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The United Sons of Toil are darkly political
on 11/20/09 at 9:00 am | It's not fair: Russell Hall's Google results are way more interesting than mine. While I find camera lenses and Craigslist bargains, the front man of local math-rock-meets-post-punk trio the United Sons of Toil unearths stories about colonial regimes that are metaphors for everyday power struggles. |
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A Sunny Day in Glasgow: Ashes Grammar
on 11/20/09 at 9:00 am | In the late 1980s, when My Bloody Valentine began dissolving their vocals in a wave of noise, the band proved that a lack of distinguishable lyrics could set the mood at least as well as poetry. A Sunny Day in Glasgow's sophomore album takes this approach to heart 20 years later, letting pop melodies melt into the arresting ambience of guitar effects. |
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Hank Williams III brings a metal album to Madison
on 11/13/09 at 9:00 am | Like his granddad, Hank III has struggled with alcoholism and marital strife, as well as the suits who call the shots in the recording industry. He's also made a name for himself as a honky-tonk artist, just as Hank Sr. did, but his up-yours attitude isn't just genetic. He got his start banging drums and bucking authority in punk bands, and he never exchanged his hardcore roots for cowboy boots. He manages to have both. |
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MadTracks: 'Dark Surf' by Helliphant
on 11/10/09 at 1:00 pm | Madison metal-rockers Helliphant aren't shy about their love affair with Glenn Danzig. Their song "Dark Surf," the third track on their new disc Powdered Tusk, dives into the guts of the best stuff by the musician's legendary metal band and finds a bit of shrapnel from the Misfits as well. |
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Beyond 9 to 5: Some Madison musicians are weekend warriors
on 11/06/09 at 9:00 am | Almost everyone who's tried to make a living as a musician has heard the old adage: "Don't quit your day job." The thing is, lots of local musicians have great day jobs that they wouldn't dream of ditching, and plenty have found a way to rehearse, perform and create while the rest of us sleep, watch TV and play Wii. We're a town of weekend warriors when it comes to music making. |
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Cash Box Kings: Cuttin' Heads at the Cuda Cafe
on 11/06/09 at 9:00 am | Blues is one of those musical genres best experienced live, and the tunes of Madison's Cash Box Kings are no exception. The evidence is the group's new CD of nine live performances from the now-defunct Cuda Cafe in Deerfield. |
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Sufjan Stevens, Osso and DM Stith explore wild things and concrete jungles at Project Lodge
on 10/31/09 at 10:51 am | People often joke that the Midwest is a few years behind the coasts when it comes to adopting the newest cultural trends, overlooking that many of these innovations stem from the Midwest in the first place. A fine example is the work of Sufjan Stevens, who visited the Project Lodge Friday night to share his film about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. |
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Bassnectar whips up an electronic cocktail
on 10/30/09 at 9:00 am | Some know Bassnectar founder Lorin Ashton from the miasma of out-there creativity known as the Burning Man festival, others from his Bassnectar Transmission podcast on iTunes. No matter where you've encountered his electronic cocktails, one thing's for sure: This guy can combine almost any type of melody, rhythm or bass line -- ska, metal, ragtime, gangsta rap, you name it -- in a ridiculously fun way. |
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Ask a Madison musician
on 10/30/09 at 9:00 am | Jessica Steinhoff asks local talent what musician they wish they could be and what superpowers they would have. |
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MadTracks: 'That's That' by Mad Trucker Gone Mad
on 10/28/09 at 12:00 pm | Mad Trucker Gone Mad's name might sound redundant, but it's a fitting description for music that starts out one shade of crazy and morphs into white-hot insanity. This is especially true of their latest love song, "That's That," the third track on their new album, Born To Be a Trucker. |
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Time Since Western mines for gold in Portland
on 10/23/09 at 9:00 am | Many local concertgoers know Andy Brawner as the original bassist of chamber-pop heroes Pale Young Gentlemen. Many don't know that a couple of years ago, Brawner traded his bass for a guitar and launched his own project, Time Since Western, which blends Midwestern alt-country with West Coast indie rock and daydreams about cross-country car chases, Pacific Ocean-bound railroad tracks and other westward-ho themes. |
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Bishop Allen: Grrr...
