by the way, who introduced us.
And you came on the show recently.
But we're going to jump into rock concert, folks, after the
news.
Dennis Graham is here, founder and producer.
We're coming right back.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Great to have you with me.
This is Pete Schwabba and Night Light and our question of the night in honor of National Hamburger Day.
This is not a regional thing, folks.
What are your favorite hamburger toppings?
Let us know.
You can still get in on the fun.
We'll catch up on text in just a couple minutes here.
Tomorrow night on Night Light, Mary Pacorni-Donald, a producer.
TV producer will make the popcorn pick of the week at 6.35.
Norm Kepesky from Appleton Cigar will be here to make one more push for Smoke on the Fox, which happens June 2nd.
And then author Laura Enright will be here to talk about her vampire book.
How fun does that sound?
And I know they're vampires, but we're still gonna light it up.
Let's see what I did there, Conrad.
Not too bad.
We have a few more minutes with our guest who I'm very excited to have here.
Dennis Graham is the founder of Rock-Honson.
This is a contest for garage bands, grades 7 through 12.
It's a great program.
And we're just about to jump into what's happening right here on the horizon with your pretty spectacular event, Dennis.
And I applaud you.
I love what you're saying about music teachers and the arts are kind of under attack or they think they're not necessary, whatever.
It's all nonsense.
But I love what you're saying about music teachers and the importance in instilling this in kids at a young age.
And you're carrying the torch with your really cool event here, Rock Hansen.
So tell us a little more about it.
I know it's at Summerfest.
You have 10 finalists.
Is that how this
is working?
Okay.
And to answer your earlier question,
raw onions and mustard on my hand.
Okay, bro.
I love it.
Yes.
This is the only program of its kind in the nation, a statewide garage band competition set with the 12th grade bands of any musical genre.
And it is free in every band.
I do have to give a shout out to the Nicholas Family Foundation.
They've been supporting this program, our main benefactor, basically, that have been supporting this program for 21 years.
And also Summerfest, the relationship we have there, SureMikes, every band that makes it to the state finals gets two SureMikes.
And this is a free program.
Wow,
nice.
And so I had sent out to you, they get one vocal, one instrument mic.
The winner will actually get an additional sure wireless vocal microphone.
You know, and it's pretty cool.
Plus the winner and runner up.
will receive a recording time at Blast Health Studios in Madison, 12 hours and eight hours for the winter 12, eight for the runner up.
And the winter and runner up will also win a second 45 minute set on their warp pavilion stage at Summerfest on July 3rd.
Now, you bet, I want folks to go check out our socials at Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, at Rockonson.
Check out our website at Rockonson.
Or you can run off a pollster We have just posted up flip video on those socials that I sent you today of ten bands five performing on
On June 26th, they were providing stage 20 minute showcase sets each and five more on June 27th, 20 minute showcase each.
So you can see the pictures of the bands, the dates, the times that they're playing.
So yeah, it's a blast.
It's a lot of fun.
And you know, I've been a coach, football, baseball, basketball, and all that.
I gotta tell you, man, the first thing that gets cut when they need new shoulder pads,
is music and arts programs.
My wife Jane is an art teacher for 35 years.
Kids cried when she left.
They only went to school because of the arts.
So I, you know, I love sports.
I love the Packers, man.
I love, you know, but I also love the arts and the arts get short shrift.
all the
time.
I am totally with you and I love sports too, but I feel if anything is lacking, kids need more access to this stuff.
And I used to tell kids when I would work in my daughter's school and volunteer and that kind of stuff, you can learn an instrument here for free.
And we had great music teachers.
And if you choose the tuba or something, or something no one's playing, you can get a scholarship to UW.
So
I'm with
you.
I think if anything, we need to pump more money into the arts and get kids involved in stuff like this, because it's something they can do their whole life, too.
I mean, just not that many kids are going to the pros and sports.
And I know there's more to it than that.
You play to participate and be part of a team.
You get those same lessons, being in a play or a band or whatever, and working together.
I cannot applaud you enough, Dennis, for wh-
what you're saying.
You know, just to point out, yeah, Nicholas, who's a huge supporter of Badger basketball, of course, the UW Badger basketball courts, they have Nicholas court with a signature on it.
And he was a great guy.
God bless him is the thing he liked about it, Pete, just like sports.
They got to get together with the band.
They have to have discipline.
They have to practice.
They have to stay on task.
That's what Ab really liked about the program.
That's great.
Well, you're in your 21st year.
Tell us a little bit about the progression here.
So they send in an audition tape.
Do you choose
the
10 finalists that will perform at Summer Fest out of those audition tapes?
Or is there like a preliminary round somehow?
How does that work?
What it is is from March 1 to April 30th every year you send in one video cover original does not matter it does not matter what genre music if it is actually since in 2022 sacrament from Waterford High School the first metal band ever went in since they came in and did so well we're getting more metal bands which is you know I'm a wee bit of a metal guy there too in Iraq but yes they send in one song cover original we have three judges
that have 30 plus years experience in the industry.
They score them out using a rubric.
of everything from synergy, to mastering the musical instrument, to vocal blend and so forth.
And then my worst day every year is when we announced the top 10 on May 15th, because the scores are very close.
And I know people get disappointed, but then there's the 10 bands that are gonna go June 26th, June 27th, the Summerfists on the Royal Pavilion stage.
Now there will be three different judges.
that will be using that same band application, Rubrik, to score out the bands at the Rock-Ansan State Finals at Summerfest, the big gig, the world's largest music festival.
I mean, I know bands that can't get in there, they're making five to $10,000 a night.
They beg to get in there and they can't get in there.
So then they, well, what we actually do too, those same three band application judges have 30 plus years experience each.
And then what we do between the Quick Change Ores, because we have a community drum kit, is that it is from 12.15 to 2.45, well, June 26th and June 27th.
Again, if you go to our socials at Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, you'll see the dates and times of each band.
Well, then they'll go in and give a quick 10 minute critique, positive critique of the band.
If you know, maybe working a little on this or hey, that was pretty good.
And then again, the winner and runner up,
Well, not only get recording time at Madison's Blass House Studios, but then they get that second gig on July 3rd for 45 minutes each.
Again, there were a pavilion stage, just a great stage.
One, two, it's covered, man.
I love
that.
Wait, how do these kids, seventh grade to 12, to 12th grade, do they have sets that long?
45 minutes, that's a.
that's a long
yeah it is it's really amazing it's impressive yeah sometimes these bands come together literally during the band application period but yes they do they have those sets and also i'll choose one band for the walkshar rotary blues fest that have every year one a band to kick off that two day at nega walkie park in delafield and that'll be august 8th this year so they'll kick it out it's a paid gig anybody that wants these young bands after rock anson
It's a, it's a paid gig.
There's other
ones, Midwest Firefest in Cambridge, other festivals that are now coming to, to Rock-onson because they are very talented.
It's really quite amazing.
I've seen thousands of bands and I'm amazed at the talent.
of these young musicians.
That's so cool.
My guest is Dennis Graham, folks.
He is the founder and producer of Rock-Honson, a really great program for kids, or musicians grade 7 through 12 in who our garage is.
Dennis, you say all genres are welcome.
Are there a lot of opera singers working out of their garages?
I would imagine
most of the contestants you get are rock and roll.
Right.
Most of rock and roll.
I'm looking at the, the list here we've got from your backyard.
You know, we have up there crusher from Campbell's port high school.
Well, that's not a cool spot, but, um, you know, you have, uh, what am I looking at?
Like mania, uh, from to peer wound pool from Plymouth.
Um, you know, we've got, uh, crusher, uh, who's coming out of a Campbell's, but they're a metal band.
Okay.
greater than human.
Another metal band from Tiny Tony, Wisconsin with a high school of 88.
I think 88 did attend a very tiny school.
So, you know, we get bands from, you know, all over the state, Eau Claire, Walsall, Rhinelander, Green Bay, Fox Valley, Milwaukee, we're seeing Kenosha Madison, La Crosse, all over the state over the years.
And this during this last 21 years, over 700 bands.
They've come through the state-wide garage band competition
in the country.
We talked about our pal Terry Barr, who does this segment every week called Bar Band Friday Night.
She introduced us to the music of No Limit last week.
We heard a song from them, and they were great.
And I can't even imagine.
And especially if you're saying like the scores are so close, it hurts to turn people away.
But kids like that age should not get discouraged.
Keep jamming and keep getting at it.
perfect your craft, right?
Right.
