Madder Rose

Responsible for some of the sweetest and, unfortunately, most overlooked indie rock of the '90s, New York City's Madder Rose featured guitarist Billy Coté, drummer Johnny Kick, bassist Matt Verta-Ray, and guitarist/vocalist Mary Lorson. Their lovely 1993 debut album, Bring It Down, introduced the band's winning combination of Lorson's dulcet voice and Coté and Lorson's eloquent songs; while it was a critical success, that album and its equally graceful 1994 follow-up, Panic On, both eluded commercial success. The group returned in 1997 with the trip-hop-inspired Tragic Magic and issued the like-minded Hello June Fool two years later. It was the swan song for the group, but not for Coté and Lorson's collaboration, as each contributed to the other's subsequent projects: Lorson developed Saint Low and Coté formed the Jazz Cannon. In 2003 Coté and Lorson also released an album of their other work together, Piano Creeps.