Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
The first thing you notice about the track we’re premiering today from local rock outfit Lunde is that it required four takes to record.
Whether or not that’s true isn’t important. But hearing the voice of Grammy Award-winning producer Harry Brotman state that within the first five seconds does set a tone for what you’re about to hear in “The Dinosaur Song” — something loose and fun from a group of musicians who sound very tight in all the best ways.
It doesn’t hurt that the founding members of Lunde were joined up well before they ever started playing together. Songwriter/lead vocalist Nate Uhrich and drummer Jeremiah Lunde are cousins whose musical connection eventually pulled in bass player Josh Janiak to form a trio that clearly digs the warm, harmonious side of rock ‘n’ roll.
Those qualities came across in “Havin’ You Here,” which we premiered last March, and are back again in this prehistorically titled track that (with apologies to the pre-K fans in our audience) has nothing to do with t-rexes or pterodactyls. “The Dinosaur Song” is a loping and slightly loopy affair that seems best enjoyed with your hands in your pockets as you walk down the street on a sunny day.
With an assist from Charlie Altow on keys and Jeremy Peters on guitar, Lunde have once again created a song that feels like it could slide right in alongside the more melody-driven rock sounds of the late ’70s and early ’80s. As Jeremiah Lunde, who also produced the track, pointed out to us, “Most everything was cut live to tape at our studio in Kenosha. That means you’re limited to 24 tracks and only real hardware equipment, no plugins, auto-tune, etc. We love that sound — no nonsense and authentic.”
Brotman aided the process by keeping the tape machine up and running, allowing the band to turn out one of those contradictory songs that sound fun and easygoing while relaying a message that is … well, not:
Everything up to now has been tangled into you
I’m the one who thinks it’s cruel
You think it’s funny
I think I hate you
It’s a really solid listen that you can hear for yourself on demand using the player at the top of the page, on the 88Nine airwaves throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.), and when “The Dinosaur Song” gets its official release Oct. 3.
