Every school year, thousands of students emigrate from New York. You may be one of them. You say you are from the city, that your apartment has a bird's eye view of real life, city life. You say your bars are better, your clubs are chicer, your local rock scene louder. You trump us with your East Coast rappers, your CBGB, your Strokes and your urbane sense of style.
You belong to us now, jackass.
At least 30 weeks a year, 24 hours a day, you are a Wisconsinite. You live here more than any other home now. You eat our pizza and drink our beer. You live in dairy country. As of now, your knowledge of the New York scene means nothing to anyone who isn't you. Madison is your hometown.
As such, it is time to assimilate with Madison culture. Eventually, reminiscing about New York will become boring: first to your friends, then to you. Sooner or later you will have to find something new to do.
On any given night a number of local bands will be playing: if not at the Annex, the King Club or Luther's Blues then at the Catacombs, either Union, or, oddly enough, Pizzeria Uno. Madison's music scene does not have the unified sound of the Washington with all its punk bands or New York with its lo-fi groups. But Madison does have its share of bands worth seeing, hearing or pretending to recognize to impress that emo girl in Comm Arts 100.
Milwaukee-based Crustacean Records has cultivated an impressive list of local talent, ranging the full gamut of modern rock. Especially impressive are the punk-a-billy songs of Mad Trucker Gone Mad and the arena shaking Skin Tones, whose anthem \H-Bomb"" is every bit as catchy as anything the like-minded Drowning Pool could put together. Crustacean's Electric Automatic produce a more electric live show than a two-man alternative rock band should have any right to, and rockabilly band American Death's stripped down guitar makes ""Austrian Pine"" one of the best single songs in the local spectrum.
While Crustacean Records has signed many of the all-stars of the Madison circuit, do-it-yourself pressings among popular local bands are as prevalent as label releases. One standout is Sara Pace. While she remains unsigned, her self-pressed release Self Titled was a stellar album of haunting folk-rock.
Another great unsigned band who frequents our campus is Long Story Short, whose energetic live performances during while opening for the Kings of Leon earned them recognition in Rolling Stone as a ""band to watch in 2003.""
Summers are regularly kicked off by the reformation of ska-band I Voted for Kodos. Natty Nation, strangely situated in Wisconsin, have become Madison's most revered reggae band.
While the Madison's music prospects are dwarfed by the big city's, we have the electricity to hold concerts and play CDs. So, New Yorkers, gas up the moped and put on your North Face Jacket, and see what we have to offer. You only have nine months until summer.
