*Richie Madisun gave up on 31st December 2008*
Q & A
Best Venue Ever Played?....The LA2/Meanfiddler.
Favorite Town/City On Tour?....Aberdeen
Favorite Song?....Also
Least Favorite Song?....There's way to many ! lol
Best Tour Line?....Going into a petrol station and gettin a porn mag & a Ginsters and when the cashier looked at me like I was scum I said " I know what your thinking, but the pasty aint for me ! "
Worst Band Ever Played With?....My Awesome Compilation...They Weren't Awesome
Strangest Gig?...Accidentally playin a Wake in Carlisle.. Weird
Favorite Venue?....Drummonds, Aberdeen.
Reviews**
We've been waiting for this record since we interviewed The Madisuns back in March 2006. There's been plenty of blood and water under the bridge since then, but putting aside all the dramatic twists in the plot, what does the record have to offer.
The opening triplet of 'A New Song', 'My Last Goodbye' and 'Also' is a striking combination. An ominous bit of phased guitar leads towards the crashing combination of indie, rock and grunge that permeates the record and there are tons of moments that create the licks, hooks and damn fine ideas that make the songs sparkle.
At least half of these tracks are straight-to-mp3-player and I'm serious when I say "at least". Asides from the opening three, which are awesome, you've got songs such as 'Clear' and 'Everything' kicking around in slots usually reserved for filler-tracks. The fleeting brilliance of 'Tired Of...' doesn't pop up until track eight and it's easily one of the top tracks on this record.
Goodness knows what the future holds for these chaps. I'd love to see them put all the problems into a truck labelled "the past" and somehow work it all out in time for a big tour to promote the release of this record - but whatever they manage to do, this record really stands out stylistically and the impact of the songs is unquestionable.
The Mag
The Madisuns are one of those bands walking a thin line – too heavy to be indie while too melodic to be tagged grunge.
Think all the lightest bits of Placebo, Radiohead, and Muse (without the incessant whiny vocals) and the fuzz-driven guitar/bass of the Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins.
With all 3 members singing, the Madisuns harmonised perfectly with each other, making each song beautifully written and performed with true passion.
Monkey Typewriter
This new track from intriguing singer/songwriter Richie Madisun displays a greater fragility than I’ve previously heard from him, although the way he barks the odd word of the chorus ensures that it still burns with the same passion as his previous efforts.
However, the main sonic trout that burst the surface of the lake on this occasion was Madisun’s impressive vocal range. Over the two and a half minutes of this track he alternates between a wounded whisper, a cracked falsetto and the aforementioned bark as minor chords are powerfully strummed beneath.
The backing vocals are also well placed and add texture. The chorus of “You leave no trace, you leave no choice, I gave you everything, you threw it back†is one that you could imagine being played over a montage of an out of form sportsman’s public anguish, but is one that we can surely all apply to a segment of our past or present.
My only disappointment was that the track didn’t go on just a little longer, perhaps with an injection of synths or strings, but it most definitely stands up on its own without these added ingredients.
With ‘Forths or Fifths’ I get the impression that Madisun is inviting us back to his after the pub and showing us some forgotten classics from his CD collection as the wine flows and the talk becomes distinctly philosophical.
What remains to be seen is whether the morning after sees him returning to the abrasiveness of his previous work or sees him harnessing this sensitivity and becoming something of a troubadour. One glance at the links on his Myspace suggests that he is heavily involved with charity, so will it be long before Richie Madisun is known as a political songsmith? I’m looking forward to finding out.
By Dave Urwin - LMS
For some reason, when people find out that there's a bloke from the Andover area with an acoustic guitar, he must be following in the footsteps of James Blunt. Not only is this a lazy assumption, it's the least appropriate description for Richie Madisun's sound you could hope to find.
Richie's roots are firmly muddied into the likes of Foo Fighters and Nirvana and this is a major influence on his delivery. This is no vulnerable love-tragedy with broken-voiced vocals and pained delivery, it's an attack on a guitar, with ballsy vocals that hit every note and slide around like baby oil in a banana skin.
The lyrics are incredibly observational and they're delivered with plenty of conviction. The voice, in fact, is incedibly good - as you'd expect from one-third of a band that got a record deal on the back of their harmonies.
It's a tough job stiking out from behind The Madisuns drum kit to become an artist in your own right, even when you're well mixed in to the songwriting process, but this is one bloke who's entierely capable of 'pulling a Grohl'.
The Mag
We all do our best not to judge books by their covers but when an artist entitles their demo ‘Get Fucked’ you can’t help but entertain notions of sub two-minute throwaway punk lunacy with little in the way of imagination.
It comes as little surprise, however, that this is far from being the case in the instance of these two tracks on Richie Madisun’s myspace.
‘Addiction’ is an unintentionally(?) Indian-tinged mantra with a guitar so quiet it sounds like it was recorded unplugged from the far side of the room.
This lays the foundation for Madisun’s impassioned vocal howls to cut through like a rather warm item of cutlery through a certain dairy product.
Half-way through the track some masterfully placed backing vocals add a third dimension and bring to mind the uninhibited experimentalism of Panda Bear’s masterpiece ‘Person Pitch’ whilst retaining a simplicity that is often the key to creating the most ultimately satisfying music.
Different vocal lines are seemingly cut and pasted over the top of a more than functional post-grunge base, creating a collage of sound. My intrigue with this artist lies in my indecision as to whether or not he would consider himself to be experimental.
Apparently some guy named Plato once used an analogy for the unfixed nature of things by describing the way that any number of people standing round a table will see the table slightly differently to each of the others.
It saddens me a little that I feel many will see not a great deal of deliberation in these songs when all it takes is an objective listen to discover their effortless complexity.
On ‘Addiction’ he manages to sound like a bluesman from the swamp, a grunge icon and a punk upstart all in the space of a single line when all he is doing is singing his own song in his own way. Quite a feat I’d say.
You also have to strain your ears to pick out the dual-layered guitar licks but they are baffling in their simple effectiveness.
Richie’s music has a fabulously lo-fi production that I hope he will never cast aside. Although technology has undoubtedly been responsible for the creation of some of the most breathtaking music the world has ever heard there’s just something about the stripped-down approach that unleashes emotions no amount of technical expertise can reach.
Perhaps it’s because we are all essentially animals. Perhaps it’s because we all secretly yearn for a return to simpler times.
Whatever the reason, Richie Madisun should not be ignored.
www.live-music-scene.co.uk
it would appear that Madisuns are the square peg in a round hole tonight. I think it’s fair to say that if they were American their waves of sonic feedback and punchy indie anthems would be earning them many plaudits, but alas, this is Portsmouth and few are interested tonight. Personally I loved their Sonic Youth pummelling Muse and Placebo into small fragments style tunes, often hectic and teetering on the brink of collapse in a dark brooding place.
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