Maximiano, The Spine Stealers

media release:  MAXIMIANO’s music is rarely about just one emotion, moment, or person. Their debut album, “The Real Truth,” instead explores the way that experience flows through periods of growth and change. The songs shimmer, echo, and glide through tales of memory and identity that Piet Levy of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called “one of the most piercing and emotionally resonant collections of songs from a Milwaukee artist of the year… a towering achievement.” With this ringing endorsement, The Journal Sentinel ranked “The Real Truth” as the 3rd Best Milwaukee Album of 2024.

The album, which Maximiano wrote, produced, arranged, recorded, and mixed, is adorned with a variety of sounds; piano, pedal steel, flute, clarinet, and more elevate the americana-folk core. With an all-star band of Milwaukee musicians (including members of Field Report, PHOX, Old Pup, and Ellie Jackson), the vulnerable songs swell to cathartic, indie-rock peaks. Riding the waves of this folkestra, Maximiano sings tenderly but urgently about taking chances, missed opportunities, and reevaluating memories. The result is a flowing, expressive sound that, according to Erin Wolf, music director at 88.9 Radio Milwaukee, “captures the beauty that often comes from the newfound wisdom accrued in your stumbling, youngest years.”

“The Real Truth” is a lush, courageous, and ambitious first record from an artist poised to take up the lineage of earnest, folk-influenced singer-songwriters. Though their music will appeal to fans of Adrianne Lenker, Songs:Ohia, Sufjan Stevens, and Elliott Smith, the real truth is that there is no one quite like Maximiano.

THE SPINE STEALERS are a two-gal duo making “spooky folk” influenced by the north-wood Wisconsin pines, 24/7 truck stop diners, heartbreak and dark lakes. Kate and Emma started learning guitar together around bonfires in their shared hometown during the height of the pandemic, soon writing songs inspired by lonesome winters, the heartaches of nostalgia and broken ideas of love. The duo started frequenting open mics in July of 2022, which led them to a whirlwind first year as performers. It began with opening for Dead Horses at Madison’s Majestic Theater for Folk Fest 2023, then winning the 2023 Blue Ox Music Festival Virtual Band Competition, and releasing their first ever EP, “River Teeth Tapes” in July, 2023. 2024 brought the release of several singles, a feature in DAYBREAK magazine, and most proudly, the recording of their debut album “If the Sky Falls, Beyond the Sidewalks”, released in October, 2024.