Okay so in this space I’ll be attempting to review all the CDs I have by Columbus artists. At this point, having a standalone page for such seems to make the most sense. The only exceptions are if I’ve already written a piece about this disc, in which case I will just steer you there instead. Either way, if you click on the corresponding album in the stack below, it will take you to the release in question. Or you can just keep reading to grab my impressions on most of these, including some that didn’t really show up in this picture.
I also must admit it feels much harder now than it used to, to say anything negative about someone else’s creative efforts. I think over time you realize how difficult it is to accomplish anything whatsoever. Also, this is just one man’s opinion, and even if I’m ripping on something, guaranteed there is an audience out there somewhere for every bit of it. The best 0.001% that ever existed were probably always going to make it, and the worst 0.001% were not…but for the remainder, you’re at the mercy of the randomness gods. So hats off to anyone who ever even bothered recording a single note, the same basic thing I would say to a writer or a painter or whatever. But…it’s like I have to force myself to soldier on with even the occasionally harsh reviews, because I wouldn’t be a real writer myself if I didn’t, if I took the gloves off and raved about everything, or just skipped the ones I didn’t like. Either way, if contributing any of this music, just remember you are a part of this fine city’s extensive, rich, and I would say under-documented history, and that’s always something you should be proud of.
Alive! Swinging Sounds Of Columbus 2007
This was another giveaway, scored at Comfest that year. Anyone who landed a slot on here presumably knows what he/she is doing, but still, here are my takeaways.
#1 – Cabdrivers, Dirty Blankets: I like the warm piano sound, and it is a somewhat catchy track. Not really crazy about the Joe Walsh-esque vocals or those background noises, plus (a recurring theme) the song does seem to end too soon, without really going anywhere.
#2 – Modena Vox, Strange Nights: Now this is more like it. Man what a killer song. The guitars sound great, the drummer’s hauling ass, vocals are belted yet slick, the whole thing rocks and you’re humming it afterwards…yes sir, this is pretty much the total package.
#3 – The Lab Rats, Devil’s Train: I remember loving this back when acquiring the disc, and it’s aged extremely well. This rapper, whoever he is, has obviously listened to his Eminem, but so what. That matters none if you can actually pull it off – and in fact, you could make a reasonable case he has a more palatable voice than Mr. Mathers. There’s a little bit of everything going on with this song, and it’s all brilliant. Musically speaking it somehow manages to sound modern but also as though it could have been composed in the early 1900s. There are some vocal parts where the train whistle is meant to be singing, and this also works. Satan even makes a guest appearance in especially stylish fashion. Bonus points for mentioning Donnie Darko.
#4 – Sarah Asher, Love Letters: Speaking of something with a touch of an older sound, this also fits that bill. Her vocals have a distant radio quality to them, which serve the track well, a relatively simple recording where you can almost hear dust gathering atop it. Just a mandolin (I’m guessing) and her voice, double tracked to great effect like a chorus a little later on. I’m always a sucker for a sweet female voice, a category for which this certainly qualifies.
#5 – Y Lo Pan, The Ringing: Mmm, that’s some mighty chunky riffage, to get this party started. And things only pick up from there! No idea what this guy is singing about, but does it really matter? Nope. Great production, and I dig those little “oooh oooh” bits as well. Also a couple compelling tempo shifts, and some sweet shredding on the guitar later on.
#6 – The Black Canary, Mansions: Some interesting ideas, though I don’t feel it really gels overall. Or is it that there’s not enough going on with this track? I can’t decide, but lean toward it being a little on the busy side – the orchestral sounding keyboard part gets a trifle too cloying before long, and at least on my headphones, the ride cymbal is louder than the vocals. That’s like an Oasis-level mistake, whom, true, they might be attempting to channel here.
#7 – The Spikedrivers, Please Don’t Come Back: It’s fine for what it is, and maybe I shouldn’t be reviewing this type of music, but I wouldn’t exactly be listening to this every day of my life. The violin/fiddle solo is probably the highlight – and right there you probably have some indication what to expect: proper old fashioned country hoedown music, straight from the nearest square dance. This particular female’s vocals don’t really do it for me, though adequate enough, but the guitar player does get in a few mildly entertaining licks.
