once upon a time, in a land called ann arbor michigan, there was a band called frisby. in october 1994, frisby opened for boyracer and the ropers in kathleen's basement. a few months later, there were some line-up changes and kathleen, jj, and tim joined the band and the name was changed to madison electric (a name that tim had previously used to record some solo 4-track tunes for a split 7"). after practicing for two weeks and hastily writing some new songs, madison electric played their first show on 3 february 1995 in kathleen's basement (the basement on church street was *the* place to be seen after all!) the show was a success and more offers of shows poured in. unfortunately, when a band has seven members with very different schedules and ideas of how a band should be run, things can be a bit tricky- not to mention that ethan was leaving to go study in england for a year. madison electric was in existence from january thru may of 1995 (though their last show was actually in june), played a grand total of five shows, and wrote a whopping six songs. they did however record before their demise and the outcome can be heard on a couple of 7"s that were released on quiddity and drive-in records.

tim and jj later joined up with their friends mac and john to form a new band, macpherson. they played a couple shows with the likes of henry's dress, rocketship, the push kings, and lois but never managed to record anything.