Tone Madison’s favorite songs of 2023, pt. I

A small collection of Madison songs that made a genuine impact.

Few years in recent memory have felt quite as alive as 2023 when it comes to new local music releases. While keeping up with the year’s explosive pace of releases was a time-devouring endeavor, the result was worthwhile. As a result of the bounty of new releases, our year-end coverage will be the most extensive it has ever been, because we firmly believe that everything we’re showcasing deserves this type of notice.

To start things off, we’ll be covering our 45 favorite songs that Madison-area artists released in 2023. Even at that number, there were still songs we wish we could have included in this section. But a line (probably) has to be drawn somewhere, or we’d be going on about 2023 until a few more calendar years pass.

Madison music has seemingly always been overlooked, despite consistently bristling with a varied richness. Attempting to monitor each new release drives that point home even more plainly, with the crop of material released over the past 12-plus months constituting a melting pot of genre and artistic perspective. Great records and songs have appeared across an enormous array of genres, delivered by a generous spectrum of artists, and were released by artists who populate wildly different age ranges (a few of which were cross-generational).

After a long string of behind-the-scenes deliberation, several rounds of cutdowns, and a few rounds of voting, Tone Madison was able to whittle down well over a thousand songs into 45 favorites. These are those favorites.

PART I

Air Cabin, “Never That Hard“

Psych-inflected indie rock project Air Cabin has reliably released an exceptional song or three every year since 2020’s I Don’t Wanna Dream. Standalone single “Never That Hard” continues to demonstrate the band’s growing confidence by leaning into its punchiness, eschewing ornate decoration to maximize immediate impact. It’s catchy in the moment, yes, but the sting lingers long after it disappears. “A bitter man won’t make a better man” is a life lesson worth repeating, and Air Cabin’s Bryan Myrold delivers the message with panache. —Steven Spoerl

Complexive, “Everything“

A silky, danceable highlight from Complexive‘s impressive 2023 album Pixel Skies, “Everything” has a host of fine qualities that belie the project’s Daft Punk influence. At times, the production makes “Everything” feel like the end-credits track to an animated blockbuster, but its abrupt left turns provide just enough counterweight to keep the track unpredictable. Ridiculously sharp hooks and a pitch-perfect vocal delivery combine to make “Everything” a summery classic that earns every hip swivel it’s bound to produce. —SS

Daughters Of St. Crispin, “Ex-Girlfriend Dresser Storage Facility”

An intentionally brutal run of pent-up relationship frustration, Daughters Of St. Crispin‘s “Ex-Girlfriend Dresser Storage Facility” is, unmistakably, a pronounced artistic statement. Vocalist Pete Leonard delivers an unforgiving, uncompromising spoken word segment about a disintegrating romance as Russell Emerson Hall’s pummeling, atmospheric instrumentals and exacting production lend weight to the track’s razor-sharp bitterness. “When it came time to paint / I did a few coats,” drawls Leonard, before concluding late with “I kept it / It’s a song about self-love,” making the point of this bleary metaphor resoundingly clear. —SS

Everything Means Totally Nothing, “Yuck!”

Following a name change from the abbreviated EMTN and a bit of member shuffling, indie-punk act Everything Means Totally Nothing reintroduced themselves with “Yuck!” Easily the emerging band’s most focused track to date, “Yuck!” recalls the guitar riffs and pop-indebted vocal melodies of the band Yuck, though Everything Means Totally Nothing insisted in a prior message to Tone Madison that the correlation wasn’t intentional. Guitar riffs rocket skyward, while the rhythm section keeps everything grounded. Unexpected, unassuming, and quietly exhilarating, “Yuck!” strikes a sweet spot for the genre that should keep it in rotation for years to come. —SS

Marty Finkel, “I Spend My Days“

Veteran songwriter Marty Finkel has always excelled in creating music that feels as familiar as it does refreshing. On the Old 97’s-esque “I Spend My Days,” Finkel hits upon that dynamic again to exceptional result. Breezy, professional, and engaging, “I Spend My Days” is a jaunty acoustic rocker infused with an introspective gentleness that really makes the track sing. Jenna O’Connor-Ross’ violin, Ryan Lee’s wurlitzer, and Scott Beardsley’s shuffling snare all combine to give a bit of dusty color to Finkel’s earnest vocal delivery. “I Spend My Days” is inviting enough that it’s bound to make listeners want to spend some days of their own with this song pouring out of their speakers. —SS

Flame The Ruler, “Up”

A smooth electric guitar loop, a bit of auto-tune, a jittery backbeat, and insistent vocal cadence combine to make Flame The Ruler’s “Up” an instant highlight. “I come from the bottom / I seen it get rotten / So tell me / Do you know the feeling? / We trynna to send it up” goes the lead-in to the chorus, punctuating a track about survival, escapism, and triumph. Colorful, gritty, and clear-eyed, “Up” was one of the best individual releases from local rap label No Disguise‘s impressively stacked year. —SS

The Goat Wizard, “Dirt Episode”

There’s something creeping between each note of The Goat Wizard’s “Dirt Episode.” A firm, unattached rhythm prowls below a Zappa-esque guitar tone, striking on an emo pungency that longs for a peaceful climax to this bad trip. The listener’s mental storm cloud is serrated by time signatures galore as “Dirt Episode” sticks its landing under a chopped up sky. The Goat Wizard’s musical forest is uncanny, but there is peace and illumination to be found within its singular borders. —Luis Acosta 

