By Tom Lanham
F
or protean punk – and part-time thespian – Joel Madden, of Good
Charlotte renown, there’s only one
thing better than his cameo appearance
last year on Lee Daniels’ hit TV series
“Empire,” alongside his wife of six years,
designer Nicole Richie. And that’s building
an actual empire of his own, which he’s
quietly been doing over the last few years
with his bandmate brother Benji. And now
said company – a label/management/production firm dubbed MDDN – is ready to
be fully unveiled, via not only Good
Charlotte’s rollicking new Youth Authority
slugfest, but a bevy of upcoming 2017
releases from performers that the siblings
have been developing in relative stealth
mode.
Make no mistake. The outfit’s latest
effort, its sixth in an on-again, off again 21year history, is a solid meat-and-potatoes
catalog entry, bristling with addictive fistpumping anthems (often dusted with a
touch of looped hip-hop technology) like
“The Outfield,” “Moving On,” “Makeshift
Love,” and “Life Can’t Get Much Better,”
all of which seem to celebrate faith, fidelity, and family and, in general, to give humble thanks just for being alive. Guest vocalists add spice to the thunderous mixes, like
Biffy Clyro’s raspy Simon Neil on “Reason
to Stay” and Sleeping With Sirens’
munchkin-throated Kellin Quinn on the
rapid-fire “Keep Swingin’.” And the brothers haven’t lost their sense of humor – the
handclap-punctuated nursery-rhyme stroll
“40 Oz. Dream” describes Good
Charlotte’s past and present in hilarious
detail: “Turned on the radio it’s so confusing/ Rappers were singing and rockers
DJing/ There’s no guitars on the songs that
they’re playing…Now all the punk rockers
are over 40/ They’re coaching little league
and reading stories.” The sing-song chorus
Joel snarls hammers the message home:
“Grew up on MTV/ When they had EazyE/ In California yeah they still knew how
to throw a party.” But Madden is more
interested in discussing the delivery system rather than the message itself. In fact,
he shoos his own publicist away when
interview time runs out to keep elaborating on how the old-school-minded MDDN
actually functions. And it’s a remarkably
fascinating yarn.
It might be hard to believe, but it’s true
– the perpetually porkpie-hatted, sleevetatted rocker is a record company executive now, with his own office in MDDN’s
Los Angeles headquarters, where he and
his guitarist sibling (along with their older
brother Josh, whose specialty is that longforgotten art of A&R) have been nurturing
the careers of a variety of young artists.
And he can barely contain his enthusiasm
as he runs down the talent roster. “We’re
excited about Sleeping With Sirens, and
also Jessie J, who is on the verge of doing
her greatest work,” marvels Madden, 37.
“And Waterparks is another band of
incredible young guys who just write really good songs, from the same genre as
Good Charlotte, which I love.”
But wait! There’s more! “There’s a band
called Big Jesus who, to me, are the best
live band I’ve ever seen,” the honcho continues. “And then there’s a group from
Australia called Chase Atlantic, who
sound like INXS meets The Weeknd – three
kids who play, write, and produce everything, and they’re incredibly talented. And
then there’s a group from Massachusetts
called Potty Mouth, three girls who make
great music. They just wrapped up a tour
22 illinoisentertainer.com november 2016
with Against Me!, and they’re going out
with Chvrches this month, and then they
start their next record in November,
December. So I’m excited – there’s tons of
new music coming next year from all these
artists that we’ve been working with over
the last few years. So it’s all starting to
come to fruition.”
The Madden Brothers – who also
tracked a 2014 record under that moniker,
Greetings From California, after good
Charlotte went on hiatus in 2011 -- as modern music’s sagelike elder statesman? It’s
not that hard to fathom, if you pay close
attention to the details of their serpentine
career. A couple of years ago, quotes started surfacing from Australian teen-pop
phenoms 5 Seconds of Summer about how
delighted they were to have worked with