To The Power Of 3 : Madder Rose & Royal Trux & Pavement

There was a small crack in the ceiling in 1993 when the alternative rock scene was still on reshuffle following the global success of Nirvana's album 'Nevermind' (1991). Into the void stepped several exciting new artists, including mercurial multi-instrumentalist Mary Lorson. Her first recording outfit was appropriately named Madder Rose (two years later came Stephen King's mythological novel 'Rose Madder') and they skirted the edges of sanity beneath a heavy cloak of refinery.

Based in New York City, New York, Madder Rose consisted of Lorson on guitar, multi-instrumentalist Billy Cote, bassists Matt Verta-Ray and Chris Giammalvo, percussionist Brian Doherty and drummer Johnny Kick. Madder Rose released four longplayers in the 1990s. This year they returned with their fifth, 'To Be Beautiful' (2019), following a twenty year hiatus.

Mary Lorson and Billy Cote have worked together in various guises over the years, composing music scores for theatre, television and film (Lorson's also written music to accompany literature).

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Lorson and Cote toured with Tanya Donelly in the mid-1990s, following the break-up of two of the bands she'd played in, Throwing Muses and Belly. When they were approached to contribute to the tribute album 'Hot Hands : A Tribute To Throwing Muses & Kristin Hersh' (2003), Lorson suggested performing one of the songs Donelly had written during her time with the Muses (typically, Donelly submitted a couple of tracks on each record). The result was a surprisingly epic interpretation of the rhythmic chant 'Honeychain', on which they were accompanied by Kathy Ziegler (of Madder Rose's New York contemporaries Donna The Buffalo).

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Lorson's other bands include folk travellers Saint Low and jazz crawlers the Piano Creeps (an artstic collaboration with Cote). Both retain the essential drive that characterises much of Lorson's work, marking her out as one of the key alternative rock artists of the 1990s. Lorson's also a poet, screenwriter and author. And a new release from Madder Rose serves as a reminder of what the music world's been missing in their absence.