Candace Griffin, “A Lesson In Keeping Quiet”

Candace Griffin‘s A Decade Of Keeping Quiet is a fascinating rescue-and-rework affair. Griffin took a set of characteristically folksy songs she originally released in 2013 and enlisted the help of Madison band Kat And The Hurricane to re-record them with some additional polish. “A Lesson In Keeping Quiet,” the record’s melancholic closer, highlights an unrealized romantic longing. “I’ll keep my foot in my mouth / And I’ll be just fine / I just can’t risk it anymore / I’ll keep quiet this time,” sings Griffin, ironically unaware of just how much listeners benefit from her opening back up. —SS

Lunar Moth, “Cotton Candy”

“Doom pop fuzz” trio Lunar Moth reinvent the idea of the feel-good hit of the summer in the dynamic boldness of this crisp, darkly metaphorical power-pop tune. “Cotton Candy” boasts a nostalgically simple, yet indubitably infectious up-tempo guitar hook that’s driven by the band’s sassy, sugary personality. In the lyrical dichotomy of swarming softness, Amber Moth’s poised vocal prowess pithily plumbs bittersweet feelings of infatuation and doomed dependency. —Grant Phipps

MQBS, “Dead Languages“

Like the lovechild of Kate Bush and Fiona Apple, MQBS bassist/vocalist Sigra DeWeese’s lyrics inject this dark rocker with a wonderfully wordy, queer tale of discovery. “Dead Languages” is delivered in DeWeese’s eerie, beautiful soprano: “She’s such a gymnast with that mouth / I finally get what all the love songs on the radio are about.” Oh yes, indeed.

With blistering, gritty guitars and a wonderfully creepy synth line, “Dead Languages” makes great use of the soft-loud-soft song template. MQBS build a spooky tension throughout, complemented by Sigra’s soaring vocals. —Emily Mills

Red Pants, “Rockwell Kent“

Solo project-turned-duo Red Pants released one of the year’s better records in Not Quite There Yet, which found the band stretching out into more adventurous territory. On the ghostly, “Rockwell Kent,” drummer Elsa Nekola takes a turn on lead vocals, gifting the track a jolting, ethereal quality potent enough to send shivers down listeners’ spines. It’s a sly turn, fully in keeping with Red Pants’ growing understanding of their craft. And the plodding pace, atmospheric organ work, and eerie harmonies play directly to that strength. “Rockwell Kent” is an exclamation point for the current chapter of Red Pants, who continue to impress every time they step up to the plate. —SS

The Spine Stealers, “Waffle House“

Like its namesake diner as a uniquely American phenomenon, The Spine Stealers‘ “Waffle House” walks a line between warm relatability and cuts-you-to-the-core cultural commentary. It’s a bittersweet tune, reflected by the aching tremolo in ukuleleist/vocalist Emma O’Shea’s voice and the sweetly sad guitar and banjo picking that steadily pushes the story along.

This is a lonesome dusty road, sunset-porch-sitting sort of track. The lyrics tell of an as-good-as lost lover or friend, someone succumbing to addictions and other bad habits, and the complicated feelings of a relationship with them. “Man I hate all the ways you love me,” goes the refrain, and the listener can’t help but feel deeply those clearly conflicting emotions. —EM

Stagnant Lake, “Sentient Blood Mist” 

One of the more fascinating developments in Madison’s DIY music scene writ large was the ongoing emergence of local metal label Empty Pit Recordings. Haunted ambient project Stagnant Lake’s self-titled EP was the last of a quartet of 2023 releases for the label, a run that included several highlights.

And yet, among the grimy ruckus, one of the label’s quietest moments seemed to grip the hardest. “Sentient Blood Mist”—and bonus points are awarded here if the title’s an Adventure Time reference—is a creeping, dread-riddled exploration of disintegrating drones and knifelike blasts of noise. “Sentient Blood Mist” is enormously absorbing, and captures the label’s gift for weaponizing atmosphere. —SS

Stein/Smith/Shead, “Precipitous Halo”

This is free improv in the Derek Bailey mold. Free jazz haters, run away! Jason Stein’s bass clarinet playing squirts from Pharoah Sanders-esque skronk through beautiful runs, all the way up to what sounds like simulating an alien language spoken by sentient ducks. Adam Shead’s drums and Damon Smith’s bass chatter through helpful timbres all the while, sometimes pulsing semi-regular but mostly telepathically running off the cliff cartoon-style into… wait, how are those sounds happening? “Precipitous Halo,” recorded during the Chicago-based trio’s April 2022 performance at the North Street Cabaret, is at its most exhilarating when the frantic instrumental interplay gets stretched out into more emotive forms near the midpoint, but it’s a ride all the way. —Dan Fitch

TS Foss, “In Due Time”

Proud Parents guitarist/vocalist Tyler Fassnacht has two distinct solo projects: the caustic, hardcore-adjacent Baby Tyler and the honest, dignified folk act TS Foss. The latter’s sensibilities are of the old-school country narrative, but with a new-school twang. On the sprawling, melancholic “In Due Time,” Fassnacht finds meaning in his decisions, good or bad. “And everything will run backwards in due time / Cuz no one has the foresight not to try,” the track’s closing line, digs into the cyclical nature of time itself, slyly illuminating the monumental importance of subversion, and acceptance. —LA