Madison, WI’s …or does it explode has spent the past five years carving a space in the local scene with angular riffs, introspective melodies, and a dynamic lineup featuring Shawn Bass (vocals/guitar), Brandon Boggess (guitar), J Granberg (bass), Erik Rasmuson (drums), and Katya Pierce (vocals). Their previous albums, Chrysalis and The Medium is the Message, earned critical praise, with the latter landing on Rockambula’s Top 50 Releases of 2023 and featuring tracks recognized by Tone Madison.
Initially, Tales to Needed Outcomes was imagined by Shawn as a quieter, solo endeavor—an introspective counterpoint to the band’s typically restless energy. Written during the uncertain early days of the COVID lockdown, the songs reflected a more melodic, reflective side. However, when the band heard the material, they saw potential to expand it into a full-band project, weaving their signature edge into Shawn’s softer concepts.
The result was a natural dive into Midwest emo territory, retaining their sharpness while exploring new emotional landscapes. Recorded over a focused week at the iconic Pachyderm Studios near Minneapolis—famous for hosting the likes of PJ Harvey, Hum, Soul Asylum, Live, and Nirvana—the band brought these songs to life, enlisting Madison collaborators to enrich the soundscape with trumpet, violin, flute, mandolin, and cello.
Threaded throughout the album are Shawn’s inventive tunings, born from a chance attempt at learning a This Town Needs Guns riff. The songs echo the anxieties and reckonings of the pandemic era, grappling with themes of self-examination, community, and structural imbalance. Questions of inclusion, release, and resilience anchor the narratives, drawing on the cultural undercurrents of movements like #metoo and Black Lives Matter, as well as personal reflections on relationships and priorities.
Today, we’re thrilled to premiere Tales to Needed Outcomes, accompanied by a track-by-track commentary from the band and their list of Wisconsin artists you shouldn’t miss.
The band cites a range of influential inspirations, including Animals by This Town Needs Guns, S/T by American Football, Clarity by Jimmy Eat World, Some Kind of Cadwallader by Algernon Cadwallader, Viewing by Stay Inside, New Hell by Greet Death, Music to Practice Safe Sex To by Pool Kids, Rooms of the House by La Dispute, Keep You by Pianos Become the Teeth, and Brother, Sister by mewithoutYou.
The album sees or does it explode leaning hard into melodic forms, but they haven’t discarded their typical intensity. Quiet passages blur with moments of abrupt power, sometimes amplified by improvised takes.
Musicians like Becky and Rin meshed brass and strings with the group’s guitar-driven foundation, weaving surprising layers. The collective approach sharpened the record’s sense of open space, underlining themes of repeated motifs, cyclical reflections, and the raw tension of uncertain times.
Below, you’ll find a list of local artists the group admires, and the full track-by-track commentary.
Top Ten Local Artists
(in no particular order)
Excuse Me Who Are You:
They have made a national name for themselves. They play the best emo/screamo crossover Madison has to offer.
See IDIOTEQ feature HERE.
Sex, Fear:
Definitely one of our favorite bands to play live with. Strong Unwound or Drive Like Jehu vibes, but with a sound that is very much their own.
The Present Age:
Full disclosure—the singer/guitarist is also the cellist on our album. Some of the genuinely best humans making some really cool, noisy, fun music. They are also playing our album release show.
Dear Mr. Watterson:
Some noisy, jangly Midwest emo to brighten your day. Possibly one of the bands we’ve played the most shows with. They recently released a split with We Should Have Been DJs. Highly worth a listen.
Friendly Spectres:
Cam is one of the nicest, kindest people in the scene. He is DIY incarnate. He does so much for the local scene. He also makes some really killer music on his own.
Snag:
Local screamo mainstay. Brutal music, lyrics, and presentation. Very much worth a listen!
See IDIOTEQ feature HERE.
Dilettante:
Jack may be the best guitarist I know. They make amazing, beautiful, and pure math rock.
We Should Have Been DJs:
Another great jangly, screamy emo band, with one of the best band names. At this point, they are also perhaps one of the longest running bands in our scene.
Lunar Moth:
Lunar Moth owns the visual arts side of things with Amber making impressive visuals. But Gage is also an excellent recording engineer, so they also create masterful recordings. Bringing you a very unique mix of stoner rock and indie pop. They are also playing our album release show.