And I always tell them, geez, don't let one competition or one program or one forum turn you off or your love of performing.
music and getting in the spotlight.
That's what it's all about.
You know, people ask, why do I do this?
I do it really for encouragement and promotion.
And again, I'm a big art supporter.
I'm a huge music guy, man.
I mean, I can go and see the Rolling Stones brother for $10.
And that was opening for them was the Eagles with Joe Walsh walking out.
So I am aging myself.
When I saw Joe Walsh with James gang,
I saw it was $3.50 in Madison with the original Paul Butterfield blues band opening for them, the first integrated band in the United States.
They wouldn't even go down south because Paul Butterfield said, you know, if they're not going to let my brothers like Sam Lee, the drummer, you know, stay at the same hotel.
We're not coming.
So, you know, it's just really interesting.
I mean, I saw, you know, Bob Seeger for three bucks.
Oh, man.
with UW Whitewater in the cafeteria room.
I have all my same tickets.
I was number 144.
I don't think there were 200 people in there.
And at that time, Glenn Fry was playing for him.
He was an 18-year-old going to school in the Detroit area.
But his mom made him leave the band after he graduated.
And of course, he went out to...
to L.A.
and Linda Ronstad and the Eagles and all that, but she made him quit the Bob Seeger band because she found out they were smoking pot.
So that was it with Bob Seeger and Glenn Fry.
But I mean, interesting, that's what it used to be.
I used to see cheap trick all around Southern Wisconsin.
They used to be all around the state.
You can see him for two bucks.
There's a great book, by the way, out there called
This band has no past, just came out on cheap trick.
And they were just playing as many $100 gigs as they could at the tiniest little places around Wisconsin, Northern Illinois.
And they just kept pounding it, just like as a result of spending so much time with Les Paul and all that.
Then I got
to
know his, when I brought him off of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Music, then along came his godson.
Who's that?
Stevie Gittar Miller.
So I got to know Steve Miller really well.
And he just said, you know, Dennis, Les taught me just to keep pounding, pounding, pounding.
And finally, I got a few hit songs.
You know, Jane and I spent a weekend at his pad with he and Kim on Sun Valley.
But he's a guy that can't stand the digital music age, just like Neil Young.
He's an analog guy.
And, uh, and he, he don't ask him about Steve Jobs and Apple music, man.
Well, I have a couple more minutes when we come back after a very short break.
Don't leave folks.
This is fun stuff.
Dennis Graham is here.
I'm Pete Schwab.
This is nightlight.
We're coming right
back.
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Welcome back to Nightlight.
This is Pete Schwabba, your ever-loving host for this evening's broadcast.
On the stream, we got a few comments we'll get to.
Cliff Wall says, fried onions.
And we've had just a few people that don't like fried onions.
It's weird.
People are very polarized on the onion.
I was not anticipating that.
I'll take a fried.
Yeah, I
could do either, to be honest with you, Dennis.
Dennis Graham is my guest.
He is the founder and producer of Rock Hansen.
the 10 finalists of this really cool contest for grades 7 through 12 garage bands.
That's the age range garage bands.
They've made it to the finals.
You can see them perform June 26th and 27th from 1245 to 245 at the Aurora Pavilion at Summerfest.
A big thrill for these kids.
Dennis, we were talking about Bob Seeger, who I...
kind of forgot about for a few years there.
And I've rediscovered his music a couple of years ago.
I am on the biggest Bob Seeger kick.
I found, but Springsteen is my all time favorite.
I found a photo of these two guys outside of music studio in LA in like the 70s.
And I think it's a pretty rare photo, but they were helping each other and they both learned so much from each other about guitar, counter melodies and all that.
It was just such a great article to read.
I'll have to try to find it, but it was, it's really fun.
So I'm glad you mentioned Bob Seeger.
Um, what kind of music do you like?
What are your favorite bands?
Well, you know, I'm kind of an old school guy, man.
I'm, uh, I'm a big stones guy.
Um, I'm, uh, uh, big into Pink Floyd.
Uh, I like, uh, I like a lot of reggae.
I go to reggae festivals in Jamaica.
Um, I saw Bob Marley a number of times, so just like 10 feet away from them.
But the best reggae singer out there, if you guys are interested is Horace.
Andy, wonderful voice.
He's, I mean, even one of the best voices I've ever heard.
So yeah, I mean, I'm a rock, I love all music as well.