#8 – Mors Ontologica, Lapse/Relapse: A strong start, but another mismatch when taken as a whole. I would keep the instrumental passages, throw back everything else. The guitars trade off in memorable fashion, it sounds like the drummer knows what he’s doing…yet this vocalist might be attempting to gargle mouthwash while singing, and I’m not a fan of these jokey call-and-response breakdown segments. Also, again, it’s way too short. Or at least I’d be saying that if I wasn’t happy it ended.
#9 – Melty Melty, Same Situation: After a few consecutive duds, we’re righting the ship again with this one. It has a touch of the Weezer-ish essence – from back when those guys were consistently good, anyway – and I’m surprised to see that they, like many others on this comp, essentially faded away immediately afterwards. The drums sound as though you’re in the same room with them. Otherwise, the vocals and guitar match one another in shimmery, lockstep perfection, the melodies instantly affix to your brain.
#10 – Paper Airplane, First Time I Thought About It: A pleasantly jaunty number. It starts out with some sweet acoustic strumming, soon joined by equally soothing vocals and little piano flourishes. I even like those mostly instrumental moments between the verse and chorus, with pounding drums and more tinkling keys, as the singer just holds a long ooohhhhhh, followed by a doo-doo-doot-doo, twice. The chorus itself fits just fine, but is honestly probably less memorable than the rest, somehow.
#11 – Hugs And Kisses, Too Much: Hoo boy. This has always been by far my least favorite cut on here, and time has not changed its clunker status any. It seriously sounds like an early Motley Crue demo that they never worked on again, except only if Vince Neil recorded this in his apartment, with just a drum machine and some random guitarist from down the hall. Maybe with the tape sped up slightly to imply he was hitting the high notes. I think they must have been good friends with whoever was putting this disc together.
#12 – Walter Rocktight (featuring Bru Lei), Kill Da Noize: A killer, highly professional production. Everything is top notch here and you wouldn’t know this wasn’t a chart topping hip-hop smash unless someone told you otherwise. Major kudus for namechecking “Columbus Ohio” and “O State campus.” Still, my fave couplet is probably smoking like an alcoholic/drinking like a smoker. The normal orchestral sounding keyboards and piano loop are cool enough on their own, that ancient sounding roller rink organ exponentially so.
#13 – Jason Quicksall, Better Habits: Mighty fine picking and buttery cool crooning help sell this jazzy little selection. The upright bass and drum brushes further contribute to this sunny vibe. Off the top of my head, this is the only act on this compilation I know for a fact I’ve seen perform live, and I enjoyed that gig, too. The other guys I was with were ripping on him, though, which I really didn’t get even then, and was one incident that helped formulate this insight I eventually arrived at: you shouldn’t trust the opinions of musicians, watching other musicians. Particularly when they’re all from the same town. Maybe that applies to anybody’s opinion (disclaimer: it’s true that I have dabbled with cranking out some oddball lo-fi tunes myself, but have never considered myself a musician; that has always been a hobby and I’ve never made any effort at playing out live, ever, which I believe are some important distinctions). But when you’re asking musicians about their opinions of other musicians, there’s too much politics, and pettiness, and other random bullshit in play. It becomes more about who knows who and whether so and so has “paid their dues” “coming up through the scene” and so on. This is how you end up with one glaringly weak cut on a CD with just 15 tracks, covering a huge city like Columbus (see a few entries above), but then, on the flipside, will have people attacking a skillful performance such as this Quicksall offering. Keep doing what you’re doing, though, man. It sounds great. And it would seem you must have had supporters at Alive! who agreed.
#14 – The Lindsays, Iranian Eyes: Just a solid, straightforward indie rock slice. Along with maybe the Modena Vox selection, I would say this most sounds like a representative C-bus exhibit, as far as the type of music you would often see being played around town during this era. In fact I believe this is its most significant quality, that this comes across as an especially frenetic live performance, as though taken from a local stage. But not the least bit muddy, and with the crowd noise taken out. If I would learn someday that this was in fact recorded live, I would be even more impressed – but either way, this too is fantastic, and will really get your blood pumping.
