Digging for Something with Wisconsin Anger Team
Overlooked, underrated, over-hated or regionally specific gems.
I’m reaching out and asking writers, band members and music curators to tip us all off to their favourite underrated albums, overlooked or unfairly obscure gems… even the downright over-hated. Hopefully it’s another fun way for you to find some new-to-you music to love.
Joining me today is the phenomenal indie-punk-pop act Wisconsin Anger Team. This band has been on my radar since hearing their 2024 album Archie, and since then I’ve devoured their catalogue.
Just the other day I posted on Substack notes about how dope their entire discography is:
Their latest album Beyond the Everest Crater III came out this year, about which I said:
This should appeal to fans of The Figgs (”Bloodbath”) as much as it would a listener who’s tastes have a venn diagram overlap of Dirtnap Records style melodic garage-pop-punk (”Beat Me To Death With My Lucky Hat”) and 90s indie rock (”Hangin’ With Jody”). Personally, I think they’re getting better and better with every release and just might be one of the most underrated bands in indie rock currently (complementary.)
If you haven’t heard them yet, it’s time to get on board!
And now, let’s get to their album recommendations:
Linda Thompson - Versatile Heart (2007)
Genres: Contemporary Folk, Celtic Folk Music
W.A.T. says:
I have been a big fan of Richard Thompson’s solo work and his albums with ex-wife Linda Thompson for a long time. If you haven’t heard his stuff, you should check it out. Maybe try Acoustic Classics first. Anyway, it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I decided to check out Linda Thompson’s solo work. For some reason, this is still the only one I’ve checked out. I don’t know why. It’s a great album and I have it in fairly regular rotation. The title track is excellent, there’s a great cover of “Day After Tomorrow” by Tom Waits, and throughout you’ll find the lush vocal harmonies that I came to love in listening to her work with Richard Thompson. Alright, you check this out if you haven’t heard it, I’ll go check out some of her other records, then we’ll meet back here.
Dan says:
Like many people, my experience with Linda and Richard Thompson is focused around I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. And to be very honest my time with that album is pretty slim, so coming to this record I didn’t actually have that great a reference point. The title track immediately grabbed me as a really nice meeting point between 70s folk songwriting and 2000s-era folk production and arrangements. I listened to this on a grey, rainy day and maybe it made even more sense to me in that context.
Harder The Fight - Bent On Destruction (2008)
Genres: Hardcore, Melodic Hardcore
W.A.T. says:
I’ve never been a very big fan of hardcore, but I’ve always loved this EP. I believe Harder The Fight’s biggest claim to fame was that at some point they toured with Have Heart, a band I never got into. The vocals are pretty unhinged and raw. I enjoy that kind of thing. Are there other bands that sound like this? Probably, sure. But I’m not going to bother checking them out because I like this band and that’s enough for me.
Drawing from my admittedly limited points of reference in the hardcore and metal genres, I would describe the whole package as sounding kind of like a combination of Paint It Black and Megadeth. Whenever I’m out on a run and I’m starting to lose steam, I’ll throw on this EP to put some wind in my sails. It almost makes me understand why people like moshing.
Dan says:
A total blindspot for me, had never heard about this band before today. W.A.T. is right to point out the “Paint It Black meets Megadeth” overlap - the first thing that came to my mind when I hit play was how this felt like straight-forward hardcore that ever-so-slightly nudged in the melodic hardcore direction of bands like Paint it Black. But then there’s a really faint cross-over element to their performance and riffs that reminds of thrash metal stuff like Megadeth. A really solid hardcore EP!
Dr. Hourai - Post-Apocalyptic Nightmare Volume 1: Vibrations in Hyperspace (2009)
Genres: Melodic Hardcore, Progressive Metal
W.A.T. says:
I saw this band open for A Wilhelm Scream in college. I couldn’t believe how fast they played. Every song sounded like it was played with the unhinged intensity of the guitar solo outro in “Purina Hall Of Fame.” In fact, I think the singer/guitarist was wearing a Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes shirt. They also played a cover of “The Temples Of Syrinx” by Rush. I bought this record and a cool shirt with skulls on it after their set. I misplaced the shirt a long time ago. It probably wouldn’t fit me anymore anyway. (I’m incredibly ripped/buff now and my brain is so much bigger that I probably couldn’t even get the shirt over my head.)
