M.O.D Media Productions
Natty Nation (left to right): Paule Willis, Aaron Konkol, JAH Boogie and Nick Czar.
On July 3, Bandcamp will continue what has become a first Friday tradition during the COVID-19 pandemic — it will waive its revenue share for all sales. That helps put a bit more money in the pockets of artists or, in the case of many current releases, the nonprofits musicians are diverting sales to during our current unsettled political times. You can find music tagged "Madison" here; note that trying variations like Madison WI or Madison Wis. will turn up some more selections.
In the current register of "band names in the calendar listings that always make me smile," Bob Loblaw is another name high on the list. Fans of Arrested Development will already be giggling; if you haven't watched the show, the name is a reference to an attorney (played by Scott Baio) hired by the beleaguered Bluth family after firing their usual lawyer (played by Henry Winkler). Of course, the show is narrated by Ron Howard, so the Happy Days connection is just part of the labyrinthine joke structure of the show...but that's a whole 'nother topic. Madison's Bob Loblaw is a rock band that released a debut album, Cheers, just a few weeks before the pandemic hit. I've been coming back to this for another spin every time I've looked online for new releases the last couple months. It's sort of punk rock (in the slashing guitars), sort of screamo (in the lead vocals), sort of power pop (catchy as hell), and off-kilter (horns, glockenspiel) in about the perfect combination for this listener. And the lyrics are great. I will be tracking down a CD version of this one.
Aside from the near complete shutdown of in-person gigs for musicians during the COVID-19 pandemic, practices are also a no-go for many bands and recording new music is more cumbersome. Madison reggae legends Natty Nation are experimenting with creating new music via an iPhone app called Acapella, and have been posting the results on Bandcamp as part of the Quarantine Jams collection. "3rd Eye" and "Truth" are posted currently, and I'd say they have managed to master the technological hurdle with style. These tracks are groovin', which is not necessarily an easy thing to achieve when recording separately. For comparison to the amount of mixing that can be achieved in the app itself, local producer/composer Captain Smooth is also taking a crack at remixing the raw Acapella tracks, and listeners can get all versions by buying the album.
Madison hip-hop group Supa Friends unleashed their debut studio set, Super? No, Supa. on June 20, and it's sure to be a contender on local year-end music lists. A throwback vibe is set by a '70s Four Tops sample anchoring lead track "Strung Out," and they keep the party rolling over seven tracks, trading densely constructed rhymes and leaving the listener wishing the album was longer. Supa Friends has been performing for a few years, and during pre-pandemic times kept busy with activities building the local hip-hop community — hosting a radio show on WWMV-LP, Lussier Community Education Center's low-power FM station, as well as open mics at Lussier and Goodman Community Center — rather than recording their own music. Hopefully a lot more will be forthcoming.
If the songs of Minutemen are usually too long for you, Dentist by The Central may be your new favorite record. The Madison duo's approach to hardcore always makes for a bracing listen, but on past releases the way their song structures often juxtapose musical experiments with guitar blasts offers a bit of breathing room (so to speak). There's a few of those moments on Dentist, but for the most part this speedy release distills The Central's sound into miniaturized blasts that could strip varnish at 20 paces. Nine cuts fly past in a bit over nine minutes — and that even includes a couple minutes recovery time for the listener in the form of some seemingly random EDM tacked on the end of one track. If there's another band out there who sounds quite like The Central, I have yet to hear them. Note: Donations contributed via this release will go to Black Lives Matter, Reclaim The Block and Black Visions Collective.
