Madina Lake - From Them, Through Us, To You
ARTIST.....: Madina Lake
TITLE......: From Them, Through Us, To You
LABEL......: Roadrunner Records
URL........: http://www.madinalake.com/
RIP DATE...: May-03-2007
STORE DATE.: Mar-27-2007
GENRE......: Rock
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 76,2 MB
Track Listing:
01 - the auspice 02:00
02 - here i stand 03:23
03 - in another life 03:11
04 - adalia 02:31
05 - house of cards 03:37
06 - now or never 04:11
07 - pandora 03:25
08 - stars 04:00
09 - river people 04:27
10 - one last kiss 03:27
11 - me vs. the world 03:08
12 - morning sadness 05:22
13 - true love 06:02
─────
48:44 min
Release Notes:
Retail Reason:
The advanced (promotional) copy of the album has twelve tracks.
However, the final retail version has an extra track, "The
Auspice", (track 1) which is a two-minute instrumental.
The advanced copy of the album also had some tracks that were
shorter in length when compared to the retail version. For
comparison, here are the song times for the following tracks
(advanced copy vs. retail version).
"True Love" (3:56 û 6:02)
"Morning Sadness" (3:46 û 5:22)
"Now or Never" (3:23 û 4:11)
Bio:
Members:
- Nathan Leone - vocals
- Mateo Camargo - guitar
- Matthew Leone - bass
- Daniel Torelli - drums
Most artists claim they would suffer for their art. The founding
members of Chicago's Madina Lake gamely faced death for theirs,
crawling through trenches, munching on cow parts, ingesting
maggots and eventually being hospitalized, all in the name of rock
n' roll.
A year before they were recovering from their adventure in
infirmary beds, twins Nathan Leone (vocals) and Matthew Leone
(bass) had joined musical forces with guitarist Mateo Camargo and
drummer Daniel Torelli - two musicians who shared the siblings'
vision for creating hook-laden, pop culture-inspired hard rock
with a message - to form Madina Lake, named after the fictional
1950's town from a story Matthew penned. The town is turned upside
down when its most famous socialite, Adalia, mysteriously
disappears.
"Madina Lake is a microcosm of what's happening in America today,"
Nathan explains. "Everyone wants to be famous and everyone wants
to live louder than everyone else."
Tackling the consequences of society's fixation with pop culture
and materialism might seem like heady stuff for a rock band, but
Madina Lake isn't out to preach or bring listeners down. Instead,
they deliver their message with stunning pop sensibility. Their
sense of humor might be due in no small part to the time they
experienced that "living louder" lifestyle firsthand. Egged on by
friends, the Leone brothers applied for and were accepted to
appear on the "twins" episode of the gross-out reality show Fear
Factor. "The producers asked us 'Why do you want to be on the
show?'" Nathan recalled. "We were like 'We don't. We're not
athletic types, we're skinny little rock dudes!' I guess they
liked that we didn't care." Not having body builder physiques
proved no match for their unstoppable drive.
Accepting the Fear Factor challenge in hopes of scoring the grand
$50,000 prize to kickstart their career, the brothers had to
dangle from a helicopter and chug ground up cow parts while
clambering through a trench. Though they both picked up a nasty
infection that nearly killed them, their ambition proved solid and
they won. Upon recovery, IVs were quickly traded for mics and a
touring vehicle. A demo was put together, shows were booked, a
record deal with Roadrunner Records was promptly landed.
The band went to Los Angeles to record their debut album, From
Them, Through Us, To You, with Mark Trombino behind the board.
Having worked with Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, Finch
and blink-182, Trombino was the perfect choice to capture Madina
Lake's upbeat pop sound while preserving the intense subject
matter of their songs. From Them, Through Us, To You bounds from
speakers with subtly catchy hooks and poignant vocals shouting
brilliantly-crafted lyrics. Album opener "Here I Stand" starts
with a delicate introduction before erupting quickly into heavy,
speedy guitars. "At first listen it sounds like it's about losing
a girl and being bummed about being alone," Nathan says. "It's
really about what you do if you might not be able to realize your
dream. How do you live your life?"
The album's debut single is the turbulent "House of Cards," which
is led by a driving beat and deeply tormented vocals, revealing
secrets like "I'm afraid to be alone / I'm afraid that one day
you'll find out." Nathan says the track is about "people who keep
a million secrets. No one will admit it, but if you pry a little
you'll find out the weirdest things about people."
"Adalia," about the disappearing socialite, juxtaposes harsh,
shrieked background vocals with a bouncy drumline. It's fittingly
experimental for a song Nathan says is about "girls that really
struggle with things like depression and anxiety...the
super-famous social butterfly who has all the demons underneath."
And while many songs that tell the Madina Lake story are
ultimately about people or society in general - like "River
People," a song about integrity - the band isn't afraid to get
highly personal as on a track like "Me Vs. World." Set against
dark, hook-laden instrumentals are lyrics about "feeling
completely outcast, alone, and not understanding how the world
works and why people don't feel the same as you," the song is at
once about the twins' loss of their mother, and about the struggle
of adolescence.
"We're not going to be afraid to talk about what we believe,"
Nathan says. "We don't put constraints on ourselves. We want to
carve a brand new path and do our own thing."
Obviously, the world is listening. To date, Madina Lake has played
over 120 shows in just 10 short months of touring. They are
selling around 100 copies of their EP a night and have amassed a
loyal fanbase who sing their praises on MySpace.com, various
blogspots and fansites. They have toured in the United States with
10 Years, Halifax, Red Jump Suit Apparatus and in the U.K. with
Paramore, Cute Is What We Aim For and Gym Class Heroes. The band
is set to head out again in the U.S. with Halifax upon release of
the record.
Though they are only at the beginning of that path, Madina Lake
have already crafted a detailed map to lead listeners towards a
new horizon in rock. Their sun has only begun to rise.