I’m switching back to posting one update a day…mostly because the school year is approaching pretty quickly, so I’m devoting my time to “preparing” (a.k.a. lesson planning, “lesson planning,” and partying furiously.) However, here’s a band I sat on way too long. I’ll just say right now that it’s the debut album of the year.
I like all of the bands I post on the blog — otherwise they wouldn’t make it — but it’s been some time since I’ve discovered an artists I’m truly enthusiastic about. Texas-based The Madisons are that band.
There’s no question that You Can Take Your Sorry Ass… has the pop-folk feel that us city kids love to play and listen to these days. But The Madisons finally helped me figure out why it bothers me somewhere deep down. See, bands like The Lumineers are soulful and talented, of course, but they’re also….well…polite. When lead singer Dominic Solis croons,
I’m not responsible for the way you say you feel
That’s what therapists teach assholes
So they don’t have to feel like assholes
supported by a backdrop of tambourines and a carefully plucked mandolin, I realized I was on to something good. It’s not that the band is irreverent or wears its dry sense of humor on its sleeve a la The Refreshments (though that’s there, and Solis’ voice does resemble a young Roger Clyne’s.) It’s that The Madisons aren’t hiding behind a curtain of refinement — they’re to-the-point and they don’t care who they might offend, which is what folk music is really all about anyway. It’s not about moving to Brooklyn and pretending you’re one with the Common Man while cultivating an otherworldly and vintage image. It’s about saying what’s actually on your mind.
“A Long Slow Death in San Marcos Texas” (quoted above) is a 4-minute masterpiece, and the other tracks on the album follow suit. The music is soft-spoken but the spirit behind it is anything but. I hope the Madisons get their asses out of West Texas and teach the sorry asses over here a thing or two.
A Long Slow Death in San Marcos Texas
In My Pocket Forever
Meet Me By the Riverside