Blog: Dane101 | The Collaborative Blog for Madison, Wisconsin

Madison's Brandon Beebe is releasing his debut album, In this Place , at the High Noon Saloon on Thursday. The album is the product of years of effort by Beebe to self-produce and self-finance his dreams. Beebe layers acoustic guitars with cello, violins and keyboards. The lush vocals may remind you of Ray Lamontagne or Ben Harper. Joining Beebe at the High Noon are local favorites Josh Harty and Letter 8, a new alternative rock band from Madison. You can learn more about Brandon Beebe via his website . The talented songwriter [...]

A lot of people have a lot of good things to say about folk musician Willy Porter, the singer-songwriter who will perform this Sunday evening at the Majestic Theatre in Madison, including the folks at Billboard who said: "Porter accentuates well - rendered tales with spit-fire percussive acoustic guitar strumming and… chord picking." This seems appropriate for Wisconsin, which seems to be full of spit-fire at the moment, especially considering it will be coming from a Wisconsin native. Originally from the Milwaukee area, Porter graduated from UW-Eau Claire and first began performing music live in 1990. [...]

Paul Collins has been through all the highs and lows that the music industry has to offer. With Collins' first band, the Nerves, they penned the song "Hanging on the Telephone," a track that would later be a hit when Blondie covered it on their album Parrallel Lines . His band, Paul Collins' Beat, would later have their song "There She Goes" featured on the soundtrack to Caddy Shack and it looked like everything was coming up Millhouse, but the commercial success never came. Collins and his band were dropped from Columbia Records before [...]

Back in August I heard buzz about this Milwaukee all-girl punk band called the Barrettes that played at the Frequency with Sons of Atom and Venus in Furs. I was anxious to see them since what I've been told is that they're right up my alley. Then, about a month later in Milwaukee, I was lucky to catch them playing out and sure enough, I quickly became part of that buzz machine. Wanting to have more Madisonians get to know this band that I have become so fond of so quickly I set up a free show [...]

Last December, Melissa Simonson released her debut album, Be a Light , with the help of a grassroots fundraising effort from family and friends. Although Melissa founded her own life coaching practice called JoyDiva several years ago, she couldn't ignore her dream to become a singer and songwriter, and began collaborating with other musicians and working on her debut album. Simonson hopes to inspire others to pursue their dreams and pursue individual happiness with her music. Be a Light is a fusion of several genres, filled with upbeat and lyric-driven music which draws on her classical and [...]

As I've grown older and matured (well, sort of) I've realized a lot of friends come and many go. For the most part I've taken this as a part of life and miss their absence only in a drunken reminiscent state, but there are a select few who I often openly wonder what they are doing. In the case of Good Night, Gold Dust's singer Laura Schultz she falls into the latter category. I knew Laura when I lived in Oshkosh before I was married and before I had a son. Laura and I ran in similar [...]

Hip hop music is no stranger to political messages - many of the genre's roots are planted firmly in the soil of social disenfranchisement and disaffection. It may have only been a matter of time, then, before some of Wisconsin's own MCs and DJs put together a piece focused on the recall campaign against Gov. Scott Walker. Local hip activist turned Democratic Party of Wisconsin communications assistant Steven Potter had that very idea and reached out to some of the state's biggest names to get it done. Producer DJ Pain 1 laid down the beats, Rob Dz and [...]

For those who don't know about my other other other hobby, John Sams and I collect all of the top ten hits of every week. We have a collection going back to summer 1955. Every year I like to take a look at the top ten top ten hits of the previous year, which I felt compelled to share here at Dane101. Also check: 2007 , 2008 , 2009 , and 2010 . 10. Super Bass - Nicki Minaj (#3 for 2 Weeks, August) This relatively straightforward pop [...]

Dane101 is proud to announce a new live music series, co-hosted with Broom Street Theater , starting on January 15. Broom Street Sessions will feature local bands and solo artists unplugged in a live show at Broom Street Theater select Sunday evenings during the coming year. Film or audio clips from the live show will appear on dane101 after the performances along with interviews and other goodies. The artists for each show are intended to loosely fit the sound of the production launching that week at Broom Street. On January 13 Broom Street will be starting the [...]

