KEEP YOUR EARS PEELED FOR NEW MATERIAL.
When the five original members of Madison East assembled in a garage on the east side of Cleveland in late 2002, none of them had any idea how many twists and turns were ahead. Whether it was the warm and unexpected response from Cleveland area music fans, the addition of a sixth member in the form of a third electric guitarist, or the hardships of seeing their members come and go, they couldn’t have guessed how dense their body of experience would become.
After Madison East’s 2005 release of their freshman album In The Name of Endurance, the band found itself in a place of prominence in the region and began making plans to venture out further geographically to reach new audiences. But when early 2006 found them without original lead singer and front man Jeremy Taylor, gone to focus on a new career path, their future instantly became unclear.
It took more than two years and dozens of tryouts for Madison East to find the right man to fill the empty position, but their decision to remain together has proven to be fruitful. The band now features new lead vocalist Nick Wise, Marcus Bierbaum on bass, Stephen Hart and early hire Terry Geer each on guitars, and founding members Chuck-O Stusek and Dave Montague, on guitar and drums respectively.
Madison East take great pride in their passion and skill for songwriting. Attention to the smallest details and a wide array of influences has helped them create a musical texture that Scene Magazine has called “mood rock.” Taking a new approach to the wall of sound concept, Stusek, Geer and Hart use their guitars efficiently, avoiding duplicate parts as much as possible to help create intricate landscapes that leave the listener discovering new subtleties each time they listen. Anchored by Montague and Bierbaum’s freight train of a rhythm section and frosted with the powerful exclamations and soaring melodies of Wise, this sonic amalgamation causes your toe to tap while simultaneously tugging at the heart strings.
This band isn’t just ear candy, though. Geer and Wise’s poetically influenced lyrical styles are anything but trivial. They wave a flag of passion in a musical community congested with artists that are lyrically both empty and cliché, lamenting about things that are within their realm of control rather than confronting them.
The various elements of Madison East’s sound collide in such a way that their live shows become roller coasters; at moments they feature a frenetic display of erratically swinging guitar necks and shrieking amplifiers and at others the calmness of a quiet, finger-picked melody.
Madison East have proven themselves an act worth noting amidst the endless deluge of ‘indie’ bands currently flooding the market with a stale assortment of borrowed motifs. They are grateful to be back in the thick of the scene, and are excited for people other than their close friends to hear their music. The band is currently preparing for regional touring and is in the pre-production stages of their upcoming full-length album, slated for a fall 2009 release.
Bands Played With:
Switchfoot, Thursday, Copeland, As I lay Dying, Brandtson, Fire when Ready, MewithoutYou, Owen, Number One Gun, Number One Fan, Plain White Ts, Pillar, Narcissus, Anadivine, Celebrity, Spitalfield, Beloved, Senses Fail, Staple, Midtown, Cool Hand Luke, Waiting for Evangeline, Tokyo Rose, Lux Courageous, The Chariot, Noise Ratchet, Denison Marrs, and many more.
You can purchase our debut Full-length entitled "In the Name of Endurance" here:
