Podcast: The inscrutable 2017

Three Tone Madison writers discuss the year in Madison music.

Three Tone Madison writers discuss the year in Madison music.

We’ve been writing this week about our favorite music that artists from Madison released in 2017. We put out our top 20 Madison records of 2017 list and we’ve got a couple other things detailing more releases that made a mark in the local music community this year.

As always, it’s been a varied year for Madison music, with an ever-changing mix of genres, new talents coming out of the woodwork, and established local artists coming through again. The music we liked in Madison this year tended to have a habit of defying or just disregarding genre barriers, and of course it went beyond recorded output. Tone Madison‘s Scott Gordon, Emili Earhart, and Grant Phipps sat down to discuss our year-end music coverage.

Give the conversation a listen here, or subscribe to the Tone Madison podcast on Apple Podcasts. If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and consider supporting us financially with a one-time or recurring donation.

Header Photo: Lovely Socialite performing at Art In in July to celebrate the release of their “DoubleShark” EP.

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Authors

Scott Gordon co-founded Tone Madison in 2014 has covered culture and politics in Madison since 2006 for publications including The A.V. Club, Dane101, and Isthmus, and has also covered policy, environmental issues, and public health for WisContext.

Profile pic by Rachal Duggan.

Emili Earhart is a musician and educator living in Madison.

A Madison transplant, Grant has been writing about contemporary and repertory cinema since contributing to No Ripcord and LakeFrontRow; and he served as Tone Madison‘s film section editor for a handful of years before officially assuming an arts editor role in 2026. More recently, Grant has been involved with programming at Mills Folly Microcinema and one-off screenings at the Bartell Theatre. From mid-2016 thru early-2020, he also showcased his affinity for art songs and avant-progressive music on WSUM 91.7 FM. 🌱