Noise for Zeros

Madhouse EP, 1985
Fountain of Youth Records

Picked up this gem solely based on the label and was pleasantly surprised to find a Siouxsie & The Banshees-influenced take on early Revolution Summer-style DC postpunk. While the cover art looks totally aggro and the Fountain of Youth label was best known for releasing a slew of Government Issue records, this anomaly takes a chilly, almost gothic path into female-male harmonizing, sounding like X if they were from suburban DC instead of LA. Lead singer Monica Richards was a staple of the early DC hardcore scene as a member of Hate from Ignorance and was part of the first wave of HC kids disenfranchised by the codification of hardcore, spurring the Revolution Summer of 1985. Madhouse could be considered part of this Revolution, ushering in the bouncing, melodic mid-tempo sound popularized by groups like Soulside, Ignition, Rites of Spring and Embrace. Check out this solid EP (and their sole 7″) they released before fading into obscurity.

DOWNLOAD

Madhouse – Madhouse EP (31.5mb ZIP file)

LINKS

Madhouse’s Mecca 7″ on Discogs

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2012 at 1:06 am and is filed under 1980s. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.