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. ~ Heather Phares