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Tone Madison

Madison-focused arts and music conversations you won't hear anywhere else, from tonemadison.com.

Parsing the arts in the Wisconsin governor’s race

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Earlier this week, Tone Madison published a survey asking the candidates in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary about how, if elected, they would go about supporting the arts in our state. Seven of them got back to us. Since we posted the survey responses straight-up, without any commentary or analysis, we also wanted to step back and have a […]

Mark Bridges spans the chamber and the electronic wilderness

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High Plains, the duo of Madison-based cellist Mark Bridges and Canadian electronic musician Scott Morgan (best known for his solo project Loscil), released its debut album, Cinderland, in 2017. It’s a haunting, immersive release that combines Bridges’ patiently evolving cello melodies with Morgan’s dynamic approach to ambient music. The two played a show behind the album last […]

Trading notes on Madison music from spring 2018

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This week, Tone Madison editor Scott Gordon and contributor Henry Solo sat down to round up a bunch of recent releases from Madison-based artists, ranging from metal to hip-hop to experimental music. We’re hoping to make music roundups like this a regular part of our podcast rotation once we’re back from our summer hiatus. What else […]

Erik Kramer’s experimental twist on folk music

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Erik Kramer’s first solo release, A House, Floating In The Middle Of A Lake, was one of our favorite Madison records of 2017. Kramer combines folk guitar instrumentals with electronics and field recordings, but with an approach that varies a lot from track to track. “Gayatri” builds on an entrancingly bleary bed of synths and […]

Diving into eight days of Madison comedy

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The Madison comedy scene is incredibly tight, with dozens of performers hustling for stage time week in and week out at open mics and showcases in bars, clubs, coffee shops, galleries, and anywhere else someone’s got a microphone plugged in. If you haven’t been paying attention to any of that, or have maybe just dabbled […]

Revisiting 2017’s Access Denied panel

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Recorded in February 2017 at the Central Library, the Access Denied panel discussion tackled issues of equity and accessibility in Madison’s nightlife. While much has changed in Madison’s venue landscape since then, the struggle to make nightlife spaces open and welcoming to all people continues. We bring you the audio from the discussion again this […]