The Yell Leaders are Milwaukee's premier pop/soul combo. Since their first singles garnered rave reviews from Billboard and the BBC's John Peel, among others, The Yell Leaders have toured regularly throughout the upper Midwest, where they have shared the stage with the likes of Semisonic, K's Choice, Del Amitri, Evan Dando, The Gufs, Citizen King, The Verve Pipe, The Why Store, Cheap Trick, and others. The group recently released its new LP, Cornelia Street, (with backing vocals by Del Amitri's Justin Currie on two tracks). The 12 original songs track the group's maturation since 1996's Up for Steam EP. "Windchill," the opening track on Up For Steam, a six-song CD EP mixed by Brew City wünderkind Mike Hoffmann (Willy Porter, The Verve Pipe, Victor DeLorenzo), was tapped by Columbia/Tri-Star Television for use in an episode of Party of Five, which airs on the Fox Television network, and the closer, "Fattened to Kill," appears in the film, Beach House, featuring MTV on-air personalities and Melrose Place cast members. A cover of Bruce Springsteen's I Wish I Were Blind was featured on one of the singles culled from One Step Up/Two Steps Back, the EMI/Right Stuff tribute to The Boss. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. The band has spent much of the past year recording the follow-up to "Cornelia Street," due for release later this year. Many of the 14 songs began at home, where basic tracks were recorded onto a mini-disc recorder. They were then taken to Walls Have Ears in Milwaukee and other tracks were added. Other songs have been recorded in their entirety at Walls with engineer and co-producer Bill Stace. The band is currently mixing the tracks, two of which are to be included on tribute CDs due out in 2001. "The Power Is Yours," is a cover by one of the last singles by York's Redskins and will appear on a tribute disc to the lefty trio, released by Germany's Mad Butcher Records. "Piano Jazz Radio" is a version of a song by Internet music mavens Masters of the Obvious and will be included in a tribute to them. Sharp-earred Milwaukeeans may also recognize bits of "Still Alone," from 1996's "Up For Steam" disc, which is being used by local daily online city magazine OnMilwaukee.com in their latest TV commercials.