But I just, you know, I lean towards probably these older, later 60s and 70s.
I'm reading a book right now by Bill Wyman who left the Stones in like 1992 called Stone Alone.
That is very interesting.
Those guys just pounded till they made it and they lived like they were poor.
They were starving.
But that's what you really have to do.
That's what a lot of these guys have said.
If you want to do it, I want to give a shout out.
First of all, I want to thank you again in civic media.
you know, for this opportunity, Pete and Conrad to talk to your audience, but I do want to give a shout out to last year's winner.
The 2024 Rock-Onsen winner was New Normal on a Nesita Queen of the Holy Rose III and Wisconsin Dells High School, and then No Limit as you referenced was the runner up for, and they're back in it again this year from Columbus and Minota Grove High School, so.
But we have seen bands now, it takes a lot.
A lot of kids when they're done, you know, mom and dad are saying go to college or go to Texas or whatever it may be.
But we've seen a number of bands over there.
One I'll throw out right now that you'll be hearing more and more of that was 10 years ago going through this program.
Slow pulp, P-U-L-P, slow pulp.
They're great.
They were band that came through.
They were Modern Mod out of Madison East High School and Sleeping in the Stereo.
I love these names out of Madison West.
They came together.
The lead singer of Modern Mod, Emily Macy, came together with the guys from Student Stereo.
And last fall, they were touring Europe.
playing the Royal Albert Hall and all these major venues, you know, opening for Death Cab for Cutie.
We've got guys like Gabe Berdoulos who picked up his guitar and went down to Nashville at 18 and now as a producer, singer, songwriter down there with so many folks.
And there's a great band out of the, that reminds me of like a cheap trick that is just pounding it.
uh, that came through about four years ago out of the, uh, Stevens point area, scorched waves, scorched waves, very talented.
You know, they have a love and this is their, their passion and they want to go out and, you know, take a hard shot at it and, uh, and some of them, you know, make it.
It's, uh, as you know, I mean, as Miller told me, he'd keep me up to four o'clock in the morning.
There's a thousand bands out there that are good, but who gets behind them and really pushes them?
You do.
You do, my friend.
And please keep up the good work.
This was so much fun.
Thank you for being on the show, Dennis.
And please come back when you get some
more
results.
We'd love to keep talking about this.
Thanks so much, buddy.
I appreciate it very much.
Thanks so much.
All right.
That's Dennis Graham.
Check out Rock Hansen.
Go to the Aurora Pavilion stage at Summerfest.
Great stuff.
Steady Eddie Tex, he says, Pete, in 1963, I was 9 or 10 and I was having lunch at my friend's house.
When in a moment of creativity and inspiration, I put a couple of potato chips on my burger.
It was deliciously crunchy and juicy.
And I believe a true American culinary breakthrough.
But my friend's mother gave me a strange look and mumbled something under her breath like, what a maroon.
I love that he said maroon and not moron.
I'm gonna tear it to this day.
If I'm feeling wild and crazy, I will put a potato chip or two on my hamburger.
Try it.
You'll like it.
Steady Eddie.
Great stuff, Steady Eddie.
I'll go for that.
peanut butter.
the burger.
Yeah.
I've heard of that.
Nothing wrong with that.
Tony the trucker from the 608 says, he's up late.
He says, almost, must be a good bakery bun.
Also, I'm sorry, must be a good bakery bun, nicely toasted.
People love that too.
Craig on the stream says Pete and almost all the food on almost all the food channel shows where they go to places that specialize in burgers.
The burger isn't finished until they throw a fried egg on top.
I'd like to try that someday if egg prices go down.
Well done Craig.
PJ says you will definitely have to try peanut butter on a burger.
I can't promise you that PJ but
Craig's thing, I don't get the egg either.
Like I'll
eat burgers, I don't know why people need an egg on their
so
Why?
Yeah, I know.
protein's good.
I'll try that.
I'll try the potato chips.
I don't know that I'm gonna do the peanut butter.
But I like Melissa Kay so much, maybe I will, who knows.
All right, folks, so much fun tonight.
Thank you to Dennis Graham.
Thank you to Matt Miller.
All your texts and calls always fun here at Nightlight.
We just have a blast every night, and we will keep this train going tomorrow on behalf of the lovable producer Conrad.
I'm Pete Schwabba saying good night,
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