on 10/23/09 at 9:00 am | Harvard is an incubator for people who become wildly successful in medicine, law, politics, science and business. Indie rock, though, isn't its forte. |
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Sugar & Gold make danceable ear candy
on 10/16/09 at 9:00 am | "Sugar & Gold" sounds a bit like the title of an eighth-grade report on the Brazilian economy. In actuality, it's a freaky, funky and thoroughly eclectic band from San Francisco known not only for dance-inducing songs but outrageous outfits whose style falls somewhere between the Village People and the cast of Cowboy Bebop. |
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MadTracks: 'Hits Like Hail' by His & Her Vanities
on 10/15/09 at 3:00 pm | Many parents of infants are ready to pass out -- and understandably so -- after tending to their kid all day. But when Terrin and Ricky Riemer put their baby in his crib for the evening, they didn't pass out: They started to rock out. |
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Madison tribute bands let musicians be fans
on 10/09/09 at 9:00 am | The phrase "same old song and dance" doesn't have positive connotations, and in the world of local live music, bands that play hits by other musicians are equally loved and loathed. The thing is, how much of the loathing is warranted? |
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Mike Behrends: EP
on 10/09/09 at 9:00 am | If Bob Dylan were handing out goodies to trick-or-treaters, he might choose the new EP by Madison-via-Duluth singer-songwriter Mike Behrends, which comes encased in a flannel shirt pocket. |
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MadTracks: 'It's Our Time' by Fortune and Glory
on 10/06/09 at 2:00 pm | While the name of local pop-punk five-piece Fortune and Glory conjures up images of war heroes and perhaps pirates, their song "It's Our Time," off of their about-to-be-released debut EP S/T, is more about partying than pillaging. |
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These United States explore America's frontiers
on 10/02/09 at 9:00 am | These United States' 2008 album Crimes couldn't have had a more positive reception, winning props from Paste, Pitchfork and National Public Radio, and climbing to a very respectable number 30 on CMJ's Top 200 radio chart. |
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Catch these concerts before the freeze sets in
on 09/25/09 at 9:00 am | Luckily, this fall has a roster jam-packed with artists to help keep both your body and spirit warm, whether it's by sweating up a storm at a rock show or by pondering themes of change with a seasoned singer-songwriter. Here are a few of the season's highlights. |
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The Soft Pack sweetens its name but not its sound
on 09/18/09 at 9:00 am | Last November a gloomy California post-punk band did the unthinkable: They changed their name from the Muslims, a moniker that raised some people's ire but got others thinking, to the Soft Pack, a name synonymous with cigarette packaging. |
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MadTracks: 'Rattled' by Flatbear
on 09/15/09 at 1:00 pm | Confidence is a great thing to have, but only if it's balanced by a little self-doubt. Occasional bouts of less-than-optimal self-esteem can give you the humility you need to empathize with others and keep you from becoming a snob -- if you don't let them get the best of you. |
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MadTracks: 'Get Over It' by Solid Gold
on 09/13/09 at 8:00 am | Solid Gold started in Madison back in 2001, but they're not a local band anymore. They're not a Twin Cities band either, despite living in Minneapolis these days. They're a band from the moon, if the moon is a giant disco ball laced with rainbows and radio waves from a not-so-distant past. |
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Matt and Kim crank up the charm at the Majestic
on 09/12/09 at 8:39 am | When watching Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino perform, you've got to wonder how they don't get cramps from smiling. Perhaps there's a miracle product for this ailment on some late-night infomercial, but if there is, it's unlikely the peppy synthpop duo has seen it. |
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Kitty Rhombus deconstruct their herky-jerky new album
on 09/11/09 at 9:00 am | Local band Kitty Rhombus is one of those groups that thrive on finding the layer of order that exists in chaos -- then cracking its shell and unleashing an even more spectacular version of mayhem. |
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The Nod: Shoddy Heart
on 09/11/09 at 9:00 am | If their debut album is any indication, The Nod have the ideas, wit and chops to make some great songs; they just haven't yet found the recipe to get you nodding along for very long. |
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The Depreciation Guild makes lush pop with old Nintendos
on 09/04/09 at 9:00 am | The bleeps and bloops of 8-bit video games have been combined with quite a few types of electronic music, but they're still relatively new to the American pop landscape. |
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MadTracks: 'Tables Turning' by The Kentucky Waterfalls
on 09/03/09 at 1:00 pm | The term "Kentucky Waterfall" doesn't just refer to the most scenic portions of the Cumberland River in the Bluegrass State's Daniel Boone National Forest. It's also code for "mullet hairdo," lending the sharp crackle of irony to Evan Murdock and Katie Powderly's latest musical project bearing the name. |
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MadTracks: 'Little Miss Sunshine' by the Sean Michael Dargan Band
on 08/31/09 at 2:00 pm | With lyrics like "The way that she brakes when she steers / The lengths she will go to are taller than her gears," the first track on the Sean Michael Dargan Band's new EP, Feel Good Hit of the Summer, sounds like a love song for some feisty, scrappy, vertically challenged young woman. In actuality, it's a love song about an old Volkswagen van. |
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Revolution Cycles brings together bikes, bands and fans
on 08/28/09 at 9:00 am | After taking over a small, near-east-side bike co-op in 2001, Revolution Cycles' Jeff Fitzgerald has boosted the city's alternative biking subculture -- think less spandex-clad ass, more Critical Mass -- and with more than just bicycle parts and accessories. He's been doing it with music. |
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Portugal. The Man: The Satanic Satanist
on 08/28/09 at 9:00 am | Portugal's effort to bring psychedelic soul to the masses is a noble one, but as an album, The Satanic Satanist isn't terribly cohesive. If you can get past the disjointedness, though, there are plenty of weird and charming moments to embrace. |
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