Tone Madison
Rocket Bureau’s anxious basement anthems
On this week’s podcast, we’re revisiting a conversation we had in 2015 with Madison-based musician Kyle Urban, also known as Kyle Motor, about his latest musical project, Rocket Bureau. Urban is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and recording engineer. He’s also a bit of a stickler for power-pop—so of course he favors loud guitar hooks, classic song structures, […]
Lovely Socialite get leaner and louder
Lovely Socialite have embraced a few different kinds of maximalism since forming in Madison in 2009. The instrumental band’s initial name was Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps, eventually truncated to what people always call them anyway. All six members contribute to the band’s compositions, drawing on backgrounds and musical tastes that span jazz, rock, […]
Trading notes on two rapidly changing cities
Conversations about Madison and Milwaukee often focus on how different the cities are, or how strangely disconnected they are despite being only 70 miles apart. Tone Madison‘s Scott Gordon recently got a chance to trade notes with two journalists in Milwaukee about the challenges and opportunities that Wisconsin’s two biggest cities have in common. Matt Wild […]
Catching up on Madison’s public funding for music
This month brings two music events that are supported with public funds from the City of Madison. The first, coming up June 15 through 18, is the inaugural Between The Waves music conference and festival (previously announced under the name Madison Songwriter Conference and Festival), and the second is the annual Make Music Madison event […]
Dan Bacula on his series of stand-up “yearbooks”
Last year Madison comedian Dan Bacula released a stand-up album titled A Little Bit About Myself. It collected bits he’d recorded on his phone’s Voice Memo app or a cheap video camera at open mics over the course of a year. In a story written at the time, Tone Madison contributor Chris Lay said that it […]
Making space for creativity in Madison
What does it takes to create new space, and by extension better support, for writers, artists, and other creative folks in Madison? Tone Madison contributor caught up with 702WI founder Mary Morgan and Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) directors Rita Mae Reese and Jolynne Roorda last week to talk about the challenges of running an arts […]