Soundtrack of Your Life: Madder Rose - "Panic On"

I am super-thankful for being on vacay on the East Coast at my parent's house, and one of the primary reasons I tore myself away from L.A. was to come back and go through all the stuff I left in my parent's basement. It's been there three years and counting, and since I'm getting married soon, I may become an adult any day now and have my own house to store crap in soon. Hence, the dig.

Well, the dig went really well, and there's TONS of 90's fodder for you Damn The Man! fans!! One blessing that fell upon me is the wonder of my CD collection. All of my music in California is MP3s, because, as we all know, you don't buy CDs anymore unless you're someone who really can't let go. But, lemme tell ya, CDs are great. Or really, MY CDs are great.

Madder Rose's "Panic On" (1994) glared out at me from a mix CD a very loving and organized friend of mine gave me once upon a time, from a computer-printed playlist neatly folded in the case. "Panic On" is the type of song that the bygone MTV show "120 Minutes" was created for, and for which I stealthily sat up until midnight to watch on Sunday nights before school. I was always groggy as hell the next day, but as a budding music geek, I was very happy. Madder Rose kind of shared a sound with other "120 Minutes"-friendly bands like Helium, Lush, Velocity Girl and My Bloody Valentine; that shoegazer, fuzz-pop sound that I am terribly fond of.

Madder Rose was a NYC band, and I unfortunately never got the chance to get as familiar with the rest of their catalog back then like I did Mazzy Star's or The Sundays or some band like that, but "Panic On" is perennial. It had the female-fronted goodness of those bands, but it plays like the tear in the throat of every skinny geek-boy and girl who ever crushed on someone they could never really have, like Brian Krakow did over Angela Chase on "My So-Called Life." My nascent love life was full of these crushes, so I needed these songs to soothe my bruised little heart every time a boy with a guitar or greasy hipster haircut ignored me. Or used me. Enjoy:



Madder Rose - "Panic On" from the 1994 album, Panic On

By the way, Madder Rose broke up in 1999, and frontwoman Mary Lorson went on to form the band Saint Low, which was also on the aforementioned thoughtfully organized mixtape, and you should also check it out. This video's from September 2007, Saint Low opening for Nanci Griffith in Ithaca, NY:



Mary Lorson & Saint Low - State Theater, Ithaca, NY - September 11, 2007