#15 – Blake Miller, Tomorrow Sorrow: This makes for a perfect sendoff, just a mellow, breezy, meditative tune replete with vaguely tropical guitar strumming, percussion to match, along with either bells or xylophone tinkles, ghostly background vocals by what sounds to be Blake himself, and sweeter ones from some girl. Then again I dig the vaguely raspy, midrange-y voice as well, and could basically listen to stuff like this all day. It makes for perfect background music while working or driving, though at the same time wouldn’t feel out of place on a movie soundtrack.
Double Dose: Live From Studio A Volume 9
This is a wildly eclectic selection of live cuts, recorded here in town at WCBE 90.5 FM, for their radio broadcasts. All were captured between 2001 and 2002. It’s a really fun mix and the acoustics sound uniformly awesome, which makes me want to check out the other discs in the series. I probably don’t need to go into great detail rating all of these national acts passing through, even if this is a local document, but Columbus bands Moviola and One Riot One Ranger are featured on here – as far as I can tell, those are the only two – so it’s only right to devote a little virtual ink to these fellows. One Riot I’ve been a fan of for awhile, thanks to the Walker, Texas Ranger reference of their name, and most of all their song Alison Town which reminds me of this one chick from that era. I know less about Moviola but have at least listened to them a little bit.
Moving on to these performances captured here, The South Bound Train is a rollicking romp, a tasty slice of modern bluegrass or Appalachian music or whatever you’d call it with lightning quick picking, sweet harmonies, and even this nifty little fiddle solo. Oregonia, meanwhile, is more of an understated indie rock number, centered around this piano figure that’s somehow both jaunty and reminiscent of a light rain at once. Though no less catchy as a result. In either case, like most of what’s collected on these CDs, the performances are captured with genuine warmth, in particular the vocals and the drums, as though you were in the room watching these guys. But don’t take my word for it, you can give them a listen here:
Early Empire, Resolutions and a Gun
In the name of full disclosure, I know these guys, and saw them play approximately 1.6 billion times back in the day. But as I’m always fond of saying, my friends have sure made it easier, whoever they are, by pretty much unfailingly delivering great music, every time out. Therefore I haven’t had to strain for compliments, because they are awesome. And Early Empire surely embody that as well as anyone.
My only complaint is that these guys didn’t do more. As is sadly often the case from bands of that era (anything before 2008-ish, really), their music is currently unavailable on the streaming services, the only CDs limited to what was pressed at the time. They released this five (actually six) track EP in 2005, and that was that, although they had many more songs than this in their live set, and I know recorded some others, at some point along the line. My favorite is probably Simpleton, which gets off to this amazingly frenetic start and never really lets off the gas from there, even when slowing things down a smidgen in the middle.
Whatever the particulars, this is some relentlessly compelling modern rock, and I was able to find one official video, for Television Eyes, on YouTube. It’s fun trying to play spot-the-venue on there, although the cuts are so fast I wasn’t having much luck. Maybe you will fare a little better:
Emo, OH (compilation)
As the charming packaging implies, I did indeed scoop this up for free. It was calling my name, near the door, as I left Used Kids one day in that distant autumn of 2016. And I’m mighty glad that it did so. The first two tracks on here are by Flashback Humor. Both are awesome, with riffs that leap from the speakers, smooth vocals, and some nice dynamic separation on all the instruments. My only complaint about song #1, Mental Adrenaline, is that it feels a smidgen short – I was just starting to get into the thing, and then it abruptly ended. Suspend Your Disbelief is able to stretch out a little more, and also features dreamy keyboards alongside energetic bashing from the drummer.
Unfortunately, not much else on this CD is from Columbus. Though much of it is good, this is beyond the scope of my little blog here. Or at least, half the time it’s impossible to determine where these bands are actually from. One exception is track #10, from an artist named Joey Selvaggio. It at least appears as though he hails from the capital city, or did, anyway. His Am I Dreaming? is a pleasant little acoustic based ditty that reminds me of something from a ’90s movie soundtrack. Although it too comes across as a bit on the slight side, clocking in at only 1:14.
