"Bygones" now available on Bandcamp; iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby coming soon!

The Compulsion's brand new album, Bygones, is now live on our Bandcamp page, ready for your ears and (as if!) wallet.

Milwaukee-area peoples can also buy the album on vinyl LP or CD at Bullseye Records on our fine city's East Side.

Watch for Bygones on iTunes, CDBaby.com and Amazon on the official release date: Tuesday, September 17th.

Speaking of Amazon, we just learned that Bygones is "Explicit." I do recall using the word "shit" in a song or two, but Explicit? Hilarious! Especially in 2019.

--Mike B

Meet Olivia Rainmaker!

Meet Olivia Rainmaker: the first single from The Mike Benign Compulsion's fifth album, "Bygones."

Shiny, lush, big and bouncy with a twinge of melancholy. Fans of artists like XTC, Crowded House, Jellyfish, Squeeze and a certain four Liverpudlians will feel right at home.

Available now on iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon, CD Baby.com and other online outlets.

"Bygones" drops September 17th on vinyl LP, CD and digital download.

The new Mike Benign Compulsion album—our fifth—is complete!

We’re delighted to announce that The Mike Benign Compulsion recently completed work on our fifth album. Titled Bygones, the 12-song LP was recorded and mixed by the incomparable Shane Hochstetler at Howl Street Recordings.  

Bygones is slated to be released in September.

At this point, we know the album will be available on vinyl, via digital download and for streaming through the usual array of digital suspects (iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc.). We're not sure yet about CDs—we’ll decide that in the coming weeks.

The album cover art comes courtesy of our longtime friend, the fabulous L.A.-based artist Lois Keller. Another old and dear friend, Damian Strigens, did his usual masterful job on the layout. And ace photographer Mark Hines captured the band looking about as good as we can at this point in the journey that is life.

Like its predecessors, this album features a host of frequent collaborators and special guests, including Tyler Traband, Phil Bregant (Wire and Nail, Eagle Trace), Jack Rodee (Radio Radio), Bob Jennings (Semi-Twang, Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound, Panalure), Mary Hinderliter, Ayinde Garry, three of the lads from Something To Do, Kevan Oberdorf, and others.

Watch for a new single, a new video or two, and a slate of live performances in the coming months. 

The Mike Benign Compulsion look up,
probably because photographer Mark Hines told them to.

-->

A second and a half of satisfaction

Album 5 "action" at Howl Street Recordings.

Milwaukee Summerfest 2018: videographic evidence

Here at the offices of The Mike Benign Compulsion, we're all about the timely delivery of relevant content.

To demonstrate how catastrophically we've failed on both counts—timeliness and relevance—here's a video snippet from our July 1, 2018 performance.

Drummer Mike's shoulder went "boom"

The Mike Benign Compulsion 

Milwaukee Summerfest

Uline Warehouse Stage 

Saturday, June 30th     5-6 pm

For decades, drummer Michael Koch was a man with two perfectly good shoulders.

And make no mistake about it: those shoulders were like the co-captains of Mike's upper body. They marshaled his limbs to great effect, allowing Mike to perform feats that eluded the rest of us.

 

He did Tai Chi and played Ultimate Frisbee. 

	Ach! du lieber, Drummer Mike

 

He drained jumpers from far beyond the top of the key. 

 

He lifted small children--and some rather large ones, too--over his head like they were nothing at all. 

 

He danced expressively at every opportunity, moving his arms this way and that, taking great care not to use said arms to inadvertently pummel those around him. 

 

He used his magnificent arms--each with its own, fully functional shoulder--to pull his lederhosen on one short-panted leg at a time...just like you and me.

 

And when pressed into service, Mike took to his drum kit with German precision and unspeakable beauty.

But then, without warning, Mike's shoulder went "boom." 

Or, as his braniac doctor put it, "there is a complete full-thickness tear of the infraspinatus tendon with prominent medial retraction."

Yeah...whatever. Nerd!

 

Anyway, Dr. Big Words will be performing surgery on Drummer Mike's shoulder in July. Meaning The Mike Benign Compulsion's upcoming performance at Summerfest on Saturday, June 30th, from 5-6 pm, will be Mike's last show for a few months. 

A simulation of Drummer Mike's 

wounded shoulder. 

Ewwww.....gross!

 

It would mean a lot to Mike if you could be there to cheer him and his shoulder on. Especially since there's also "mild osseous degenerative hypertrophy of the acromioclavicular joint."

 

If that doesn't guilt you into seeing Mike and the band at Summerfest, we're not sure what else would.

There's nothing funny about music

The Mike Benign Compulsion
The Ball Turret Gunners

Red Dot Tosa • 68th & North Ave.
Friday, March 30th • 8 pm • $5

It goes without saying that music is serious business. 

Not funny business. 

Not monkey business. 

Not Risky Business, either. (That, of course, is the movie starring a young Tom Cruise and also Booger from Revenge of The Nerds. And also Balki from Perfect Strangers, who was also Serge in the Beverly Hills Cop series of movies. None of those people will be in attendance at the show to which this email refers, mainly because those people are funny and music is not.)

	The comedic actor who played Balki and Serge will not be in attendance. It wouldn't be appropriate.

No, music is serious business. So serious, in fact, that The Mike Benign Compulsion will be playing their musical compositions before a live audience at Red Dot in Wauwatosa, on Friday, March 30th. And by that we mean they'll be playing musical instruments and singing into microphones while people--maybe even you--are there to witness it.

But things promise to get even less funny than that. That's because The Ball Turret Gunners--also a musical outfit that plays and sings musical numbers they compose themselves--will also be performing at the aforementioned Red Dot show on Friday, March 30th. As anyone who's seen The Ball Turret Gunners can attest, they are four fully grown men who are also musically adept. (Adept means "very skilled." And they truly are.)

On the night when this show takes place, there will be parking spots readily availability in the surrounding neighborhood. The host venue will serve beverages and also food. And the evening's itinerary will look like this:

• 8:00 - The Ball Turret Gunners
• 9:15 - The Mike Benign Compulsion

This event is going to happen. And people will pay five dollars to be there when it does. And there's nothing even remotely funny about that.