And so to another band that were introduced to me via a mid-90s cassette compilation by Jacques the Kipper.
Madder Rose were a four-piece band from New York. The main songwriter was lead guitarist Billy Cote, but the vocal duties were taken by rhythm guitarist Mary Lorson. They emerged in 1993 with a sound quite different from the grungy stuff that had dominated indie music for the proceeding 2 years, and a million miles away from Britpop that was shortly to take over. In other words, they were doomed to be no more than a cult footnote in history thanks to being in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.
I don’t own too many of their songs – they released three LPs and handful of other singles/EPs before disbanding in 1999, but the dozen or so tracks I do have I thoroughly enjoy. Mrs V struggles to rate many bands with female singers, and Madder Rose she describes as ‘the sort of rubbish you fall for’.
Altered Images, Belly, Everything But The Girl and The Sundays are among many others that Mrs V would put in the same category….
These are the four tracks from a 10″ single released in 1994:-
mp3 : Madder Rose – Car Song
mp3 : Madder Rose – Johnny Take A Ride
mp3 : Madder Rose – The Widow Song
mp3 : Madder Rose – Holiday
Here’s another of their singles that I’m fond of, courtesy of an NME best of 93 compilation CD:-
mp3 : Madder Rose – Madder Rose
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 