House Of Cards
To be honest, I do not recall how and where I obtained this CD. For years I’d been thinking one of my brother’s friends gave it to me, but it turns out that this couldn’t be the case. Awhile back I was curious enough to throw this thing on, and then research a little bit more about the band, at which point I discovered they were from Columbus. So this could be some zany coincidence, and it’s remotely possible I picked this up elsewhere, but I’m guessing it was a freebie at a club or record store and then it somehow slipped my mind.
There’s not a ton of detail about them in the packaging, and none whatsoever on the Spotify profile. However I was able to find this bio info from their YouTube channel:
House of Cards was forged in the fiery wasteland of Columbus, Ohio. Featuring a huge mess of influences, realized as a sound combining the best aspects of electronica, post-rock, and pop, House of Cards maintained a pop sheen with huge choruses and hooks. House Of Cards is: Justin Neme (guitar, programming, girly-singing) – A penchant for arrogance, pomp, delay, tube screamers and p-90 pickups. John Price (vocals, megaphone) – He’s probably prettier than you, and more diabetic. Steve Neme (guitar, pedalboard of doom) – Worm bites fish. Dan Parker (drums) – 2 oz. Pantera 1 oz. Dave Matthews Band Dash Neil Diamond or Alice in Chains Mix gingerly, garnish with Mogwai or Hum. Served in a snifter. Bob Ward (bass) – Has no idea how to crowdsurf.
So it seems like these guys at least have a decent sense of humor. Regarding the music, this puts me into a muddy tug-of-war pit where I would consider it better than expected, as far as when I first hit the PLAY button on this CD, unsure what potential horrors might await. But on the flipside…while it’s professional sounding rock music, and these guys are certainly competent on their chosen instruments, some of these songs even have memorable hooks, all positives, it’s also somewhat middle of the road and not especially memorable.
Actually I think the real issue might be the vocals – competent and carrying a tune and so forth, yet kind of boring after awhile. Otherwise, the band does have some interesting ideas here and there, like some of the guitar riffage that erupts mid-verse, or synth flourishes and other unexpected breakdowns. My favorite tracks on here are back-to-back, Type 1 and Halfway There. If you like either one of these, then you might wish to investigate further. I do applaud them for keeping the flame alive, though, by uploading this stuff to the internet.
Patomik
I worked at the same grocery store as one of the guys involved with this project, briefly (he called himself Mikal Peace – comical because his fellow hostages in the deli said he was kind of a dick, would constantly fly off the handle at a moment’s notice). But, eh, I barely remember the guy, and don’t really care about any of that, at least not in the context of this page.
Regarding this disc, it’s half originals, half covers, and I must admit is marginally surprising from a competence standpoint. Having said that, I’m not exactly going to be listening to this puppy every day. If nothing else, however, the lyrics are sometimes a hoot – you are going to come away from this feeling that you have worked with this guy, too, or else someone extremely similar. This Peace character is what we might call the familiar old Righteously Indignant Disilluisioned Hippie. A sample:
John gave me the hope we could give peace a chance / And some psychotic reminded me just how screwed up we all are
Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, perhaps, but you have to admit it’s unforgettable. Or how about:
Life has became a great big reality show / Deal Or No Deal, can you survive on the music show? / Whatever happened to Taxi and Mary Tyler Moore?
Well, he can’t be the first to ponder these eternal questions, though it’s doubtful anyone ever framed them so poetically. Those selections are both parsed, in case you’re wondering, from track #2, otherwise known as Mother Mary Gave Birth to a Famous Son. Anyway, with lines like those, the covers as you might suspect are not nearly as entertaining. Mikal does put some impressive gusto into singing Folsom Prison Blues, but the slowed down pace doesn’t really cut it for me.
From a musical standpoint, though, you could pick pretty much any track at random, and it would give you an idea of what the disc as a whole sounds like, and some of the problems that are plaguing it. As you can tell from the liner notes, though three guitarists are present on every song, none of them are of the bass variety. Or if so, this is the least bassy sounding bass ever, as I listen to this on my wraparound, ear covering headphones. The drummer is listed as “Jed Zoomer,” but I’m actually wondering if it’s a machine – the beats are very robotic, and at most, if this is a human, he must be playing on electronic pads or something. What this reminds me of, in fact, is when two guys show up with acoustics and a programmed beat at open stage jam night, or maybe even playing over top of a karaoke track. You would consider them tolerable enough, not exactly making fools of themselves up there or anything, though you are quite thankful their set was limited to three short cuts. And definitely nobody you’d want to get trapped into a conversation with at the bar if going up for another beer.