Camper Van Beethoven are one of the weirdest bands to emerge from Southern California. During their heyday in the mid-80s they blended a kitchen sink mix of rock, ska, folk and country in a sound that foreran the alternative music explosion of the early 90s. Founding member Jonathan Segel (violin) left the band in 1988 and started a record label with fellow CvB alum Victor Krummacher. He also taught music composition at Ohlone College and worked as a listener advocate for Pandora. Segel has roots in Madison as his parents met here as grad students in the late 50s. [...]

This list is not exactly non-partisan. As a band guy, I play in Clovis Mann, Crooked Barn, Unhinged el Camino; I've had the pleasure to play on bills this year with most of these bands. Others I caught in one of my rare nights off. Nonetheless, they are extremely talented. Most of these wicked pickers are pretty unheralded or less than well known. If you have a chance, check them out. They are, in no particular order: The Smokin' Bandits. Lacrosse's most popular country rock act features the [...]

I've lived in Madison since 1993 and have been playing in bands locally almost as long. I joined the local music "scene" officially (or as officially as anyone does) in 2006 when I joined my first "gigging out" band. Since then I've played in several bands along the way, and have played over 70 shows…or on average, since fall 2006, over one show a month. This might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but I also have a full time job and a family. I don't have a manager or a PR firm or a record label helping me. [...]

2011 was a big year for the Majestic Theater with the venue booking some of its best performing shows since reopening the doors in 2006 as well as getting outside of those doors an into the street and other venues. Majestic co-owner Matt Gerding provided dane101 with some of his favorite moments of the year and some of their most anticipated shows of 2012. Aug 26 - Peter Bjorn & John - Live on King Street Everyone in our office agreed unanimously about this one. It was [...]

Although all of the shows at the Sh*tty Barn this summer were magical we asked Chris Staples, who puts the event together, to choose some of his favorites. Dosh : No bratwurst tacos for Martin Dosh - just cigarettes, hard cider and vegetable for this bad-ass of the looping world. And while the mosquitoes found him intoxicating, he made us woozy with his lo-fi awesomeness. Layer-upon-layer of tinks and whirs adding up to crescendos of melodic eargasm. Aural heaven. 6/22/11 .357 String Band : A bittersweet listing, as [...]

Over the next few weeks, we will feature Q&A's with the artists performing at our fundraiser on 12/16 at the Frequency. Learn more about the fundraiser, including information about prizes and the official schedule here . And now a Q&A with Tiger Clutch! Dane101: Since Tiger Clutch is a bit eccentric, we here at Dane101 have decided to switch things around a bit and allow Tiger Clutch to interview us, Dane101 regarding their band and their performance at The Frequency for the Dane101 Fundraiser. Please understand that this is only a taste [...]

Admittedly, I have been a fan of the German Art Students for a long long time so this review is automatically biased--but I love everything they have released and The Power and the Trust is no different. The only gripe I have with the EP is that it's an EP. Give me 10 or 12 songs to soak in and enjoy because they are long overdue for one. Power pop can often times be a repetitive genre with the same hooks and tricks but G.A.S. has always made that sound feel fresh for me. I wish [...]

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As the late crowd filled in the dance floor, the digital clock with over-sized neon green numbers blinked to 8:26 and Warren Haynes appeared on stage Tuesday evening at the Capitol Theater. It only took until 8:33 for Haynes to give the now obligatory shout-out to the protesters, which he did as an introduction to "River's Gonna Rise," the second song on his latest album, Man in Motion . "The river's gonna rise / wash our struggles away / The sun is gonna shine / shine down on a brand new day," sang Haynes, accompanied by [...]

For many of us living in Dane county, our experiences with Nepal might consist of an undergraduate class in geography or world history, or perhaps a fragrant bowl of dal from Himal Chuli on State Street. The small Himalayan country is also home to Kutumba, the modern folk band who might become Nepal's most famous export after their North American tour this fall. Madison non-profit Sarvodaya USA brings Nepal's most popular band (boasting over 51,000 Facebook fans ) back to Madison for a benefit concert this Thursday. Kutumba is a six-person ensemble that marries indigenous Nepali music [...]

"My mother performed on this same stage in 1964. She said at the time there were people picketing outside the theater against George Wallace. I saw some folks picketing outside today, but I don't think it's against me." As Madeleine Peyroux shared this story to a mostly passive audience at the Wisconsin Union Theater last Wednesday, it only seemed to solidify the idea of how big a stage Wisconsin has been on in front of the world this past year. I find it interesting to witness these kinds of moments, show after show, as national acts move across [...]