Equipment

Madrigal unites Equipment past, present, and future with a sturdy indie-rock backbone. At times it’s absurd and winking—the collection of Guitar Center riffs tickling through “Raptured Trax, Pt. 2” comes to mind—but most of the times it’s downcast. “A lot of the EP is about the music scene, how mentally unhealthy it can be to equate your personal happiness to the success of your band, how it can hurt relationships, the money invested that you could very well never see again: gig life, baby. It kinda tackles all perspectives, including an outsider looking in at how futile everything can seem,” Zander admits. There’s diatribes on using rent money to sponsor Facebook ads, placing fan service over self-respect, and post-mortems on relationships made in the venue basement and beyond. All of it gets fed through Equipment’s brand of acoustic shimmer (“Scrimmage”) or pop-rock crunch (“Wet Mulch”) for a steady dose of guitar heroism and palpable versatility. Preach.
~ James Cassar