Arts Extract

A conversation about the impending 2017 Wisconsin Film Festival.

Madison producer Jordan Cohen, aka @chantssound, discusses his new @do-the-astral-plane release, Amethyst Dust.

Madison electronic producer @mahr talks with us about her work.

Madison MC/educator Rob Dz and Isthmus staff writer Allison Geyer join us for a discussion of the new beginnings and changes of ownership happening in Madison's music venues. Photo by Robin Davies.

The Access Denied panel, recorded live on Feb. 10, 2017 at the Madison Public Library's Central Branch, discussed inequalities in Madison's nightlife.

UW-Madison professor Don Moynihan offers some level-headed perspective on the narratives surrounding free speech on college campuses.

Tone Madison contributor Chris Lay reads his essay about his first experience in a sensory-deprivation tank. Read the original piece here: http://buff.ly/2lvmHvU

From the "Skunk Ape" EP on @kitschymanitou Records. More info: http://bit.ly/2jTKad6

Laura Damon-Moore of the Library As Incubator Project discusses how federal funding has enabled public libraries, including the ones right here in Madison, to reinvent themselves. These developments could be threatened under dramatic federal cuts the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have proposed.

Madison band Miyha's first EP, the recently released Happy Birthday, Nick, combines bright guitar-pop with unsparing lyrics. Guitarist/singer Alejandra Perez, formerly of Tarpaulin and Automatically Yours, uses the EPs five songs to unpack the fond memories and indignities of a broken relationship. Songs like "Dodge Or Pine," "92/69/39 (Ryan Adams)," and "Raspberry Kombucha" feel very true to the mix of nostalgia and lingering bitterness a person can feel when looking back on any kind of hurtful relationship, romantic or otherwise.

Though Perez's approach is unvarnished and plainspoken, she pulls off unpretentious lines that stretch powerfully between those conflicting emotions. After listing some happy memories on "92/69/39 (Ryan Adams)," she sings, "It doesn't seem like much when I put it in a box"—capturing how significant and how small events in our lives can seem. The chorus of "Raspberry Kombucha" is a bit more oblique, but has a visceral punch anyway: 'You just keep on denying what's growing in your guts."

A while after Tarpaulin broke up, Perez formed the band with guitarist Mike Pellino and drummer Erik Fredine (both also members of Tippy) and bassist Nick Hoffmann. As he does in Tippy, Pellino serves as a trusty pocketknife of a lead guitarist, providing everything from flickery hooks to noisy crescendos but always serving the song as a whole. As a rhythm section, Fredine and Hoffmann take the songs through swaying feels and tempo changes that are a bit more complex than they seem on the surface.