The flavor of the region, circa 1988
Michelle Lewis
Appliances-SFB
Article Tools
The term “Madison music scene” can sound a little too general to those who’ve observed how many little niches and cliques divide the city’s musical offerings. Yet back in the ’80s and ’90s, there was enough of a feisty young music community here that people remember it, can still bond over it, and even talk admiringly of the actual music. When Decider met with local music vets Lisa Marine (currently of The Pointy Birds) and Biff Blumfumgagne (of The Gomers), who are helping to organize the second annual “Senior Scenester” gathering at the High Noon this Saturday afternoon, their conversation quickly turned into a blur of fondly remembered band names, long-gone venues, and stories. Since last year’s gathering at Tenney Park was more like a family affair than a show (despite a reunion set from Tar Babies), Decider wanted to get a more approachable introduction to these bygone years of Madison music. We asked Blumfumgagne and Marine to talk further about some of the local releases that came up during the discussion; you can stream some of the songs below.
Tar Babies, Honey Bubble (1989) and No Contest (1988)
"Link In A Chain" by Tar Babies
Biff Blumfumgagne: I always felt like Honey Bubble took a cool snapshot—even the cover has all these people on it that we all know and love.
Decider: Didn’t Tar Babies play a reunion set at the park last year?
Lisa Marine: Yeah, Robin [Davies] and Bucky [Pope], and Pete [Kaesberg] played [drums]. I don’t know who played drums with them originally.
BB: Well, originally it was Dan Bitney, who’s now with Tortoise.
D: Speaking of Tar Babies, did punk have much of a role in energizing local music back in the ’80s?
BB: Yeah, it did. We were loving all the Amphetamine Reptile stuff, which was kind of another similar take on grunge-punk. Killdozer also made a bunch of great records that are really cool snapshots of the city and Ed Gein, just the flavor of the region.
Cattleprod, Secretly Happy (1989) and Boost (unreleased)
"Don't Kill Yourself" by Cattleprod
BB: [Secretly Happy] is another good example of a cool Madison record that really is under the radar. The way they recorded the drums, Sheila Bosco didn’t use cymbals, and she had this great, loping feel, with her playing, super swingy. [This is] Almost like a Tom Waits-meets-Devo kind of thing.
Poopshovel, I Came I Saw I Had A Hotdog (1990) and Opus Lengthemus (1989)
"Young People In Love Are Hardly Ever Hungry" by Poopshovel
BB: They were kind of a comedy-punk-metal band. The lyrics were a little bit on the comic side, and they rivaled The Gomers in that aspect. They were more straight-ahead, hard-rockin’. They were kind of an Amphetamine Reptile-meets-Flipper band.
LM: A lot of that stuff has just held up over the decades.
D: Is it hard to build a sense of community around music in Madison?
LM: During the ’80s and ’90s, I feel there was a really strong, supportive community, and that community has kind of stayed. You had to see your friends instead of e-mail them. There was no posting shows except for the flyers. They don’t have the flyer etiquette that we used to have. That still pisses me off. You don’t plaster your flyers all the hell over the thing and cover up people’s stuff that hasn’t happened yet. You put a few out so they can see it, and you could only cover up flyers for shows that had already happened. “Kids these days!” [Laughs.]
Appliances-SFB, SFB (1984)
"Bob Hope" by Appliances-SFB
BB: I was with [Appliances members Ed and Bill Feeny] last night and they were both like, “We could get [guitarist] William Siebecker, and you could play Tom Laskin, Biff!” Supposedly, Tom’s in France.
D: That’s another older Madison band that showed strong punk and noise-rock influences.
BB: But with kind of a cool rhythmic edge.
D: Was Laskin in a lot of bands before going on to write for Isthmus?
BB: When I first met him, he was a music critic, but he was also the lead singer for SFB. My favorite Tom Laskin story has to be when he and his wife played in this band called Gargantua, and they basically played this Steve Albini-esque noise guitar over “learn to speak Japanese” language tapes. And it was really twisted and cool, but you had to be ready for a kick in the face. I remember the guys at [now-defunct downtown venue] Headliners, the sound guy and the house manager, were like, “This isn’t music, it’s noise! We’re gonna turn off this PA!” And they did, they pulled the plug on them. I felt so bad having to go on after that.
_jpg_50x50_crop_q85.jpg)
