Madison’s musical odds and ends of 2025

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At the start of 2025, Tone Madison became the first publication to substantively dig into the crucial connections that Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS had to Madison. That fascinatingly unexpected development set a characteristically curious tone that would be repeated—in some small way or another—throughout the course of the ensuing year.

At its heart, Alice Herman’s excellent piece on the matter celebrated collaboration, and we’d get several more collaborative combinations throughout the year. Two of the most notable came by way of the split cassette released between emergent indie-punk quartet Slick and their fellow punk newcomers In Ropes. In a wide-ranging interview Tone Madison published with The Spine Stealers, the band’s principal songwriting duo (Emma O’Shea and Kate Ruland) got candid about their own collaborations, including the absolutely lovely “Until It Moves Me,” which legitimately stood out as one of my favorite songs of the year, local or otherwise.

We saw real-time, community-focused acts that ranged from Gamma Ray Bar owner Kevin Willmott II‘s heroism in expedient responses to not just one, but two onstage heart attacks (with the first taking place in December of 2024), to the more macro-minded local music celebration that came via the new Instagram account Madison Music Radar. It was also heartening to see the acts who moved out of Madison be treated with unwavering, unfettered support from Madison’s music community up to and through those relocations. (LINE’s Maddie Batzli, singer-songwriter Luke McGovern, and a small host of others migrated out of the city, and we wish them the best as they continue to chart paths forward elsewhere.)

A number of local artists showed up to throw their weight behind Tone Madison‘s own operations via the 30-track compilation Resolution, and a number of local—and formerly local—musicians linked up for exceptional work on a number of projects. (Including, but certainly not limited to: Outside The Sphere’s Full Potential, LINE and Kat And The Hurricane’s “Life of the Party,” Avoidancepolicy and Carl Johnson’s Ferrous Heart, and Spectaculous’ self-titled, which paired Dequadray White with the members of Mr. Chair.) Hell, my own band—which has its membership split between Green Bay and Madison—brought in Cribshitter and Something To Do‘s Nate Tredinnick to guest on a track. Collaboration was everywhere (and if I even began to list the examples of interconnected projects by way of the city’s audio engineers, this piece would never end.)

Both The Spine Stealers and …or Does It Explode? released EPs that reimagined or refined some of the respective projects’ previously-released works. For The Spine Stealers, it was the The Cabin Tapes, which pared down some crowd favorites to more warm and intimately tender forms. The band …or Does It Explode? explored the inverse route. On Swan, the band updates prior recordings to more closely resemble their current live presentations, adding in the contributions of vocalist Katya Pierce, who joined the band after the release of their debut 2022 album, Chrysalis.

Recently-former or otherwise Madison-connected acts contributed a number of formidable works to their ongoing discographies, none more impressive than Luke Leavitt‘s hyper-inventive, sonically ambitious, and stylistically restless Concert In The Shell. Folk-indebted songwriter Luke McGovern had a strong post-move single in “Oh Boy Howdy Do,” and Americana artist Matt Monsoor released an undeniable career highlight in a recent reworking of “Sam’s Hill,” a winning, dusty shard of Wisconsin history.

On the more macro-end of the local music equation, FPC Live continued its concentrated effort at consolidating as much venue real estate as possible by advancing in the proverbial race to effectively gain control of Alliant Energy Center’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum. If the expected deal ultimately goes through, it’ll be another card in an already loaded hand for FPC Live, and would—if history really does repeat itself, as is often justifiably believed—would likely negatively impact funding opportunities for more locally-minded venues (along with the local musicians those venues support). We won’t know until those events come to pass, but it’s regrettably easy to wager a guess on that outcome.

Even still, 2025 has shown the intrepid nature and relentless creativity of increasingly self-driven local musicians, time and time again. One of my favorite examples of that trait is also one of the most clear-cut: singer-songwriter Colin Bares’ standalone YouTube original, simply titled “New Song,” released under his Colin Edwin moniker. As has often been the case with Bares’ work, the composition featured both one of my favorite chord progressions, vocal melodies, and lyric sets to be released by anyone this year. Bares’ contribution to Madison’s collective songwriting canon is emblematic of the DIY spirit that keeps pushing the city’s music community forward.

All of the contributions Madison musicians made from January through December of last year are worth highlighting and examining. Many for the most heartening reasons imaginable, others as cautionary examples and rightful warnings. We can’t know for sure what 2026 will hold in store for Madison’s music community, but I am certain of one thing: local art and artists will endure, no matter the severity of any incoming situation.

In the introductory statement for Tone Madison‘s favorite songs of 2025, the focus was placed on this specific moment in time, where rapidly-increasing fascism poses a very real threat to arts and culture. It’s a threat that has been repeated throughout history, and has never been truly successful in vanquishing either. Humanity benefits from both, and needs both to thrive.

Try as some may, there are a number of things that can’t be killed. As long as Madison’s musicians are producing music and embracing intentional community, those implicit safeguards should prove to be more than strong enough. And Tone Madison will continue to celebrate those artists, with the knowledge that those artists’ work is capable of making a difference.