Tiny Voices:
They bring home the heart-on-your-sleeve emo we all love. With a formidable live show to boot. They are also playing our album release show!
IDIOTEQ special feature coming up!
“Tales To Needed Outcomes” track by track:
1. Pretense
I wanted to open the album with something a bit ominous. Setting a tone for the times when it was written—early COVID lockdown when things were pretty uncertain. I also had a concept for the album, and that was for parts from one song to show up in other songs. I was thinking about repeating motifs, like Downward Spiral by NIN and Souls at Zero by Neurosis. But rather than have the same motif, I wanted them to connect specific songs. The piano notes here are the melody of the second album track, while the textured sounds show up in two other spots on the album.
2. What is Tough to See
This was the first song written for this album. We nicknamed this album TTNO, which stood for This Town Needs Or Does It Explode. It was a nod to TTNG (This Town Needs Guns), as the whole concept for the album grew out of trying to learn one of their songs. It was in an alternate tuning I hadn’t used previously. I spent about 30 secs trying to learn their song before I started writing my own songs, and that’s when this first riff was born. The whole album was written using that tuning.
The lyrics are a narrator reflecting on someone close. Someone who inspires them and brings out their good qualities. But, the narrator also holds back parts of themself. It’s a reminder to let people in. The final part of the song is repeated in the next song. This is the first opportunity to hear one of our guest musicians, with Becky throwing down some melancholy trumpet!
3. Awkward Attempts at Making Space
This album was conceptualized as a solo project, as the songs are much softer and more melodic than much of our earlier material. However, when the others heard the songs, they were interested in developing them as a group and expanding our sound. They really gave the songs more depth and interest. Lyrically, the themes on this album reflect the early COVID times.
The #metoo movement, Black Lives Matter, wealth and privilege disparities playing out, and everyone reflecting on which relationships to hold and which to let go. This particular song is a reminder to make space for others and to think about how our actions affect others. I wanted the “chorus” to go against expectations.
So, I made the chorus very quiet and vulnerable and had the verse be the part with more space being occupied, so to speak. Shout out to Becky and Rin for killing it on the trumpet and violin parts! They obviously match either for the first half before separating into their own “space”.
4. Story of Stuff
The name is a reference to a social commentary film about consumerism and the environmental and mental health tolls it takes, as well as a critique of governments who reinforce or insist on this toxic form of capitalism. When recording, we brought along some atypical instruments to see if we could find ways to incorporate them.
This track has a little slide guitar, which is most noticeable on the “chorus” of the song. Live we had been doubling the chorus vocal repeats of “Something” but while recording, we thought of adding a third repeat to deepen the impact. J also wrote several keyboard parts for the album.
This song highlights the Hammond organ throughout. The outro of this song is one of the repeating motifs elsewhere.
5. Cyclic Living
This is a commentary on the rote and routine way our lives are oftentimes structured. One of the interesting things about the time of the lockdown was that people had a chance to evaluate what they were doing with their lives. Whether the ways we earned money were fulfilling, sustainable, and in line with our values.
This song explores those ideas and challenges some of the beliefs we hold. It was a last minute decision to add the screaming background vocals to the chorus.
This was a nod to our typical noisier material. A reminder to our fans that we aren’t going soft permanently. I really like the halftime pre-chorus because I think it gives a desperation which helps release the frustration and anger of the chorus. The structure of the song is basically four separate parts played in order twice to simulate a cycle.
6. …to Fall
This is one of my favorite drumbeats on the album, so we decided to showcase it by having it start the album. While there are dozens throughout the album, I think that Brandon’s guitar part on the chorus is one of the more glowing examples of what is gained by bringing these songs to the band versus keeping them as a solo endeavor. I never would have thought of that part, but it adds so much to this section.
A really cool part of making this album was the collaboration with woodwind, brass, or other stringed musicians. I wrote all the accompaniment parts by ear and played them on a keyboard. Using my recording software, I was able to create sheet music, but I learned so much along the way about notation and transposition.
Becky again killed it on the trumpet here. One of her notes to me as a composer was that I wrote all these really long notes that flow into each other, which left almost no space to take breaths. She was at times getting a bit lightheaded while recording. Portions of the guitar also reference back to previous songs to keep the album concept going.
