Building Info
- Address: 2864-2866 N. Oakland Ave.
- Taxkey: 3160756000
- Assessed Value (Land): $56,400
- Assessed Value (Improvements): $884,800
- Assessed Value (Total): $941,200
- Assesment Year: 2025
- Year Built:
Content referencing 2864-2866 N. Oakland Ave.
Gordo’s Bubble Waffles Eyes UW-Milwaukee
The dessert shop looks to open its fifth location.
Sep 30th, 2026 by Lauren Hafeman
24 years of rock for Atomic. In one day.
In Miramar’s tight lobby, the tension, fervor and anticipation mounts for the upcoming six (plus) hours of current and reunited local music acts playing for Atomic Records owner Rich Menning, store clerks, and the store’s legion of devoted fans. At this early hour, Eric Blowtorch is about to hit the stage and Menning is all sheepish grins. “It was a surprise. It was,” he says. “The more I heard about the [concert] the more I thought, ‘You know, this could be awesome.’” In December, Menning announced that he would be shuttering the venerable 24-year-old music store (before it was Atomic, it was Ludwig Van Ear) located near Oakland Ave. at 1813 E. Locust St.. Differences over rent and the current economic climate made the 2009 financial forecast look bleak, even after success becoming an online broker. During a time when Tower, Virgin, and other mall record stores are closing, it’s often astounding that smaller independents in town (Rush-Mor, Bullseye, Lotus Land, Exclusive Co.) can still operate. The key with some may be the low overhead of having few employees or purchases. Everyone has their own story of working at Atomic or buying their first [insert hardcore punk/progressive/acid/import/death metal/nouveau/ad nauseum musical group here] album from the one store that had a cochlea for important but unheard-of stuff. The clerks at Atomic often put the crew at Nick Hornby’s ‘Championship Vinyl’ (Rob’s record store in High Fidelity) to shame in terms of aural audacity and rock snobbery. This was a selling point for shopping there, not a criticism. The place is small yet stacked to the rafters and sub-levels with posters, t-shirts, vinyl, cassettes, and CDs of stuff you may have only heard on college radio – or, better yet, at a local show. Atomic was also the place where local bands could premiere their recordings on 7” EPs before they ever had a MySpace page. It was this devotion and gratitude that brought erstwhile music acts to reunite for this one night. Musician and longtime Atomic employee Damien Strigens came up with the idea and made a few phone calls. One was to his former bandmates from The Lovelies: Liv Mueller and Barb Endes. Once they agreed to play a concert, calls went out to mostly defunct but well-loved Wisconsin acts such as Couch Flambeau, Sometimes Sweet Susan, a non-billed and incomplete yet devastating Die Krauzen (calling themselves Bob and Joe out of decorum), Liquid Pink, Boy Dirt Car, Mighty Deerlick, the Squares and Cherry Cake. If Atomic Valentine was a compilation album covering the last 30 years of rock in Milwaukee, it would have been a ‘Best Of.’ Many bands sounded better than ever. Everybody with a story to tell about Atomic showed up. The flowing crowd reached the 327 persons capacity at Miramar Theater several times throughout the night. Most of this audience didn’t fit into a definitive age demographic. There were grayhairs with leather pants and moptops with ironic Van Halen t-shirts. Free flowing Pabst beer – with […]
Mar 4th, 2009 by Brian JacobsonBuilding data on this page, including assessment information, was last updated on March 1, 2026
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