Milwaukee

After the late, great local band Far broke up, frontman Jonah Matranga funneled his quietly emotional pop vision into his solo project, onelinedrawing, while guitarist Shaun Lopez channeled his harder-edged inclinations into a new band, the Revolution Smile. Far’s bassist and drummer, John Gutenberger and Chris Robyn, formed another band, curiously called Milwaukee. Gutenberger switched to guitar and vocals; they added former Deathray drummer James Neil on keyboards and Mike Dugan on bass. On this eight-song CD, which clocks in at just over half an hour, Milwaukee evokes a rain-washed Midtown tableau etched with floundering relationships and the psychic ghosts summoned by Pabst-induced hangovers. Musically, … in sounds lies somewhere between Paul Westerberg’s quiet torment on the Replacements’ swan song, All Shook Down, and Stephen Malkmus’ adrift muse on Pavement’s Brighten the Corners. Bittersweet.