Clockwise from top left: Bone Holler, Combat Naps, Robert Schmidtke, TS Foss, Cult of Lip.
When looking back at Madison area music released in 2023, it didn't take me long to come to one conclusion: There are a lot of talented, motivated and prolific musicians in the scene. Just using the Madison tag on Bandcamp will deliver a cornucopia of music (and note, a Madison WI tag gets you some more). Then there are all the other streaming services to consider…the choices are rewardingly dizzying. And overwhelming to keep up with, due to the fragmented nature of what lives on what sites. I listened to a lot of new local music this year and while poking around the internet the last few days I learned I also missed a lot of what was released. Here are five releases that have gotten repeated spins on my turntable and/or streams.
Cult of Lip, Marsha
Given the amount of time I spent listening to Cult of Lip's previous 12-inch record, it confused me when their 2023 release Marsha was described as the band's first full-length record. But of course that's correct, since the content of that earlier LP is actually from two EPs, originally released on Rare Plant in 2017 and 2018. Recording work for Marsha started in 2019 and continued into 2022, and for the band's followers it sure was worth the wait. The album's nine tracks are like the musical equivalent of a warm comforter — if you are a fan of distorted guitars, shoegazey tempos, and delightfully obscured vocals. Available on LP.
Bone Holler, Bone Holler
Bone Holler’s stripped-down take on traditional music always brought a breath of fresh air to Madison club bills; the band followed their own crooked path during years of off-and-on activity. With guitarist Ellie Erickson no longer living in Madison, we may not see them play live anytime soon. But the trio of Erickson, Molly Mitchell and Maggie Richardson left us a parting gift: their long-threatened album. It's a gift to have these alternately dark and funny songs (sometimes in the same tune) preserved in more than just my memory.
Combat Naps, Tap In
Combat Naps documents the ongoing recording journey of Neal Jochmann, with occasional help from friends. The group has also been active in a live band incarnation over the last year-plus (next up: Jan. 20 at the Crystal Corner). The prolific number of recordings and eye-catching cover art on the Combat Naps Bandcamp page may bring to mind Guided By Voices. Like GBV, Combat Naps has explored a range of stylistic variations over the years, but overall it's a much more poptastic and melodic musical journey than the sometimes confoundingly crusty offerings of Dayton's finest.
Jochmann was particularly prolific in 2020, releasing a series of full-lengths, EPs and singles that were a bright spot in that dark, pandemic year, even when addressing timely topics. The musical excellence continued unabated in 2023, including the January EP White Page and the October LP Tap In. The album's songs feature a phantasmagoria of melodies slipping in often unexpected directions, designed to stick around in your inner ear long after the album is done playing. On Tap In, the deceptively sunny music serves as a gateway to eventually start catching the poetically downer mood of Jochmann's lyrics.
Robert Schmidtke archive project
Another set of streaming music I've visited repeatedly in 2023 is a YouTube page honoring Robert Schmidtke, a longtime Madison musician who died of congenital heart disease in 1984. Schmidtke made his name as a guitar player, in his early days playing in Vilas Craig's band (a southwest Wisconsin rite of passage at the time) and in the original incarnation of Mendelbaum. When that band moved to San Francisco, Schmidtke stayed in Madison and helped make two of the city's iconic albums of the early 1970s: Whoaretheseguys, by Tayles, and the self-titled debut of Clicker. After that Schmidtke was in The Beans before moving to Oregon state for a time. Much of the music posted this year is work by Schmidtke after he returned to Madison in 1980, and which did not receive a commercial release at the time. It's a fascinatingly diverse collection of music ranging from solo acoustic guitar songs to extended electronic pieces created on synthesizer and Chapman stick guitar, including a live performance from a WORT-FM broadcast and a recording of "Light State Earth," a work created to be played at the Capitol on the winter solstice in 1981. There's also recordings by several bands, including the Oregon project Crosstown Flyers and a 1967 Mendelbaum live performance.
Richard Wiegel (Schmidtke's bandmate in Clicker and The Beans) is behind the archival project, with assistance by Jim Wildeman in creating art and the video component on YouTube. Wiegel prepared and released previously lost recordings by The Beans in 2020, which led to a search for more unreleased material, and eventually to a trove of recordings supplied by Schmidtke's longtime partner, Susan Davies. It's been a treat to hear all this lost music by Schmidtke, nearly four decades since his passing.
TS Foss, Everything Finished
Tyler Fassnacht has had irons in many musical fires in recent years: Proud Parents, Fire Heads, The Hussy, solo shows as TS Foss, and during the pandemic the emergence of the drum machine-driven recording project Baby Tyler. Everything Finished, the latest TS Foss release, pushed that folk-based solo project in more of a band direction, with rewarding results. As related in a release show preview by Jeffrey Brown, the album's genesis stemmed from Fassnacht considering whether to continue creating and playing music after the pandemic shut down live performances. Thankfully, the songs that resulted weren't abandoned in the ennui of isolation. I am guessing the original songs and many fun reimagined cover versions created for the Baby Tyler project helped as well; all of that music certainly helped me get through the pandemic. Available on LP.
Because picking just five was a difficult winnow, here's five more faves you can form your own opinions about:
XXX Piss, XXX Piss (cassette, streaming); The People Brothers Band, Sisters & Brothers (LP, CD, streaming); Rogue Rat, Satisfaction Guaranteed (CD, streaming); The Faith Hills Have Eyes, The Riffth Element (CD, streaming); Wristwatch, II (CD, LP, streaming, and twofer tape with first album).