7. Loneliness (I’m Waiting)
I am not a piano player. When wrote this part, it took me forever to record a passable demo. When Katya joined the band, I was so glad to learn they could play the piano, so it could get a proper performance.
The studio had a beautiful grand piano, so it was amazing to have the chance to record with that. The audio sample is from the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. This is an excerpt from a public talk he gave where he states that humans feel loneliness because our actions and thoughts are focused on our self, our ego, our oneness.
We are lonely because we see ourselves as separate from the world. There are many layers of texture. Brandon played a beautiful reverb-rich tremolo guitar part, J programmed three separate synth parts, and there is a recurrence of the textured synths from pretense.
8. Hello Cannon Falls
This song is a playful homage to the song “Goodbye Sky Harbor” by Jimmy Eat World. They end their album Clarity with a 15+ min song of loops and textures. The name is a play on their track, switching goodbye to hello and then name dropping the town where Pachyderm studios is located. The core of this idea was again written solo. I programmed two drum parts and a simple looped bassline, and then I layered ten guitar parts that flow in and out. Some of them reference other songs on the album, and some are unique to this song.
For the other members, I suggested we basically do this as an improv in the studio. Erik played one of the two drum parts I programmed, with some additions of his own, and we kept the second programmed kit on there. J and Brandon totally improvised their parts. J also added a second bassline, which is this meandering bass swell part throughout.
For Katya, we wanted to pull lines from each of the other songs, so they chose ahead of time what lines they wanted to use. But much of the melody was improvised at the studio. Once they recorded all their vocal lines, we chopped them up and layered them.
9. Well I Wonder
This is perhaps the most upbeat song in our catalog. I often say that I can only write sad or angry songs, so this is a definite departure.
The title is a Smiths reference, which is a bit of an inside joke for the band. When it came to writing an accompaniment part, I knew I wanted to find a way to incorporate a flute because we have a close friend who is a flutist. Erik objected, saying I was turning us into a renaissance minstrel band. I then leaned into that by also adding a mandolin. Huge love and thanks to Amy for the flute playing!
We decided to add the cello to give a bit of tension against the more upbeat flute part. Props to Logan! J programmed a really cool mellotron part as well. Lyrically and thematically, a lot of the second half of the album is sort of a push-pull with narrators who are torn between loneliness and wanting human connection to feeling stuck in the connections they have or being skeptical and distrustful of the nature of those relationships.
10. Post-tense
This is an obvious callback to Loneliness, but it’s intentionally played a bit stiffer and more stunted. It’s also only half of the piece, which is intended to have a sense of lacking and unresolve. This is heightened by it simply stopping with no resolve.
Again, this reuses some of the textures from Pretense to tie things together. Because it’s so quiet, you can actually hear when Katya presses and releases the sustain pedal.
11. A Goodbye
This is one of Erik’s favorite drum parts on the album, and he wanted to get it just right. It’s subtle but powerful in a relatively quiet song. I used a banjitar (a banjo that has six strings and is tuned like a guitar) to double my guitar part.
Throughout much of the track, I run a reverse track of the guitar. This was not only for the soundscape, but it has a metaphorical tie to the theme. Lyrically, it’s somewhat straightforward. The narrator is lonely but not yet alone. It’s clear the end of something is near, but they’re waiting. There are two references to the song Loneliness.
First, the obvious tie of “I’m Waiting” to the name. Second the line “There’s only your self. This is a play on yourself as one word versus your self. It’s a reference to the Krishnamurti quote. The fade at the end is to give the effect of the waiting going on with no definite conclusion. On the fading drums, Erik did a tom overdub.
This was an homage to a La Dispute song called Nine, which they once recorded live at All Saints Church in the UK. At the end the guitarist joins the drummer by adding a similar tom/rimshot part.
12. Sundered
First and foremost, shoutout to Logan for the cello part and Rin for the violin. Their performance slays on this song. We feel so privileged to have such phenomenal players join us. This makes the song. When I wrote it, I knew this would be the album closer.
We always try and end our albums with a more “epic” song. The guitar riff is intentionally reminiscent of the Loneliness/Post Tense piano part. J also wrote a really cool Rhodes part, which beautifully fills in some quieter space.
This is my favorite harmony part on the album, and it also echoes what Katya and I do on some of our other heavier material. The lyrics are really the end of a relationship. The final plea and discussion that results in the relationship being… Sundered.