The Milwaukee music stories we were thankful for in 2020

Each Thursday morning on Radio Milwaukee we — the Journal Sentinel’s Piet Levy and 88Nine’s Jordan Lee — talk about the music coming into and the music coming out of Milwaukee on Tap’d In.
We’ve been ending the year on a positive note, talking about our favorite Milwaukee albums and songs of the year. And in keeping with that theme, for this week’s episode we’re going to talk about some cool success stories for the music scene this year. It was a difficult year, but 2020 wasn’t all bad.

Wes Tank became a national superstar by rapping Dr. Seuss rhymes over Dr. Dre beats. It was a passion project he pursued once the pandemic hit, and they quickly went viral, leading to his own YouTube series called “StoryRaps.”
Another happy story for me was the Space Raft NES game. Being able to play in the Cactus Club and listen to Space Raft songs in ChipTune was an absolute delight. We’re still in awe of the creativity. And it was wonderful seeing the band get so much support on their Kickstarter as well.

We lost some beloved venues in 2020. But the vast majority of them are still here, and were supported by the community and the state. We’re thankful that so many of our iconic venues are still standing.
We’re also thankful for Imagine MKE, which put together a really great grant program that kept a lot of artists afloat. They were able to raise $195,000, which was distributed to artists through grants. It was a crucial lifeline for artists that were really struggling this year.
Hear us recall those highlights and more on this week’s episode below.
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