Also, though I might be the last person who should get onto some soapbox preaching about quality, it’s true that these recording volumes went into the red pretty much without pause. Therefore the tracks have a crackly sound to them throughout. But who knows, maybe they considered this just a demo to showcase their talents and weren’t really concerned about particulars. And if the ultimate purpose of music is to entertain, then these cats have certainly succeeded, as you are not likely to be bored at any point during this odyssey. This is the most important consideration, isn’t it, compared against something like that House Of Cards album above: would you prefer something competent yet blah, versus uneven yet memorable? We would all hope for the best of both worlds, clearly, but if you can’t have that, then I know where I would place my money, and which disc I would be more likely to reach for again.
With that in mind, I would like to leave you with some final words of wisdom from Mikal Peace. Taken from Karma Everywhere, they are possibly the most profound meditations to be gleaned from this album:
Yeah I remember wakin’ up surrounded by potatoes / in the back of a refrigerated truck / yeah we had our sleeping cots and our coffee / but man we had obviously ran out of luck
And a little girl on a trike/ came riding down an empty fairway / it was 5:30 in Ionia Michigan/ it was a sunny, cool, breezy day
I took a mattress off and put it on the floor/ it felt a lot more comfortable that way / she was a waitress in a shithole restaurant / in a town where I grew up and tried to run away
you know you gotta keep puttin’ your boots on / and walkin’ through the mud to pick up the oranges / these goddamn floods are never gonna end! / and you better start lookin’ for a big boat…a big boat, my friend
The liner notes are slightly off, as the Johnny Cash track is actually #4 on the disc itself, I Walk in the Rain #5, the Eurythmics #6, Karma Everywhere #7. Origins of the coffee stains unknown, though I am perfectly fine with taking the blame for these.
Pretty Mighty Mighty, Normal
This one reminds me of the ’90s – in every good sense of that phrase. I guess that makes sense, considering it looks as though this is their only release that wasn’t released during that decade. They issued a couple albums then, came back ten years later (2009) with this one, and then evidently faded away one more. ‘Tis a shame, because this seven song effort is a blast of fresh, cool air.
These guys were highly regarded at the time, but that’s often a mixed bag. Sometimes the jaded music fan within you, knowing how many other hyped up bands around town ended up kind of sucking when you got around to them, grabs a disc like this, half expecting to play “contrarian” again when spinning it. But no, Normal is awesome, every song on here is great. Waves for example, once it kicks in, is tremendously catchy, like some forgotten jangle rock classic, and features a couple of violin parts that almost come across as electric guitar solos. Or at least I think that’s what happening there. That’s a nice representative track, overall, but also emblematic of the general sound, and the clever touches found throughout. For example the near opposite, some squealing guitars in Beacons and Markers that would pass as keyboards.
Blackjack Mastered might be my favorite, where the guitar riffage is so captivating it makes for the primary hook. Jon Chinn’s sweet vocals play off perfectly against this, here and pretty much everywhere. And meanwhile Neal Schmitt is not just the drummer, he also mastered the thing. This helps explain why the drums sound especially crisp, although the audio is uniformly great, everything is separated well.
Heaven Hates Me even winds things down like a proper meditative slow song from years gone by. I would say definitely give these fellows a spin if you’re even remotely curious about the best local rock from the late 2000s…or the 1990s, as you then absorb their earlier work. For now, here are a couple of the highlights from this one:
Salt Horse, The Best Of Times?
Having not listened to this in quite awhile, I couldn’t remember much about this album. But assumed it must be at least halfway decent, considering I borrowed it from the Grandview library at one point, then burned a copy. And this vague unease was further compounded in that I do recall watching them play in their early days and had mixed feelings about the group (in fact I wrote about such in Riots Of Passage, which was a less than glowing review, and now has me worried I might have mixed up a couple of their names as well).
