The DJ Takeover sponsored by Level Up is a program for listeners to discover their favorite artist's favorite artists, working to foster connection to the music and makers inside and outside our city. For the entire hour, we go down the rabbit hole of stories from their past, experiences of the present and goals for the future.
Call it fate, call it Carl Sagan. The Fatty Acids, Milwaukee scramble-pop legends, are back for the first time in 10 years.
On Sept. 18 and 19 at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, lead singer of The Fatty Acids and co-owner/operator of Silver City Studios Josh Evert will debut his new solo album, Photogenic Memory — an exploration of the distortion of memory and a showcase of Evert’s live composition and production mastery.
In celebration, Evert will also reunite with The Fatty Acids to play two different sets of songs each night of the Linneman’s “residency.” He and bandmate Matt Pappas, who joined me for this DJ Takeover, hinted that other reunions of Milwaukee legends may occur at the show, the existence of which is jaw dropping. I was equally surprised, however, by the amount of times “Who Let the Dogs Out” by Baha Men was referenced during our conversation.
Pappas and Evert represented the band, which also includes Cole Quamme (Oak You) and Derek Devinney (Lingerer). They very quickly established some context by agreeing unanimously that Carl Sagan — astronomer, scientist and author of Contact — is the north star of The Fatty Acids.
Sagan theorizes that when we zoom out as far as possible in space and the Earth becomes a pale blue dot, it can be inferred that love and kindness is all we have. The rest is insignificant. Likewise, we know to be true that humans can only be found on Earth. While it’s in our human nature to find ourselves at odds with our own kind, Sagan offers this perspective to remind us the people around us are a gift.
“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena,” he said. “Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
This mentality has influenced The Fatty Acids’ songwriting and general motivation, both of which resulted in music that in many ways captured humanity as we know it.
Sagan also led the creation of the Voyager Golden Records, which strived to capture the music of Earth (including such luminaries as Bach, Chuck Berry and … whale songs). If Sagan conducted this work in 2026, I might suggest adding at least a little of The Fatty Acids to the playlist.
DJ Takeover: Josh Evert & Matt Pappas playlist
- Josh Evert, “The Sound of Machines”
- The Fatty Acids, “Airsick”
- Mortgage Freeman, “Jet, Son of Drum”
- Leonard Cohen, “First We Take Manhattan”
- Mol Sullivan, “Dog”
- Devo, “Girl U Want”
- Sat. Nite Duets, “Big Worm”
- The Strokes, “Going Shopping”
- Dogs in Ecstasy “E-cig”
