Madison rock band Norris Court (left to right): Cam Scheller-Suitor, Adam Flottmeyer, Alejandra Perez and Grace Olson.
After getting familiar with digging around Bandcamp for online music finds, I figured it was time to dive into Soundcloud. Wowzer. It would be a full-time job to catch up on everything on there. One quick takeaway: it’s a better site to catch up on Madison hip-hop than Bandcamp is. Also, I can report one somewhat bizarre find: The Wisconsin Department of Justice has a Soundcloud page, which appears to have been set up during the reign of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (and not active since then, either). I’m happy to report there is no musical content.
Here’s a few recent releases that caught my ear this week.
Norris Court is a band name I’ve enjoyed seeing in the calendar listings over the last year and a half or so, as I have always had a soft spot for the same-named vintage brick apartment buildings in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood. Imposter Syndrome is the quartet’s first release, and I’m glad to finally get to hear the band behind the name (and wishing I had already made it out to see them live). Their songs are jangly, dreamy pop rock, with a bit of crunch and a bit of melancholy; in other words, right in my musical wheelhouse. In true Madison fashion, the group mixes and matches players from a variety of other bands. Singer and songwriter Grace Olson also plays in Like a Manatee with guitarist Adam Flottmeyer (formerly in Wash/Interlay); bassist Alejandra Perez was previously in Miyha and Automatically Yours; and drummer Cam Scheller-Suitor is in Dear Mr. Watterson. When live shows return, I won’t miss Norris Court next time.
UW-Madison First Wave interdisciplinary artist Dequadray in May posted a trio of compilation EPs on Soundcloud gathering some previously released tracks. The place to start is Singles, which includes three newer songs and one from a few years back. All are a top-notch mix of hip-hop and contemporary R&B, but I really like “Worst Critic,” with its arresting intro of woozy whistling and an earworm guitar riff leading into smoothly flowing wordplay about putting in the work to be the best. The other comps include Collabs, featuring guest appearances, and Roughs. Dequadray’s Facebook page also mentions an upcoming tape and coloring book combination, something to watch for.
It’s been a few years since the release of an album by Madison Americana veterans The Getaway Drivers, but a couple new tracks have emerged on Spotify and other digital platforms, the most recent one released May 22. Songwriter Bob Manor reports via email that “Radio Silence” is based on a series of sci-fi novels by author Paul Antony Jones, who lost a battle with cancer in February. The “Extinction Point” series follows the travails of a New York City reporter who survives a mysterious red rain that kills seemingly the rest of humankind. While the depths of a pandemic may not be the time you want to read a series on that topic, this medium-tempo roots rocker makes for a good alternative during the current times. If I didn’t know the inspiration behind the song I might have interpreted it as a modern murder ballad due to the bridge (“And as the red rain falls to the ground/all of the people crashing down”).
Addison Christmas is the current project of Abby Sherman of Trophy Dad, a catchy, crunchy rock band that has now been on hiatus since 2018. (For local music fans, that’s an unfortunately typical situation when many Madison bands move past their college years.) i'm tired of trying to be in love is an EP-length collection of demos which also works as perfect bedroom pop. Sherman’s spiky yet vulnerable and melodic vocals, combined with energetic guitar, leave the listener wishing this was longer. Hopefully the emergence of some solo demos means more music is forthcoming.
Alex Wiley Coyote has been frenetically zipping around local stages for the last few years, often in one-man-band mode with guitar, synths and a looper pedal, and has released a couple tape/digital universe albums along the way. Sometimes the Coyote is accompanied by Cousin Dallas on drums and various percussion. The duo returned June 5 with a new release on Bandcamp, Foe Hammer. Those who have seen a live show in solo or duo form probably are in the know that this is two-thirds of punk-roots hellions Wood Chickens, but the various Alex Wiley Coyote projects are a different animal from that band. The Coyote is one of the most inventive guitarists in town, and it’s interesting to hear him experiment with translating those ideas to keyboards…along with whatever other sounds happen along the way. Foe Hammer ping-pongs around territory similar to the weirder moments of Ween and Frank Zappa, so as an album it doesn’t necessarily flow in a coherent fashion. But that is probably not the point.
For this month’s blast of heavy guitar catharsis, WitchUrn was a provident discovery on Bandcamp. The Debt starts off with the title track, a doomily reserved, classical-esque acoustic piece. But hang on to your headphones after that; a full album of blasting metal follows, with only a couple moments to catch your breath. The Debt is WitchUrn’s first full-length album and it’s a remarkably cohesive collection of music, keeping the pressure at the limit but never descending into mindless pummeling. While musically it lands somewhere between thrash and black metal, there’s a lot more going on here in the arrangements than is often typical for those subgenres. Prog-like song structures are employed, and there’s occasional melodic surprises and even some rhythm hooks to help change up the sound. It’s all the more impressive because this is written, performed and recorded by one man: the mononymous Madison musician Llaves.