But I’m happy to report that this is an extremely strong effort! Granted, my primary beef with them back then had been that their singer was making these weird faces in between his lines, like trying to be funny, which totally undermined the intensity of their music. And then was also stomping around on the stage in comedian mode, a variation of this theme. Yet those were probably just growing pains – my impression at the time was that he couldn’t bear to just stand there, was cracking under the pressure of attempting to play it straight – and anyway this has nothing to do with cranking a disc in the comfort of your home. By now (2001), though, they’ve had a few more years to refine their approach, improve their chops, and also presumably add some fresh tunes to the arsenal.
They plow through nearly every track at something approaching warp speed, although this is not metal. This is just some straightforward, bruising rock music, and the lead singer, whoever he is (I’m a little confused on this point, as every band member is listed on “vocals” as well as playing an instrument), has legitimately strong pipes. Messing With Me does bring things down a notch, with this nifty guitar part on the verses that sounds almost like someone plucking a centuries old harp. Lyrically, although Campus Riot Fight Song might sound like a party anthem, they’re actually railing against the prevalent “keggers and date rape” culture of this college scene – not just limited to OSU, of course, though one assumes this figures highly in the narrative, i.e. the mentality that has dudes setting couches on fire after the Buckeyes win their first game of the season 72-3 against Montana Tumbleweed State or whatever. A track like 351 meanwhile, finally does bring things down a notch, then near the end gives you a good idea about the shredding abilities possessed by one or more of these guitarists.
In summary, this is yet again an album that has fallen through the cracks in these modern times. It’s not available for streaming, and what’s worse, there’s some completely different band named Salt Horse on Spotify now. But I was able to find and download one dinky image of the cool, retro album cover (trust me, it’s better than viewing my chickenscratch on the burned disc, which was the backup plan) and have pasted a couple of highlights from YouTube. You can also of course find a used CD reasonably on Amazon and elsewhere.
The Kyle Sowashes, Yeah Buddy!
Now this is something else that has also aged better than expected. I bought this CD at one of his shows back in ’08 and played it in my car the next day or so. And remember thinking at the time, “eh, that was alright…” To the extent I’ve even been somewhat dreading revieiwing this, because Kyle’s a nice guy, which left me wondering how I could dance around and parcel out some compliments. As it turns out, this isn’t necessary. Listening to it again today – which may be the first time I’ve done so, all the way through, since that first occasion – I find myself again wonderfully surprised. Would go as far as to say that this is a terrific album, one of the best on here.
Of course, sometimes these matters come down to where your head is at in the moment you hear something, while at others you have to give these albums a chance to grow on you. I think my impressions back then were inordinately colored by the opening line about Andre The Giant pointing his finger. That, alongside some plinky opening strains, had me already viewing this as some comedic rock effort. Also, if I recall correctly, a friend was riding around with me while listening to some of these tracks, and I’ve noticed that this tends to increase the snark factor, as you’re more likely to entertain yourselves smugly picking something apart. And make no mistake about it, the lyrics are often comical. Still, this is a far cry from some joke-y CD.
Sowash’s vocal approach mostly reminds me of Elvis Costello, which I’m sure he’s heard before, or for a more modern reference, there are certain elements here which make you think of AJR. More of a good, sloppy, indie rock style, though, albeit with these factors added into the mix. Yet the handclaps on Korea lead into a fairly scorching guitar solo, one of a few such turns on this album. My old pal Dan Bandman is cooking on the drum kit basically from start to finish, and on a track like My Resume, which might be Kyle’s best vocal performance, Sowash demonstrates an ability to really belt it out when he wants to.
This release only gets more varied and interesting from here, too. There are two versions of Yr Band Flaked Out On Me, and while the second one is a window rattling rocker, featuring Dan’s finest skin bashing on the album, I think I might like the first better, a subdued take with piano and bells. Free Ride – Reprise is a violin laden instrumental, right on the heels of its riotous forebear. Not one but two tracks reference Fleetwood Mac (Rumours and Tusk, naturally), as Sowash seems to save his more serious side for later in the disc, after you’ve gotten to know him a bit. In that spirit, closer Cutout Bin is my pick for the album’s high water mark, a touching midtempo tribute to this drunken college town, where he wonders about his destiny, and if he’s fated to be forgotten. Well, in that regard, I think we’re all in the same boat, buddy, so I wouldn’t sweat it.