The record is kind of weird. It’s like a combination of skate punk, metal, progressive rock, and what I remember The Mars Volta sounding like last time I listened to them. Listening back now, I do find the screaming a little grating. Let’s be honest: we’d all prefer it if there was less screaming. But, it isn’t all (or even mostly) screaming and it’s still an interesting record. I don’t think I ever figured out how to pronounce the band’s name properly.
Dan says:
This is definitely the most out-there of everything that has been submitted for this series, and possibly the most obscure? They’re described around the internet in various places (Discogs, Rate Your Music, etc.) as Melodic Hardcore but this is uhhhh a lot more than that! The Progressive Metal sub-tag on RYM gets closer.
Broken up into three chapters plus a prologue and epilogue, its got a lot of progressive synthy gurgles and electronic flourishes alongside speedy punk and 00s post-hardcore screaming. There’s definitely bands from this era you can point to who were reaching beyond their genre’s guardrails - Choke went from skate punk into post-hardcore, or how The Fall of Troy were doing screamy post-hardcore with progressive tendencies - but this still feels interestingly its own thing—particularly with how extended some of the instrumental passages get in the album’s finale. At times you also might say it feels like it could fit into the Sasscore genre too.
It might not be an album I want to hear every day, but I love finding stuff like this crammed in the pockets of the genres I grew up with.
Taking Meds - Terrible News From Wonderful Men (2021)
Genres: Post-Hardcore, Emo, Math Rock, Alternative Rock, Power Pop
W.A.T. says:
In the last 7-8 years or so, probably my favorite discovery has been Taking Meds. They are apparently now defunct, which is sad because I never saw them live. Their last album was called Dial M For Meds. On that one, they went all in on writing an album full of hooks that anyone who had been paying attention to the band probably suspected they were capable of writing all along. However, they dialed back some of the weirder / more abrasive aspects of their sound a tad more (just a tad!) than I would have liked. I still listen to it all the time, so don’t take this to mean I don’t like it. I love the album. But, I would say that their previous album, Terrible News From Wonderful Men, struck the perfect balance of all the things I like most about the band. I would list what those things are but I’m not good at writing about music and I’m running out of steam here. Imagine interesting rock music. I don’t think I will ever understand the timing of “Citgo,” but it’s one of my favorite songs.
In conclusion: this band is/was underrated.
Dan says:
Taking Meds are a band that always surprises me when I check back in with them. I know around the time that this album came out, they were on my radar and I listened to it a good amount. I also know I heard Dial M For Meds as well when it came out. But they surprise me because when I go back and listen to their albums because they never sound like what I expect them to. Sometimes they sound like Jawbox or Burning Airlines (“Musclehead”), but then one song later they have an emo thing going on (“Tangerines”) or maybe they’re leaning into mathy, plucky rhythms (“Tame”).
Depending on what song you remember most from the last time you heard ‘em, your next check in might be as surprising as they are for me.
Jon K - Aquarium Single! (????)
Genres: ????
W.A.T. says:
This is a “single” that I believe I bought for $5 when I saw “Jon K” (not to be confused with John K. Samson) perform sometime in 2004. It came in a white DVD case. I still have it all these years later, but I (until now) hadn’t listened to it in at least 15 years.
I can’t seem to find anything about Jon K aka Jonny Kaplan online, nor any mention of this single. The insert has a handwritten URL on it (www.angelfire.com/ny3/bookstore) that is still active and appears to display some kind of farewell message. Although the liner notes and title describe it as a “single,” it has 9 tracks. Some of them are spoken word, but the ones that aren’t are pretty interesting and catchy indie rock-ish songs. The song “I Can’t Complain” is great. I don’t really know how to describe the spoken word tracks other than to say that I burst out laughing a couple times while listening to them. I think at the time I got this I mainly skipped around and listened to 1 or 2 songs, but listening back to the whole thing while writing this was a real pleasure.
For a release that I can find no mention of online, it’s got pretty decent production. It’s a shame you can’t hear it.
Dan says:
I take it back, this is the most obscure submission ever. I even tried inspecting the HTML of that website to see if it was some kind of weird ARG or something but didn’t see anything.
Reading old archives of their site on Wayback Machine also didn’t bring much up for me to see or hear, except that at one point they seemed to have gone by “bookstore” circa 2003? The links to MP3s were long-dead though. They have a blogspot which was linked to at some point on their website, titled “Ruminations on the World”, which has sat empty since 2014, haha.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.