Rock of the Arts

Arts and music incubator, The Project Lodge, has a Kickstarter fund raising campaign in progress to meet an $8,000 capital outlay goal for the non-profit DIY upstart. Known as a beacon for Madison's aspiring artists, musicians and all-around creative types, the Project Lodge has hosted a wide variety of events over the last four years in its East Johnson Street location.

One thing can be said for Madison's music scene in 2011. It was the emergence of the city as a bona fide lo-fi mecca. Maybe you had to have your ear to the ground of the indie music blogs, like we do, to see the numerous mentions of Madison artists like Peaking Lights, Julian Lynch, All Tiny Creatures, Dead Luke and Slow Loris across the country. Something is going on here. Can someone please tell the Madison Area Music Awards?

Madison indie rock stalwarts Icarus Himself release their sophomore full-length album "Career Culture" on Science of Sound Records Oct. 11th. Front Man Nick Whetro started Icarus Himself as a solo project in 2008. The project has grown to include drummer Brad Kolberg and multi-instrumentalist Karl Christenson.
 
The auto-biographical album depicts Whetro's transformation from a dead-end factory job in Indiana to new beginnings in Madison. The trio will kick off a tour in support of the album with a CD release show at the UW Memorial Union on Oct. 8th. 

A video for "On Your Side" from Career Culture was filmed in Madison at the Gates of Heaven Synagogue. See how many Madisonians you recognize in the wedding scene! We caught up with drummer Brad Kolberg to talk about the new release and the band's Daytrotter Session.

Peaking Lights, the Madison dub-psych duo made up of Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis have signed to Domino/Weird World and Mexican Summer record labels. A re-release of their latest well-received album “936” will be available for the first time in Europe beginning on November 21st. Up until now, the record had only been available as an import overseas. 

The couple is due to start recording their next record in November of this year. The record is to be self-produced and engineered by Al Carlson (Yeasayer, Ford & Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never) in Brooklyn. As-of-yet untitled, it is due for release in Spring of 2012.

All The Sun That Shines by Peaking Lights