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, No Old Guy Lo-Fi Cry
I don’t know. These dudes are well regarded around town, and they certainly had their moments, but this one isn’t really doing it for me. Don’t Bathe is a little more muscular and memorable than the two tracks preceding it, with some interesting guitar work, though I’m not really digging the simplistic lyrics nor the caterwauling vocals any more here than elsewhere. This is a rock album, yep, it sure is, and therefore you’re going to have x number of people defending it, but I feel as though you could have picked up basically a carbon copy of this record twenty years earlier from countless other acts.
In a way, though, it’s somewhat of a relief to find something I’m not totally enamored with from this stack. From one of the “legends” of the scene, no less. One problem with reviewing a bunch of albums you personally purchased is that it leads to what we might call Accumulation Bias: of course you like it. That’s why you bought it. Or if buying it sight unseen (sound unheard?) then of course you are defending it, because you blew your hard earned money on it. This particular purchase, at Used Kids if I remember correctly, was the product of another similar phase to this one, where I was making an effort to check out bands I’d heard about, yet never listened to. I don’t recall liking it upon first blush any more than I am now, however. Also, lest you think I’m taking it easy on my good friends, though admittedly squirm inducing at times to rate their works, I had in fact for example completely forgotten Bandman was the drummer on that Sowash album above until after I’d just listened to it again and written about half the piece. No, I just don’t think this TJSA effort is a very original or remarkable one, and it’s not surprising to learn they broke up basically right after releasing it.
Flip A Switch does at least get off to an interesting beginning that you might even be generous and say anticipates Interpol or something, and rhymes the title with “son of a bitch” to semi-compelling effect. But then once again, House’s vocals, I’m sorry, just totally kill this thing. Treeline does at least veer away from first wave punk by instead imitating that whole second wave of rockabilly-punk type stuff. Internet Is Just Bad Pot is not just a great song name, though (even if never really elaborating upon this concept), it also rocks more than anything else on here. If forced to choose a high point, I’m going with that.
Times New Viking, Rip It Off
Speaking of context, I was not exactly blown away by this CD when I got it, either. But it’s assuming new luster in the wake of listening to that album above. Still, I have been vaguely planning a standalone article for years about Rip It Off, which was to be titled “Times New Viking: What Happened?” And let’s just say that headline might still be in play. This was kind of an inverse scenario to TJSA, where I caught Times New Viking one year at Comfest and was blown away by their set. Then went out and bought this disc at a later date, was disappointed to discover it contained almost none of that magic.
On one hand, I’m digging how staticky these tracks are, because it makes me feel a little less bad about my own crappy basement recordings. And this was even released by freaking Matador, to boot! It’s also like a fresh breeze off the shores of the Olentangy, on a warm spring day, how short these songs are. And the vocals are without question much more tolerable, hands down winners above, the shrillness of that No Old Guy monstrosity. In certain spots, melodies shine through the murk, despite their best efforts, like on The Wait – though it too feels shorter than even your standard Guided By Voices composition, its ending seemingly chopped off with a pair of scissors.
All I can figure is that they were going for some intentionally harsh and primitive sound on Rip It Off, because they were certainly a much better band than this. It had to have been some sort of calculated direction intentionally undertaken when recording these songs, although whether their idea or Matador’s or both is hard to say. I am wondering what kind of impact this album might have had on their once promising career, however, and if they’ve suffered any regrets as a result. They even managed to move to Merge after this one, somehow, for a final album, though seemingly giving up the ghost after that.
On a high note, the packaging is kind of cool, I guess. The album does seem to get a little weirder and better as it progresses, like Another Day is not at all a bad cut, and vaguely reminiscent of an obscurity from the ’60s. Otherwise, even a known fan of bizarro music like me considers half these cuts borderline unlistenable. Faces On Fire is probably the standout, and if you don’t like this, then it’s safe to say you can skip the entire album:
