I Remember Dayton (Punk and Indie Rock)

Happy Birthday, little Oakley... and some NEWS!

2011-06-17T20:45:00.006-04:00

First, today is little Oakley's birthday, so for purely self-indulgent reasons, I wanted to RE-post this bit from a VECTORS' show that took place at Gail's lovely Millennium House about three years ago. It's a song I wrote for Oakley's third birthday. And yeah... it's his tenth now and I have yet to record a decent version of it or even finish the lyrics. They keep changing as he grows older, but in every version, you can hear, "But there's a good life in the meantime. It's a good time to be three. Happy birthday, little Oakley!" One of these days, I'll finalize the thing, but for now, happy birthday, little Oakley, once again:

Now as for the news part: I just want to say that I've got lots of rips in the can right now. I've got the U.S. MODS 1987 album, In the Free World. I've got the double compilation LP, Breathe on the Living, featuring spoken word and music from both Dayton artists and others from parts far flung from 1989. I've got zine scans from Jen Angel's immortal Fucktooth and Greg Simmerlink's... uhm... LESS than mortal Mutant Renegade. I've got cassettes from BAD CRABS (Kent, OH), BLUE OTHELLO (Cincinnati), and COLONEL BLEEP (Dayton). I've got seven-inches from PRETTY MIGHTY MIGHTY and CANDYASS. And it's all coming your way. Check back next Friday.

take care

---Jones()

Off site: U.S. MODS, 4 videos on YouTube (1980)

2011-04-28T22:52:00.006-04:00

So here I am at the Front Street Warehouse (after a grueling LURCHBOX practice -- and just FYI: you can catch LURCHBOX at the Dayton Sideshow on Saturday, May 14 from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. OR at the Color of Energy Gallery in the Oregon District on Friday, May 20 with JASPER THE COLOSSAL and WE WERE ANIMALS; doors open at 8 p.m.), and I'm ripping the 1984 LP From the Free World (1987) by Dayton's own U.S. MODS. And I decide to do a little random net research on these blokes... since I know nothing about them except that they released this one LP.

I'm not expecting to find much. As I'll describe in the post in which I offer From the Free World for download, I know nothing about these guys -- except that they have the (dubious) distinction of being the first Dayton band from whom I ever bought any recorded material. But I never saw them live, and as far as I know, I never met any of them personally. I do remember being pleasantly surprised to find their LP in WWSU's music library when I started working there, and I remember that I (and a lot of other DJs at the station) played "Good Shoes" a lot (it's a catchy tune). But I can't think of anything else I know except that I vaguely remember they were still gigging around Dayton in 1987 (but not too long thereafter).

But now here at the Front Street Warehouse, 24 years later, I find four U.S. MODS videos on YouTube. Unfortunately, these are all undated, so I don't know when or how they were recorded, but it all has a fairly authentic 1980s feel. If you know more, please tell me.

Here on the blog, I'll post links to two of the videos I found. The first is for a neat, catchy little tune called "Station 7." Listen up and drink in the new wave goodness:

And here's a video for the MODS' song "Nikki's Changed." This one isn't a live video. It was produced by the same person who posted the other U.S. MODS videos (he/she goes by the name "MoistCracker" on YouTube):

You can find the other two videos (both live videos recorded at U.D.) on MoistCracker's YouTube page.

The YouTube postings also provide a band roster for the U.S. MODS at the time these videos were shot. Here it is: Tom Henninger, Dave Kraus, Bruce Warren and Mike Clements (no instruments mentioned). When I post the U.S. MODS LP (some time next week), I'll talk about how this lineup compares with the personnel mentioned in the liner notes for that album.

Finally, I also found a video for another band, also called U.S. MODS, from Texas. Here it is:

Unfortunately, I can't tell if this is the same U.S. MODS from Dayton or not. The sounds are similar, but not close enough to be definitive. But this video is dated 1980, so if they are the same band, then they should have a pretty healthy back catalog of records, tapes, and perhaps more video spanning at least seven years! If anybody out there can say one way or another on this, please speak up.

UPDATE: After checking out the MySpace page for the last U.S. MODS video offered here, I find that they are definitely NOT the Dayton U.S. MODS. Still, it's a good song by a good band, so I'll leave it.

take care

---Jones()

(mostly) Off Topic: THE PERFECT DISASTER, Up (12" vinyl, 1989)

2011-04-19T14:26:00.005-04:00

First and most importantly, if you want this one, get it now because if it expires from Rapidshare, I won't re-up the link. Why? Because although it's a great record, the Dayton connection here doesn't really exist on a thread thick enough to justify even putting it here at all.

That being said, here's the third album from England's THE PERFECT DISASTER. The wafer thin Dayton connection comes with the presence of Josephine Wiggs, who would go on to play bass in THE BREEDERS. On this album, she's credited with playing "bass, double bass, cello, backing vocal, piano, etc."

In addition to this record, Wiggs also played on the DISASTER's 1988 EP Asylum Road and their final album Heaven Scent (1990). The rest of her discography, both pre- and post-BREEDERS can be found in the Josephine Wiggs Wikipedia entry. You'll find more at her official web site.

THE PERFECT DISASTER seems to have been the brainchild of singer/guitar player Phil Parfitt, who formed the band as ORANGE DISASTER in 1980. Through the next ten years, Parfitt remained the only constant member. In addition to Wiggs, who joined in 1988, other members went on to play in such alternative rock staples as FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM and ULTRA VIVID SCENE. Through the 1980s, ORANGE DISASTER changed names twice (becoming ARCHITECTS OF DISASTER in 1982 and THE PERFECT DISASTER in 1987) and released 4 albums and 8 EPs before disbanding in 1990.

From what I've heard, Up is typical of THE PERFECT DISASTER's catalog: catchy pop hooks with quirky arrangements, garage-style guitars, obscure lyrics, and eclectic instrumentation (most of the last due to the presence of Ms. Wiggs here). It's not too far removed from the usual progressive aesthetic of most 1980s college rock, but it's better than average. Listen closely and you're sure to spot some echoes of THE BREEDERS' debut album (Pod, 1989) and some precursive elements to their '90s followups. In short, if you like THE BREEDERS, you'll probably like this too.

Because my scanner won't accommodate a document wider than 8.5", the download pack here does not include a scan of the cover (if you want to see it, images of the front cover are widely available on the internet). But I did scan and include the credits listing on the back cover.

I snagged my copy of this record when I was working at WWSU, Wright State's campus radio station. When this came out, I wasn't really working there anymore, but I was right down the hall (as associate editor of Nexus, Wright State's literary magazine). So I used to still DJ there informally, and that allowed me to grab records that I liked. This was one of them. Two years later, at the last BREEDERS show in Dayton before they left to tour with NIRVANA, I got Josephine Wiggs to sign this record for me. She was very gracious about it.

Download it! (62 MB)

take care

---Jones()

CAGE / TIGERLILIES split 7" (vinyl, 1994)

2011-04-15T14:10:00.003-04:00

Nick Kizirnis put CAGE together not too long after THE RAGING MANTRAS (a.k.a. THE KILLJOYS) broke up. Whether playing as KILLJOYS or MANTRAS, that band had been a Dayton staple for five or six years before drummer Jim MacPherson joined THE BREEDERS in 1992.

I want to pause here just a second and put in my own two-cents to the effect that Jim's leaving the MANTRAS for THE BREEDERS was the pivotal event in the old Dayton music timeline. That one thing, in my opinion, really shifted the landscape here. Before it happened, the general thinking around here seemed to be that if you were in Dayton and you wanted to be successful playing music, you had to move somewhere else. BIG BROWN HOUSE did it. AFGHAN WHIGS did it. GUIDED BY VOICES did it. It just seemed that nobody in the tri-state area started a band without also deciding where they were going to move to at some point.

That seemed to change a little when THE BREEDERS drafted Jim and then had a top ten hit with "Cannonball." Suddenly (and briefly), Dayton was the cool place to be.

I doubt Nick had any of that in mind when CAGE got together, but along with BRAINIAC, I think of CAGE as one of the first bands to sport that indie-rawk sound around these parts. You know what I mean: tuneful pop stylings with a healthy dose of feedback, noise, squelched vocals, and lyrics full of ironic self-deprecation and vague pop-culture references (lots of hyphens too -- let's not forget how much we indie rawkers love our hyphens). Others followed, of course -- OXYMORONATRON, CIGARHEAD, MY LATEX BRAIN. Some of them still exist today. But I think of CAGE and BRAINIAC as the first. And when I think of the time when CAGE got started, I also think of the time when most people stopped looking to move somewhere else in order to "make it." But I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. For whatever reason, I still think of Dayton as a place that people should strive to get away from -- or at least not a place where one should be comfortable.

In any case, we here present CAGE's split 7" with Cincinnati's THE TIGERLILIES. As you might notice, the CAGE lineup draws heavily from THE RAGING MANTRAS' (only Rob Schaefer and Jim are absent). The only different member is Matt Espy (on drums) who came to CAGE from WALLAROO SOUTH. Finally, although Nick Kizirnis would perform most of the vocal duties in this band, here Gregg Spence (also of THE UNDERDOGS) gives us the lead vocal.

Download it! (13 MB)

take care

---Jones()

UPDATE (4/18/2011): Andy Valeri tells me that Big Beef still has copies of this available for sale. Go to the Big Beef site to get one for your very own (lots of information about CAGE there too).

Off-site: COLAVISION at One-Sided War blog and OXYMORONS (et al.) at Sub-Mission Records

2011-04-13T22:51:00.004-04:00

Okay, the first link here is just me tootin' me own horn. It's a link to a nice review, cover scan, and download of COLAVISION's Joan of Arcwelding EP over at the One-Sided War blog. Check out the main blog itself: lots of great 1990s stuff there from Dayton and parts beyond.

Next link is to a download for THE OXYMORONS' appearance on the 1994 Piledriver compilation from... from... well... it was from Sub-Mission Records which was... uhm... somewhere in... Minnesota? Uh, yeah... Minnesota.

No, I REALLY AM sure it was Minnesota. How do you forget the "land o' Minnesota... here come dah Purple Yoda..." (no foolin': that's a line from Prince's latest album -- it's true -- look it up!).

Anyway, I was planning to (and am still planning to) post the Piledriver EP here on this blog at some point. And I'll still do my own rip and post accordingly, but if it's available somewhere else, I'm more than happy to point the reader toward it.

And you can find the address for the main Sub-Mission Records site right here.

That's it for now. But check back in a few days, when we'll be proudly posting the FIRST EVER release from Dayton's legendary CAGE!

take care

---Jones()

Off-site: 3RAIN1AC Live Archive

2011-04-10T13:17:00.005-04:00

An anonymous commenter on the recent post for the BRAINIAC/LAZY split-7 added a link to something called the "3RAIN1AC Live Archive." After checking it out, I thought it deserved a post of its own here.

BRAINIAC fans (or really anyone) will find a wealth of good stuff there. There's a pretty good timeline with dates running from Tim's appearance on THE WIZBANGS' demo recordings in 1991 up to some recent ENON activity in 2007. You'll also find a nice archive of live recordings from the band that can be downloaded (in MP3) directly from the site. The only hitch is that the video section doesn't seem to include any video that you can download or watch directly. But there is an e-mail link to get more information on how to obtain any of the six DVD compilations listed there.

take care

---Jones()

THE METHOD, royce gracie sessions (7", vinyl, 1994)

2011-04-09T21:59:00.004-04:00

Once again, the new Jones turntable (a SounDesign -- looks like early '80s -- but warm as toast -- you'll like it) delivers you the finest in forgotten Dayton indie rawk.

This week we deliver up the THE METHOD's seven-inch classic: royce gracie sessions, produced by Simple Solutions in 1994.

Truth be told, I know nothing at all about THE METHOD -- except that they formed some time around 1992 and played 'round Dayton and beyond until the late '90s. And, of course, they were enormously popular (still are today judging by the local enthusiasm surrounding an impending METHOD reunion show).

Unfortunately, the sleeve presents more questions than answers. There's no list of band members. There's a mailing address: 31 Victor Ave., Dayton, but I don't even know where that is. The recordings were made in April 1994 at "fjm studios, dayton." I don't remember anything at all about FJM Studios. A quick internet search reveals that the engineer there was someone named Joe Winner. Apparently, he engineered recordings by several bands from Dayton, Cincinnati, and beyond (as far away as Nashville, TN) through the late '90s. However, he seems to have passed away (and FJM Studios went with him) at some point over the last ten years.

I believe old Nate Farley was associated somehow with THE METHOD, but this is really out of my purview. As with most Simple Solutions releases from the mid-'90s, I don't know much about them because I was living in Columbus or Yellow Springs at the time (hey, ask me anything about FUCKTOOTH zine, Cartwheel Collective, or other Columbus stuff from those years and I'm a fount of knowledge -- ask me about Dayton, and I don't know shit). Yeah... trust me to know as little as possible about the only really relevant period of Dayton music history.

One last thing: I'm pretty sure one or more people from THE METHOD played in THE BREEDERS at one point or another. If you've got more information, I invite you to leave it in the comments. and I thank you in advance for doing so.

Download it! (17 MB)

take care

---Jones()

BRAINIAC and LAZY (split 7", vinyl, 1994)

2011-04-04T22:49:00.005-04:00

In honor of my finally having acquired a decent turntable, I present this vinyl rip of the 1994 split single from Dayton's own BRAINIAC and Cincinnati's LAZY (exactly a year and a day since the last post -- wow, by that rate we should have everything covered by the thirty-third century at least).

Unfortunately, there isn't much I can say about BRAINIAC except what I already said when I posted about the band's entry at the AllMusic guide and when I posted the article from the July 1992 issue of Imminent zine.

I can say even less about LAZY. All I really know is they were from Cincinnati and played 'round these parts in the early '90s.

As for Simple Solutions (the imprint on which this record was released), I know only that it was operating in Dayton from maybe 1993 to about 1996 or so. A lot of bands in Dayton (including REAL LULU and THE METHOD) did records on Simple Solutions, and the label had some kind of close affiliation with Trader Vic's (a record store on Brown Street, long since disappeared).

As luck has it, I played recently with REAL LULU at the "Dayton Does Dayton" show. While I was there, I happened to win three or four seven-inch records by answering a trivia question (I was able to name every drummer who had ever played with REAL LULU). They were all old Dayton rock records. Now that I've got a good turntable (another story), I'll be ripping and uploading all of them over the next couple weeks.

Download record and cover scans (17 MB).

take care

---Jones()

Off-site: THE OXYMORONS on Take No Prisoners TV (1994)

2010-04-03T11:21:00.005-04:00

A video of my old band playing a show in Flint, Michigan, where we used to play quite often with a Flint band called THE WILL (more on them in a future post when I upload their cassette). This show was recorded and later broadcast on Flint public access television. A couple of years ago, that show turned up on the internet.

Take No Prisoners TV actually did a number of shows featuring punk rock bands from the late '80s and early '90s from Michigan and parts beyond. You can find those shows and more (including performances by SCREECHING WEASEL, THE QUEERS, and RATS OF UNUSUAL SIZE) at the Flint Underground Music Archive.

Please pay no attention to what I'm wearing in this video: baseball cap and long sleeve turtleneck? Not sure what I was thinking. Flint, I guess, is just one of those places where you do things that are best ignored.

take care

---Jones()

UPDATE: as of 3-31-2011, this video seems to no longer be available, nor do any other videos previously offered under the "Take No Prisoners" TV masthead. Don't know what to tell you. Such is the transient nature of the web.

Reloaded...

2010-04-02T13:05:00.002-04:00

The cavalcade of re-ups continues:

More to come.

take care

---Jones()

Reloaded...

2010-03-30T16:31:00.002-04:00

Here's another updated list of all re-ups so far:

More to come.

take care

---Jones()

DR. CREEP benefit, July 18

2009-07-06T19:42:00.004-04:00

About this same time last summer, I happened upon some YouTube videos from the old SHOCK THEATRE program that prompted a sort of quasi-love-letter/memoir about Dr. Creep.

Now as you all know, I'm deeply into bar study these days, but a little news about the Creep's recent health problems has drifted through my transom. Unfortunately, I can't be more specific than that because I just haven't been paying that much attention. Still, something tells me you can get the full scoop at the MySpace site for the Dr. Creep Benefit show.

Basically, I'm only posting this to try to spread the word about the benefit. I can't be there, but if at all possible, I think you should go. And if you can't, see if you can donate a little something to the cause. I'll be throwing in the few bucks I can afford as soon as the next paycheck comes in.

Creep was always my favorite local celebrity. And even though he's already a legend in the Miami Valley and has been for some time, I'm not ready to let the ages have him -- not yet.

No matter what, the spirit of the Creep will haunt this town forever. But the man still has good work to do. Let's keep him around as long as possible. See the show, and give what you can.

take care

---Jones()

ps. Thanks to Teresa for the scan of the flier and the heads-up on this story.

Need a goddamn JOB...

2009-06-29T22:04:00.002-04:00

Damn straight, I do. I'm so desperate, I'm posting on my stupid blog about it.

As y'all know, I've got a law degree -- but haven't passed the bar yet. Which right now makes me suitable for employment in any of the custodial arts or food service industries!

I need a goddamn job!

take care

---Jones()

New stuff...

2009-06-02T19:34:00.002-04:00

For those who don't know, I graduated (magna cum laude by the way) about a week and a half ago, and I'll be taking the bar around the last week of July. Look for new stuff after that. I've still got stuff from E.Y.E., THE STOICS, THE OBVIOUS, TOOBA BLOOZE, THE TASTIES, REAL LULU, and tons of others. Check us out in August.

take care

---Jones()

Rock of Ages...

2009-02-27T10:06:00.002-05:00

Okay, so they're having some kind of show at Gilly's on Saturday, March 14. Here's the link if you want to know more (about "some kind of show at Gilly's..."):

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52578024823&ref=nf

Here's the lineup:

*Dale Walton

*"The Good Will Ambassadors"
(featuring Ed Pittman & Dan Raridan)

*Nick Kizirnis & Jon Dubuc

* "Venus Love Circus"
(featuring Louie Lerma, EL Bean-Lerma & Nate Bean)

If any of those names mean something to you, you should show up. Basically, the show is all about Dayton music of yesteryear. All these guys played some damn fine music in this shitbox town long ago. And now they're going to play some damn fine music in this town again -- should be good.

My only problem is that they're calling it "Rock of Ages." I hate that name. Def Leppard reference... not good. Not. Just not.

But the lineup looks good. The only one I've never seen play before is Dale Walton. I think I was about twelve when he was doing his thing. The others are all a few years after him, so I've seen them in some band or another over the years. But Dale I never saw. So it should be a good night. I'll be there.

take care

---Jones()

Off-site: DEMENTIA PRECOX, SCHP

2009-01-29T22:52:00.005-05:00

It's nice to know that the more active blogospherians out there are willing to pick up my slack -- even if they don't realize they're doing it.

The amazing Wheat sent me this link to a rip of the 1982 DEMENTIA PRECOX EP, SCHP over at the Thing on the Doorstep blog. Yeah, that's five tracks of Daytonian proto-industrial/goth/punk/whatever straight from the '80s -- delivered to you here in Siglo XXI through the miracle of the internet!

Of course, sometimes I wonder if it really is such a miracle. I mean, yeah it is, but does that really make it a good thing? I think about those people back in 1982 who loved good music so much... who were so dissatisfied with what mainstream pop culture had to offer... who were so thirsty for something different that they might've spent a significant portion of their daily lives tracking down releases like this through obscure mail-order or the few decent record stores that might have carried them. And here we are in the future, where you can get it with a click.

"In here I'm 'the guy who can get it for you.' But out there, all you need is the Yellow Pages."

Morgan Freeman's character (Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding) says that in The Shawshank Redemption -- in a part of the film in which "Red" contemplates how needless his particular skills in acquiring objects would be if he were ever released. How many "Reds" have the internet (and blogs like this) made obsolete? Ah well...

take care

---Jones()

[Title of Show]

2009-01-28T21:18:00.002-05:00

No more excuses for not updating. I'm just a lazy fucker, and who even knows when I'll do a real update? I totally suck.

But something drifted through my transom today that I thought I should post here. It's only vaguely related to Dayton, and it isn't even indie rock, but here we go anyway.

[Title of Show] is a show currently running on Broadway starring, among others, Susan Blackwell. Susan and I went to high school together at Bethel oh so many years ago. I remember the she and I and Kris Pleis used to spend a bit of time every day together during some math class or other. She was always a good egg, and quite talented. You might have seen her (as I have) in some episode of _The Sopranos_ or _Law & Order_ over the past fifteen years or so.

She and I both went to Wright State after high school, but I pretty much lost track of her there. She was in the Theatre Department doing theatrical stuff, and I was in the English department trying to pass myself off as a college student long enough to score as many free records as possible out of the radio station. I do remember I saw her in sort of minimalist version of _The Elephant Man_, in which she played the Elephant Man himself. But otherwise, I had little idea what was going on with her. Ironically, my ex-wife got to know her better than I did because she was in the theatre department too back then.

Anyway, as far as I know, Susan was never the big indie rocker while she was in Dayton. I don't remember seeing her at shows or anything. So yeah, this is a bit off-topic for this blog. But there's at least some Dayton connection.

Apparently, Susan stars in and co-wrote [Title of Show]. Check out the link for more info. And see it if you're in NYC any time soon.

take care

---Jones()

Off-site: FRANKENSTEIN'S KIND and OXYMORONS (sort of!) at YouTube!

2008-11-21T10:37:00.006-05:00

Mite Mutant deserves all the credit for digging up these amazing videos.

First, we have this long lost example of mid-'80s creativity from FRANKENSTEIN'S KIND (a band that has, quite UNdeservedly, slipped into Dayton obscurity):

And now, just when you thought things couldn't get any more surreal, here's a video of a drummer playing along with Nick Atkinson's part in THE OXYMORONS' "Day of Reckoning":

If you've never played an instrument, then you might not be familiar with the (common) practice of base imitation to develop one's skill.

If you've ever been involved with any creative art other than music, then you might eschew the practice of imitation as a means to develop creativity. To put it in terms that TINY creative minds might understand, you might think that imitation is for suckers.

However, nothing can be further from the truth. Imitation has been a standard part of creative development for centuries (Benjamin Franklin, in fact, wrote an instructive essay in which he admits that he learned to write well by copying passages from his favorite writers many times over and changing them just a bit each time). The 20th Century witnessed a revolution in pretty much every form of art and invented several new ones. Yet the great disservice that 20th-century thinking did to artists lies in its over-emphasis on complete originality. Certainly, originality is an important element in any finished work of art, but the development of creativity must certainly include the practice of unabashed imitation of previous works of art by which one has been inspired. Seriously, could Jack Kerouac have developed the creativity to write On the Road without first directly imitating his hero Thomas Wolfe in Kerouac's first novel, The Town and the City? Could the ROLLING STONES have recorded Exile on Main Street without first covering the old blues standard "Come On, Come On!"?

And to develop my own (marginal) creative skill, I myself spent hours playing Joey Santiago solos and Bob Mould rhythms note-for-note on my guitar before I ever ventured to record anything I would call "original" (and whatever decency there was in any music I ever made owes a heavy debt to those hours of imitation). With that in mind, I salute both the (unfortunately anonymous) drummer playing in this video AND Nick Atkinson, whose original playing on this track inspired the imitation.

take care

---Jones()

Hi... I'm a dick...

2008-11-12T21:27:00.003-05:00

...but I am working on getting new stuff up...

...if by "working," I mean "not doing anything."

That's not quite true, but it's close. Seriously though, I've got some great stuff from E.Y.E. ready to go soon. But I'm also working on getting the first issue of the Capital University Law Review ready for publication -- not that that's any excuse. I mean, come on: legal scholarship vs. forgotten indie rock from Dayton? Is there really any contest? But I am paying several thousand dollars for this legal education, so I have to give it some attention.

(gotta get my priorities straightened out)

take care

---Jones()

Happy Halloween...

2008-10-23T18:23:00.004-04:00

Yeah, it's been a while since the last update. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon, but in the meantime, the new Halloween CD is done -- and it's even got a couple tracks from Dayton artists on it. If you'd like a copy, let me know. Or you can just download the music and the cover and burn one for yourself.

By the way, if you take the second option, make sure you set the burning method to "disc-at-once" or reduce the forced pause between each track to zero (0) seconds. As usual, I used a cross-fader to bleed the tracks into each other, which will sound really annoying if there is any forced pause between them.

Here are the track notes:

JONES HALLOWEEN CD 2008

Well, another spooky-ass year has come and gone. If you know me, then you already know why this one right-royally sucked complete and total ass! And if you don’t, just trust me that it did. But why should that stop me from compiling yet another goofy compilation of horror movie trailers and scary musical oddities from the past and (near) present?

Yes, once again it’s that time of year. Halloween: the favorite holiday of horror movie buffs, goth freaks, and others with undiagnosed personality disorders. Put on a costume, throw a party, and for god’s sake call Hollywood and ask them to stop making those ridiculous Saw movies!

"All Night Orgy of Sex and Violence..." - Okay, I was lazy on the intro here. This is yet another clip from "Nasty," the best-ever episode of the '80s British sitcom, The Young Ones (just like the one that opened last year's disc).
"Zombies," The Lillingtons - From the band's final release The Too Late Show (2006).
"I Put A Spell on You," Screamin' Jay Hawkins - According to Mr. Hawkins, when this song was recorded in 1957, the (uncredited) producer "brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version. I don't even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death."
"Run Away! (Nightbeast Theme)," The Nightbeast - Homegrown talent here. Dayton's own Nightbeast (a.k.a. Nick Testa) has been slowly building a career over the last few years as sort of an awkward suburban Ladies’ Man with a Casio keyboard. I caught his act a couple of years ago at the now defunct Elbo's down by the Greyhound Bus Station and laughed my ass off. If you like this, check out more of his stuff at http://www.myspace.com/thenightbeast before the joke gets too old.
Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde - Given the subsequent track here, I was tempted to go with one of the many Blacula radio spots I've got in my arsenal. But Oakley thought this one was just a scream! And of all the blaxploitation film spots I've heard, this is the one that always leaves me on the floor--your momma too...
"Soul Dracula," Hot Blood - In pop music, I think the difference between a musical fad and a musical genre is that a fad spawns a far greater number of one-off novelty tracks by mock-up artists that never really existed. And if I'm right, I think I'm also right that disco is the ultimate musical fad of all time. Seriously, name the subject: Halloween, Christmas, politics, Star Wars, the starting lineup of the 1978 Houston Oilers... I'll give you even money that disco has a joke song to fit the occasion. Although not widely known, "Soul Dracula" by Hot Blood is a divine treat for obscure, late-'70s pop culture dorks like me.
"Frankenstein," Gene Defcon - Picked this up on e-music. More low-budget camp here from former members of Bikini Kill, Tight Bros., From Way Back When, Bangs, Mocket, and the Primadonnas. "Frankenstein" can be found on this project's 2000 album Come Party With Me.
"Would You Be So Hot (If You Weren't Dead?)," The Damned - In their heyday, The Damned approached punk rock with a sense of serious humor that went far over the heads of even their biggest fans (check out Machine Gun Etiquette, their best album, if you don’t believe me) . This selection from their 2001 reunion album Grave Disorder doesn't quite measure up to the surreal, driving noise they produced in the old days, but it does feature Patricia Morrison (of The Gun Club) on bass, and although Dave Vanian and Capt. Sensible may have lost a step (or two) over the last twenty years, they're still doing pretty well.
Psycho 1965 re-release radio spot - Although this radio trailer is not from the original 1959 release, it follows the tradition of all original promotion for Psycho in that it features no media from the film but simply commentary by the director.
"Psycho Repairman," The Humpers - From the band's 2002 release Positively Sick on 4th St.
"Anything Can Happen on Halloween," Tim Curry - From the 1986 straight-to-cable video production of The Worst Witch. And yes, it really is that Tim Curry. Read more about it at http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/10/im_all_excited_.html.
"Spooky Swing," Parados - From their 2007 instrumental album Haunted.
"Keep Watching the Skies" - Clipped from the original, Howard Hawkes classic The Thing (from Another World) (1951), which is actually not as good as John Carpenter’s 1982 remake.
"Man from Mars," The Neanderthals - The overworked psychobilly genre becomes no more popular at any other time than it does at Halloween. And because it's so ubiquitous this time of year, I try to keep the psychobilly on these compilations to a minimum. But a couple tracks always seem to sneak in here. This one is from the Neanderthals' 2005 release Neanderthals in Space.
"Witches' Rave," Jeff Buckley - The first of three artists on this Halloween compilation reaching out to us from beyond the grave. Jeff Buckley's brief but notable rise from cover artist to modern rock icon was tragically cut short by his semi-mysterious death by drowning at age 30 in 1997.
Phantasm radio spot - Perhaps the most surreal horror film ever (except for Suspiria, I guess), Don Coscarelli's Phantasm still freaks me out today almost as much as it did in 1979. I think that's probably because its trademark funereal imagery has somehow gone without imitation in the last 30 years--so to me, at least, it still looks freshly creepy. If you've never seen the film and you're looking for something that'll freak you out until Christmas, this one is worth a rental this Halloween season.
"Haunted House," Hasil Adkins - As a child in 1940s West Virginia who didn’t know about a then-new invention called multi-tracking, Hasil Adkins grew up listening to Hank Williams records under the impression that Hank was playing all the instruments at the same time. Thus upon embarking on his own musical career, Adkins taught himself to be a one-man band. His first attempt at a musical career ended in the late '60s after issuing singles on a dozen minor record labels, each of which disappeared into obscurity. Almost literally disappearing himself, Adkins spent the next fifteen years living in his mother's home but still committing thousands of original recordings to ever-growing piles of reel-to-reel tape strewn about the living room. As the story goes, one of the founders of Rhino Records picked up a scratchy Hasil Adkins 7" at a garage sale in the early '80s and spent the next 18 months tracking down the artist. It took little convincing to get Adkins to release many of his home recordings on Rhino, record new material, and tour in support of it all. Although credited with less than 6 days of formal education, Adkins did speaking tours for college audiences on his unique approach to musical artistry and continued to play and record music until his bizarre death (10 days after being run over in his front yard by a complete stranger on an ATV) in 2005.
"I Want to Be Evil," Eartha Kitt - Near as I can figure out, the Greatest Catwoman of All Time recorded this signature tune some time before 1962. Thanks to Melissa for suggesting this one.
Horror of the Zombies radio spot - Since its first release in 1974, this Spanish film has drifted from drive-in screens to late-night cable to VHS and now to DVD under at least a dozen titles spanning six languages. I've never seen it, but the number of titles this one has had leads me to believe it's quite the snoozer. But the radio spot makes it sound cool, no?
"Zombie Prostitute," Voltaire - Though copping a French name, this solo artist has been releasing his peculiar blend of Tejano, roots, and indie rock music since 1998. "Zombie Prostitute" comes from his 2007 release, Ooky Spooky.
"Saturday Evening Ghost," Frankie Stein & His Ghouls - Like Hot Blood (see track 6), Mr. Stein & His Ghouls are largely fictional--although here the fiction comes from the kids music industry rather than disco. The name of Stein and his crew appears on a string of similar recordings through the late '60s on the Power Records label, an imprint of Peter Pan--and if you're above the age of thirty and you never had a Peter Pan record when you were a kid, you were quite deprived (though that's probably also the reason you're not a complete dork like me today--I had a million of 'em!).
"Halloween," Die Kreuzen - Not quite UN-sung, but perhaps only-a-little-sung, heroes of '80s hardcore punk, Die Kreuzen disbanded some time in the '90s. But all of their original recordings were recently re-released on CD by Quarterstick Records, including Century Days, from which this metallic cover of John Carpenter's movie theme is taken.
Willard radio spot - Yeah, the plot sounds dorky: wimpy young man who gets picked on by everyone befriends a horde of rats, who enthusiastically follow his orders to tear his enemies to pieces. But believe it or not, this one's pretty good as cheap horror films go. By the way, I'm sorry, but I just don't see how Bruce Davison's frantically understated performance as the title character in this 1971 classic can be improved upon--even by Crispin Glover (in the utterly superfluous 2003 remake). So do yourself a favor and rent the original.
"Demons Are A Ghoul's Best Friend," Ghouls' Night Out - From this all-girl group's 2006 album The Mourning After.
"Halloween," Dead Kennedys - Originally released as a single in 1982, you can now find this track on any number of DKs reissue comps. But please remember that the other money-grubbing shitballs in the band wrested control of many of Jello Biafra's (lead singer's) songs a few years ago, so if you go looking for DKs recordings to buy, make sure you get them straight from Alternative Tentacles (Jello’s label). As one commenter on e-music put it, "If you don't, the terrorists win!"
"Rubber Room Rock," The Spectres - Anybody remember when you used to be able to find a seemingly endless array of obscure (but good) indie rock on MP3.com, all available for free and legal download? Mmmmm... Well, those days are over now, but the legacy lives on. I picked up this little beauty (and another called "Did It for Elvis!" which I put on the 2002 Halloween disc) in 2001 and have been sitting on it all these years.
"Graveyard Blues," The Gits - I always try to close these things with something a little bit strange or maudlin... mournful sometimes? Recorded on a handheld cassette player at Dayton's Canal Street Tavern way back in 1986 (and later released on the Private Lubs cassette, which was reissued in 1996 as Kings & Queens), this track features the voice of the lovely Mia Zapata, whose band The Gits came up in this town and then moved to Seattle in 1988. Although poised on the edge of indie rock stardom, The Gits' career ended tragically in July 1993 when Ms. Zapata was abducted, raped, and murdered as she walked home from a late night at the recording studio. Although remaining at large for nearly ten years, her assailant was identified and sentenced in 2004. Zapata's death has been the basis of episodes of a half-dozen TV crime shows and inspired the foundation of Home Alive, a non-profit group that raises money for and holds classes on anger management and women's self defense (http://www.homealive.org/). Most recently, her life has been the basis of the independently released Gits Movie (http://thegitsmovie.com/).

And with that, here we are again! Halloween! A holiday in which we celebrate the things that scare the shit out of us. Hey, if we can celebrate that, maybe there’s hope for the human race after all (probably not though…).

Happy Halloween!

pjones2@law.capital.edu

take care

---Jones()

Comment Round-up!

2008-08-12T07:07:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to draw everyone's attention to some of the informative comments that readers have left on the blog over the past few months that you might have missed:

Amy Kreitzer tells us a little about Denny and Irene Wilson's participation in Amy's She film project.

Mike Potential leaves a long and quite illuminating comment about the Limited Potential compilation, his life after leaving Dayton, and Dayton in general.

Amy Kreitzer talks a little bit about the early days of TOXIC REASONS and how slam dancing started in Dayton.

Several people fill in the blanks on the WWSU 4-Play single.

Skyp Krantz and others enlighten us on a few things about the HANG'N PRIDE cassette and Skyp's graphic work for TOOBA BLOOZE, TOXIC REASONS, and REAL LULU.

A few people offer corrections on the Mystery of the MOM cassette.

Brian Hogarth offers some much needed corrections to the SOURBELLY Fat 4 post.

Nick Atkinson enlightens us on some of the background of BEAT POETRY FOR BEGINNERS.

A number of people offer corrections and additional information about THE PLEASURES PALE.

Several readers identify the folks who appeared in the Dayton Punkhouse Documentary of 1987.

J.R. contributes a link to some GUIDED BY VOICES downloads to the GUIDED BY VOICES MP3s post.

Ben London gives his thumbs up to the posting of the Scrappy James cassette by BIG BROWN HOUSE. Adrian Garver tells us about a show at the Building Lounge that BIG BROWN HOUSE played with FLAMING LIPS.

Angelle Gullet and SalSa clear up much of the mystery surrounding THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER cassette and accompanying video.

Grog offers some corrections on the FOURTEEN cassette.

Karen Kuras clears up my sketchy memory on the date of the HANG'N PRIDE cassette. Nick Atkinson and others deliver some insight on WALAROO SOUTH and the old Gore Club film festivals.

Amy Kreitzer throws in some DEMENTIA PRECOX memories.

Grog corrects my recollection of the Penis Flyer Story.

Grog, Nick, and Mite add some memories about CANDYASS and the Punk Rock Wedding Show.

Mite points us toward his interview with DOCTOR CREEP in a comment on the SHOCK THEATRE post.

take care

---Jones()

SPITCURL,addendum...

2008-08-10T22:47:00.002-04:00

Okay, so if you read the previous post on SPITCURL, here's some shit you should know. Apparently, I got it all WRONG. And I mean, COMPLETELY WRONG (as my Contracts Professor once wrote on my mid-term exam!). Steve Johnson, who was in SPITCURL, sent me the following gentle correction via e-mail:

Hi Pat! Steve Johnson here of that PLASTIC TREE band. I coincidentally ran accross your blog.... I saw your blog about SPITCURL and thought I'd clarify some stuff...... SPITCURL was a three piece that was me (drums), Brian Bagdonas (upright bass) and Mark Kramer (guitar). Mark sang mostly but we all had vocal parts. Mark Kramer was a tall guy with slicked back hair who was in a band called NEED and after SPITCURL he was in LET'S CRASH. It was a short lived thing, we played some Dayton shows and did a mini tour around Ohio and Indiana. We just made the one cassette EP
that we sold for a few bucks at shows. This was our attemt at a Dischord type band but it actually turned out pretty original sounding.
it was a lotta fun! Hope I could help. ----Steve

Okay, this message prompts a bit more information from me:

Brian Bagdonas was in LIQUID DRAINO before SPITCURL.
I know Mark Kramer to some limited degree, but I haven't seen him in years. My impression is that he had something to do with SKELETON KEY or ENON or some shit like that... maybe.
NEED was a really great band with a cute girl singer, but unfortunately, I have not yet run across any recordings by them, so don't look for any NEED posts in the foreseeable future.
I believe I have a 7" record or something by LET'S CRASH (courtesy of Gail Dafler).
So it looks like the songs I put up in the previous post were on some kind of cassette release at some point. Thanks again to Chris Wright for delivering this stuff to me.

take care

---Jones()

SPITCURL, 5 songs (unknown, 199?)

2008-08-08T16:32:00.001-04:00

Okay, here's some SPITCURL...

...and that means that, once again, it's time for another patented Jones "I DUNNO!" post!

That's right! Once again, I don't know shit about these guys... EXCEPT...

I am 99% certain that Sheldon Mutter (from LIQUID DRAINO) was in this band.
Maybe Chris Wright (of NOSTROMO) was in it too.

HOLY SHIT! I have to interject here that, as I type this, Law & Order is on and Sam Waterston as the self-righteous prosecutor just intoned the right-wing phrase that I hate the most: "personal responsibility." Yeah, his character just said, "This is all an attempt to avoid personal responsibility!" Goddammit! Why do I watch this stupid program? "Because you're an idiot!" replies Wynona Ryder. Oh Wynona, if only I could believe you!

Shit, I forgot where I was... fuck... uh...
Oh yeah, I don't know for sure if Chris Wright was in SPITCURL. No doubt, he would know. And if he's reading, I hope he corrects my lame ass!
I saw SPITCURL at some point in the mid-'90s at one of those Ken Gross shows over at that place in that strip mall in Fairborn. Does anybody know what they called that place? Please tell me! I think my band HEIKE might have played there once. I know for sure that SLANT 6 (from D.C. -- on Dischord Records) played there, and I'm pretty sure it was the same show at which I saw SPITCURL. Help? Anybody?
I have no idea if these songs were on any kind of official release that SPITCURL did or even if SPITCURL ever released anything. I have no idea where they were recorded, who wrote the songs, or anything else. All of this was in a big download package that Chris Wright sent me a few months back. If you can fill in the blanks, feel free!
In any case, SPITCURL was pretty kick-ass! They had a great name, and they played this wonderful variety of mid-'90s noise/emo! I still miss 'em. And you are going to fucking love them! Guaranteed!

By the way, that show with SLANT 6 was fucking awesome. The lead singer, Christina (SHIT!) Billotte, had wonderfully short blond hair and wore this dark blue mini-dress -- very cute.

Track list:

Build You Elegant
Crushable
Painting Little Thunderstorm
Present Testament
There is a Person in Here

Download It! 13 MB.

Yeah, SPITCURL... get it.

take care

---Jones()

DEMENTIA PRECOX addendum...

2008-08-06T11:43:00.000-04:00

To the previous post, I wanted to add that I cross-checked the tracks I put up yesterday with the tracks that are available for download on the DEMENTIA PRECOX Myspace site. Here are the results:

"Maladie s'spirit," "Just for a Little While," and "Everything is Fine," which are all included in yesterday's download pack, are also available for download on the Myspace page. The versions of on the Myspace page are of far higher fidelity.
"Dead on 2 Legs" and "Carpools Save Gas" were NOT available in yesterday's download but ARE available on the Myspace page. Go get 'em!
The ID3 tag information for the MP3s on the Myspace page places "Dead on 2 Legs" and "Just for a Little While" in 1984.
The same information places "Just for a Little While" and "Everything is Fine" on a release entitled HUH.

Finally, yesterday I identified DEMENTIA PRECOX as a "new wave" band. To be more complete, I should add "industrial" and perhaps "experimental" to that description.

take care

---jones()

DEMENTIA PRECOX, MOM, BAD ELVIS IMPERSONATORS, Dementia Precox is Everywhere, (unofficial, cassette, 1980-88)

2008-08-05T11:32:00.009-04:00

What can I say about DEMENTIA PRECOX? Well... nothing really -- or nothing I didn't say in the previous post about the DEMENTIA PRECOX Myspace site. The only thing I can really add is that I happened to run into Royse Robbins briefly a little while back and that she's back in Dayton now and doing okay. My personal opinion is that she should do some more music in some way, at some point... but I don't really know what's on her agenda these days.

What can I say about today's download? Again, not too much: 118 megabytes, about 90 minutes of music. It's a compilation that a friend of Matt DeWald made for him when he was in high school. The unofficial title, Dementia Precox is Everywhere!, comes from the faded, handwritten legend scrawled on the label for side A. The side B label places these tracks as spanning the years 1980-1988. My assumption is that they were all recorded from original vinyl releases by the band, with perhaps one track (number 10, the live version of "Love Is Headless") being recorded directly to some sort of cassette device. Who knows? I cleaned them up as best I could -- ran the noise reducer to eliminate tape hiss and normalized them all to similar levels. What else do you want? No doubt you'll hear the occasional tape flub and such, and overall this is nowhere near CD (or even original vinyl) quality. Still it should be good enough for you to make a disc from (or load onto your fucking iPod!) and blast the neighborhood with some lo-fi, New Wave, antique-Dayton goodness. Whatever will the neighbors say!?

Part of me wishes, of course, that I had the original sources to deliver to you, along with some cover scans and such. Then again, as I mentioned in the previous DEMENTIA post, it looks like Gyn or someone is still marketing at least some of the old DEMENTIA PRECOX recordings over on ebay (check the other post for how to find them). And it wouldn't surprise me to learn that some kind of better quality DEMENTIA re-issue is in the works (though that's purely my speculation). So for this blog, it's probably good that the only thing I have to offer is a semi-decent, lo-fidelity cassette compilation that's twenty years old.

I never really knew any of the people in this band. I mean yeah, I know Eric Purtle more or less... Nick Kizirnis too, but I never did any hanging out with Gyn or Royse or anyone else that you might call a "core member" or something like that. In my brief conversation with Royse, she didn't seem to have any problem with me posting this stuff, but as usual, if she changes her mind or if someone else who owns the copyright to these recordings wants me to remove them, I'll do so -- no problem. Still, since this is only "listenable" quality at best and since anyone who controls the original recordings must also have access to better versions, I figure a posting like this shouldn't be a problem. As with everything on this blog, if you like this stuff, I figure it could only stimulate you to plunk down a few bucks for a more official version if it comes along.

Anyway, here we go: eighteen tracks by Dayton's most legendary new wave combo. Listen and allow yourself to be transported back to the '80s! Back to a time of analog sampling and TR-909s! Put on your black clothes and rock out! And as I've said before, DEMENTIA has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance lately. Keep an eye out for reunions, reissues, and other stuff. With Halloween coming up in a couple of months, I'd lay even odds that some form of this band will be appearing around the Miami Valley and maybe parts beyond some time soon (I'll probably also be throwing one of these on my annual Halloween mix CD -- who can resist?).

However, today's fun doesn't end with the DEMENTIA stuff. As it happens, Matt's compilation also includes two cuts by Dayton's mythical art-rock combo MOM and one more by the totally obscure BAD ELVIS IMPERSONATORS. I know little about both bands except that Dennis Schlichter had a lot to do with MOM and that (I think) Jeff Brelsford was in both bands (I could be wrong about that -- though I'm sure he was in at least one of them -- check the comments on my previous MOM post for more information).

My current band THE VECTORS happened to play a house party a few weeks ago with this sort of band/music project featuring Dennis and his friend Roger. Unfortunately, for me the evening turned out to be sort of an OXYMORONS/LIQUID DRAINO reunion, and so I missed most of Dennis' set while I was talking to Dave, Nick, Grog, and Gnu out on the porch. Still, I did listen to 'em through the window (for whatever that's worth), and they sounded really good. I have no idea if they'll be doing more shows at any point. I've talked to Dennis a few times over the past few weeks, and he hasn't mentioned it. But if they do, they're worth seeing.

Again, if you look at the MOM post (which I posted on Thanksgiving Day, 2007), you'll find pretty much everything I know about them. As for BAD ELVIS IMPERSONATORS, all I can say is that I remember hearing their name when I was in high school and thinking it was one of the greatest band names ever. I'm pretty sure I also have a review of one of their shows in some zine I have around here somewhere. But I don't want to bother digging it out right now.

I was at Dennis' birthday party a few weeks ago. As I said, he still plays some music, but it seems he's mostly an artist now. To be honest, he's kind of an odd character and a bit of an iconoclast (though in the best possible sense), so I don't know if he'll be showcasing any art at one of those Stalinistly organized Circus/Sideshow things any time soon. But if he does, you should go see it. Gail has a number of his pieces in her house, and they're all worth seeing. The man is a rare talent.

I'd also like to throw in a little something here about Jeff Brelsford. I spoke with him briefly on Dennis' porch at the birthday party, and he seems like a good egg. Strangely, that was the first time in my recollection that I've ever met him (although I may have had one or more drunken conversations with him at the Building Lounge or The Front Street Warehouse long ago). I forgot to ask him exactly what he's doing these days... music? art? I don't really know. He seems to have done both at various points. But again, if you get a chance to see anything he's associated with, you should take it.

Oh yeah, the BAD news: the one song by BAD ELVIS IMPERSONATORS cuts off at the end. I guess the tape ran out. Still, it's over four minutes long in this form, so I figure you've got most of the song here. I just faded out the part where it cuts off so that it sounds more seamless. Bad idea? You tell me.

Track List:

Tonight
Newar's Eve
Maladie D'Espirit
Mines
T.V. Jesus
Here It Comes Again
Street Is Empty
It Doesn't Matter To...
Love Is Headless (live)
XXX
Disease>
Just for a Little While
Everything Is Fine
Never Settle Down
Shake
Night Spot
Fade Away
Nothing Lasts Forever
MOM - Baby Doll
MOM - A Man
Bad Elvis Impersonators - Work Sucks

Download It! (118 MB).

Okay, that's it for now. Download the stuff and enjoy. Believe me, you'll like it. As for me, well it's raining, but I've got my son Oakley here today. Strangely enough, Dennis actually gave me a gigantic umbrella a few weeks ago. I think Oakley and I will go down to the pond and feed the ducks and use that umbrella for cover. Anybody wanna come along? Give me a call...

take care

---Jones()

¡THE OXYMORONS!, Bash On, Regardless, cassette (1990)

2008-08-01T18:55:00.009-04:00

...and, we're back. Fuck... where did the time go? Seems I spent most of it drinking screwdriver, proofing law review articles, and feeling like a piece of shit. Still do. God, I hate summer...

(oh shit, I just lit another cigarette, and as I was lighting it, I saw that I already had one lit and sitting in the ashtray. Fuck...)

Long post today. Just skip to the download if you'd like -- or hit another site -- I don't know.

Anyway, here we are again. Let's do it:

For me today's download is the definitive OXYMORONS offering. I mean, it's not that I think the first tape or the CD suck or anything like that. In fact, the CD (Dancing on Billy's Grave, which I will post at some point) is the one that we put the most effort into. I also think the CD is where Ben's songwriting is at its best, and the CD also contains "Unearthing Your Grave," which I have always thought of as our best recording ever. As for the first tape, well tracks like "Born So Blessed," "Cheep Beer," and "Let Go" still rawk my soul. I've got no complaints.

But this one... this one... this is the one, in my opinion. From the juvenile stupidity of "Psycho Girl" and "Jocks With Mohawks" to the maudlin enigma of "Wreckage," this is the one that hits home with me. This just is THE OXYMORONS. We had little idea what we were doing, but we did it. And it was fun. This is the one that got people actually coming up to us, referring to certain songs by name, and asking us to play them -- not just in Dayton (although that would've been good enough for me) but even in parts beyond. I don't know how to describe the feeling you get when that happens. It's intoxicating, but it's more than that.

We once played a show in Madison, Wisconsin, and I specifically remember the day after that show meeting some blonde chick who had been there the night before (we were still in town because we had a day off). We just met randomly on the street, and she said she had loved it when we played "Wreckage." She referred to the song by its title and said she had gone to the show specifically to hear it. She also said she loved the guitar on that song. To this day, I remember her eyes as she talked about it. Maybe you are cooler than I am, but for my part, that conversation changed my life. If, when I die, I find out that there really is a heaven, and if I get to go there, I think I'll just have that conversation with that nameless girl forever.

I remember Ben once telling me that he had been talking to some girl to whom he had been trying to explain why the band was so important to him -- and she just didn't get it. He had told her about how he would wake up in the middle of the night because he was worried that some part he had put into a song just wasn't working out. He had told her how he had spent hours in that basement working out parts and trying to come up with lyrics and trying to turn it all into a song and how the whole process simply dominated his brain. He had told her all about this, and she just didn't get it. Honestly, I'm not sure I got it either. But it was good to know that all that paid off for at least some listeners.

Now as you might've guessed by now, no one is a bigger OXYMORONS fan than I (except maybe Gail). I'm immensely proud of everything we ever did. I'm proud of these recordings. I'm proud of the shitty shows. I'm proud to have had the privilege to know and play in a band with such talented and off-beat personalities as Ben Schelker, Pat Hennigan, Greg Simerlink, and Nick Atkinson. I'm proud of it all. I am both proud and humbled by the entire experience of playing in a half-decent punk rock band that never made it. I'm proud and humbled in ways that even I have difficulty expressing. I'm not sure if that's good or just really pathetic. And even though, as I just said, we never "made it," I can't think of a single thing I would change about the whole thing. Not one goddam thing.

And that goes double for Bash On, Regardless. All the flubs, all the mistakes, all the screw-ups... you'll definitely hear 'em! And for years, there were so many things about this that I wanted to go back and fix. I imagine we all did. But listening to it now, I wouldn't want it to be any other way.

There is quite a bit more I could say about this cassette, but I'll just leave it all in the track notes.

Here are some notes on the cassette itself and the cover insert (scanned and included in the download pack):

Those are sticky labels on the cassette. I don't know how many copies of this we sold (a few hundred, at least), but Grog deserves some thanks for printing, cutting, and sticking each and every one of those fucking labels onto the cassette itself. He also deserves some thanks for recording each and every one of the production copies on his home stereo. I can't even imagine doing that.
"Psycho Side" is Side 1.
Mark Wood drew the cover picture. He was... he was... well, he was sort of an odd character who has really faded in my memory. I don't know what else to say about him -- except that I hope he's still drawing something, somewhere.
The title "Bash On, Regardless" we got from this guy named Angus, who came to Dayton for some reason from the UK. Angus was a really cool guy. He was studying to be a veterinarian in the UK. I don't remember how he came to give us the phrase "Bash On, Regardless," but I do remember that he is the first person in my memory to actually enunciate the concert t-shirt rule. You know: "You NEVER go to a show and wear the t-shirt of the band that's playing!" He was right. Angus and I went to many shows at Bogart's, and I always bought a t-shirt of the band, but I never wore it at the show. Still, because I would always buy the t-shirt, Angus was kind enough to tell me once, "Patrick, you are a t-shirt groupie!" Again, he was absolutely right. If you ever meet Angus, just assume that everything he says is absolutely right -- even though he makes his living "sticking my hand up cows' bums!" (as he told me once).
My suggestion for the title of this cassette was "Love You With A Knife!" (a line from "Psycho Girl") but I got out-voted.

Here are some notes on the songs:

"Psycho Girl" - That's Gail Dafler doing the scream at the beginning and during the break. Ben got her to scream like that by pinching her arm really (really) hard. I was standing right next to them in the booth. Her performance merited her the nickname "Psycho Gail" in perpetuity. QUICK UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Gail and described this entry to her. According to her, she was known as "Psycho Gail" even before she recorded this scream for us. Apparently, that appellation actually came from an evening she spent at Canal Street Tavern involving a bottle of Boone's Farm and a completely different song called "Psycho Girl" recorded by another Dayton band, THE KILLJOYS.
"I Think Like Toast" - This song is about Ben working late at Friendly's. The rock-n-roll Friendly's at the intersection of Dayton-Xenia Rd. and Linden in Beavercreek really deserves a blog entry of its own. For now I'll just say that Ben worked there in the late '80s and early '90s, as did Nick Atkinson (OXYMORONS drummer), Joel Lensch (CANDYASS), Jen Cook (COLAVISION), Keith Conly (who was one of Ben's best friends and probably came to every OXYMORONS show in Dayton), John Poe (still an enigma to this day), Andrea Donato (the future ex-Mrs. Jones), and any number of others whose names I can't remember right now. Many of Ben's songs were inspired by his experiences and the people he met working at this Friendly's. The last time I drove by that area (about a year ago), this Friendly's still existed, though it has been remodelled extensively since Ben worked there. My best Friendly's memory comes from when I was working at Orange-Frazer Press (which was just down the road) and used to go get my lunch from there. One afternoon, I was sitting at the counter and made sort of this cockroach-like monster out of a pickle with toothpicks for legs (and antennae). I then said, "No Godzilla! Please don't eat me!" and then roared and bit the thing in half as Ben watched. He laughed his ass off, and so did Andrea. I was quite proud of myself. To this day, I try to work that routine into every first date I have (that is, if I care about the girl). If she likes it, I know she's at least in the ballpark of being a keeper.
"I Wanna Be A Shaman" - I really don't know where this song came from except for a dim memory that Ben had picked up some bits of eastern aesthetics from this girl he went out with for a few weeks in 1989. For a period of maybe three months in 1990, this was our most requested song at shows. Then people stopped asking for it, we started hating it, and we just stopped playing it. Strange how that happens sometimes.
"New Beginning/Bottom Line" - I really don't know what this song is about. But I remember that there's a floor-tom fill in "New Beginning" that seemed very important to Nick that we get right. We spent quite a bit of studio time overdubbing it and then bringing that overdub up in the final mix so that it wasn't too loud or too soft. By the time we were done, I just didn't give a shit anymore, but to Nick it was almost like life or death. Do him a favor and try to listen for it.
"Wreckage" - This one actually has a very interesting story behind it. It's about Joe, a very talented friend of Ben's who was an artist and student at the University of Cincinnati. Apparently, this friend once gave Ben a quickly drawn comic strip about a man who died, went to Hell, and was immediately confronted by The Devil, who threw things at the dead man and forced him to juggle them. The Devil would say things like, "Here's some insecurity! Here's your creative outlet! Here's your witty tongue!" and then throw things at the man to juggle. Sadly, this friend of Ben's committed suicide not too long after he gave Ben this comic. I saw it once, and I'd give almost anything to be able to post it here now. But I don't know what happened to it.
"Pleasant Distraction" - This is about a long-term girlfriend that Ben had, for whom he admitted that he had no real love, yet he felt a real bond with her. If I remember correctly, Ben wrote another song ("Life Goes On," which ended up on the Piledriver compilation in Wisconsin) about this same girl. That song once prompted this girl to comment that, "You should never go out with a guy in a band because he'll just end up writing songs about you!" She was absolutely right. This is actually the first song we recorded in these sessions and was never intended to go on the cassette -- as evidenced by the totally throwaway lead I put in. But Ben liked it, so it was in.
"Running" - This is the last song on the first side of the original cassette. I don't really know what it's about, but I do know that it's Nick Atkinson's favorite song on this release -- witness his amazing Neil Peart-inspired drum fills.
"Jocks with Mohawks" - This was my first songwriting effort for this band, and I think it was only my third songwriting effort ever (I've written a number of songs over the years, but I honestly never thought of myself as a "songwriter"). I wrote the music, which was largely inspired by various hardcore songs on BAD BRAINS' first cassette. Ben wrote the words. Obviously, it was about the then-emerging trend of high school jock assholes trying to distinguish themselves by listening to hardcore punk. Funny how today you can't be cool at all in high school unless you listen to some kind of indie rock -- makes one want to buy as many FRANK SINATRA records as you can get your hands on... Anyway, this became one of those songs that we always played at every show. How can you go wrong when the chorus is, "You're just a bunch of jocks with mohawks!"?
"If" - I'm pretty sure this is Kattie Dougherty's (REAL LULU) favorite OXYMORONS song ever. The night we all learned of Ben's death, she and Dennis came over to my house and we listened to this one many times (and it's a good thing she came over too, because I had no idea where my copy of it was at the time). I remember I fucked up the end to this one. At the very end, I tried to turn off my distortion pedal so that I could play the final riff cleanly, but for some reason, I messed up and the final riff came out distorted. It's always bothered me, but nobody else seemed to care.
"Wasting My Time" - Ben wrote most of the lyrics for this on a cocktail napkin at Canal Street Tavern, where he often went to waste time. Grog tried to record some backup vocals for this on the chorus, and it was only as he was recording them that we realized that Grog couldn't sing a bloody note. After coming in from the soundbooth, he listened to the results and admitted the fact. Ben re-recorded the backing vocals himself.
"Stinky Hippy/Gingerbread Man" - "Stink Hippy" was the one song on the cassette that Ben had written before Grog and I joined the band (I don't know why we didn't put it on the first cassette). He got the opening chord (A-minor-7th) from Denny Wilson (TOOBA BLOOZE). For some reason, Ben was always fascinated by the A-minor-7th. He put it in this song, and he used to use it in a stupid, jazzy version of "Iron Man" that he would dick around with at practice sometimes (I have a recording of that somewhere). "Gingerbread Man" is just sort of a fantastical tale about a gingerbread man who comes to life after being cooked in the oven and runs around the kitchen trying to escape being eaten. Maybe Ben had been doing acid with THE KILLJOYS, or maybe it came from his own stupid imagination.
"Love Buzz" - I really, really, really don't know how this ended up on the final release of the cassette or why we even recorded it in the first place. Ben and the rest of us always hated this song. If you listen, you'll notice that my leads are entirely phoned in (no doubt I was thinking about something else as I played them) AND that we didn't even care enough about it to make up a proper ending! This may have even been the last time we ever played it (among all the live show recordings I have, I don't think "Love Buzz" appears anywhere).
"Televise My Nervous Breakdown" - I'm pretty sure this one was my first lyrics-writing effort. Ben wrote the music -- it was kind of his attempt at a BLACK FLAG sort of tune. It's supposed to be about how people like Oprah and Barbara Walters seemed to intentionally get people to cry and generally break down in order to increase ratings. The reference to "Pringles Light Potato Chips" was Ben's idea. I was finishing up the lyrics maybe two minutes before I did the vocal track and just asked him to name a product, any product. That's what he gave me. For some reason, this song became a total joke to us. At shows, I would often sing the first line as "Spoon into my walrus!" and Ben would sing the second as "Watch me eat a can of peas!"
"Folsom Prison Blues" - Okay, we recorded this one at these sessions, but Grog didn't put it on this cassette. Instead, he added it as a bonus track to the first cassette -- likely so that people could get a sample of Nick Atkinson's drumming (because Pat Hennigan had played drums on the first cassette). Still, because I've been listening to my studio mix of these songs all these years, I associate it with Bash On, Regardless. And when I posted the first cassette, I didn't include this one, so here it is now. Please remember, however, that although Johnny Cash covers are kind of trite and cliched now, it was actually kind of daring to do one in 1990. Even that wonderful 'Til Things Are Brighter compilation had only been released a few months earlier when we recorded this. I don't know why I feel the need to point that out, but I do.
"Walking Backwards" - As the liner notes in the booklet say, we recorded this live at Apollo's in Columbus on August 1, 1990 (which means that as of this day, this recording is legally able to buy cigarettes in the State of Ohio -- RAWK!). I do have the rest of this show on tape and will rip and post it some time this fall. We played with LIQUID DRAINO that night, and I've got their set on tape also. "Walking Backward" was always one of our favorites -- so much so that we did a cleaner, nicer, studio version for the CD. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the "Jenny" mentioned in the first line is actually "Janey," who was a manager that Ben worked with at Friendly's.

Here are some notes on the booklet:

The idea for even doing a little booklet to insert into the cassette case was inspired by a similarly-sized booklet inserted into the second album by JANE'S ADDICTION, Ritual de lo Habitual, which was released about the same time we were recording this. Our friends in LIQUID DRAINO inserted a booklet like this into their second cassette release.
p. 1 - Hey, check it out! Keith Conly (who worked with Ben at Friendly's) did backup stuff on three songs! I had totally fogotten that!
p. 2 (inside front cover) - "Joe Boob" is, of course, Joe Buben. As I've mentioned in previous entries, he was the owner and main recording engineer at Cro-Magnon studios for many years. He had a hat with fake dogshit glued to the brim that said "Shithead." That's the kind of guy he was -- and a great engineer too.
pp. 6 & 7 - These are mini-reproductions of flyers we distributed for shows at places that had closed by the time we released this tape. That happened a lot back then (and probably still does now): a place would open, and some shows would happen, and then suddenly it would either close its doors or they'd book different types of bands. Grog always did our booking, and so he became kind of attached to these places. I designed both of these flyers. There's a lot I could say about them, but this entry is long enough already, so I'll save it for when I post these flyers.
p. 9 - On "Gingerbread Man," the "Ode to D. Boon" part. Yeah, this one was kind of inspired by THE MINUTEMEN (as if that weren't apparent just from listening to it). For those who don't know, old D. Boon was killed in a van accident while on tour. Seems that whenever we'd be on tour and whoever was driving the van would have some kind of mishap (which seemed to happen most when I was driving), the others would say something like, "Don't give us the D. Boon treatment here!"
p. 9 - On "Love Buzz," where it says "Howl Right Along." See? We didn't even care enough to write the stupid lyrics down!
p. 11 - "REJECT" Filling up the final page with this graphic was my idea, but I don't remember where I got the graphic from.
p. 12 (back cover) - This is a reproduction of the first OXYMORONS sticker we ever made. I drew it and added the caption. Let me say here that in general I have always turned out to be very good at pretty much anything I really wanted to do. The one exception to that has been drawing. Since I was a kid, I always wished I could draw, but I really can't. Still, for some reason, I would take every opportunity I could to draw something. So I drew this sticker, and it always pleased me to no end that Grog liked it -- hope you do too.

Now about the rip itself:

The scans of the cover and insert come to you courtesy of The Gail Dafler Collection (because I never had a production copy of this cassette).
Rips of all studio tracks are from a first-generation cassette I made of the recordings on the same day we made them (which is why "Folsom Prison Blues" is in there). My memory fails me at this point, but it is possible that the cassette I ripped from was not the final mix. It's possible that it's a rough mix. I'd have ripped Gail's production copy, but after eighteen years it was just too muddy, and the one I had sounded far more clear. But even if my cassette is just a rough mix, it's pretty damn close to the final. I listened to both, and even I can't tell the difference.
The rip of "Walking Backwards" is from the original cassette onto which it was recorded on a "piece-of-shit boombox" (which was my boombox!) on August 1, 1990. So the song may start and cut off in different places than it did on the original. But once again, it's a better-sounding recording.

Track List:

Psycho Girl
I Think Like Toast
I Wanna Be A Shaman
Bottom Line
Wreckage
Pleasant Distraction
Running
Jocks With Mohawks
If
Wasting My Time
Stinky Hippie/Gingerbread Man
Love Buzz
Televise My Nervous Breakdown
Folsom Prison Blues
Walking Backwards

Download it! (link re-upped on 8-2-2010)

Enjoy! And as always, feel free to copy and share as you see fit. It's all free here! No license, no... whatever. Just don't try to sell it to anybody, or I'll hunt you down in my Ford!

Anyway, "You keep eatin' your hand, you ain't gonna be hungry for lunch..."

("I've seen you before, y'know...")

take care

---Jones()

ps. We'll be back in a few days with some DEMENTIA PRECOX!

Early Halloween w/SHOCK THEATRE & DR. CREEP...

2008-07-22T10:27:00.007-04:00

Those of you who were reading the blog last year in October might remember when I took a couple of weeks off and threw up my annual Jones Halloween CD 2007 mix just for the hell of it. In that post I mentioned old DOCTOR CREEP and SHOCK THEATRE.

For those who weren't around or don't remember, SHOCK THEATRE was a locally produced weekly horror movie show of the type that abounded throughout the midwest and parts beyond through the '60s, '70s, and just into the '80s. Such programs usually aired over the weekend, sometimes latenight, sometimes in the afternoon -- generally, whenever the station figured that most normal folks were either sleeping or out in the sun doing the kind of happy fun things that ordinary social types with jobs and lives do. But as anyone working in television will tell you, somebody is always watching.

I, of course, was one of those people, and so were a lot of other future Dayton indie rockers. I find it nearly impossible to believe, for example, that little Jamie Holliday (HAUNTING SOULS, LUXURY PUSHERS -- Monster Hop founder) didn't have his eyeballs glued to the set every minute that SHOCK THEATRE was on. And no way you can convince me that every goth kid who hung out on Courthouse Square in 1987 hadn't taken one gander at DR. CREEP's black hat and black cape when they were kids and said, "I'm gonna dress like that when I grow up!"

SHOCK THEATRE aired from 1972 to 1985. I don't know when it aired in the beginning. I do know that in the '80s it was shifted to late Saturday after Saturday Night Live and died a slow, ignoble death in a Reagan-era world that had grown tired of low-budget camp and traditional horror aesthetics like dungeons and shadows in favor of young killers stalking hot chicks with butcher knives and chainsaws. But I most closely identify the show with the Sunday afternoon time slot it occupied in the late '70s.

Sundays in my family were generally lazy days during which we kids were left to do whatever came to mind while my mom cleaned the house and my dad performed complex mathematical calculations on the mail-order computer he had built. Many Sunday mornings, we would all pile in the car and head out to the Dixie Flea Market, but by early afternoon, we were usually back at the old house. Maybe I had a stack of beat-up comics or a tape recorder (seems we had an endless supply of tape recorders that were always breaking) or some action figures or a shitty board game with half the pieces missing. Maybe I had nothing. Maybe I was running through the yard and the house and up and down the driveway with a stick that looked vaguely like a Star Wars blaster shooting at imaginary stormtroopers. But whatever I ended up doing, my older brother usually made sure we had SHOCK THEATRE on in the background. Back then DR. CREEP would host a double feature that seemed to run for hours. The last half hour or so of the second movie would usually be on just as we were sitting down to dinner. I remember eating beef-n-noodles and homemade bread with my back turned to the little black and white TV we had in the kitchen, just a little scared to turn around but still doing so anyway to catch the final fate of the vampire known as Blackula!

Yeah, that was SHOCK THEATRE. One of the great things about it was that in those days local producers had access to any number of foreign (usually British or Italian) and independently produced drive-in films that had never had a nationwide release and never been shown on television. DVDs and even VHS didn't exist yet (I'm pretty sure the first widely available VCRs didn't come until about 1978, and even then the VHS rental market didn't really exist until the early '80s (before that, VCRs seemed mostly used to "time-shift" baseball games and such)).

I suspect that for anyone over thirty today, his or her first exposure to independent film had to have been at the drive-in or on a program like SHOCK THEATRE. Sure, with a few rare exceptions (Carnival of Souls, maybe? some of the early British Hammer films?), they all sucked. But for the most part, they weren't made in Hollywood. They could still scare the shit out of little kids like me, and the cheap special effects, second-rate dialogue, and non-existent plots could still please any adult with a sense of humor. Today, film technology has become so cheap that any aspiring filmmaker with an ounce of initiative can throw something together. And although 99% of all films (indie or Hollywood) still suck, indie filmmaking in general has become more respectable. Perhaps it was Clerks (or one of those other mid-'90s groundbreaking indie efforts like Spanking the Monkey or Jesus of Montreal) that really turned the tide and suddenly made independent film an accepted medium for producing high art. But all that rests firmly on a foundation of cheap drive-in throwdowns like The Undertaker and His Pals, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, and Manos: The Hands of Fate. SHOCK THEATRE had a hand in that.

But to be perfectly honest, the movies were not the best things about SHOCK THEATRE. The real fun (and the crux of the social phenomenon that went along with locally produced horror shows) lay in the dopey bits of stuff that the host and crew would throw in to pad the old double feature to four or five hours of content. Okay, I don't have much of a frame of reference, but I suspect DR. CREEP and Co. were at least above average among the scads of horror hosts operating at the time. There were better ones, of course: Vampira, Elvira, Joe Zacherle (New York City's "Cool Ghoul")... they achieved a sort of nationwide success that DR. CREEP would never have. And a few hosts like Indianapolis' Sammy Terry and St. Petersburg's Shock Armstrong were just so bizarre that they've developed a far-reaching cult status and even inspired legends.

But CREEP & Co. were pretty good, and I'll still say better than average. Anyone who was watching Miami Valley broadcasting in the late '70s no doubt remembers CREEP's distinctive "HOO-HA-HAAAAAAA!" cackle -- whether it be from SHOCK THEATRE, his recurring guest spots on the old CLUBHOUSE 22 show (alongside Duffy the Dog and host Joe Smith), or one of his seemingly endless public appearances (which he still makes today, though on a more limited basis -- no doubt you'll at least be able to catch him this Halloween at both Foy's Halloween Store and Horrorama at the Englewood Cinema). That laugh would later be immortalized on THE LAWN JOCKEYS' seminal Amazing Sounds of Shock Theatre CD. Of course, the various homegrown intros and outros to SHOCK THEATRE and skits that would run before commercial breaks were hardly the stuff of genius. Truth be told, they were pretty stupid, and when they weren't stupid, they were just cheap. But we all loved 'em -- still do.

When I used to work out at London Prison, the closed-circuit TV system in the prison used to air a horror marathon every Halloween. One of the inmates who used to work in the TV system let me have a hand in picking the movies one year. I swear to god it was nearly impossible to resist the urge to find some way to sit in the dorm with those inmates for the entire marathon and kibbutz through all those shitty movies. The next year the same inmate got me as a guest on one of the between-movie spots they would tape. That was a great Halloween. I felt just like DR. CREEP.

And that leads us to the media content for this post. No, it's not me on London Prison TV (though I'm pretty sure I have a video tape of that somewhere). It's a bevy of SHOCK THEATRE clips posted over at YouTube, vintage stuff from the show. We'll start with this intro clip from 1977. This is the one I remember best and the one I most closely identify with the SHOCK THEATRE phenomenon. For those who don't recognize the inspiration, it's supposed to parodying the intro to the '50s television series The Outer Limits. Check it out (it's only a minute):Here's a collection of "Bumpers" (lead-ins to commercial spots) from 1978-1979:Finally, SHOCK THEATRE always celebrated holidays with great fervor. If you look on the page, you'll find a two-part "Christmas Caper" from CREEP and his pals, but that one's rather long, so here I'll just post this St. Patrick's Day sing-along clip:

There are 18 other clips too. Go here to view the selection.

And that's it.

This is all just some shit I found that I wanted to stick up here. I Remember Dayton will be back more regularly on August 1. Until then...

take care

---Jones()

CIGARHEAD, et al. at Fictionband...

2008-07-21T10:04:00.002-04:00

Just in case you'd like a little old school Dayton indie rawk to tide you over until this blog returns on August 1, I thought I'd point you toward these offerings over at Fictionband:

CIGARHEAD, 12x12 cassette
CIGARHEAD/MORSEL split 7"
THE MOTEL BEDS, Lost Beds
THE MULCHMEN, All the News That's Fit to Surf EP
OHIO CASKET, People in Hell Want Ice Water EP

There are others too. Get 'em all over at the download section of Fictionband. And while you're there, check out the rest of the blog too.

take care

---Jones()

THE VECTORS video at YouTube...

2008-07-20T21:48:00.003-04:00

Yeah, Chuck and I played at Gail's party a couple of weeks ago. Dennis Schlichter was kind enough to take these videos. This blog is ordinarily concerned only with Dayton music that is at least ten years old, but what the fuck? The blog's on hiatus, and it's still my blog, and this is my band.

Here they are:

"Stupid Shit" - Just Gail and me and everybody screwing around. I had to include this one because it features me comparing myself to Robert Plant.

"Three Candles" - A song I wrote for Oakley. His favorite part (and mine) is where my guitar strap falls off. He laughed his ass off when he saw that.

"Bang Your Head" - The Vectors covering the Quiet Riot classic (or as much of it as we can remember -- which isn't very much at all), featuring Gail Dafler on vocals.

I'll be uploading these to The Vectors' Myspace page as well.

Now I'll go back to playing my small part in contributing to this nation's repository of legal wisdom! (Are you scared yet? You will be the next time you need a lawyer!)

take care

---Jones()

More self-aggrandizing crap...

2008-07-14T15:09:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I guess I'm just posting to thank Jay Madewell for adding THE VECTORS tune "Christ Figure 8" as his profile song on Myspace. Believe it or not, I consider it an honor. If you like, you can see his page and listen.

For those who don't know, Jay is a longtime Dayton musical fixture. His claim to fame for purposes of this blog would be that he once played drums for REAL LULU and certain other bands that I am not knowledgeable enough to name right now (my problem, I know). But today Jay is a DJ and promoter around this town. If you live around here, you may know him as the mastermind behind "L'Eighties Night" and all those Fab Gear events down at The Pearl.

As for this blog specifically, it may or may not please you to know that we will be returning with all new stuff promptly on August 1, 2008.

Yeah, life still sucks, but the blog must go on...

take care

---Jones()

Upcoming shows by yours truly...

2008-07-09T13:55:00.002-04:00

Yeah, the blog's on hiatus...

(don't you love it when you can say that something you're doing is on "hiatus"? Kind of makes you feel like the executive producer of LOST or something, no?)

...but who says I can't still add promotional posts? Oh yeah...

So yeah, here's a list of shows I'm doing:

Thursday, July 10 - at The Pearl - THE VECTORS (that's me and chuck)

Tuesday, July 29 - at Canal Street Tavern, 9:30 p.m. - Me playing solo acoustic (just like James Taylor)

Saturday, August 16 - at Dayton Dirt Collective - THE VECTORS

End of line.

---Jones()

Me at Gem City Records!

2008-05-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

I'll be playing acoustically at Gem City Records this Sunday, May 25, at 2 p.m.

Hope to see you there.

take care

---Jones()

Summer break early...

2008-05-06T22:17:00.002-04:00

I was going to wait until the end of May to do this, but there's no point. I have to shut the blog down for the summer. There are just too many other things I have to take care of right now.

Check back in a couple of days for something about the spectacular Live BRAINIAC Archival Project authored by one of the people doing that project. He's going to send it to me, and I'll post it here. From what I understand of this project, it's pretty cool and may give you plenty to tide you over through the summer (if nothing else, you may have to learn how Torrents work -- just e-mail me if you don't know what a Torrent is).

Anyway, after that things will be kind of quiet around here for a couple of months. I just have to take the summer off from this and a lot of other stuff. My plan right now is to resume on August 1. I may move that up, or I may not. Again, e-mail me if you'd like to be informed directly when I do start up again.

Remember, check back for BRAINIAC in a few days.

And e-mail me about anything else you want too.

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: COLAVISION at YouTube

2008-04-30T07:53:00.008-04:00

I took my last exam yesterday, and I did not realize until it was done just how much this one was weighing on my mind. It was Business Associations 2, the second half of a two-semester class. This section covered close and public corporations, proxy fraud, shareholder voting agreements, fiduciary duties of corporate directors, various sections of the Securities & Exchange Act of 1934, accompanying administrative regulations, shareholder derivative suits, Special Litigation Committees...

At which item in that list did you nod off? For me it was proxy fraud (must've typed the rest in my sleep).

Anyway it's done now, which means I can finally get back to the important things in life: obscure Dayton indie rock bands that no one remembers! Even better: obscure indie rock bands that I played in!

So once again, from Mite's YouTube site, I Remember Dayton is proud to serve up some never before seen video. Here's a pair from my band COLAVISION.

Both of these were shot at the now infamous punk rock wedding reception celebrating the unholy union of Greg "Grog" Simerlink (OXYMORONS bass player and mastermind behind Mutant-Renegade Records & Zine, as well as The Chickenfish Speaks) and Jen Cook (COLAVISION bass player).

The marriage didn't last (no offense, Grog or Jen -- mine didn't either), but the wedding was awesome. They had the ceremony at the Page Manor Twin Cinemas, where Jen was working at the time. That theater itself was quite the indie rock hangout in 1994 (probably because so many indie rockers worked there) and no doubt deserves a blog entry of its own. But I was living in Columbus at this time, so I'm not really the one to write that entry (Jen, I'm looking in your direction). Still, I do remember that one of the employees actually owned an original print of the first Star Wars movie that they would sometimes screen privately after midnight. Because it was a private screening, they'd let you smoke in the theater, so I may be one of the very few people on this earth who can say he saw Star Wars in a theater while smoking -- a dubious distinction, to be sure, but a rare one at least.

The Page closed its doors some time in the mid-'90s. Someone reopened it in 2004, and at Christmas that year I dragged Val out to see Surviving Christmas (with that delightful Ben Affleck). But by 2006 it was closed again. As far as I know, there are no plans to reopen it.

The reception was held at Canal Street Tavern. I remember that OXYMORONS, CANDYASS, HEIKE, and COLAVISION all played -- and perhaps one or two others (did THE WILL play? Grog?). In between the bands they did all the usual wedding stuff: garter, cake, bouquet (didn't Gail catch the bouquet? or was it Andrea?) Most of the wedding party played in their formal wear. You'll see Jen in her wedding dress. If memory serves (and does it ever?), this is also the night that Jen cut Grog's long hair on stage.

I would assume that Mite has more video from this night. In addition to these two COLAVISION videos, he has at least one video of THE OXYMORONS performing "Little Man Hate" (check the site). HEIKE's first cassette, Precious Underground, features a number of songs from our live set at the reception -- will post soon enough.

Okay, I've been typing for about half an hour now, and this post just isn't rolling like I want it to. Maybe I'm too distracted. Exams are over, but I've about a million things to do today (mow the grass, apply for a job, re-apply for student loans -- the list goes on), so I'm just going to do all that and maybe try to write a more fluid entry on all this some other time.

In the meantime, enjoy the videos. And don't forget to download the COLAVISION record if you like the songs presented here.

take care

---Jones()

ps. "Spasm" is the only COLAVISION song that Jen sang lead on. It's one of those songs we wrote toward the end that I'm sorry I never got a really good recording of. I have a rough mix on cassette of that (and a few others) that we did at Cro-Magnon. I will post it at some point, but the vocals are way, way down in the mix. Sadly, the masters seem to have disappeared from the face of the Earth.

OXYMORONS video, fixed

2008-04-22T08:26:00.001-04:00

Mite fixed the sound on THE OXYMORONS video:

take care

---Jones()

FYI: No promises this week...

2008-04-21T23:02:00.004-04:00

Okay, I realize it's been quite a while since I posted some actual music for download on this blog. I also realize that quite a few people have written me with information on Dayton music-related offerings that I have yet to feature here.

Let me say to those who hunger for more music and to those who have supplied me with information that I have seemingly ignored, I am aware. It's just that over the past couple of weeks, things have been kind of nuts for me. I won't bore you with the details (although regular readers of this blog will doubtless note that I have not been reticent to bore you with such details in the past), but here are the highlights:

I've been named Executive Publishing Editor of Capital University's Law Review for next year. This was both an extreme high (because a position on the Law Review's executive board is kind of a big deal for a law student) and a total anxiety producer (because of some internal politics and because of the fact that it's a lot of responsibility and if I fuck this up, I'll be paying for it).
I was named Staff Member of the Year for my work on Volume 36 (this year's edition) of the Law Review (another nice feather in the cap).
My ever-spiralling personal life has gone through so many highs and lows recently that I honestly feel like I'm trapped in a REPLACEMENTS song.
I only just realized that I am both ahead and behind on studying for exams (it's complicated because my exam schedule is bizarre this semester).

There's more, but the bottom line (ugh! "bottom line" is such a Republican phrase) is that I have two exams between now and next Tuesday. So after next Tuesday, I'll be posting lots more music regularly, but until then I have no idea what I'll be posting. Please bear with me.

take care

---Jones

A flyer with a big cock on it...

2008-04-17T23:06:00.004-04:00

Here we go then: the infamous penis flyer!

I haven't seen this damn thing in at least seventeen years, and it looks just as stupid now as it did when Gail and I put it together.

I had known Gail for just a couple of months at the time. I don't remember exactly how or where I first met her, but it was most likely at WWSU's Alternative Tuesday some time in the summer of 1989 -- perhaps through our friend in common*, Laura Albrecht, whom I knew because she was a student in the English Department at Wright State and whom Gail had known since elementary school.

At some point, I'm going to compose a nice, long blog entry on Gail and her relationship to Dayton music in general and THE OXYMORONS in particular, but for now I'll just say that she was the co-mastermind behind this flyer, which proved to be one of the most memorable and boneheaded manuvers I would ever make in my life -- but one of the few boneheaded manuvers I would ever make for which I would suffer no consequences.

Gail and I made this flyer in the library at WSU. I found the picture in a book of woodcuts by 19th century illustrator Aubrey Beardsley -- who may be best known for his ornately rendered version of Le Morte D'Arthur (I have a facsimile -- it's quite beautiful), but who also produced illustrations for any number of other works under the William Morris imprint, including absurdist, semi-pornographic romances, of which the illustration here is typical.

What twenty-year-old mind could resist slapping this stupid illustration on a flyer and adding the equally stupid dialogue balloon over it? Certainly not mine, nor Gail's. This one writes itself, no?

I swear to god, none of us ever questioned it. We just put 'em up. In fact, I remember this particular flyering adventure as one of the very few times that we all went flyering together: with a hundred of these things, plus a brush, a big can of glue, and a lot of Wild Irish Rose. We put 'em up in a number of places, but we hit the Oregon District the hardest. We put these big green pieces of paper with a big cock on them all over bulletin boards, the sides of buildings, benches, and one or two NO PARKING signs.

And we really thought nothing of it. I was actually surprised when Ben called me a few days later and told me how a City of Dayton police officer had come knocking at his parents' front door on a Sunday afternoon. Seems this same officer had also come storming into Canal Street Tavern earlier that day bellowing that he was going to arrest someone if they didn't give him the location of someone in THE OXYMORONS. Mick gave Ben up, but we couldn't really blame him -- now or then.

It seems initial complaints had come from business owners throughout the Oregon District and officials at Sinclair Community College (where we had also put quite a few of these up). The cops got involved from there. This particular cop must've either gotten his ass chewed off by Chief Inspector Todd or he was bucking for promotion because he put Ben in the back of that car, drove him all over Dayton, and made him take down every flyer that we had glued to NO PARKING signs.

Okay, now that I'm typing this, I'm getting the impression that I might be confusing this flyering incident with a different one, but in any case, all of this stuff happened. It's just that some of the events might've happened on a different occasion.

In any case, Ben took the hit for all of us, and I'll thank him once again for that. He took down every one of these things the cop told him to, and he never gave him my name or Nick's or Grog's. By the time I even heard of police involvement, it was all done.

Yeah, I'm thinking more about it now, and I'm pretty sure that this flyer just got Canal Street Tavern a bunch of angry phone calls. It was another flyer that got Ben shanghaied into Dayton urban renewal.

Thanks to Grog for digging this up, scanning, and sending it along.

take care

---Jones()

* I use the phrase "friend in common" rather than "mutual friend" because even though the latter was good enough for Charles Dickens (the finest man of English letters after Shakespeare and William Blake) it contains an improper use of the word "mutual."

Smokey the Bear, Jeffrey Dahmer, GREEN DAY, THE OXYMORONS, and me...

2008-04-16T08:58:00.004-04:00

Grog dug up some flyers the other day -- among them, this one for a punkfest that THE OXYMORONS played with GREEN DAY in 1992 (or thereabouts).

GREEN DAY and THE OXYMORONS were supposed to be the big draws, so GREEN DAY was slated to play last and we were to play right before them. We sat there in some park outside of Milwaukee pretty much all day drinking, listening to one band after another, and talking to people as they came by the van. It was fun for the first few hours, but by 10:00 p.m. or so, I was ready to play and get the hell out of there. We had a six-hour drive to St. Louis in the morning.

This park had a gigantic hot air balloon figure of Smokey the Bear sitting maybe thirty feet from the covered area where the bands were playing. At some point after sundown, somebody slashed it. The police showed up, saw that big expensive bear sagging, and kicked everybody out. So the show got moved to an apartment in Milwaukee occupied by a friend of the kid who had put the festival together.

The apartment was pretty huge and situated on the third floor of a three-story building. The lower two floors, strangely enough, were occupied by an abortion clinic. The building itself was located just a couple of blocks from Jeffrey Dahmer's old apartment building, which was still standing at the time. Dahmer had been arrested just the previous summer, so we all drove by the building and marvelled.

There were a lot of people on hand at the apartment. We decided to go say "hey" to GREEN DAY and offer a handshake to old Billie Joe. No response. Same from the other two members. Then GREEN DAY decided that they MUST go on first so that they could go to bed, even though they were staying in Milwaukee and we and the other band had to be in St. Louis the next day. We explained this and the fact that the crowd would greatly diminish after they played. Their only response was that if they didn't play right then, they were leaving. So we let them go on and, as we expected, when they were done, half the room was gone.

We recognized most of the people who had stayed, so we knew that if we played next, no one would see the last band. So we let them go (they were very cool but I can't remember their name) and ended up starting a six-hour drive to St. Louis at 4 a.m.

GREEN DAY begged and pleaded the owner of the apartment to let them stay there. She said "okay." Somebody put a GRATEFUL DEAD tape in the stereo. GREEN DAY's drummer threw it out the window, and they got kicked out. So they were outside singing "Trucking" and acting like it was no big deal. Then the bass player started sidling over, looking at us like he wanted to give us the privilege of allowing GREEN DAY to sleep in our van. We waved "bye-bye" and high tailed it on to St. Louis.

I heard later that the guy who had organized the show let them stay at his house. This guy lived with his parents. GREEN DAY showed up at 6 a.m. and promptly set about dying their hair in the guy's bathroom, getting hair dye everywhere (including the ceiling) and leaving a big turd behind the toilet. Wow. Punk rock, I guess. Anyway, that's the story.

So basically, they were assholes. But, what the hell? Kerplunk, Dookie, and American Idiot are really good records. I guess I just wish I'd never met them.

take care

---Jones()

ps. Grog also sent me the infamous penis flyer. I'll post that in a few days.

Off-Site: ¡THE OXYMORONS! on YouTube...

2008-04-15T12:00:00.002-04:00

Another great upload over at Mite Mutant's YouTube site: it's a video of THE OXYMORONS playing "Unearthing Your Grave" at Canal Street Tavern. I'm not entirely sure of the year, but the song plus the length and color of my hair lead me to place this in 1992.

This one actually brought a tear to my eye. I've seen very little OXYMORONS video over the past fifteen years and almost none since Ben died -- strange to see him on stage again playing this song.

My only problem with this video is that the sound is very, very low, but Mite tells me he's working on fixing that and will upload more when he does so.

I don't know why I'm doing the hippie dance in this one. Pretty goofy.

take care

---Jones()

Jealousy...

2008-04-12T11:39:00.000-04:00

An anonymous reader submitted the following comment for approval on the previous post (the one about the audio files over at the WWSU Reunion Page):

you're just jealous that kim deal made it and you DIDN'T.

There are several things I love about this comment.

First, I love that the commenter obviously knows where the CAPS LOCK key is but defies convention by refusing to capitalize either the first letter of the sentence or Kim Deal's name. Tre chic...

Second, I love that it's so apropos of nothing. I am stymied to find any connection between my being jealous of Kim Deal and the WWSU Reunion -- or, for that matter, anything else on this blog. I don't remember saying anything nasty about Kim Deal here. Now if the commenter had said "Bob Pollard," that I could see. I had one or two posts a couple of months ago in which I expressed my lack of interest in GUIDED BY VOICES. But this commenter chose Kim Deal for some reason. Gee, I wonder why? Hmmm... The comment just sort of bursts with unwarranted phlegm and accusation. It's like absurdist performance art. Kudos.

Third, I love that it states the blatantly obvious. Of course I'm jealous of Kim Deal! Who wouldn't be? -- at least on some level. She's made a lot of great music that's better than just about any music I've ever done. For the record, I'm also specifically jealous of GREEN DAY and SMASHING PUMPKINS. And generally, I'm jealous of anyone who ever eked out a better living making music than I did. To go further, I'm jealous of the people who get better scores on law school exams than I do. I'm jealous of people who make more money than I do. I'm jealous of people whose son or daughter isn't as obsessed with video games as mine is. I'm jealous of people whose blogs get more hits than mine. I'm jealous of people who have steady jobs with health insurance and retirement benefits. I'm jealous of people who can maintain stable interpersonal relationships over a life time. Shit, count up all the people I'm jealous of and Kim Deal is but one of millions -- and she's not even at the top of the list.

But I try to remember that the list of people I'm not jealous of is just as long. I'm certainly not jealous of people who refuse to even try to have interpersonal relationships out of fear of getting hurt or some misguided sense of self loathing masquerading as individuality. I'm not jealous of people who blame others for their inability to hold a steady job. I'm not jealous of even the most popular bloggers who spew stupid ideas. I'm not jealous of people who are constantly at war with their own children because their children didn't turn out to be little copies of themselves (I think of that line that Willie Loman's neighbor delivers in Death of a Salesman: "My salvation is that I never took any interest in anything."). I'm not jealous of people who blame the instructor (and everyone else) when they don't do as well on a law school exam as I do. I'm not jealous of people who waste their lives on alcohol and drugs and end up entering middle age with no human connections, no self worth to speak of, and no hope for the future because they've never been able to get their act together and probably never will.

I'm also not jealous of anyone who posts chickenshit comments anonymously on blogs. But I guess that's another thing you could say of anyone -- except, of course, anyone who posts a chickenshit comment anonymously on a blog.

But to bring this back to the subject of I Remember Dayton, I'll say yes, there are times when I wish I had done as well making music as Kim Deal has. But to go further, I suspect that there are times when Kim wishes she had done as well making music as, say, Bono or Alanis Morissette.

Thousands, if not millions, of people in shitty towns like Dayton all across this shitty country have music inside them struggling to get out. Of those, I bet 90% of them never write a song, or sing, or learn how to play an instrument. Of the ones that do, I bet 90% of them never put a band together. Of the ones that do, I bet 90% of them never make it out of the basement. Of the ones that make it out of the basement, I bet 90% of them never make it out of their home town. Of the ones that make it out of their home town, I bet 90% of them fold within five years. Of the ones that end up with a sustainable music career, 90% of them never make a living that is much more comfortable than the average public school teacher.

So I figure anyone who made it out of the basement and left enough trace behind to merit attention on a shitty blog did pretty well -- considering. At least, we could've done a lot worse. I think of that pivotal scene in Rocky where Mickey shows up in Rocky's apartment with clippings from Mickey's long past heyday as a fighter. As Rocky points out, at least Mick has the clippings, at least he had a prime. It's pathetic, but it's less pathetic than a lousy ground floor apartment with only two turtles for company and a job breaking peoples' thumbs because we hate ourselves for never taking our shot.

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: WWSU audio at reunion page

2008-04-10T16:34:00.002-04:00

For the unaware, Wright State University's campus radio station is having a reunion that's generally for staff who worked there through the '80s and early '90s (although my impression is that pretty much anyone who has ever worked at the station is welcome). For some inexplicable reason, I still haven't registered for the reunion, but I will be there. And I've been keeping up with reunion planning events via the e-mail list and the WWSU '80s Reunion Page.

Although some would disagree, I think of the 1980s as sort of the silver age of indie rock. When rock and roll first came along and for the next decade or so after that, there was no need for the term "indie rock" because all rock was indie rock: that is, rock and roll music produced by small, independently owned record labels with limited resources -- because at that time, rock and roll was controversial and no executive with any business sense would touch a rock act. Of course, by the mid-'60s rock and roll had become big business, gigantic corporations had wised up, and record labels owned as sole proprietorships or close corporations were beginning to feel the squeeze. But even then you could find such labels competing with the big guys -- probably the most notorious example being CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, who released on the independent label Fantasy Records throughout their career.

Through all of this, because the FCC carefully regulated the number of radio stations any single entity could own in a given market, even the smaller indie labels could still get their records on the charts by working hard to get them out to radio stations and cold calling the individual program directors. But a lot of that changed in the '80s when Ronald Reagan's FCC basically deregulated the commercial market (as the current FCC continues to do today). Suddenly, as more commercial stations in different regions came under centralized control, program directors became less and less likely to play anything but the playlist approved by some home office in Delaware.

In my view, it's here that college radio became an important outlet for indie rock. Don't get me wrong, good college stations have always been host to out-of-the-ordinary programming of all kinds, and a lot of that was music. But such music tended to be the kind of thing that wouldn't ordinarily appeal to a mass audience (like most of what BOMP! Records (god bless 'em) was putting out). I think it was in the '80s that a lot of music which was otherwise commercially viable suddenly found itself shut out of the commercial market simply because it was not on a major, corporate label.

This is what impressed me about what we used to call "Alternative" or "Modern" rock back then when I first started working at WWSU -- how radio friendly it otherwise was. Sure, artists like BONGWATER and HALF JAPANESE opened up new horizons for me about what music could sound like, but what amazed me most was how so many artists on college radio should have been climbing the top 40 charts.

I'm talking about acts like THE REPLACEMENTS, KILKENNY CATS, THE NUNS, THROWING MUSES, THE PIXIES, THE DIVINYLS, THE CURE, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, VOICE OF THE BEEHIVE, SOUNDGARDEN, and probably most glaringly CONCRETE BLONDE -- also, pretty much everything that was played at Alternative Tuesday. Although each of these artists had a sound that was a little outside the mainstream, none of it was anything the general public wouldn't have liked. Of course, a few of these artists would later chart on the Top 40, and one or two would have undeniable mass appeal later on in the '90s, but only after being relegated for years to the "Modern Rock" charts (or scoring chart toppers overseas while their albums languished in this 50-state cultural backwater). CONCRETE BLONDE, in fact, had been signed, ignored, and finally dropped by a major label several years before they had a string of Top 40 hits in the early '90s.

As I said, we called it "Alternative Rock" back then, but even when that term was taken seriously (i.e. before "Alternative Rock" became so mainstream that it was no longer an alternative to anything -- which is about when people started calling the music on college radio "indie rock"), it should've been replaced by something more descriptive: like "Human Rock" or "Real Person Rock" or something like that -- because the real difference between Alternative Rock artists and commercial radio artists was that the people making Alternative Rock were far more human and real to me than the people who made commercial rock.

First of all, people like Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould, Johnette Napolitano, and Kristin Hersh did not really look like rock stars. They were overweight or they were underweight or their faces weren't air brushed or their hair wasn't styled. Their wardrobes weren't selected by some art director in a New York design firm. Their videos (those that had them) weren't professionally produced, nor were most of their recordings. They played small venues where I didn't need binoculars to see them, and if I wanted to, I could meet most of them and have a conversation after the show (which I often did). They made music that was as good as or better than anything I could hear on commercial radio, but unlike bigger commercial artists, I felt like these guys were actually working for a living.

Anyway, that was the thing that really attracted me to Alternative Rock back then. I liked that most of it was fairly original but also had a good beat and melodies you could sing along to, and I liked that it seemed close somehow.

WWSU, like a thousand other college stations across this country, played this kind of music all the time, and in keeping with that indie aesthetic, the people who worked at WWSU produced all kinds of audio creations for the station: station IDs, comedy shows, news reports, unclassifiable oddities. In my previous post on WWSU, I mentioned "Das Boot," which Darryl Brandt and Matt DeWald produced in WWSU's secondary studio. I think I've also mentioned at some point that Matt lent me a reel-to-reel containing either the original or remixed versions of that recording. Unfortunately, I need a 1/4" reel-to-reel player to rip it, and I haven't located one yet.

But some kind soul at the WWSU Reunion page has gathered some other recordings produced at WWSU in the '80s and posted them on the WWSU Reunion Site. On the Audio Page, you'll find seven recordings to listen to. This is great stuff and a reminder of a time when all radio stations made their own spots rather than playing whatever Corporate sent them.

take care

---Jones()

CORRECTION notice...

2008-04-07T09:25:00.002-04:00

Back in February, Mite posted a video clip from the film The Antioch Adventure, Part 2, and I wrote some observations on it here. In that entry, I assumed that the blonde actress in the clip was Mia Zapata of THE GITS and so did several other viewers who wrote to Mite. However, he has since contacted the director of that film and determined that the girl in the video is NOT Mia. I have updated that entry accordingly, but I wanted to post something here to try to forestall repetition of bad information.

As I always tell my students, the internet's greatest strength is that it's a repository of information on all sorts of topics that are too obscure to merit attention in print, but without the rigorous fact checking process that professional publications go through, the information you find there isn't always reliable. I like to think this blog illustrates both points.

take care

---Jones()

Okay, this is fucked up!

2008-04-02T22:01:00.002-04:00

I hate to push down my post on Musician's Co-Op so soon (and if you haven't read it yet, scroll down one entry, read it now, and come right back up here -- those are my orders!), but I got this group e-mail from Andy Valeri with two alarming bits of news in it: (1) Antioch College may be closing its doors and (2) public radio station WYSO, currently an NPR station owned by the college, may become (hold onto your fucking hat) a syndicated Christian radio station. No shit.

For those who don't know, Antioch College has sort of been Ohio's little piece of Berkeley since its founding in 1852. Even before the '60s, it was an oasis in the midwest for anarchists, communists, crackpots (god love 'em all), and generally dissident thinkers of all kinds. Its first president was legendary educational iconoclast Horace Mann. Its distinguished alumni include civil rights activist Coretta Scott King, actor Cliff "Uncle Ben" Robertson, Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, American poet Mark Strand, and (more to our purposes) deceased indie rock icon Mia Zapata.

Even before WYSO became an NPR affiliate in the '80s, the station was blazing trails in radio culture, sporting all sorts of local color and "anything goes" blocked shows that approached the current "freeform" programming of New Jersey's legendary WFMU. Since the late '80s (and perhaps before) the station has been an outstanding supporter of Miami Valley music artists, as documented in numerous entries on this very blog and other places.

Now, apparently, the long and the short of it is that Antioch is out of money, and the current powers that be want to carve up the college's assets and sell them piecemeal. WYSO's license is one of the prize items in this auction.

Okay, I have to admit something at this point: Antioch College students have always rubbed me the wrong way. I've met very few that I could even tolerate on a personal level. I have found that many of the ones I've known, while strongly committed to some cause or some form of artistic expression or whatever, seem severely lacking in the ability to feel compassion for other humans on a personal level. Put more simply, I've just known too many who care more about being an individual than they do about the individuals surrounding them.

Of course, that's my beef, and I hope I haven't made myself persona non grata in Yellow Springs (where I lived for two years in the '90s and have considered returning to when I begin practicing). But I have to say it because I want you to know that I mean it when I write that the loss of Antioch College and WYSO is a loss to the Miami Valley and the world. Even though I have a personal distaste for many of the Antioch students I've known, the world needs them. The world needs the kind of person that Antioch College produces -- as much or more as it needs the kind of person that Harvard or Dartmouth or Smith produces.

For more information on Antioch's current dilemma, read this article from the Dayton Daily News that Andy sent me.

And here are some postings he sent me from people involved in the Keep WYSO Local effort:

Recent articles in the Dayton Daily News raise a big red flag about WYSO. The University doesn't want to include it in the "sale " of the College. If the University keeps the station it seems unlikely, to me at least, that it is doing so because it wants to operate a community radio station. More likely it plans to sell the license to the highest bidder. I think we need to be raising the issue with friends in the College/Alumni community and encourage them to continue to push to have WYSO included in the sale of the college. The fate of the station is being decided now.

The most recent press release from the group (ACCC) that is trying to buy Antioch College from the University, reporting on the negotiations the ACCC, writes....

"In talks, the University's negotiating team spoke of its desire to "leverage the College's assets" and made clear that it did not want to share ownership of WYSO because it wants to explore the possibility of selling the public radio station."

---Ellis Jacobs

I am sounding the alarm loudly.
WATCH OUT, MIAMI VALLEY!!

Antioch University shows every sign of wanting the college to fail, whereupon it can maximize return on various Yellow Springs holdings: real estate, WSYO license.

Over the past 10 months, it has dragged its feet in negotiations with the college alumni in order to realize the objective of closing the college. And the village has had to witness all this as a hapless bystander. If the University prevails in closing the college, this town is headed for a very uncertain future. In addition to loosing income tax revenue for at least 3-4 years while the University "redesigns" its Antioch College campus, village government would do well to plan for a future that sees no re-opening of the college at all. After all, the plans that have been outlined by Chancellor Murdoch are sketchy and rely on significant participation by Antioch College Alums. She really does seem to think that the alums will have amnesia in a dozen or so months and this whole flap will have blown over. Well, the village should NOT hitch its future to THAT wagon. And as for WYSO, the public radio station that this town helped to build, well, don't be surprised if it is sold off to help finance a new Antioch/Seattle campus.

Last June, when people were expressing shock and dismay over the announced closure of Antioch College, Glenn Watts was overheard saying "when we are done, you won't recognize the College." One should take him at his word and meditate long and hard about how central the college has been (and even in its current diminished state continues to be) the defining ethos for this quirky little berg of ours.

HEAR IT HERE, if you haven't already: the hope for the continuation of Yellow Springs as we know it is with the college alumni and their plans to keep the college in operation. With their plan, not only will village tax revenues continue apace, but the college, infused with alumni energy and support for the first time in decades will lead a renaissance for this town and among other things provide a true foundation for the emerging YS Arts Center.

As for the University and its crowd of administrators, do not be surprised if various key players make "career moves" in the near future now that there is a big mess that they might have to help clean up.

EVERYONE, be very careful about what representatives of the University say; the promises they make, A lot of what they say may well prove itself to be just so much smoke. And if serious planning is based on any of what they say, it should be backed up by serious alternative contingencies. To plan any other way when dealing with this crowd would be foolhardy.

---Michael Jones

Finally, here are links to the entries on this blog relating to Antioch College and WYSO:

REAL LULU, Underground Sessions (WYSO)
REAL LULU photo & graphics set (WYSO)
BIG BROWN HOUSE, Scrappy James cassette (Antioch College, Yellow Springs)
BIG BROWN HOUSE in The Antioch Adventure, Part 2 movie clip (Antioch College)
The Gits Movie, trailer (Antioch College)

take care

---Jones()

Musician's Co-Op at Canal Street Tavern (now & then)

2008-04-02T10:24:00.001-04:00

So last night I went down to show some support for the newly revived Musician's Co-Op at Canal Street Tavern (for the uninitiated, Musician's Co-Op is basically an open stage night where pretty much anyone who signs up can do an unpaid, half-hour set of whatever he or she wants to do). I had only planned to have a beer and stick around for one or two sets, but I ended up staying for pretty much the whole thing. In many ways, last night's Co-Op was a major flashback to the old days, and I think much of that had to do with the fact that Sharon Lane was hosting.

Except for the past year, Musician's Co-Op has been a steady institution at Canal Street Tavern since at least 1981. Mick Montgomery hosted it for the first ten years, but when I first started going in the late '80s, the host was Sharon Lane.

As you may know, Sharon has been a blues and jazz singer/piano player around these parts since the '70s. She's an incredible talent, and it was always worth hitting Musician's Co-Op on a Tuesday night just on the off chance that she would play a set -- maybe to fill in for someone who hadn't shown up or maybe just because she wanted to. Sharon is good enough and authentic enough to make you feel like you're in a sleazy Brooklyn jazz hole in the '50s or '60s -- almost as if you were "leaning on the john door in the 5 Spot/while she whispered a song along the keyboard/to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing" (to quote Frank O'Hara's famous poem on the death of Billie Holiday).

Don't get me wrong, I've never been a particular fan of jazz. You'll never see me slip a Miles Davis CD into the stereo at home or in the car. I don't own any. But when it's played live and played well, I can get into it. Strangely, jazz has that attraction for me in common with blazingly fast, aggressive hardcore punk. Played well by people who love it, either form of music can be amazing.

But at the time when I was regularly patronizing the Co-Op, it was worth going whether Sharon played or not, as long as she was hosting. In addition to being a great singer, Sharon is also a great personality, and so she could turn a simple collection of unpaid musicians of widely varying talent performing 30-minute sets in Stalinist order into something with the fluidity of the old Ed Sullivan show or a night at the Apollo. Because she knew most of the performers, she would give a little introduction for each one that almost always included a story. Or while the set was changing, she would tell a story about herself or rant about some situation in her own life. Okay, sometimes it was boring, but if it was, you could just go back to your drink and talk to your friends. And most of the time, it wasn't boring because in her time in Dayton, Sharon has gathered thousands of stories about interesting people and situations.

Last night was no exception. I hadn't seen Sharon host since she stopped doing Musician's Co-Op in the early '90s, but she picked up right where she left off. And I suppose it didn't hurt that she had good material to work with. Last night's performers included Kattie Dougherty (of REAL LULU), John Dubuc (formerly of THE OBVIOUS), and two or three others whose names I don't remember but who were obviously accomplished musicians who had been friends with Sharon for quite some time. About halfway through the night, Sharon also played a set, which she interrupted more than once to bemoan the recession of arts programs from the Dayton Public Schools (something which, I think, cost her a job last year) or talk about the history of Canal Street Tavern and the great men, women, boys, and girls who have performed on that stage. Classic.

Sharon's garulous method of hosting always struck me as a more transient version of the poetry of Frank O'Hara, who made his literary career writing free verse tales of people and places he was acquainted with in New York City. His poetry isn't always easy to understand because it depends on the reader being as intimately acquainted with O'Hara's friends (almost always referred to by first names only) and the bars, museums, apartments, and street corners that formed the back drop of his daily life (again, usually denoted with an offhand reference that might present a single image but lack any consideration for the fact that most of his readers had never even been to these places). O'Hara has been called the poet of New York City for that reason.

I'll say that Sharon has tapped into the same aesthetic for Dayton, but in a more transient way because she doesn't write anything down. Like good origami, her hosting is more craft than art, and it stands only briefly (at least compared to the ages spanning term of a painting or sculpture) before it is discarded and replaced with a new offering.

So if you want to experience it, you'd better get your ass down to a Co-Op when she's hosting, buy some drinks, and listen (Sharon is only one of three or four different hosts that the new Musician's Co-Op will have, but I spoke with one of the others last night, and from what I can tell, there are some good things in the works). Musician's Co-Op folded last year after an unbroken 26 year run because Mick just wasn't making enough money anymore to keep the place open on Tuesdays (ironically, Mick told me last night that when he opened, Musician's Co-Op was the biggest draw he had). It would be nice to see this new incarnation of the tradition succeed. I can't say I'll be down there every Tuesday, but I'll be making the effort to hit it more often. So should you.

take care

---Jones()

THE IGNITERS, "Glorious Timebomb" (video, 2001)

2008-04-01T17:21:00.006-04:00

Here's a video Chris Wright sent me a couple of weeks ago. It's for THE IGNITERS tune "Glorious Timebomb." Like all the best videos you find on the internet, it is less than two minutes long (because no one can enjoy video sitting bolt upright in an office chair for longer than that), so you should watch it:

I know little of THE IGNITERS except that both Chris Wright and Jason Himes were involved in the band. I'm betting other people I know were involved too.

This video comes to you through the combined efforts of four people: Chris Wright (who sent it to me), Martin Gross (who is hosting it for download on his site), Mike Kilbourne (who uploaded it to his YouTube site), and me.

Download it! (15 MB)

For those new to this blog, I'll remind you that Mite is also hosting music videos from REAL LULU and MORELLA'S FOREST, as well as clips from The Antioch Adventure, Part 2 featuring THE GITS and BIG BROWN HOUSE, at his YouTube site. If you click on that link and scroll down, you'll also find clips from STEVEN GULLET, SNAKE OIL, and DAVID POE (formerly Dave Ponitz of GLEE & BEEK) in his video log and favorites section.

take care

---Jones()

REAL LULU, Underground Sessions (unreleased, cassette, 1995(?))

2008-03-26T09:02:00.010-04:00

Let's rock:

To celebrate my invective return to the blogosphere (veni, vidi, vexavi!), I Remember Dayton presents you, the fortunate few, with these gems of Gem City rock lore. Yes, dear reader, long forgotten by most and dismissed as mere fairytale by those who remember, these coveted tracks come to you courtesy of the faithful stewardship of Mr. Mike Kilbourne (a.k.a. Mite, he of GLEE & BEAK preservation fame).

Formerly a WWSU jock, Mite went on to host an underground rock music show on WYSO 91.3 for a couple of years in the mid-'90s (see the flyer at the top of this post and the newspaper article a little further down -- click on the article to get a readable version). It usually aired from 10-12 p.m. on Friday nights following the legendary Rev. Cool's Around the Fringe show (which still airs today on the same station every Friday from 8 p.m. to midnight -- tune in). Being a good supporter of local music, Mite played a lot of local recordings and often had local acts in to play a few live songs in the studio. And being a man of foresight, he recorded most of them for posterity.

Even Mite isn't sure what the entire list of bands he recorded encompasses, but he told me it includes, inter alia, CAGE, HIP SHAKIN' DADDIES, AUNT BEANIE'S FIRST PRIZE BEATS (recorded during his stint on the Afternoon Excursions program), PASTURES GREEN, JAYNE SACHS, PUZZLE OF LIGHT, CRAIG HOUSTON, TEX, and HEIKE (a band featuring yours truly, although I had forgotten completely that we had played his radio show until he mentioned it). That's right, Mite's got what are probably one-of-a-kind recordings of each one of these titans of Dayton indie rock (and roots) music live in the WYSO studios. And barring a few obsessive individuals who might've taped them, nobody's heard any of this stuff in about twelve years, which makes them just ripe for posting here.

Some things Mite recorded he doesn't have access to right now (by the way, Dennis, Mite wants his DAT back!), but he does have five tracks from REAL LULU playing acoustically.

At the time of this recording, REAL LULU was:

Kattie Dougherty - guitar, voice
Sharon Gavlick - bass, voice
Gregg Spence - drums

According to Mite, REAL LULU appeared on his show twice. The first three tracks in the download package are from their first visit to the studio and feature Kattie and Sharon but no Gregg. But Gregg did come along for the second visit and played on the last two tracks offered here today. As Mite tells it, Gregg's kit for these recordings was a cymbal, bass drum,(either a bucket or trash can) and a coffee can played with pieces of molding.

Mite's best guess places these recordings in 1995. As already documented on this blog (though only in photographs) REAL LULU made at least one other visit to WYSO on Jason Branzina's show in February 1997.

I know I listened to at least one of those shows, and I used to have a recording of it. But although I've torn the house apart looking for it, I can't find it anywhere. However, on the show I taped, I distinctly remember Kattie announcing "Smoking You Away" as a brand new song during the interview segment of the program. So if this is the same show I recorded, then you might be listening to the first public performance of that tune.

Track List:

1. Smoking You Away
2. Nightly
3. You
4. You (with Gregg Spence)
5. Let Me (with Gregg Spence)

Download It! (16 MB)

Electrified versions of all these songs would later appear on REAL LULU's debut CD, We Love Nick in 1996.

The version of "Let Me" from that album appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Angel Eyes, starring Jennifer "Gigli" Lopez and Jim "Jesus" Caviezel (2001). And although it doesn't play over the credits, a notable chunk of the song is featured prominently in the film. I don't remember exactly where (I've never watched the entire movie), but there's a scene in which someone opens the door of an apartment and you can hear it blaring from the stereo within. About five years ago, I was working on the computer down in the basement, and I suddenly heard "Let Me" coming through my TV speakers. It took me a moment to place the tune, and when I did, I laughed out loud.

For those who don't know, the "Nick" in We Love Nick is, of course, Nick Kizirnis (THE OBVIOUS, THE KILLJOYS/RAGING MANTRAS, CAGE, THE JET AGE, NICKY KAY AND HIS FABULOUS KAY-TONES, and solo artist too).

There's just one little bit of bad news with this one: Mite's tape cut out just a couple of seconds before the end of "Let Me." It's kind of a downer, but there's enough of the song there for die-hard REAL LULU fans to enjoy.

Two more things before we go. First, thanks to all who wrote through my ongoing stupid crisis. I had some interesting discussions and appreciate all the support. Second, WWSU alum Matt DeWald presented me last week with two amazing finds: (1) a reel-to-reel tape containing either the original or remixed version of "Das Boot" (see this blog entry if you don't know what that is) and (2) a cassette full of old DEMENTIA PRECOX stuff with an additional song each by MOM and BAD ELVIS IMPERSONATORS -- will post soon.

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: DEMENTIA PRECOX at Myspace, Ebay

2008-03-22T08:44:00.008-04:00

Still depressed and angry -- blah, blah, blah...

I'm still off the grid for a few days, but even post-breakup depression must yield at least briefly to this incredible find: Dayton's legendary industrial, gothic, new wave, dance-pop, electronica, performance art rock group DEMENTIA PRECOX has a Myspace page.

Go there now and you'll find...

Four downloadable MP3s (must have a Myspace account to get 'em)
Current DEMENTIA PRECOX news and happenings, including show dates (in the blog section)
photo montage video highlighting various points in the band's career (under the blog)
Complete list of current and former band members

Those of you who are jumping up and down in your seats right now (or who did so when they first found this page if this isn't the first time you've heard of it) probably don't need to be told that Gyn Cameron's DEMENTIA PRECOX took on epic popularity in the Miami Valley and parts unknown during their almost ten-year-run through the 1980s and into the '90s. Nor need you be told that they have taken on enduring cult status in the years since. And you probably also know that Gyn recently reconstituted the band and has been playing a few shows around the tri-state area, so you should know better than to miss them when they're in Dayton (like I did when they did the Halloween show because I'm a witless tool).

Gotta go now and be depressed more, but before I do, here are some random DEMENTIA facts that have popped into my brain:

Around 1987 or 1988, Dan Rather's old news magazine show 48 Hours, which ordinarily concentrated on stories of straight journalistic interest, did a fluff episode on Paul McCartney's career. During one of the interview segments, there's a roadie sitting in the background with a clearly visible DEMENTIA PRECOX t-shirt on. He doesn't move for the entire segment, which lasted a couple of minutes. I don't remember his name, but I remember Kris Pleis telling me it was either a former member of this band or some other luminary of Dayton music at the time.
My dad actually went to a DEMENTIA PRECOX show at Wright State University in 1989. He had come because he was interested in computer generated music, and I had mentioned how DEMENTIA had developed a whole music and live show integrating computers and all sorts of electronics. He stood in the back with sort of a quizzical look on his face, but he stayed the whole time. For that show DEMENTIA PRECOX was Gyn Cameron, Royse Robbins, and Nick Kizirnis.
I dimly recall that in 1986 DEMENTIA guitar player Max Nye (1980-1985) was assaulted by a group of nasty Dayton rednecks outside a convenience store while walking home late one night from a show at the Building Lounge. He lived but his injuries were quite extensive. I remember at least one benefit show to raise funds for his medical bills.
Apparently, you can buy at least one CD with DEMENTIA PRECOX material on it and t-shirts commemorating the band's current renaissance period through ebay. Just go there and do a search on "Dementia Precox." As I understand it, the CD and t-shirt are on there fairly consistently and other merchandise comes and goes, so die hard fans should keep an eye out.
A couple of days ago, Matt DeWald gave me a compilation tape of DEMENTIA PRECOX material that a friend recorded for him about twenty years ago. It's fairly lousy quality, but it's audible, and since it appears someone is still selling the DEMENTIA recordings on ebay, it's probably best to only post a low quality cassette of that material here (which I'll be doing after I rip it).

And now I'm moping again.

take care

---Jones()

WALLAROO SOUTH, Painted A Million Colors (cassette, 1991)

2008-03-20T16:50:00.011-04:00

And just when you thought things were humming along really great...

Yeah, the short version is that today's post will be the last for a while -- not sure how long really. I'm tempted to say just a week, and maybe that's right. A week certainly smells right. But it could be longer. Tell you what: I'll post an update a week from today on where I am with the blog.

Okay, now if you just want to get to the WALLAROO SOUTH stuff (and who could blame you?), scroll down until you see the first picture. But if you want in on the ridiculous details of how my pathetic brain reacts to every little bump or ruffle that comes along in my stupid life, then read on, MacDuff...

Okay, about what I was saying about "just when you thought..." -- yeah, it always seems to work that way, doesn't it? I mean, you think things are going great, things are swimming, and then everything gets derailed. I wish I could say, "story of my life," but that's pure vanity: it's the story of everybody's life.

I'm tempted to lead you on a stream of consciousness roller coaster through my mind-poppingly average psyche and arrive at some kind of resolution to never do X again or always do Y in the future. And I've been racking my brain for some way to do that, but by god I've never had a moment like that in real life -- not once ever. Sherwood Anderson and Chekhov wrote about moments like that all the time, but maybe they did so because such things were pure FICTION in the real world. Or maybe people really do have moments like that and live better lives because of them (lucky shits -- probably never get bad haircuts either), but I never have. And my admittedly cursory observations of those who profess to have them lead me to conclude that such people don't know their asses from their mouths -- probably because shit comes out of both.

I'm also tempted to drivel on and skew things in ways that make me look less the pathetic jerk and more the thoughtful, contemplative savant who, although life has treated him badly, will nevertheless find some kind of redemption in extracting some great personal truth from the shitty hand he's been dealt. But that's bullshit too. Fuck, I'm an American, and like all Americans, I really have no one to blame but myself for every bit of emotional turmoil I've ever experienced.

Obviously, for those who haven't caught on yet, this is all about the breakup (you think?).

I never handle such things well (ask Jennifer or Kelly or Kristin or Andrea or Holly or Nicole or Annie or Stef (not that she and I ever had a relationship -- that was pure unrequited love -- just to be clear) or she whose name may not be spoken -- or ask any of my friends who've had to sit and watch me make a dope out of myself over some female (yeah, Mel, Val, Chuck, Nick, Gail -- I'm looking in your direction -- and the ride is just beginning, so buckle up!)). In fact, I tend to handle them in quite the juvenile fashion. Okay, I'm not going as far off the deep end as I did when I broke up with my first girlfriend at age 17, and I'm at least a little less off the deep end than I was during the divorce. But I have lots of mood swings. One hour I'm fine with it and even looking forward to the next relationship, the next I'm pissed off and lonely and anxious about the future. Amidst all that I think and say and do all sorts of things: mostly stupid things (you're probably reading one example of that RIGHT NOW!) but a few things of absolute genius, in my opinion.

I like to think of that as passion, and in my best moments I like to think that my glaring inability to play the cool breakup game is a personality strength in that it signals that I'm a human being. For better or worse, I'm an emotional guy, and I did learn a very valuable lesson from the divorce: that when I don't vent those emotions, I get into pretty dangerous territory. So in the end I suppose it serves me better to do that and make a fool of myself than it does to play it cool -- even if playing it cool were guaranteed to get me everything I wanted. Of course, none of that can erase the simple fact that being foolish is not a virtue -- it's still just foolish even where (as here) it's a necessity.

Like one's reaction to a death, one's reaction to a breakup ultimately (oh shit, he said "ultimately" -- here comes the bullshit philosophy section) has far less to do with the relationship than it does with self-image and fear of change.

On self image (notice there's no hyphen in that, by the way -- because it's a compound noun in this construction rather than a compound adjective, which would take the hyphen), mine has always been determined quite solidly by the opinions of others. It's heresy to say that, I know. As an indie rocker I'm supposed to "be my own person" and meeting life "on my own terms." But that's the worst kind of self aggrandizing claptrap I've ever heard in my life. Indie rocker types pride themselves on just that sort of individuality pablum -- and they inevitably end up creating some kind of micro-counter-culture that's just as socially oppressive as the culture they wish they were countering. Jello Biafra had it right: no gym teacher could get as many kids to dress alike as the average indie rock band (although I think he actually said "speed metal band," but it's true in either context).

So yeah, I worry about what others think of me, and a breakup (even the modern "mutual breakup") is just a super-concentrated reminder of all one's shortcomings, an underscoring in thick black magic marker of the word "inadequate" -- at least so far as the relationship that you spent the last few years investing yourself in. It makes you think less of yourself because you figure at least one person (and probably others) thinks so little of you.

As for fear of change, maybe that's obvious (but here we go anyway). Where you used to look to the future and see this person, you now see only... okay, you might be thinking I'm about to type "nothing," but it's actually worse than that: you see only yourself. And seeing yourself, you try with all your might to convince yourself that that's enough. After all, hasn't American pop culture told us from the beginning that we must love ourselves, be comfortable with ourselves? Isn't it a virtue to be a "whole person" (excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth a little) satisfied and empowered and... yeah...

It's not. It's just fucking not is all. I know this because, believe it or not, I do have a healthy self image. Sure I worry about what others think, but I'm also my own biggest fan. I'm a foot smarter than most people I run across, and I am genuinely comfortable (sometimes too comfortable) doing things on my own. And the enduringly healthy part of my self image tells me that drinking the "be comfortable with yourself" Kool-Aid is not nirvana. It's narcissism.

Thus the thought of spending the rest of my life with no one but myself is terrifying, and there's no way out of that because it should be terrifying. If it's not terrifying, I'm doing something wrong. But being right is surprisingly inadequate at dispelling the terror.

Okay, the thing to do, of course, is to meet new people. I understand that for many people in the post-breakup situation, that doesn't work, but in my case it's fucking penicillin. New personalities inevitably present new opportunities, and although I fear change as much as anyone, I get excited about new opportunities. Of course, it never works to just go out and try to dig up as many new folks as possible. Trying too hard in that arena is irredeemably pathetic.

With that in mind, I have met some new people (and taken a second look at some old acquaintances), and it does help some. In my best moments, I feel pretty good, but the dismal moments are inescapable. It's a cliche to say so, but yeah, it's a roller coaster, and for various reasons, I've decided that I need to do things differently for a little while. Combine that emotional need with the practical imperative presented by law school starting up next week, and you've got a guy who loves his blog but needs to "GET OFF THE INTERNET!" (as LE TIGRE so succinctly puts it) for a bit.

Of course, I'll still be answering e-mails (feel free to write) and who knows what else. I just need to "collect my books and get back to school" for a bit. There's no way I'm dumping this blog completely, so I'll be back in a while. And in the meantime, here's a little something to tide you over:

A couple of months after PLANET ED got together (February 1991), we did the Dayton Band Playoffs at Canal Street Tavern (because it was pretty tough to get a show during the first half of summer at Canal Street if you didn't). It was in either our first or second round that we got soundly trounced in the voting by six of the nicest kids you'd ever want to meet. Those kids were WALLAROO SOUTH.

WALLAROO SOUTH would go through a few lineup changes over the years, but at the time Painted A Million Colors was being circulated, the band was:

Jonathan Drexler - Vocals, guitar
Lesa O'Daniel - Vocals and auxiliary percussion
Aaron Jones (no relation) - guitar
Danny Stahl - drums
Felicia Letts - backing vocals, flue, keyboard, auxiliary percussion
Hans Drexler - bass

I remember disliking the name and not being too into the music at first. It was pretty derivative college radio stuff. Comparisons to POI DOG PONDERING, DAVE MATTHEWS and especially TEN THOUSAND MANIACS were inevitable. But the music grew on me, and I ended up listening to this tape quite a bit.

And regardless of what I personally thought of the music, I could never deny that they were all great musicians. I don't know for sure, but I got the impression that most of them had graduated to WALLAROO SOUTH from high school marching bands, orchestras, glee clubs, and chorale ensembles. That's not a bad progression.

I mean sure, Lesa sounded just like Natalie Merchant, but that just means she had a great vocal range and could belt the melody out pretty strongly. She was cute too (probably why Will and I always sat right up front when they played -- especially when she wore sweaters). Care to guess how many Natalie Merchant wannabes I ran across in those days who were butt ugly and couldn't carry a tune in a bucket? Trust me, you don't want to know. Lesa was the rare exception.

The others all knew what they were doing too. Aaron could alternate quite deftly between clean rhythms and flurried, Eddie Van Halen leads. Danny never missed a beat coming out of a fill (if only I could say the same about that schlub NICK ATKINSON! -- although he seemed to become a lot more precise after OXYMORONS broke up). Felicia's backup vocals were strong, and she filled out the sound quite well among all the instruments she played.

Jonathan and Hans seemed to be the creative backbone of this group. I think everyone contributed to the music, but I think Jonathan and Hans had the most control over the ultimate form of each tune. Jonathan and Lesa wrote the lyrics.

As I said, they were all very nice kids when we first met them (and still are today, I'm sure) -- very young and even "clean cut" you might say. With six members and such precise attention to their playing, they were kind of the antithesis of PLANET ED (which was a trio and probably the loosest lineup I've ever played with). However, we played quite a few shows together between 1991 and 1993, and I think we became friends. Certainly Jonathan, Hans, Will, and I used to hang out. I remember they showed up quite a few times to watch bad, gorey horror films with Will and me (other faces I associate with "The Gore Club," as Will used to call it, belonged to Ed Lacy, Rob Schaeffer (a couple of times), Dave Madisov, Dave's girlfriend Rachel, Brian Hogarth, Christine White (infrequently), and even Nick Kizirnis every now and then).

I don't know what became of Felicia or Lesa after 1993 or so. Danny and Aaron played in other bands I saw in the '90s but I can't name any of them off the top of my head. Jonathan and Hans continued with WALLAROO SOUTH until maybe 1996(?). At some point, they dropped the "SOUTH" from the name, and the music changed from lite college folk rock to harder, rougher indie rock. I have two demo cassettes from that version of WALLAROO that I'll share later. In the late '90s they moved to Chicago and started the band MY SECRET SERVICE with Aaron and Matt Espy (formerly of CAGE and MINK). Jonathan also plays in MEAN OHIO, also with Matt Espy.

Track list:

1. Love Canal
2. Little Brother
3. Break the Line
4. Chain Train
5. Aquilonia
6. Spacious One

Download It! (33 MB)

NOTE: Just right-click and choose "Save As." I Remember Dayton files are now being hosted at Weezed, so RapidShare is out of the picture -- and so am I for a bit (but I'll be back -- just you wait!).

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: Fictionband!

2008-03-19T23:23:00.001-04:00

I wanted to post a link to something I posted over at my Myspace blog about the Fictionband site.

Just go to my Myspace page and read the blog entry titled "Fictionband!" It should be the first one there.

More music Friday probably. It's spring break for me (even though it fucking SNOWED today!), so I've been kind of goofing off. Sorry!

take care

---Jones()

FYI: File hosting, new library, and band plug!

2008-03-19T10:06:00.004-04:00

First, I finally saw JUNKPILE last night and was suitably impressed. I've plugged them once or twice here, and they deserve it. For a fuller description of what makes them so great, check out the JUNKPILE entry on my Myspace blog.

Second, Martin over at Weezed has graciously offered to host our downloads on his server. I'm taking it for a test drive right now (uploading a big file and making sure there are no download problems). If it all works out (and all indications are, it will), that means no more RapidShare -- no more wait time, no more download limit, no more obscured codes to type, etc. Everybody say thanks to Martin for that.

And finally, the good fortune of I Remember Dayton continues: the other day Chris Wright sent me a 500 MB library of Dayton punk and indie rock that he has ripped over the years. His contribution includes music by A TEN O'CLOCK SCHOLAR, ASIAN FLEA POD, CIGARHEAD, FREAKSTROBE, IGNITERS, LET'S CRASH, MINK, OMATIC, SPITCURL, THE KEY-NOTE SPEAKER, and THE WEIRD NOW. Dig.

take care

---Jones()

FOURTEEN, unreleased demos (cassette, 1995)

2008-03-15T01:56:00.003-04:00

So I split with the girlfriend recently, which means two things. First: ladies, this stallion's available! (stop laughing, Gail) Oh yes, step right up and take your shot at becoming the next ex-Mrs. Jones. Who's calling dibs? crickets... Hm? louder crickets (damn... where's Lolita when you need her?)

Okay, well the second thing it means is... breakup music! Yes, my misery is your gain (as usual). I hadn't planned on posting today's download right now, but in between drinking screwdriver and listening to All Shook Down and throwing up (probably more from All Shook Down than the screwdriver) and whatnot, I remembered that I had this cassette with some mid-'90s emo-pop punk (see yesterday's post) on it. And as everyone with a heart knows, mid-'90s emo-pop punk is the perfect post-breakup soundtrack -- for men at least. I've never met a woman who drowns her sorrows in mid-'90s emo-pop punk (and the day I do is the day I meet the girl I'm gonna marry).

And just like every breakup I've ever experienced in my life, this music is a total mystery to me (smooth segue, no?). The only thing I remember about FOURTEEN is a dim impression that Dave Graeter used to know these guys. But I could be wrong even about that. And barring some help from you people, there is likely little more information on this band forthcoming. I'm not even going to bother typing "FOURTEEN" into any search engine.

I don't know who was in this band, how long they were together, where they might've played, or who they might've played with. The cassette bears the band's name, a list of songs, and the date "4/95." The tape is a consumer brand "That's as:II 60 High Position Type II" -- and I've no idea what all that means. As far as I can tell, these are unreleased demos. As usual, correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, what we lack in information on this one, we make up for in sound quality, which is about as good as it gets for a thirteen-year-old cassette: very crisp, very clean, very powerful. Excellent engineering and mix too. It's definitely professional sounding but with a good live, first-take kind of feel. If I had to guess, I would say that this was likely recorded at Hidden Music, where a lot of bands like this were recording back then. It certainly has the Hidden Music feel to it. And if it was recorded there, it was engineered by Steve Van Etten.

As I said, this is pretty straightforward emo pop -- representative of what a lot of bands were doing around these parts in 1995. Specifically, THE BARNHILLS and THE LARRY BRRRDS come to mind, but this is just a little less poppy and just a wee-wee bit slower tempo than either of those bands. I'd also say it's in the ballpark with my old band HEIKE, which was also playing around Dayton at about the same time. The guitars are loud, and the vocals are all whiny and morose but hopeful -- and every song's about a girl. Aces!

So download and enjoy this miserably up-tempo music with me -- at least until I slide out of the post-breakup cry-in-my-Milwaukee's Best phase (REPLACEMENTS, HUSKER DU/BOB MOULD, JAWBREAKER) and into the post-breakup all-women-are-bad phase (QUEERS, VANDALS, CRAMPS, oh yeah...) -- which I feel coming on pretty quickly.

Track List:

1. Intro
2. Polish Boy Never Gets the Kootchie
3. The Memory Song
4. Ohio-Penn
5. Overwhelmed
6. The Should-Be Situation...
7. I Like Food

Download It! (33 MB)

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: THE STOICS at Myspace

2008-03-14T09:48:00.011-04:00

I don't remember THE STOICS at all, but I was living in Columbus for the first few years of their existence (they were together from 1994-2004). One benefit of this blog has been learning a little myself about some good Dayton bands that I missed the first time around.

You can get some history on THE STOICS and download four MP3s at THE STOICS Myspace page. Guitar player Mike wrote to me and mentioned that THE STOICS did shows with SOURBELLY, HAUNTING SOULS, LIQUID LEGBONE, MONDULUX and SLAPFIGHT (another Erik Purtle project of the mid-'90s -- Jesus, how many bands did that fucker have?). According to that page, former members of THE STOICS have landed in the following bands:

Anyway, you should download all THE STOICS MP3s and play them over and over. Good stuff.

And if you have more information on THE STOICS, you should post it in the comments. As always, I'm curious.

take care

---Jones()

GLEE & BEAK, Live at the Wright State Rathskellar (unofficial, cassette, 1990)

2008-03-12T08:49:00.011-04:00

GLEE & BEAK was sort of a folk-lite duo (sometimes a trio) featuring Dave Ponitz and Morgan Taylor, often assisted by a drummer whose name I can't remember right now. Although I never knew Dave or Morgan, I saw GLEE & BEAK a few times at Canal Street and Wright State. Their particular brand of cute and clever folk rock was never exactly my cup of tea, but it was charming, creative, and original. I genuinely enjoyed their shows. So did a lot of other people around town. And along with their obvious talent, their dueling boyish good looks didn't hurt their popularity either. As with THE WIZBANGS, I remember thinking of GLEE & BEAK as an act that inevitably attracted swarms of swooning girls.

Some other facts:

GLEE & BEAK were featured in an Undercurrents Music Showcase in 1990.
Dave's first band in Dayton was THE SCAM. They had played all over town for a few years before GLEE & BEAK got together (it's just a guess, but I'll put their tenure as running between 1986 through 1988, maybe?). Come to think of it, although I never saw THE SCAM live, I'm pretty sure that either they or DALE WALTON (Oh! There's a name from the distant past!) are the first local music group I was ever aware of (for some reason, it seemed I always heard ads for their shows on WTUE).
Here's what Dave had to say about THE SCAM in a 1998 interview with Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: "We were a quartet. We played Kinks, Stones, Who, Hendrix, Zombies, Bowie and such. We played "Good Lovin", you know. We played "Shout!" We were all friends. A guy named Jellyass played bass and sang harmony. We had a lead guitar savant named Blando who was handsome and had a talk box. And then the drummer, Red Ned, who was like Mickey Dolenz with flame-on hair. It was probably the most solid project I've ever had, up until the current line-up of Sim Cain on drums and John Abbey on bass."
Here's what he had to say in the same interview about GLEE & BEAK: "I also played in an acoustic rock trio called Glee & Beak in the early 90s in Ohio with a percussionist named Kelodg and a ridiculously talented guy named Morgan Taylor."
According to an editorial note directly following that comment, "Morgan Taylor now lives in New York and leads a rock group called Morgan Taylor's Rock Group. David produced a demo for them in 2000."
Dave used to write local music news for the Go! section of the Dayton Daily News under the pseudonym Braxton Hicks.
In 1992 Dave Ponitz moved to New York. Since that time, you may have come to know his work under the name David Poe.
David Poe's most recent release that I know of is Love Is Red (available at this page on e-music), but David Poe's Wikipedia entry will inform you of a couple of other projects he has in the works.
Here's a link to David Poe's web site.
In the '90s Morgan Taylor was in OO OO WA, a sort of tongue-in-cheek ultra-pop outfit that also featured Nick Eddy. OO OO WA had at least one full-length release, Screen Kiss (1993).
Morgan also worked at Gem City Records (which, along with Canal Street Tavern, seemed to be the area's leading day job supplier for local musicians throughout the '80s and '90s and probably today too) for a number of years before heading to New York in 1998 and starting MORGAN TAYLOR'S ROCK GROUP.
Morgan's current project is Gustafer Yellowgold, which is a bit of an enigma to me. However, from what I can tell, it's a combination of storybook, music, and now an off-broadway show for kids. And for some reason, it doesn't surprise me one little bit that Morgan Taylor is writing stories and music for kids. If you've been to even one GLEE & BEAK show, I don't think you're surprised either.
Here's an interview with Morgan that better explains the premise behind Gustafer Yellowgold.

To my knowledge GLEE & BEAK issued no studio recordings. In fact, the only evidence of their existence I know of is this recording of a GLEE & BEAK show that Mite ripped and sent to me a couple of weeks ago.

Neither of us has a specific date on this, but both Mite's and my best guess places it somewhere in 1990 or perhaps as early as 1989. It was recorded at the Wright State Rathskellar. At that time, campus radio station WWSU was experimenting with broadcasting live shows from the Rathskellar. I remember OXYMORONS did one of those shows in October 1989 (it was, in fact, Pat Hennigan's second to last show with the band), and I'm sure other bands did too. Grog has lent me a tape of the OXYMORONS show as it was broadcast on WWSU. Mite made this one of GLEE & BEAK. Here's hoping some other WWSU/Rathskellar tapes survive.

I think listening to this recording will give you a pretty good idea of what GLEE & BEAK were all about. Their appeal was very closely tied to their live show. There's a good amount of stage banter, and a lot of the immediate charm of the band seems to come through best in this context.

Track List:

1. Window
2. Bloody
3. All of Your Letters Back
4. Down
5. How Much
6. Dandelion
7. Leave Brutality
8. Feedback Jam
9. Mystery Love Revealed
10. Grow
11. Tree House
12. Infinity Ring
13. Tunnel of Trees
14. I Am Not A Hippy

Download It! (62 MB)

Again, you'll hear a drummer on some songs, but I just can't remember his name now.

UPDATE: The drummer was Kelly Morelock. He later played percussion for JAYNE SACHS' band. There's a bio for him here on her page.

I ran Mite's rip through some post-processing to boost the overall presence and eliminate tape hiss. Unfortunately, removing the hiss sometimes introduces latency (audible distortions -- kind of like a low resolution MP3) where the volume gets very low. I don't think it affects the quality where the band is playing, but it does introduce a little distortion where the volume dips between songs. Mite, if you're reading this, listen to it and let me know if you like the original version you sent me better.

take care

---Jones()

THE KILLJOYS (a.k.a. THE RAGING MANTRAS), Will (promo cassette, 1989)

2008-03-07T11:56:00.009-05:00

NICK KIZIRNIS (who played guitar in THE KILLJOYS/RAGING MANTRAS) is playing a solo gig tomorrow night at Therapy. Show starts at 9 p.m.

Okay, if you want to skip my rant about snow, weather, and stupid people, just scroll down until you see the list of band members.

Let me guess: it's snowing like a motherfucker and you're stuck inside desperately browsing the web for something to keep your mind off the fact that you won't be able to go anywhere tonight or, if you're at work, that you still have to drive home in this shit?

Maybe I'm wrong about all that, but I, for one, am getting a little tired of this snow bullshit. Maybe it's global warming as Al Gore would have us believe (and I agree) or maybe it's god deciding to fuck with Ohio (and who could blame him?) or maybe it's the all-pervasive aura of crap and bad times that has always seemed to saturate this area, but whatever the reason, the weather around here is totally fucking off and has been for years now. Three days ago we had a monsoon -- today, a blizzard.

And I'm not going to be able to drive up to school tonight for Business Associations class. Oh yeah, did I mention that law schools never ever close for weather? Seriously. I mean, they do close sometimes, but in the last two and a half years, I remember Capital closing for weather exactly once -- and that was under far worse conditions than this. Maybe it's the bar's way of thinning the glut of lawyers that law schools produce -- I mean, 35% of the people who started with me have already dropped out, and apparently that's only a little more than typical (I think the national average is 25% or thereabouts). For the 60% remaining, maybe the bar figures they can cut that down if we have to make repeated death-defying journeys through mountains of snow all the time. Who knows?

But it's not really the weather or the driving or the shovelling that really crimps my dick, it's the way Daytonians react to the possibility of a few flakes of snow as if they are heralds of the apocalypse. No shit, people around here go absolutely insane with fear right before we get snow. The news today advised people to pick up ten gallons of water per day per person in the house! I went to the grocery store this morning to pick up some cat food, and as usual I found it jam packed with people grabbing snow shovels and filling up carts with groceries. I don't quite understand that. I mean, we've had some bad snow in the past, but at its worst, I don't remember being stuck in the house for more than a day, maybe two at most.

Yet people are stocking enough groceries for a week. I don't understand why they do that. Do they think we'll all be trapped in our houses for that long, even though it's meteorogically impossible for Ohio to get that much snow? Do they just not keep enough groceries on hand to last more than half a day? Is there something about snow that commands Americans to consume 200% more than the oversized portion of the world's resources that they consumer already? Fuck.

But what the hell? It's for exactly times like this that I save up the best treats to be found among our (meaning Grog's, Gail's, and my) collections of Gem City Arcana. This one comes from my bag of tricks. Let's do it:

THE KILLJOYS were:

Rob Schaefer - bass, vocals
Jim MacPherson - drums
Ed Lacy - keyboards
Nick Kizirnis - guitars, vocals
Gregg Spence - guitars, vocals

Gregg is not credited on any of the materials included on this tape (because he didn't usually play live with these guys), but I know he at least played some guitar on it (listen for the clean Rickenbacker -- all distorted guitars and all leads are by Nick), and I'm pretty sure he supplied some backing vocals.

The cassette is a Maxell UR 60 that Nick Kizirnis gave me long ago. The info sheet says the tape contains an "advance excerpt" from a planned full-length release called Will, but I'm pretty sure this is more than just an excerpt. Although Nick wrote the titles of only five songs on the insert, the tape actually contains eight. I'm pretty sure that's everything they recorded for Will.

Here's what the band has to say on the info sheet that came with this cassette:

Formed early in 1987, the Killjoys have been playing in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas and plan to release an all original cassette, entitled Will, early in 1990. The band has been called alternative/progressive rock, and are known for their strong live shows.

The Killjoys play original songs, though they will torture songs by the Jet Black Berries and True West, as well as pieces by other alternative/college oriented (whatever that means) bands.

The Killjoys are Rob Schaefer (bass and vocals), Jim MacPherson (drums), Ed Lacy (keyboards), and Nick Kizirnis (guitars and vocals). All four have been previously involved in other musical projects in the Dayton area. They are now playing in the midwest and promoting their upcoming cassette. The enclosed cassette is an advance excerpt from Will.

I've never seen a production copy of Will. THE KILLJOYS circulated tapes like this among radio stations, clubs, and friends for promotional purposes before Will was released. As I said, the tape is consumer branded, and came with an information sheet folded in a way so as to be slipped into the cassette case displaying part of a picture of the band (taken at Canal Street Tavern) through the front of the box. A scan of the sheet containing the full picture is included in the download package. Sorry about the fold lines, but it had been sitting in the cassette case folded up like that for fifteen years before I scanned it.

After changing their name to THE RAGING MANTRAS, this band released another cassette in 1991 called Fish Head Test Monkey Music (which may have been the first official release on Big Beef Records, but only Andy Valeri would know for sure).

I must've seen THE KILLJOYS dozens of times between 1988 and 1992, before and after they changed their name to THE RAGING MANTRAS (because, according to Ed, there were already too many other things named "Killjoy" at the time). Both THE OXYMORONS and PLANET ED played with them many times, and all of us got be fairly good friends. They were the only band that ever got me to dance (that includes DEMENTIA PRECOX -- much as I love 'em). Long before Nick gave me this cassette, all these tunes were pretty well burned into my brain just through seeing them live.

Rob Schaefer was a very tall guy with long hair, glasses, and huge hands for bass playing (Gail used to say he looked like a Teddy Graham from far away if you squinted right). As I remember, he was more or less the dominant creative force behind most of what THE KILLJOYS did. My impression is that Nick, Rob, Ed, and Jim contributed pretty much equally to the music and the whole theatrical thing that came with this band, but Rob had the most input overall and seemed to write most of the lyrics (if one of the band members would like to correct me on that, they should feel free). His day job at the time was as a manager at the famous Rock'n'Roll Kinko's on Brown Street (so called because pretty much every band in Dayton went there to get flyers done -- usually while Rob was working). After THE RAGING MANTRAS broke up, I believe he pursued that career full time. The last time I saw him was in 1994. Jen Cook and I came to Kinko's to get COLAVISION flyers copied. We talked for a while, and I never saw him again. I don't know where he is today.

Chances are you already know as much as I could tell you about Jim MacPherson, but for clarity's sake, here are the basics: he played drums in this band and, at that time, had a bigger kit (eight or nine pieces, I think) than he would later use in THE BREEDERS. Jim wrote the lyrics for "Spaceman Jack" and maybe others. He had been in one or two bands prior to THE KILLJOYS. This interview with Jim MacPherson briefly discusses (among other things) how Jim came to leave THE RAGING MANTRAS and join THE BREEDERS. He played drums for a number of bands later, including REAL LULU and GUIDED BY VOICES. Find out more at his Wikipedia entry.

Ed Lacy is in my top five most intelligent people I've ever known (specifically, he's number three -- edged out of the top spots only by my genius older brother and my super-genius high school buddy Kris Pleis). He can talk politics, music, art, literature, and science in a genuinely engaging way (a rare talent among the super intelligent). He can appreciate the complexities of life's big abstractions as well as the significance of the seemingly mundane. Ed was entering his thirties at the time of THE KILLJOYS' heyday (if they had a heyday), so he already had a bit more history to speak of among the punk and alt-rock subcultures than the rest of us. Apparently, in his youth, Ed was fond of pulling public theater type pranks like showing up to greet Ronald Reagan while he was on the campaign trail in 1980: dressed in a Nazi SS uniform and just standing their silently the entire time with one arm outstretched in Zeig-Heil style. In my entire life, I don't think I've ever done anything that cool -- Ed was doing stuff like that as a teenager.

After THE RAGING MANTRAS, Ed played in CAGE (with Nick Kizirnis), THE LAWN JOCKEYS, and a number of others. I remember several occasions over the years in which he and I would talk about playing some music together (most recently, in 2003 when I wanted him to play piano for a cover of "Christmastime Is Here" at THE VECTORS CD-giveaway Christmas show), but we never got around to doing it.

Throughout his time playing in Dayton bands, Ed was also a substitute and later a full-time teacher for Dayton Public Schools, but he got out of that a few years ago. Until 2005, when he finally shook the dust of Dayton off his feet and moved to Florida, he worked with a former friend (and Angelle Gullet) at Mazer. I'm not sure what Ed is doing musically or professionally now.

One last thing on Ed: for those who don't know, yes, he is the "Ed" after which my old band PLANET ED was named.

I'll have more to say about Nick Kizirnis when I post on THE OBVIOUS (his first band), but for now, I'll just say he's an all around great guy with a distinguished history playing music around these parts. After THE RAGING MANTRAS, he formed CAGE (indie rock combo which also included Ed Lacy, Matt Espy, and Gregg Spence) and THE MULCHMEN (surf-rock, with Gregg Spence and Brian Hogarth), both of which broke up in the mid-'90s. More recently, he played with THE JET AGE (which included former members of OO OO WA, among others) but quit that band in 2004 (I think). Later that year, he released a solo album called Into the Loud, which is available from Atom Records and through Nick's web site. Today, his band NICKY KAY AND HIS FABULOUS KAY-TONES is currently on hiatus, but here's hoping they get back together soon. Most recently, I saw him play with a kids music band (the man can play anything) at the Greene around Halloween 2007. You can catch him solo tomorrow night (Saturday, March 7, 2008) at Therapy on Third Street here in town.

If I could play in a band with any Dayton musician right now, it would be Nick Kizirnis.

Big Beef Records produced a two hour RAGING MANTRAS live video available at this link (it's near the bottom of the page, so you'll have to scroll down a ways). The video pretty much captures the full-blown RAGING MANTRAS multi-media stage show (accurately described in the write up on the video).

Will Dalgard roadied for these guys extensively, so I think he should get a little credit for making this music possible.

Okay, this post has become a monster, and I want to save a few things to say for when I post THE RAGING MANTRAS other cassette, Fish Head Test Monkey Music. So just a few track notes before we get to the download:

The music is actually better classed as prog-rock, rather than indie rock (I always thought of these guys as kind of like a slicker-sounding PERE UBU or CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN with longer and more complex arrangements). This was before the big local music explosion of 1994, and at that time Dayton had a far smaller number of bands than it does today. So out of necessity, bands of widely varying genres would end up on the same bill. It wasn't uncommon to see punk from THE OXYMORONS or THE OBVIOUS on the same bill as R&B from TOOBA BLOOZE, new wave from THE PLEASURES PALE, dance-pop from DEMENTIA PRECOX, or prog-rock from THE KILLJOYS.
I believe "Spaceman Jack" is about a hunting accident Jim had once.
The dialogue in the middle of "Nightstick" is spoken by Nick Kizirnis (as the cop) and Ed Lacy (as the motorist). This was always my favorite KILLJOYS song, and I'm pretty sure it was a favorite with Ben, Nick, and Grog too. THE OXYMORONS used to make a habit of spontaneously launching into a mangled rendition of the last few bars of "Nightstick" whenever we felt like it.
Gail has lent me a tape that includes DOBIE WILLIS covering "I Pledge" at a Musician's Co-Op show that is simply priceless (the same tape also contains a solo set by Nick Kizirnis -- will post the whole thing soon).
My only complaint about this tape is that "Dance of the Thundergods" does not include the spoken-word "Hermaphrodite Story" that Rob used to tell as an intro when THE KILLJOYS played it live. Although I have no recording of Rob telling that story, I do have a recording of Ben doing a hilarious parody of it at an OXYMORONS practice.
For gee-tar geeks, I'm pretty sure Nick was using a Les Paul with a Rat Pedal and a Roland Jazz Chorus for most of this (Nick, correct me if I'm wrong -- I've played guitar for twenty-four years, but I'm still pretty clueless about guitar equipment).
All these songs were recorded at the Cro-Magnon studios in its original location on the opposite side of the Front Street Warehouse from where it later moved in the early '90s. At that time Cro-Mag was 8 tracks.
All these songs were engineered by Joe Buben.

Track List:

1. Spaceman Jack
2. Raging Heart
3. Nightstick
4. I Pledge
5. When Will It Come?
6. Dance of the Thundergods
7. Diseases of the Tongue
8. Nothing New

Download It! (52 MB)

For some reason, I mis-titled "Diseases of the Tongue" as "Throb" in the download package -- don't know why I did that.

Anyway, download, listen, enjoy (and go see Nick tomorrow night at Therapy, 9 p.m.).

So now I see that they have, in fact, closed the law school. Happy Snow Day!

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: Link Round-up!

2008-03-05T09:05:00.006-05:00

Sites I found that may be of interest to the student of Dayton indie rock history:

Downloadable MP3s

Scorched Earth Archives - Navigate to "more sonic values for your enjoyment..." to download everything SCORCHED EARTH POLICY ever recorded.
nostromo mOtherworld - Same deal as the SCORCHED EARTH page. Navigate to "vibratory mechanics" to gain access to 16 NOSTROMO MP3s. It looks like this and the SCORCHED EARTH site are both managed by Chris Wright (master web designer and guitar player for both bands), so the MP3s are likely from original masters (i.e. far better fidelity than I could manage from production model records and cassettes).
Igniters music - Looks like this is just a directory listing containing 17 downloads.
The Jackalopes site and the Jackalopes Myspace page - They only broke up in 2003, so it'll be a while before their back catalog is more readily available, but at the main site, you'll find a couple of MP3s under "multimedia."
Nick Kizirnis' Myspace page - One downloadable tune here. Nick will be playing solo this Saturday, March 8 at Therapy. You should go.

Photos & Reference

Wrightfield.com - Chris Wright's web site with lots of current Dayton music and indie culture news (and host to the SCORCHED EARTH POLICY, NOSTROMO, and IGNITERS pages linked above).
Concert Photos & Music Information - The title says it all. Archival photos and information on bands of recent vintage, including REAL LULU and MYSTERY ADDICTS, as well as current bands.
HAUNTING SOULS reference - Sorry, no music downloads (HAUNTING SOULS recordings seem to be hard to come by these days), but lots of photos and flyers documenting the band's illustrious career in the Miami Valley and beyond -- also a complete list of all the players who came and went through the years (did you know Tim Taylor was a Haunting Soul for a while? I didn't.).
Shrug set - SHRUG photos, news, and happenings.
Jane Mitakides Rawks Ohio's 3rd Congressional District! - How did this get in here?!?!?!!!

take care

---Jones()

THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER, Fantastic Planet (cassette, 199?)

2008-03-04T11:47:00.007-05:00

Once again we have a little real world business to take care of before diving into Dayton's musical past. As you certainly know, today is primary day! That is, one of two days that come only once every four years during which anyone in either of the two major parties gives a shit about Ohio. And I, for one, think that's already two days too fucking many!

(ADDENDUM: Vote for Jane Mitakides for the Ohio-3 in November. Just thought I'd mention that).

Anyway, I'm a Hillary man myself, but if you want to get out there and vote for Mr. Obama, you should do it. And now that that's out of the way, let's get to something of far greater import:

Another curiosity today -- found this one in the dark recesses of a box of tapes Grog lent me. There are no song titles. The cassette insert is photocopied and hand cut (nice art, by the way). The cassette is a JVC GI-90 with a label stuck on one side bearing the legend "CAPTAIN WOODY CRAFTER" in dot matrix printing. The dot matrix and my vague recollection of when I heard this band's name around town lead me to place it some time around 1993-1995, but I've no way to know for sure.

For some reason, I find myself associating Chris Wright with this band somehow.

The artwork on the insert gives a fair indication of the musical direction within: half psychedelic, half grunge, half proto-metal... so that's 150% RAWK for those keeping score at home.

About the band's name, the label prints it as three separate words, but the flap on the insert prints "WOODYCRAFTER" as one word. I've found various entries on the web that add the definite article "THE" to the band name. Sometimes "CAPTAIN" is abbreviated as "CAP'T." (which is odd considering there are no letters between the "p" and the "t" in "captain") or just "CAPT." but it's spelled out on the label and insert here. Because the web sources adding "THE" seem to pop up among listings of people who used to be in this band, I'll go ahead and add it here even though it's not on the cassette material. So we'll tentatively give the band the official title of "THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER."

Researching obscure local bands on the web is a little easier where the artists were good enough to choose a name comprised of a unique string of characters like "Woodycrafter" (try typing "MOM" or "KEY-NOTE SPEAKER" into Google some time and see the shit that turns up). Still, I've been able to uncover only a few fragments of information:

Singer Kevion Kelley "unexpectedly passed away" at some point, but it's hard to tell exactly when or how. It seems his death came some time between the MYSTERY ADDICTS last show at the 1999 Monster Hop and their reformation in 2000 or 2001. Here's the source excerpt from the article in the May 24, 2001 edition of the Impact Weekly (click on the link and then do a search on "woodycrafter" to find the relevant portion). You figure it out.
THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER seems to have put out a self-titled CD at some point (unless there was another CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER I don't know about). It has turned up on various 1-cent listings around the web.
Some former members of this band were later in the now semi-defunct Dayton experimental combo YARDBOY.
The bass player now does a solo industrial thing called HarSH.
One or more members were later in ALL ELECTRIC KITCHEN CARNIVAL.
The band appears among a list of bands that MY LATEX BRAIN has played with over at their site.
This half-complete band page for ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE lists the bass player of that band as having played in THE CAPTAIN WOODYCRAFTER.

This bizarre YouTube video has the tag "WoodyCrafter" appearing among the label list. It was reportedly filmed in Dayton and has sort of a ROB ZOMBIE/DOCTOR CREEP aesthetic going (face paint, macabre imagery in domestic circumstances, characters in a trance like state -- you get the picture). It uses one of the songs presented for download here in the soundtrack (it's about 4 minutes in), but I don't know how else it might be related to the band (maybe some of the band members are in it? You tell me). The main character is called "Wil" at the beginning but "Woody" later on in the film. A "Kevin Kelly" is listed among the creators, but I don't know whether that's the same person as the "Kevion Kelley" referenced in the source I mentioned above.

The opening text places the events portrayed in 1990 and it's copyrighted in that year. Since it uses a song on this tape, that might place the recording somewhere in 1990 or earlier. But I don't recollect hearing anything about THE CAPTAIN WOODY CRAFTER before the mid-'90s, and the video could've been cut and edited much later. So who knows for sure? (If you know, correct me in the comments section).

That's all the information I've been able to gather. If you know more, let's hear it. In the meantime, enjoy the two songs presented here. Good rawk!

Track List:

1. [Fantastic]
2. [Planet]

Download It! (8 MB)

Looks like we're back to RapidShare for now. With the X-TREME UNCTION tape, ShareBee only seemed capable of uploading it to Rapidshare anyway, and ShareBee just a few minutes ago threw a hissy fit when I tried to upload this. Fuck 'em...

As I mentioned above, the insert shows no song titles, so I just broke up the title given on the cassette insert.

So once again I Remember Dayton... serves up another recording that presents more questions than answers. But what would Dayton (or life itself) be without a little twisted mystery?

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: MONDOLUX video at YouTube

2008-03-03T12:07:00.009-05:00

Here's a nice professionally produced video of MONDOLUX playing at El Diablo Lounge here in Dayton.

It's from 2002, which kind of puts it out of the range of this blog. I try to limit the things posted here to stuff that's at least 10 years old (figuring The Buddha Den has the recent stuff pretty well covered). But since the last post was Erik's old band X-TREME-UNCTION, I figure this one hits.

For those who don't know, Erik was the singer/guitar player in MONDOLUX. That's him featured most prominently in the video. Dig.

Erik's current band is LUXURY PUSHERS, who are one of my favorite Dayton bands right now (the others being 8-BIT REVIVAL, THE NIGHTBEAST, and the unstoppable JUNKPILE!).

All the links in the previous paragraph lead to Myspace pages, each with at least one downloadable song (wouldn't post 'em if they didn't). However, I should add here that Myspace is probably the most technologically inept site I have ever seen: frequent errors, unpredictable blackouts on services, and recurring inexplicable foul-ups. So if you can't download or if a page doesn't load, or if you accidentally contract hepatitis while viewing a page, it's not the band's fault ('cept maybe if you get hepatitis from the LUXURY PUSHERS page -- that might be their fault). Enjoy!

UPDATE: 4 hours after posting this I try to log on to Myspace and what do you know? The whole site is failing to respond. Can I call this shit or what? Myspace, hats off on fulfilling all my worst expectations! You're nothing if not predictably undependable! That is to say, you suck!

take care

---Jones()

X TREME-UNCTION, Venial Sins (cassette, 1990)

2008-03-01T00:19:00.010-05:00

First things first: Mite, I have a couple things I want to ask you about the stuff you uploaded, but I don't know your e-mail. If you would e-mail me, I'd appreciate it.

That said, today's download, fittingly posted during the witching hour while the wind howls outside my door, is from X TREME-UNCTION. Yo, she-bitch! Let's go!

This was an Erik Purtle project. The cassette insert lists only initials for the band members, so I'm not sure who else was involved.

X TREME-UNCTION was:

E.P. (Erik Purtle)

D.H. (?)

J.McW. (?)

M.N. (?)

I'm terrible at puzzles, so if you know who any of these initials belong to, let me know.

Grog and Jen Simerlink are in the "thanx" list (as "Jen & Greg"), so maybe they know something. Jen was working with Erik at Reynolds & Reynolds at about this time.

X TREME-UNCTION didn't last very long, and I'm not even sure they ever played live. But this is good stuff: industrial, goth, punk, experimental noise rawk -- with creepy lyrics and lots of speech samples mixed in with the music. The perfect soundtrack for your next Halloween party, dungeon warming, or dark ritual involving group sex and human sacrifice.

Erik, I believe, had done a little time in DEMENTIA PRECOX before this, and it shows here. I don't think Venial Sins is a concept record (if it is, the concept escapes me), but it's got that flavor. Ambitious in scope and length (1 hr., 4 minutes running time) but mostly successful in that. This is the kind of thing I would've thought was cool in college, hated in my twenties (when I was entirely about math rock and emo), but have now come to a point where I can appreciate it again.

There is no live drummer. The insert lists equipment used as "Roland TR707 / Roland S-10 / Charvel, Kramer, Fender & Yamaha Guitars / Amplification by Ampeg, Peavy & Earth."

Ah yes... the finely honed, isometric throbbing of a brashly wielded TR-707! Unless you're a drummer, what's not to like?

I think the tape has held up remarkably well over the past 18 years -- still bright with little hiss (as usual, I removed whatever hiss there was in the post-processing). The cassette in the box is a TDK D90 with handwritten labels, so it's possible this was a higher fidelity advance copy. If there were actual production copies with professional typesetting and such, I've never seen one.

I love the artwork on this. The insert credits "layout" to "Sister I'm Poopin' Graphics," but no artist is mentioned. The skeleton picture looks to me like something that might have been cribbed from a book of woodcuts from the middle ages (or maybe the Romantic period). But there were any number of people doing graphics like this in Dayton in 1990, so it could be homegrown too.

"Extreme unction" is a pre-Vatican II term for the Roman Catholic sacrament of annointing the sick. It seems to be one of the few pre-Vatican II terms that is still widely understood and used among Catholics (who say they use it out of traditionalism, but I suspect more because it just sounds cool -- and it does sound cool, doesn't it? -- certainly makes for a great band name, and you won't be surprised to find that a Google search on "band extreme unction" yields at least four different groups using it before and since 1990 -- and that's just on the first page of results). It is popularly thought to be synonymous with the "last rites." However, extreme unction is only one of three sacraments that make up the last rites. The other two are penance (or confession) and Holy Viaticum (sort of like a "last communion"). These rites are supposed to be administered only to someone in probable and immediate danger of death (so you wouldn't administer the last rites to a cancer patient who still has a week or even a couple of days to live). Of the three, the most important seems to be the Viaticum. For dying soldiers on a battlefield, chaplains will sometimes skip everything else if they can get that one in.

A venial sin is any sin that is not a mortal sin. A mortal sin is a sin of such severity as to condemn the sinner to Hell should that sinner die without having confessed the sin (and been genuinely repentant for it) during the sacrament of penance. There are no specific criteria for what constitutes a mortal sin, but the basic elements are (1) that it is of great severity (e.g. murder, although some seemingly innocuous violations of church law such as eating less than two hours before taking communion are usually thought to be of the mortal variety), (2) that the sinner is aware of its severity (so if you eat before mass but you don't know that eating before mass is a severe sin, then you haven't committed a mortal sin), and (3) that the acts constituting the sin itself must be completed (so you haven't committed a mortal sin if you just plan a murder but never go through with it -- even if you didn't go through with it only because you were prevented by the police or something). If one is in danger of death and receives the Holy Viaticum without receiving penance, a mortal sin on one's soul is thought to be expunged, but in any case, the sinner must be truly repentant. Excommunication carries the same consequences as the commission of a mortal sin except that the excommunicant cannot avoid Hell through penance.

Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one who came up with this stuff.

Venial sins, as opposed to mortal sins, are lesser sins which, although they don't condemn the sinner to Hell, may require atonement in purgatory for some period of real time before the sinner ascends to Heaven. Examples of venial sins might include theft, various brands of coveting thy neighbor's whatever, or even a sin of omission--like purposely failing to feed the hungry or clothe the naked or visit the imprisoned or-- hey, wait a minute, how long do you think the current administration will have to spend in purgatory under that standard?

Track List:

1. Red
2. (Turn Me On) Deadman
3. In the Dark
4. 9th Doll Bummer 2
5. Daddy's Little Girl
6. Here's Your Drink Honey
7. Uncaged Girls
8. Beyond the House of Innocents
9. Sites
10. Visualization
11. Chances Are (I Hate You)
12. Questionable
13. Dollhouse
14. Theft

Download It! (92 MB)

DOWNLOAD NOTE: I'm trying a different file hosting dealie now. When you click the link, instead of seeing the usual RapidShare interface, you should see a page with four different sources from which to download. If you like the RapidShare interface, just click on that one. But the others might be less of a hassle. Badongo seems to be the best (doesn't seem to involve any waiting or code-typing -- just click the link, and then click a "download" button).

This was released under the imprint Rape Factory Records with a catalog number of RFR001 on the spine. I don't know of any other Rape Factory releases.

X TREME-UNCTION's Venial Sins crosses the veil of time and obscurity by the tender stewardship of the man called Grog.

take care

---Jones()

REAL LULU, photo & graphics set

2008-02-28T16:50:00.014-05:00

Andy Valeri's been sending me some photos and other graphics over the last few weeks. Here's a set related to REAL LULU along with Andy's comments (click on the photos for larger versions):

The original REAL LULU flyer for the first round of the Canal Street Tavern 1994 band playoffs, which REAL LULU went on to win.

NEXT // A photo circa early 1996 of REAL LULU at CST backstage after show with friends IODINE from Nashville. IODINE was one of the best bands around at the time, and REAL LULU and CAGE played many a gig together with them during that run of it. Almost invariably when they would come through the area we would hook up with them, here or in Cincy, Columbus, Indy, etc... Drummer Brad Pemberton is holding up a copy of what was the newly available debut release by THE MULCHMEN "All The News That's Fit To Surf" (Gregg still playing regularly with REAL LULU at this time). Jay Joyce, IODINE guitarist, has made quite a name for himself in the production and studio session realm there. I know he did much of the guitar work on many of those Wallflower records back then, and a host of other things.

Jones adds... IODINE played melodic, emo-ish, post rock in the vein of JAWBOX or SEVERIN (but not like a carbon copy of those bands at all). I played with IODINE once in Cincinnati at SOURBELLY's worst show ever. It wasn't the worst because of IODINE though. A Cincinnati band called HOGSCRAPER closed the show. They were like a banjo and washtub bass duo with an absurdist redneck type bent. The singer/washtub player wore blackface and sort of mimicked a backwoods country preacher. It was fun for the first thirty minutes, but having already been through IODINE's set, I was pretty much all rawked out. So it wasn't long until I just wanted to get out of there, but HOGSCRAPER just kept going. They seemed to have an incredibly devout following in the bar that night and ended up playing until something like three in the morning. That may have been the longest two hours of my life. As I said, though, IODINE was great. And now back to Andy...

NEXT // Show flyer of quite a show, the KOMANDOZ OGC (with Brett Owsley, TC Carll, both whom played with John Shough. Brett now in Chicago with the ORGANIC GROOVE CONTINUUM, and also performed and recorded with THE LAWN JOCKEYS. TC played on most of Shough's stuff, and is now with the LAB PARTNERS). Of course, REAL LULU here and you are pretty familiar with the opener :)

It was the kind of show that Dayton was cool for, with the diversity of types of performances on one stage in one night. I believe this dates from 1998 if I remember correctly.

NEXT // REAL LULU press kit promo photo, featuring Jay Madewell (who performed with the band on a number of occassions, but never recorded with them).

The band body cartoons are all actual size, painted on a huge wood board by Dennis Williamson of HAUNTING SOULS. He also drew the back cover for the REAL LULU "We Love Nick" CD.

NEXT // Since the REAL LULU "Chief" video seems to be of recent interest, here are some photos of the band performing live on WYSO in Feb. 1997, on Jason Brazina's show (he had a program that followed the Rev Cool's Around The Fringe program for awhile. I think he had the very last student run program before they were all canned by the station admin, but don't quote me on that).

NEXT // Of particular note here is Steve Bognar, who was on site with us, shooting some film for footage later incorporated into the "Chief" video. If you watch the video, you'll clearly recognize live action shots from these scenes here.

NEXT // This radio show was the night before a big gig at Kelly Hall, featuring REAL LULU, MINK, THE TASTIES and THE INDICATORS, Nate Farley's and Mitch Mitchell's band, which eventually morphed into ROBTHEBANK.

Jones adds... that's it. Andy sent me a bunch of other stuff too -- will post at some point.

take care

---Jones()

AGNES MOOREHEAD PLATTER, s-t (cassette, 1990)

2008-02-27T20:14:00.007-05:00

Although this band usually went by the acronym A-M-P, I always refused to refer to them that way. Why go to the trouble of coming up with a name with an obscure pop culture reference only to bury it in the initial letters of each word?

AGNES MOOREHEAD PLATTER was:

Richard Caesar Leonardi - vocals
Michael Dombroski - percussion
Dave Roberts - guitar
Scott Dvorak - guitar
Eric Humpert - bass

I saw these guys play at Canal Street Tavern a few times. I believe at least one of those times was in a band playoff round, and I'm sure I voted for them (somebody remind me to do an entry on band playoffs and what an utterly surreal experience that could be sometimes). For some reason, I think of AGNES MOOREHEAD PLATTER as a UD band, but I don't know for sure.

Actress Agnes Moorehead appeared in over a hundred films over the course of her career, most notably as Charles Foster Kane's mother in Citizen Kane. But you are most likely to remember her as Endora, the mortal-hating mother of witch Samantha Stevens on the '60s sitcom Bewitched.

But for this town, there's a little more to it than that (isn't there always with Dayton?). She was (still is) buried here in Memorial Park (after succumbing to uterine cancer in 1974 -- which itself is the subject of some controversy, many of her friends and Moorehead herself blaming the cancer on possible radiation exposure at a former nuclear testing site where she spent a few weeks on the set of The Conqueror 18 years earlier -- quoth Agnes on her deathbed, "I wish I'd never done that damn movie!"). But for the life of me (uhhh...) I can't figure out why she's here. She was born and raised in Massachusetts but lived and worked in Wisconsin, California, and any number of other places. Although she attended Muskingum College in New Concord and held property in Rix Mills (which had been in her family for five generations before being willed to Bob Jones University at her death), I haven't found any reason why she would be buried here in this town instead of those places. Not that her corpse shouldn't rest wherever it bloody well likes, mind you -- it's just odd to me. Ah well, another Dayton mystery to which, perhaps, the comments will provide the answer?

The music on the cassette is pretty solid alternative rock, comparable to similar stuff of the time: a little dancey, a little prog, a little rawkin' -- generally like a less self-absorbed and a little more loud version of THE CURE. Nothing earth-shattering (very little on this blog is), but good stuff, worth hearing again (or for the first time).

Track List:

1. Rudyard Kipling
2. Premium Paid
3. Agnes Moorehead Platter
4. Old Again
5. 1846

Download It! (28 MB)

Produced by Phil Mehaffy at Cyberteknics in Dayton. Phil owned Cyberteknics and has done a lot of recording with Dayton bands over the years.

That's all I can say about AGNES MOOREHEAD PLATTER. Once again, feel free to fill in the blanks in the comments section.

take care

---Jones

ps. As usual, I got the stuff on Agnes Moorehead from her Wikipedia entry. Great source for pop culture entertainment information -- shit for most else.

pps. At the beginning of this post, I said that AGNES MOOREHEAD PLATTER went by the "acronym" A-M-P. Thinking about it now, I realize that was slightly misleading. An acronym is a pronounced word formed from the initial letters of a phrase, but AGNES MOOREHEAD PLATTER wasn't called "amp." To be accurate, I should've said "abbreviation" (which is merely a shortened form of a word or phrase, but one that is not actually pronounced) since they were referred to as "A-M-P."

Off-Site: BIG BROWN HOUSE in The Antioch Adventure, Part 2 (video clip)

2008-02-26T23:49:00.007-05:00

Mite posted this over at his YouTube site. It's a clip from the 1988 Antioch film The Antioch Adventure, Part 2, filmed on location in Yellow Springs, home of BIG BROWN HOUSE and THE GITS at the time. The music of BIG BROWN HOUSE is featured in this clip (and maybe some of the band members too, but I don't know what they look like, so I can't be sure -- Gail?).

When I posted BIG BROWN HOUSE's Scrappy James a couple of days ago, I wrongly reported that the Antioch Adventure movies were documentaries. But as I said in the comments, I looked into it a little further, and it appears that these are actually scripted stories with plot and characters and such.

If you go to Mite's YouTube site, you will also find the clip from Antioch Adventure, Part 2 that features THE GITS. Although that clip features less music than the BIG BROWN HOUSE clip, you will get to see Mia Zapata in what I assume is her first (perhaps only?) film acting gig (CORRECTION: after contacting the director of this film, Mite has determined that the girl in the clip is NOT Mia Zapata as he, I, and several other viewers first thought). A couple things about that clip:

The woman in the glasses on the left side of the third newspaper shown in the newspaper montage appears to be Daytonian academy award nominee Julia Reichert, who has taught in the film school at Wright State University since 1986. In 2003 she and Steve Bognar were nominated for an emmy for their documentary A Lion in the House. Her many film credits include, among others, Emma & Elvis (1992) (in which Scott Childress apparently had a brief speaking part) and the highly regarded documentary Seeing Red: Stories of American Communists (1983).
This doesn't have anything to do with the clip, but I thought I'd point out that although fucking Wikipedia contains entries under "Seeing Red" as the title of the debut album by a generic girlie pop-punk band and another as the title of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there's no mention at all on Wikipedia of Julia Reichert's documentary -- which received a fucking academy award nomination for Christ's sake. And my students wonder why I tell them NOT to cite Wikipedia in a research paper. Fuck... Anyway, back to the clip...
On the very last shot of the newspaper montage (right before the clip ends), you might notice the name
"Derwood Raintree." If you read the clipping (which isn't easy -- you have to pause it at just the right place to get a clear enough image), the article says Derwood Raintree was an actor in the first Antioch Adventure (1967), but IMDB lists Derwood Raintree as a character in that film played by actor John Draper.
People might disagree with me, but in my opinion, the Antioch campus hasn't changed one damn bit since 1988.

By the way, who's with me in pestering The Neon until they get The Gits Movie?

take care

---Jones()

Off-Site: THE GITS Movie, trailer

2008-02-26T11:21:00.007-05:00

Here's a trailer for The Gits Movie, which appears to be complete and currently making visits to various film and music festivals around North America. The same YouTube site has other trailers and GITS live footage too.

As I mentioned in a comment to the BIG BROWN HOUSE post, it appears there may at least be some footage from Canal Street Tavern in the film somewhere. I would imagine there's other footage from THE GITS' time in Yellow Springs and Dayton as well.

I called both The Neon Movies and The Little Art to see if either of them had plans to get the movie at some point. Neither one answered the phone, and I don't leave messages with businesses who can't answer their own damn phones. I'll try again some other time. But the movie isn't mentioned on either web site, so they at least won't be getting it in the immediate future. This area has a pretty solid history of overlooking its own culture, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

take care

---Jones()

BIG BROWN HOUSE, Scrappy James (cassette, 1987)

2008-02-23T01:29:00.013-05:00

Before we begin, I just wanted to mention that Hillary Clinton is having a rally over at Kim Deal's old high school today. Doors open at 10 a.m. Bring your bass. (Bill already called sax.)

BIG BROWN HOUSE was an Antioch College band in the late '80s. I think OXYMORONS did a show with them once, but I don't remember.

And that's the full extent of my first hand BIG BROWN HOUSE knowledge.

However, Gail always liked these guys and was friends with at least one. She tells me that they often traded members back and forth with THE GITS, another Antioch band at the time that you might have heard of. Apparently, just about every member of BIG BROWN HOUSE played in THE GITS and vice-versa at one time or another -- except for Mia Zapata.

For the uninitiated, Antioch College is located in Yellow Springs, about ten miles outside of Dayton. In THE HIGHWAYMEN post, I'll be writing more about Yellow Springs and why Yellow Springs is considered part of the Dayton music scene (at least by everyone who does not live in Yellow Springs). But today I'll just talk about BIG BROWN HOUSE.

At the time Scrappy James was recorded (1987), BIG BROWN HOUSE was:

Benjamin London - guitars, vocals
Steve Moriarty - drums, vocals
Adrian Garver - bass
Roger Garufi - vocals

The music here is great just as music, but it's also interesting in sort of a historical sense. It's definitely post-punk, and with a hint of goth in the vocals -- very much late-'80s Miami Valley. But there's also the definite flavor of something we'd all start calling "emo" a few years later. This is music in transition. Considering that and THE GITS connection, this stuff deserves some kind of limited run CD rerelease (then again, I think you could say the same thing about TOOBA BLOOZE, THE HIGHWAYMEN, and a number of others on this blog).

This tape was recorded at Studio 716 in Ann Arbor, Michigan but subsequently remastered at SoundSpace in Yellow Springs. Chris Hertzler, who engineered the remastering, also engineered THE GITS cassette Private Lubs in 1988 (re-released in 1996 as Kings & Queens) and has since worked with DRY BRANCH FIRE SQUAD, THE CHRISTMAS JUG BAND, CRAZY JOE & THE MAD RIVER OUTLAWS, and THE CINCINNATI WOMEN'S CHORUS.

Years after this was recorded (1996, I think) when I was living in Yellow Springs and Larry Kampf was working at SoundSpace (which I'm pretty sure still exists today), my band HEIKE recorded a couple of songs out there. I must say that Larry somehow got the most powerful guitar sound I've ever heard out of that studio. Unfortunately, I've no idea what became of those tapes. Maybe Larry's still got 'em somewhere.

I know a lot of other local bands recorded things at SoundSpace but for the life of me I can't name a single one right now (except THE GITS, of course). It's a nice studio: a nice big room with separate booths attached -- good separation. SoundSpace used to do cassette duplication too, and they had a massive set-up for that. Before I saw it, I had never really thought about how cassettes were mass produced. You can't stamp them out like vinyl records or CDs. You have to basically record them all individually. At SoundSpace there was a big room with something like fifty individual cassette decks all linked to one master deck. You put in the master, and then I guess you loaded all the other machines with blanks and then you hit "play." I don't know why, but there was something eerie about that room. Grog liked it though. He saw all those decks lined up and couldn't help comparing it to the process he normally used to make all those OXYMORONS cassettes, which was exactly the process you'd think it was: he did them all one-by-one on his home stereo. I don't know about you, but that would've driven me batshit right around tape number thirty-four (and Grog made hundreds -- no wonder he's super-batshit).

I wonder what happened to all those cassette decks at SoundSpace. Probably sitting in a storage room somewhere -- or perhaps unloaded for cheap and written off their taxes as a business loss at some point (doubtful, though, since the tax code would've already allowed them to deduct the basis at a standard rate over the statutory life of the asset which was probably used up long before final disposition of the equipment -- then again, maybe section 2433 would have allowed them to... fuck! see what tax class does to you? don't ever go to law school...).

In 1989 BIG BROWN HOUSE and THE GITS moved to Seattle. I'll let BIG BROWN HOUSE guitar player/vocalist Ben London take it from here:

Ben: That's when I was in college . I went to Antioch College and I was in that band with a couple of guys who are in the Gits . We all went to school together and moved out to Seattle together in '89, when we graduated.

SY: Why Seattle?

Ben: We moved out with a large group of people and it was before the big music thing had really exploded. The only band I had ever heard of from Seattle was Soundgarden, and that was just because I was a college DJ at the time and got "Ultramega OK ." We'd done a lot of traveling and we were talking about wanting to be in a big city, after having gone to college in a tiny little town . New York was too expensive, San Francisco's so expensive, Chicago's so cold . Seattle, it seemed like it was really cheap to live out there and it had a nice climate and we had a couple of friends out there . It just happened that we got out there just about the time this whole thing was gearing up . When we first got out there, Mudhoney and a lot of the early Sub Pop bands were just starting . I missed out on the U-Men and Green River.

SY. : How long did Big Brown House stay together when you moved to Seattle?

Ben : About a year. We'd been playing the whole time when I was in college and when you're in college I guess you experiment with a lot of different styles. Once I got out there, I wasn't enjoying what we were doing . I was just playing guitar in that band and Steve and Matt were concentrating more on the Gits and I decided to get my own thing going, so I quit. I was working with Tommy, our bass player, at the time and kind of put the thing together from there.

---Suburban Voice #35 (1993)

You can read the rest of the interview here if you'd like. It's in PDF form, so you'll have to have Adobe Acrobat installed.

If he was a college DJ at Antioch, he was most likely on WYSO, Yellow Springs' public radio station. That station still exists, but I understand they stopped letting Antioch students be DJs some time in the mid-'90s.

After leaving BIG BROWN HOUSE, London formed ALCOHOL FUNNYCAR with then-BIG BROWN HOUSE bass player, Tommy Bonehead.

BIG BROWN HOUSE and THE GITS appeared in the 1987 documentary film, The Antioch Adventure, Part 2. The first Antioch Adventure followed certain Antioch students in 1967. The second did the same thing with then-current Antioch students twenty years later. You can read a little more about these films here. I read somewhere that one could once order both films through The Antioch Bookstore, but I checked their site and that no longer seems to be the case. However, if you go looking for the movies, it's probably a good place to start.

Track list:

1. Morning's Light
2. Face Down
3. Eight Dead Grandmothers
4. Snacked on by the Bugs from Hell
5. 76 on 70
6. No Ball Games
7. Sawblades
8. Menudo on the Edge (of Town)
9. Wet Metro Stop
10. Vertical Hold
11. Immaterial

Download it! (60 MB)

The cassette insert contains the lyrics for "Vertical Hold" but none of the other tracks.

The copy I ripped has the labels on the wrong sides. I don't know why I consider that significant enough to mention.

This recording comes to us from the deepest recesses of the Gail Dafler Collection.

Other than this cassette, BIG BROWN HOUSE had one other release that I know of: a sort of compilation cassette of outtakes, live stuff, and oddities released in 1989, shortly before the band left for Seattle. I will, of course, be sharing that one.

The only other extant recordings by this band are a pair of songs on Bobbing for Pavement, The Rathouse Compilation CD released in 1994 (long after BIG BROWN HOUSE broke up). The two songs are "The Raft" and "Another Drunken Winter," which is also on the other BIG BROWN HOUSE cassette. I haven't heard Bobbing for Pavement, so I don't know if the version on the comp is the same as the one on the cassette. The compilation also features two songs from THE GITS, two songs from HAMMERBOX, and various others. It's out of print, but you can get it dirt cheap ($3.33!) from some Amazon Sellers.

And that's it for now. Enjoy!

take care

---Jones()

ps. If you're unfamiliar with the tragic tale of Mia Zapata, check her Wikipedia entry. Check the links at the bottom too. Apparently, there's a GITS movie in the works.

pps. In case anyone's wondering, I have nothing to share from THE GITS, and unless someone has a taped live show or practice or something to that effect, I won't be sharing anything by them here. I haven't checked thoroughly, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that everything they recorded is still in print and easily available via the web. In fact, the 1996 GITS demos collection Kings & Queens is a re-release of a 1988 cassette Private Lubs, most of which was recorded at SoundSpace, with one track ("Graveyard Blues") recorded at Canal Street Tavern. You can get the CD from CD Universe. You can download the MP3s from e-music.

ppps. Believe it or not, this post really is about BIG BROWN HOUSE.

Off-Site: GUIDED BY VOICES MP3s

2008-02-21T12:30:00.003-05:00

Let me say this: the phrase "Guided by Voices" may very well be one of the best band names of all time -- near genius use of language to title a music group. It's got rhythm. It's got depth. But not too much of either. I love it.

But otherwise, I honestly never thought much of GUIDED BY VOICES. I never got the whole craze surrounding them. I mean, it's good rock and roll, but if I have to hear one more GBV fan tell me what a genius Bob Pollard is, I'm gonna plotz. Maybe what I need to do is download all their stuff from some file-sharing service and just listen to it over and over until I love it so much that I would drink their dirty bathwater. Maybe that's the way to go.

Anyway, I ran across this page over at the old GBV site full of MP3s just sitting there waiting for download by some uninformed fan. If you fit that description, no need to thank me.

take care

---Jones()

ps. In case you're wondering, the absolute worst band name of all time is (drum roll...) FILTER.

Off-Site: Dayton Punkhouse Documentary (1987)

2008-02-18T11:04:00.002-05:00

One great thing about doing this blog is that through it I've discovered that I'm not the only person infected with the obsession to catalog the history of this town's bizarre musical subcultures. Witness:

Found this through Buckwheat's blog over at MySpace. For those who don't know (and I didn't until a couple of weeks ago), Mister Wheat (and 10,000 potato points to anyone who gets the "Mister Wheat" allusion) was a regular Dayton music hanger-outer type in the late '80s. In that time he took a lot of photos and has been posting many on his MySpace and Flickr sites -- great stuff if you're at all interested in what was going on in Dayton twenty years ago.

I'm pretty sure the house featured in this footage is the old punkhouse next door to the building lounge on third street. The guy mainly featured is Scott Childress (apologies if I spelled his name wrong). I'm sure I met him a few times, but I can't say I knew him well -- same goes for most of the other people in the video. This is just slightly before my time. I recognize faces, but for most, I don't remember names. The only one I was closely associated with was Jason Himes. If you recognize any of these people, please add your observations to the comments section.

Anyway, the video has degraded quite a bit, but it nonetheless remains a great document of what the hardcore crusties were up to back in '87. I find it especially interesting because, although I would sometimes go hang out among this little subculture (I have a vivid recollection of watching the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in this very house on the same night I also went next door and saw THE MEMBRANES), I was never close to being a part of it. It's kind of fun to see now what I missed then (even if it's on 20 year old, degraded VHS). All in all, this sort of has a Decline of Western Civilization flavor -- but it's decidedly Dayton.

take care

---Jones()

THE PLEASURES PALE, s/t (12" vinyl LP, 1987)

2008-02-16T00:57:00.020-05:00

My turntable is shit -- total shit. It's part of a GPX combo purchased at Best Buy for $40 in 1995 (my mom actually bought it for me -- no shit). While the cassette deck on that combo delivers decent sound, the signal from the turntable sounds like it's coming through Alan Sherman's "Japanese transistor radio" and finally received by The Professor on Gilligan's Island with the little white ear-piece stuck in his ear -- but only as Mary Ann would hear it standing on tip-toes (to push her breasts out) next to him.

I did a lot of processing to boost the overall presence, and I think I made some headway. But for now, vinyl rips on this blog will be notably weaker than cassette rips. When I get a better turntable (summer maybe?), I promise I'll re-rip and re-post all the vinyl.

Of course, I'll need to get a job first, and the way that shit is going.... Okay, if you motherfuckers want better vinyl rips, you're gonna have to find me a decent law job in this town. Corner office, please.

Well don't just sit there!

Anyway, there's little I can tell you first-hand about THE PLEASURES PALE. I never saw them live, but they were quite popular in Dayton around 1986-87 -- I'd venture more popular than GUIDED BY VOICES at the time. The bass player, Luis Lerma, was (with his brother Tere) later in the THE TASTIES in the mid-'90s. At least one of the Lermas was in FRANKENSTEIN'S KIND in 1988. Both have been around Dayton forever, playing music, making movies, and doing god knows what else--occasionally assisted by older brother Larry (who I actually know a little better than his younger brothers) and others. But I can't tell you what bands either of them is currently in (if any). Perhaps you can tell me.

I used to play this LP a lot when I was at WWSU. My favorites were always the two that mentioned Dayton: "it could be heaven just as well" and "my town has no cafes." The latter would, I think, make a fine anthem for the Gem City. Check out some of the more appropriate lines:

in a place i'll call 'nowhere'...

my town has no cafes
no place for us to say,
'we're tired, so tired, of the same dead things'

down in my familiar gutter
with nothing left to utter
it's late, it's late, late, late Dayton

It's not exactly T.S. Eliot (okay, it's not even Elliott Smith), and the average Daytonian may find it difficult to sing at Dragons games. But if poetic aptitude and vocal accessibility were prerequisites for an anthem, do you really think people would've put up with "The Star Spangled Banner" for two centuries?

(then again, maybe TOXIC REASONS' "Ghost Town" would make a better Dayton anthem? no money... no fun... Yeah, that's what I'd pick. Ah, but who am I kidding? If Dayton ever adopts an anthem, it'll probably be something by GUIDED BY VOICES -- or ALAN THICKE...)

The music here is fairly straight-up mid-'80s new wave: heavily flanged guitars, cavernous reverb, esoteric lyrics--reminiscient of THE CURE, NEW ORDER, and THE SMITHS (though with a few nods toward rock-a-billy and mod rock, which sets them apart from most of their cookie-cutter contemporaries). Call it shoegazer, call it goth-pop, call it alternative. Whatever... you'll get a definite time-capsule vibe off this.

This LP was released on Cincinnati-based Heresy Records, which makes it an oddity among Dayton releases of that era. This is the only release I know of from Heresy. Most Dayton bands in the late '80s were releasing either on IWanna Records (TOOBA BLOOZE, THE OBVIOUS, THE HIGHWAYMEN) or under their own imprimatur (MOM, POETIC JUSTICE, BIG BROWN HOUSE).

THE PLEASURES PALE were:

Jeffrey Bright - singer
Mitchell Swann - guitarist
Luis Lerma - bass guitarist
Jeff Keating - drummer

The only other thing I can tell you about THE PLEASURES PALE is that "Lovely! Lovely!" appeared on the WWSU 4-Play record in 1987 and that Mitchell Swan apparently played in GUIDED BY VOICES in 1983 (or so I gather from this article from the Boston Phoenix). Even the GUIDED BY VOICES Wikipedia page missed that one.

The Boston Phoenix article also refers to THE PLEASURES PALE as "SMITHS-clones." I think that's a little too dismissive. Okay, they didn't break any new ground here, but Morrisey's overwrought sense of maudlin is (thankfully) absent. If nothing else, I can appreciate that.

Although popular here and elsewhere, THE PLEASURES PALE weren't everyone's cup of tea. Witness...

"Weak-kneed pop of all styles--from Byrdsy twang to Smiths-like laments to wimpy country to fey rockabilly. No bite, nothing to move me, except to move the needle. They even ask, on one song, 'so what is a sissy?' Look in the mirror, pal!"
---Suburban Voice #24 (1987)

About the rip, track 9b is an a capella vocal by a woman who's not credited anywhere on the album. Right at the end of that portion, the vinyl has a bad repeater scratch that I couldn't work through. So I let it repeat three or four times and just faded the track out. It's not what the band intended, but I thought it sounded kind of cool. I liked it so much that I added a track at the end reprising the skip a few times with some additional flange and ambience. It fades up and then down in about 20 seconds.

My scanner is only 8.5" x 11", which is obviously too small to do this 12" sleeve--even in two passes. So there's no scans included in the download package. The best I could come up with is a photo of the sleeve, insert, and poster that I ripped off this ebay ad. To pay the seller back, here's a link to the ad where you can buy this record for $24.77 plus $4.50 for shipping and handling (Jesus Christ! $29.27 for this?!?!?! -- Gail got hers for a buck... I guess if you can work in a GUIDED BY VOICES connection (check the ad), you can jack up the price on anything!).

This record comes to us courtesy of the Gail Dafler collection. Gail wants to know if the kid in the poster is one of the Lerma boys. Anybody know?

Track List:

1. no, joy
2. my town has no cafes
3. in my dandelion field
4. monday mourn
5. love bites back sorely
6. uneasy's disease
7. all about men
8. a heavy coat of jokes
9a. but she didn't
9b. [uncredited female vocal]
10. lovely! lovely!
11. be
12. it could be heaven just as well
13. [uncredited female vocal (reprise)]

Download it! (63 MB)

Okay then, let's recap: the vinyl rip is shitty, The Boston Globe called them "Smiths clones," Suburban Voice called them sissies, and I compared their lyrics unfavorably to Elliott Smith's (and I don't even like Elliott Smith -- now there's a sissy for ya...). Is there any more abuse that my blog could possibly assist this cruel world in heaping on this utterly inoffensive (and not half-bad) pop combo from twenty years ago?

Oh yeah... I just noticed: that ebay ad I mentioned? It refers to them as "The Pleasures Principle." son of a bitch...

If anyone can tell me anything more about THE PLEASURES PRINCI-- uh... I mean, THE PLEASURES PALE, post a comment. I'm all ears.

take care

---Jones

ps. I got the flyer scan from gigposters.com. Don't you love it: "Dayton Invasion!"? (I came this close to renaming the blog...). And can you believe $2 to see GUIDED BY VOICES and RHINO 39? Those were the days... That show took place on January 11, 1986. RHINO 39 was incredibly popular 'round these parts as I remember, though they hailed from Los Angeles. They played a fairly original melding of punk and new wave. For more info, you can check their MySpace page. You can download RHINO 39's 1979 seven-inch record "Prolixin Stomp" over at the mind-poppingly expansive music blog Killed by Death Records. But be warned, KBD is more addictive than crack (and only slightly less addictive than nicotine). You'll download one record, then another, and another... soon you're out on the street trying to score LEATHER NUN MP3s... and before you know it, you're strung out on '77, pal!

pps. Don't confuse the punk (i.e. good) RHINO 39 formed in the '70s in L.A. with the heavy metal (i.e. heavy metal?) RHINO 39 formed in the '90s in Chicago.

[CORRECTION]: Okay, I noticed the flyer said "THREE area bands!" So I did a little digging and found out that the RHINO 39 that played that show was NOT the L.A. RHINO 39 (who, in fact, are really from Long Beach). No, there was a Dayton band called RHINO 39, which was actually my first impression, but when I found the California RHINO 39, I just assumed I was mistaken. Okay, so we've established that there was a Dayton RHINO 39. Now all I need do is locate some music by them. By the way, here's a link to a Dayton Voice article and an entry on someone else's blog, both of which mention the Dayton RHINO 39.

ppps. My next band is going to be called THE PLEASURES PRINCIPLE! (wasn't there a Star Trek episode called "The Pleasure Principle"?)

pppps. Goddammit? How long does it take to upload something to Rapidshare? The little progress bar reached 100% forty-five minutes ago, and it's just been sitting there like a dumb shit ever since! I gotta find a new host... Okay, there it goes.

BEN SCHELKER, Gimme Schelker! (unofficial, cassette, 1991)

2008-02-12T10:06:00.003-05:00

I actually didn't write this originally for this blog. I'm not sure what I wrote it for. But it also seems applicable here, especially since it helps me solve a little problem that's been nagging me about this blog.

Last September, Gail dropped off a number of records and tapes with me for the blog. Among them was a tape of a solo show that Ben Schelker had done long ago (1991 is my best guess) at Canal Street Tavern's Tuesday night Musician's Co-op. I had planned on posting that show on the ten-year anniversary of his death last November, but my law school commitments were simply out of control at that time. So I put it off. Since then, I've been meaning to post it, but it didn't feel right posting it without some kind of write-up about what Ben meant to me and us and all of us. But then every time I tried to write something on that, nothing would come out -- or at least nothing that didn't terribly underestimate the impact Ben had on our lives or overstate the whole drama of the thing.

But then I wrote this which, as I said, is not entirely congruent with what this post is supposed to be about. Truth be told, it's not entirely about Ben. I've tried to make alterations to bring this more in line, but that didn't work. Still, it's closer to the heart of the matter than anything else I've written and deleted so far. Anyway, here it is:

In the fall of 1991 (I think -- might've been '92 -- this old man's memory does fail him sometimes) my old band the Oxymorons went on tour. We did two dates in Minneapolis: one at the THD Punkhouse on a Friday and another at the 7th Street Entry the next night.

The night before we were to go to Minneapolis, we were somewhere in Wisconsin and pulled off at a truck stop around midnight. I don't remember why, but that night we couldn't go any farther. Maybe we were out of gas, or maybe the van needed some part, or maybe we were all just too tired to drive any more -- don't remember. But the place we parked wasn't just a truck stop, it was a mega-truck-and-travellers' stop with a parking lot the size of three football fields (and isn't it interesting how we often define the size of flat places where people don't gather in terms of football fields?) and a big facility with a full service restaurant, bathrooms, showers, video arcade -- and a convenience store with all the necessities: auto parts, clothing, air fresheners, junk food, pirated video tapes, yeah... Funny thing, though: the place was practically deserted. Ours was one of maybe ten vehicles in that massive parking lot. The facility itself was open, but the store, the restaurant, even the arcade were all dark. Except for a couple of security guards and maintenance people, nothing moved.

For some reason, I was feeling just awful about the band that night. We had just gotten off a two or three day layover in Madison -- two shows had been cancelled, and we were hundreds of miles from home with no money to do anything, so we lay around this generous kid's house playing his Nintendo, eating his macaroni, and drinking his beer (though for some reason, we had gallons of vodka of our own). I was sick of Grog, sick of Nick, sick of Ben, sick of Jen (Grog's girlfriend, who was roadying for us at the time), sick of playing to empty rooms, sick of scraping by, sick of making crappy records, sick of the bands we played with -- sick, even, of the seemingly endless columns of empty faces watching us as we played (which seems to contradict what I said about playing to empty rooms -- and it does, but like anyone, when I'm down on something, I can't help but embrace even the contradictions if they depress me more).

Everybody slept in the van except me. I tried, but it was fucking cold. Except for one night we spent in the van in the middle of a snowstorm outside Ann Arbor, Michigan, I've never been that cold in my life, even though it was only fall. And I was too wound up to sleep anyway. I spent most of the night wandering around that dark, empty place -- smoking cigarettes, drawing occasional stares from the few employees. My hair was fucked up. I must've had bags under my eyes. Hadn't eaten in at least a day. And I was wearing a dark blue jacket upon the back of which I had hastily scrawled in yellow paint, "I NEED SOUL!" (fitting caption to a white boy from Dayton at the time -- probably even more true today than it was then) I don't really know what they were thinking, but I imagined all sorts of terrible things. For those few hours, I really felt disconnected from everything, and I would say that I just wanted to go home, except that I felt I was already there -- home in this gigantic, empty waystation for others who were all on their way to better places. I hated every goddamn one of them.

Anyway, probably around 5 a.m., the restaurant opened up. I sat down and spent my last 80 cents on a bottomless cup of coffee and sat there smoking for a while. Eventually, Nick came through the door and sat down across from me, then Ben, then Grog and Jen. We sat there, pretty much in silence, for a little while, and then we went back to the van. Grog started it up. Perhaps he'd got the part we needed or maybe we got gas or whatever it was to get us going again, but we were off. Honestly, at that moment, I don't know why I got in. I felt like a zombie, just shuffling off to wherever.

But after a while, we came over this rise, and there were the Twin Cities: Minneapolis-St. Paul -- just laid out before us. I don't know if we'd been riding in silence or if I just hadn't noticed the tape, but suddenly I heard The Replacements -- a band we'd all worshipped for years, a band that was based in the Twin Cities. I thought of Husker Du and Soul Asylum, two other bands we all loved that had also come from this place we were driving into now. I thought of Mary Tyler Moore and the Mississippi river. I saw the sun rising behind those cities, and it seemed that this place that we'd all heard so much about in the music we loved had invited us to come there.

That night, we played one badass set at the THD House. It was in a basement, and I swear it was packed wall-to-wall. People were crowding on the stairs. It was hot, and there was one lightbulb on a chain swinging over Ben's head (I think he clocked himself on it once or twice). And we were loud as fuck.

After it was over, we packed up while Grog went to see about money. People were coming in and out of that house and the next band was blaring away. Unlike other nights, we didn't have to pack up right after the set because we were staying on THD's floor. Ben and I grabbed some beers and just started walking down the block. At first there were some people in tow, but as we kept walking, they got fewer and fewer. Eventually, it was just us. We stopped when we saw this metal bridge over the river to our left (I'm not sure if it was the Mississippi -- maybe a smaller tributary).

We went out on that bridge and dropped the empty beers into the water (littering motherfuckers...). We had been talking a mile a minute about the band, about music, about Minneapolis, about everything -- but after a minute or two on that bridge, we just stopped. I looked at the sky and the stars and the water. I looked at the black street, strangely empty of cars or people now. I thought of Minneapolis and the bands we loved -- all of whom were probably the main reasons we were there at that place in that moment. I heard factories, and I thought of how at this hour, they must be running largely automatically -- machines dutifully building things, with only a couple of human beings there to watch over them. I thought of John Berryman, who was a poet who killed himself by jumping off a bridge in Minneapolis. I don't know why I thought of him, but I said nothing about it. And I said nothing about how I felt so connected right then and there to the city and all cities and all the machinery and people and the white noise they all make together. Had I put my ear to the ground, I believe I could've heard things happening on the other side of the world. There was water, and there were voices.

Six years later, Ben was dead, and I told this story as part of his eulogy while his body lay in a coffin about six or seven feet from the lectern at which I stood. Then the priest (it was a Catholic funeral) closed the mass, and we carried Ben's coffin down the aisle and out to the hearse. It was heavy, and I took ibuprofen later because I thought I pulled a muscle in my right arm. I've sometimes wondered if I will sleep and awaken on that bridge.

There's an Aristotlean term, in media res, which he used to describe a literary device for how epic poems usually open. It means "in the middle of things." For example, The Odyssey begins at a point halfway through the overall plot, and then it backtracks to the beginning and goes from there until it eventually arrives at where it started about halfway through the length of the poem. Then it tells the rest of the story. We, among us, live in media res. We go forward and back and arrive at the middle, which looks like the beginning, but it's only half. Each of us is the sum he has not counted: subtract us back through nakedness and night and you will see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas. There's a good life, in the meantime.

I've been typing very fast and haven't eaten anything all day.

Grog gave me a tape with the THD House show on it, and I've ripped it. But as I said, that's not what I'm posting today. Today's download is Ben's Musician's Co-op show that Gail taped long ago. I haven't chopped it into song-by-song tracks because I figure, if anyone listens to the music on this blog, they're probably listening on a computer, iPod, or other MP3 player -- none of which seem capable of playing tracks without a two-second pause in between. For this show, that simply won't do.

Of course, this was never released, but I decided to give it a name of it's own. And I have chosen Gimme Schelker because Ben used to joke about how if he ever did a solo album, that's what he would call it. I want to make it clear that he was joking because all of us generally considered the idea of solo albums in general as a bit silly. I mean, maybe Paul Westerberg can get away with it (and even then I'm not sure -- Gail is his biggest fan and even she seems to be on the edge of laughing whenever she mentions him in his capacity as a solo), but nobody else -- not Bob Mould, not Ryan Adams, not Jeff Buckley. I mean, come on guys: get a band! Even dead Ben Schelker can't really get away with it, but death is probably the ultimate defense to ridicule, and even if it's not, Ben drank ridicule like he drank Wild Irish Rose -- his unique gift being that both seemed to have the same effect on him. So be it.

Song List:

Wasting My Time
Pleasant Distraction
Day of Reckoning
unknown
Diner Song
Survival Kit for the Lonely
unknown
Wreckage
Tried
Eledra
Taoist Lumberjack

Download It! (34 MB)

Recorded by Gail Dafler on a handheld cassette recorder in 1991 (I think).

As you can see, there's one song on here I don't remember the title of. In fact, I have no recollection of this song whatsoever. I know it never became an OXYMORONS song. If you happen to know the title, post something in the comments section.

It's not the best show he ever played, but it is full of false starts, errant tuning, and mumbled lyrics where Ben couldn't think of anything better. It's Ben. Gimme...

As I said before, this is a Musician's Co-op show. Until recently, Musician's Co-op was a long standing tradition at Canal Street Tavern during which every Tuesday night, anyone who wanted to could take the stage and play pretty much whatever and however they wanted for 30 minutes. I understand Musician's Co-op was discontinued last March (although Mick has hinted that this may not be a permanent thing -- let's hope so), but in the years before that, Canal Street hosted any number of unpaid solo performers ranging from seasoned local musicians just playing for fun to all sorts of wonderful oddballs and talentless jerk-offs. I've got one or two more Musician's Co-op shows on tape, and I'll post them and more information about that whole deal at some point in the future.

More music coming up on Saturday or Sunday. Until then...

take care

---Jones

Myspace stuff...

2008-02-10T18:02:00.000-05:00

I recently revived my Myspace page -- and by the way isn't "My Myspace" an incredibly awkward construction? Have you ever heard anyone say it out loud without having to say it at least twice to get the point across? You'd think Tom or somebody would've thought of that when they were kicking around domain names (then again, you'd have also thought they would get technical people who know what they're doing, and they sure as fuck didn't do that!

But where was I? Oh yeah, my Myspace (dammit...) page. Yeah, I got it like two years ago at the same time Chuck and I built The Vectors' Myspace page (which seems to have simply disappeared at some point). Then I forgot about it. Then I remembered it for a couple months about a year later. Then I forgot about it again until a few weeks ago. So yeah, I revived m--, I mean, I uh... I revived that page.

Anyway, the informative point of this post is threefold (god I love compounds that end in "-fold" -- "billfold," "gatefold," "three-, four-, five-, sixty-seven-, eight hundred-ninety-nine-fold"):

1. I ran across the REAL LULU Myspace page, where I found the song "Chief" (as in the video Mite posted yesterday at YouTube) available for download. I added it to my page, so if you go there, you can hear it. And if you click on my little player thinger (left side of the page -- can't miss it), you'll get to the REAL LULU page where you can download it and another song too.

2. If you browse through my paltry friends list, you might find a familiar Dayton face or two (in case anybody's looking for anybody) as well as a few Dayton bands from days of yore and today (most with downloadable music).

3. If you have a Myspace account, you better fucking friend me while you're there, dammit! Yeah, much as I'm dubious about the cultural value of the Myspace image, I have to admit that it makes it very easy for a natural loner like myself (who's absolutely awful at staying in touch) to keep up with people that I sincerely would like to keep up with.

Anyway, that's it.

We have a special treat coming up for posting on Tuesday (which happens to be my 39th birthday). Yes, it's an extra-extra-long post and really crappy quality recording from that most beloved of all departed Daytonians, BEN SCHELKER (who?...).

Until then...

---Jones()

Off-Site: REAL LULU, "Chief" video at YouTube

2008-02-09T16:13:00.004-05:00

Mike Kilbourne (a.k.a. "Mite" -- who used to work at WWSU and later co-edited MUTANT RENEGADE ZINE with Grog) put this video for the REAL LULU song "Chief" up over at YouTube. As of this writing, it's the only video up there, but by the time you read this, there may be more. If not, Mite has informed me that there's more coming soon (UPDATE: looks there's a MORELLA'S FOREST video there too now).

The video features the talents of Kattie Dougherty (voice, guitar), Sharon Gavlick (voice, bass), and Jim MacPherson (drums). Most of you probably already know that Jim played in THE BREEDERS during the Last Splash era. He also drummed with THE KILLJOYS (a.k.a. THE RAGING MANTRAS) from approximately 1988-1992. In addition to REAL LULU, I'm sure he played with some other Dayton bands in the late '90s, but I don't know specifics on that.

As I remember, Kattie did some brief guitar service in THE BREEDERS. She was also the original singer for THE PURE PLASTIC TREE, and she and I did a handful of acoustic shows together at Canal Street's Musician's Co-op oh so long ago.

I don't know what other bands Sharon might have been in, but having been married to Andy Valeri for a while, it wouldn't surprise me to learn she did a lot of work down at Miami Valley Cable Council.

The video was directed by Steve Bognar, of whom I have only the vaguest impression. I'm sure I met him at some point or other and saw more than one of his films at the many indie film events at the Neon Movies I used to go to. To be sure, Dayton's contributions to indie film and video deserve a decent blog or other chronicle of their own somewhere, but my involvement with all that extends no further than a ten-week intro-to-film course at Wright State University back in '92 -- and I'm pretty sure I didn't even pass. Anyway, Steve's been involved with a number of film projects around here and elsewhere. No doubt you can find out more with a Google search if you want to.

Anyway, it's good to know someone's finally getting around to posting some Dayton indie rock video over at YouTube. Once again, however, I will urge Grog, Andy Valeri, and that bastard TOM FUCKING CARTER to get their asses in gear and follow Mite's example.

take care

---Jones

Off-Site: Drexel Dave's Videos & Photos from the Real Streets of Dayton

2008-02-07T22:21:00.001-05:00

Well, I guess I kind of gave away everything in the title, but when did that ever stop me from talking...

Found this over at Melissa's blog, TwoFortyPlusGood, which itself provides some amusing insights from one of Dayton's own originals.

Anyway, I'm pointing you toward Dave Drexel's blog featuring photographs and videos about stuff in Dayton that Dave finds interesting. If you click on the videos there, you'll go to Dave's YouTube site and find more of the same.

Dave Drexel is an artist and musician and all-around goofy school bus driver who, I think, understands even better than I do the mystical but decidedly perverse nature of this funny little cesspool we call the Greater Dayton and Miami Valley region.

If you ever get a chance to see his band DREXEL, don't pass it up. In the meantime, enjoy the photos and videos over at his blog if you too would like to see something of the depressing absurdity that seeps into everything that goes on in this town. The photos are kind of strange, and the videos only stranger. But just like Tim Taylor and Jonathan Winters and Gordon Jump, Dave's an engaging personality with a really fucked up head on his shoulders. Where does this town get 'em? And why do they stay?

Dave Drexel's Photos and Videos from the Real Streets of Dayton isn't updated nearly as often as it should be, but there's enough there at this point to keep you occupied for a bit.

NOTE: Melissa fucked up the link to Dave's blog in her links section, so it won't go properly if you try to do it from there. I, of course, will assume the proper air of smirking superiority when I inform her of it, but until she fixes it, the link in the previous paragraph works just fine. (UPDATE: it works now)

take care

---Jones

Off-Site: Dayton bands at the AllMusic guide...

2008-02-05T11:30:00.001-05:00

So I was dicking around over at the AllMusic site and just started typing in names of bands and people from Dayton indie rock. Most returned some kind of result, but only a few included a write-up. I've listed those that returned such a result below (along with corrections where I know AllMusic got it wrong):

TROY CAMPBELL - Troy Campbell was basically the creative force behind THE HIGHWAYMEN. I have a couple of recordings by them that I'll post at some point, but I never met or played with any of these guys. They had relocated to Austin before I really knew who they were. Still, I saw them play once at Canal Street Tavern about a year after they left -- great live show. The only thing I would venture on this article is that I always thought THE HIGHWAYMEN left Dayton in 1988, but the bio puts it in 1989.

BRAINIAC - One correction:

Tim wasn't driving home from the studio when he was killed. He was driving home from the closing night party of 1470 West, which was both a gay club and a modern rock dance club, depending on which night of the week you went there (there tended to be a lot of crossover, and everybody knew it, so if you were straight and you got hit on by a homosexual, you just had to politely decline -- and no, Tim was not gay). The club was moving to a new location downtown. There's been a lot of unfounded speculation about what caused the accident, and although I don't usually mind reporting rumors, it seems crass to do so in this case. I really didn't know Tim that well, except to say "hello" on occasion.

THE OXYMORONS - Okay, this was the strangest result of all. Not only is there a very complimentary biography (thank you Uncle Dave Lewis), but I actually learned something about my own band that I never knew before. Apparently, we appeared on some kind of indie rock compilation on Shredder Records in 1997 (three years after we broke up). The cover of our first seven-inch record is even reproduced on the cover of the compilation, and our song ("Unearthing Your Grave," which I've always thought was the best thing we ever recorded) is the first track. I had no idea...Again, I think the bio is great (my head is expanding as I type), but I do have a couple of corrections (no offense at all to Uncle Dave):

Although D.O.A. certainly played in Dayton and hung out with TOXIC REASONS frequently enough to convince the casual observer that they were from this town, they weren't. They were, of course, from Vancouver.
When Ben's dad found his body (through what must be one of the cruelest coincidences of all time -- Dumb Dayton Luck strikes again...), he wasn't taking him back to Dayton for a family outing. The two of them were going to drive to New York (where Ben had lived the previous couple of years) to pick up his stuff and bring it back home.
Dancing on Billy's Grave was a regular CD release (our third full-length if you count the first two cassettes), not a compilation of our stuff.

Anyway, other than that, the bio is spot on. Thanks again, Uncle Dave.

THE MULCHMEN - The MULCHMEN were a surf rock combo in the '90s featuring Nick Kizirnis (guitar, theremin), Gregg Spence (drums, and Brian Hogarth (bass). I've got their 7" (All the News That's Fit to Surf). No corrections on this one.

JOHN SHOUGH - Nothing to add except that John is probably the best engineer I ever recorded with.

LAB PARTNERS - Good band still currently playing around Dayton. They're great, but I won't be posting anything by them (though you can hear their stuff at the LAB PARTNERS myspace page).

REAL LULU - One correction:

The bio seems to imply that Jim Macpherson played drums on We Love Nick, but that's only 1/7 true. Gregg Spence is listed as the official drummer. He played on 7 of the fourteen tracks. Jim and Steve Johnson each played on two tracks. Drummers on the remaining three tracks were Ben, Matt Espy, and Tim Taylor.

take care

---Jones

GREGG SPENCE, 3 songs (cassette, unofficial, 1989)

2008-02-03T08:59:00.004-05:00

There's little I can say about Gregg that I didn't already say in THE UNDERDOGS post, or that you can't read in these articles at the Big Beef Records site. So I'll just give you some background on the three songs here.

The songs were recorded some time in 1989 at Cro-Magnon studios, engineered by Joe Buben. Gregg did these for submission to Bob Moore's Breathe on the Living LP project. This was a double-LP (with an extra LP of outtakes that contributors received) of music, spoken word, poetry, noise, etc. that Bob compiled and released as the Spring Quarter '89 issue of Wright State University's literary magazine Nexus. Also representing Dayton on that record were THE OXYMORONS, CHRIS POSPISIL, and LAURA AND LARRY ALBRECHT. When I get a better turntable, I'll rip all three discs I have and post it.

Gregg is playing his trusty blue Rickenbacker semi-hollow, which is the only guitar I ever saw him play except for one time at PJ's underground when he played my guitar for an impromptu performance of "Righteous Tune" with Ian and Ben at an OXYMORONS show. That's where the photos came from (I don't have any photos of Gregg playing his Rickenbacker). In the one at the top, that's Gregg in the foreground and Ian Uppstrom in the background (Ian's playing Grog's bass); Ben must be behind the drums. In the other one, Gregg is on the left while Ben (foreground) and Grog (background) are on the right. OXYMORONS used to cover "One of the Boys" by Mott the Hoople, which was a favorite of Gregg's, so I'm guessing that's what we're playing in that photo. These photos were most likely taken in the fall of 1989 (NOTE: I scanned these at 300 dpi, so they'll get a lot bigger if you click on them).

"Dribble Glass" is the one Bob chose for the LP. The lyrics to this song had been published as a poem in the Fall 1988 issue of Nexus.

"Rich Kid Avenue" later appeared on a CD comp called Hydroponic Mascara, vol. 2. I once asked Gregg what he meant by "my tires are painting the pavement blue." He said he had no idea.

"Nineteen" was an UNDERDOGS' song. As far as I know, this version was never released anywhere. This has always been my favorite Gregg Spence song. About a year before Gregg's death, Andy Valeri organized a benefit show for him at the downtown 1470. My old band HEIKE played a set and closed with this song. I believe there's a video tape of that show floating around somewhere.

Speaking of which, I know that Andy, Grog, and especially Tom Carter have tons of video relevant to this period in Dayton music history. Hey guys, ever heard of YouTube? What the fuck?

When Gregg gave Bob the tape of these songs to listen to, I made a copy for myself down at WSU's secondary studio. So I believe this would be second generation from the original reels. I put them on the same cassette that had my master copy of the first OXYMORONS tape, and they've been sitting there ever since.

Track List:

1. Dribble Glass
2. Rich Kid Avenue
3. Nineteen

Download It! (10 MB)

Gregg, of course, had dozens (if not hundreds) of other songs he did when he played solo shows around town. Of the few covers he used to do at those shows, I specifically recollect "A New England" by Billy Bragg and "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello (and I'm sure there was some Richard Thompson in there too). No doubt somebody somewhere has at least one of those shows on tape. If it's you, please come forward. I'd love to post it.

You can find an in-progress Gregg Spence discography here.

You can read about the various Gregg Spence benefit shows that took place over the course of 1999 here.

You can view video of Gregg performing "Nineteen" and "Head Above Water" here (RealPlayer required).

You can buy your own Rickenbacker guitar here. No doubt they still carry them in blue...

In 1990, when Chris Rue and I were editing Nexus, we published another Gregg Spence poem entitled "Beat Poetry for Beginners," which is less a poem than an excuse to poke fun at Allen Ginsberg wannabes. Jen Cook (of COLAVISION) and some other characters later took the title of this poem as the name of their band (which never recorded anything and played, as far as I know, only one show -- but I was there, and Gail still has their sticker in her diary). I still have Gregg's typed and signed manuscript of this poem -- will post some time.

take care

---Jones

Off-Site: NEW BOMB TURKS on Dayton & Ohio (1994)

2008-02-01T09:05:00.001-05:00

Heh... Here's an excerpt from an interview with Columbus' NEW BOMB TURKS originally printed in Suburban Voice zine #36 (1994):

SV: Then there was a write-up awhile back in CMT about the Columbus, OH "scene." First of all, is there a Columbus "scene" and, second, did A&R people all of a sudden start descending on the city?

Eric: Oh, you wouldn't believe. Boy, just money flying in Columbus, OH, just like it always has. No...I would say there's more of a scene there than Dayton, which is the trendy one to talk about now but, at the same time, there's great record stores, there's a couple of good bars and there's cheap beer and there's always an influx of new students, young people. But, for the most part, it's like any city. It comes and goes.

Matt: I think if you took all the good bands from Ohio, you could probably have a scene the size of Boston or Seattle. If you take Guided By Voices, the Breeders, who don't really count because they just moved to Dayton, Brainiac and Afghan Whigs, Prisonshake, Cobra Verde, My Dad Is Dead. But if you take that and the Columbus bands, such as Gaunt and Greenhorn.

SV: Ohio's always had a lot of good bands, back to the Pagans and Rocket From The Tombs.

Eric: Ohio's fine, we're not putting down Ohio, necessarily, but for sheer masses of people - there's more people in NY, there's more people in Boston, there's more people, in Seattle. When people say, "oh, there's a scene in San Diego," it's like, when hasn't there been a scene in California? There's always tons of bands, there. It's hype. It's somebody looking for the next big thing.

Matt: It's taking a scene which is going to exist, normally, anywhere, and when you focus on a scene because one band's really good, a lot of bands will get signed from that area. The Breeders are good. Guided By Voices are awesome and Brainiac has gotten some good reviews, but, besides that, Dayton really doesn't...

Eric: I know people that live there. They say it sucks, there aren't any record stores.

Matt: Bob from Guided By Voices says there's no scene in Dayton.

Eric: And those guys have been around.

SV: It's just something people have to hype up, I guess.

Matt: There's always going to be a Boston scene, there's always going to be a New York scene, there's always going to be a Seattle scene.

Okay, I'm going to interject a few comments here (come on, I'm a law student! You can't expect me to just let others talk, can you? even if they were talking fourteen years ago and I'm just hearing it now...):

First, everything they say was true of Dayton then and is still true now (except the part about money flowing for bands here -- that ended long ago).

Second, yes for a brief period in the mid-'90s, Dayton was the place for bands to be (although I was living in Columbus at the time, so I missed the big sign-o-rama that went on here), and we should all thank Jim Greer and his series of articles about Dayton in Spin magazine for that. And by "thank," I mean... well, I'm not sure what I mean, but I know I don't mean "thank." It was a pretty surreal and fucked up time for this town when it was suddenly supposed to be Seattle or something. I didn't get it then, and I still don't get it now. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of great music has been made here, but it was all done in spite of Dayton, not because of it. The essence of Dayton is that it's a place one should strive to escape from. That brief period during which the national press convinced the music listening public that Dayton was some sort of musical mecca has got to be one of the greatest examples of journalistic con-artistry ever perpetrated. Hat's off...

Finally, I guess I do want to dispute the allegation that there were no good record stores here. I don't know who Eric was talking to, but they were wrong: Second Time Around, Renaissance, Gem City, Trader Vic's, and then there was that little record store Ken Gross opened near Hauer Music on Patterson... fuck... can't remember the name right now. Of course, only Second Time and Gem City still exist today (and are really shadows of their former selves now), but in 1994 there was no shortage of places to get good records.

You can read the entire interview here if you want to.

The same site also has an amazing PDF archive of indie rock zines from the '80s including Flipside, HeartattaCk!, MaximumRockNRoll, and Suburban Voice. I'm sure I'll be mining these occasionally for information (especially the Maximums, which probably have a lot of good info in the old "Scene Report" sections) and will report highlights as I find 'em.

take care

---Jones()

UPDATE (4-13-2011): As of this posting, Gem City Records no longer exists. The old space closed some time last year. However, it was taken over by Omega Records, another Dayton-owned chain that I am chagrined to admit I know almost nothing about. Still, they've done pretty good things with the old space. In particular I point the reader toward the tremendous amount of vintage vinyl available there for incredibly low-low-LOW prices!

Off-Site: HUMAN SWITCHBOARD at Last Days of Man on Earth

2008-01-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to another great find over at Last Days of Man on Earth. It's a great write up on the '80s new wave/art-rock act HUMAN SWITCHBOARD with download links for their album Who's Landing in My Hangar?

HUMAN SWITCHBOARD was not from Dayton. They were from Kent, but they played here fairly regularly and appeared on Jim Carter's foundational compilation It's Hard to Be Cool in an Uncool World, which also featured Dayton bands THE OBVIOUS and THE HIGHWAYMEN (I'll be posting this comp as well as stuff by those two bands at some point in the future).

Kent is also the home of the '80s art rock combo BAD CRABS. Since I've got the BAD CRABS' tape Baddest Crabs/Ugliest Flowers I'll post that at some point too.

Check it out!

take care

---Jones

Off-Site: TOXIC REASONS, "Ghost Town" video, et al., at YouTube...

2008-01-30T10:59:00.004-05:00

There are a lot of other TOXICs videos there too.

And here's a link to a write-up on the "Ghost Town" 7" that includes the story of how TOXIC REASONS got together by none other than Ed Pittman himself.

By the way, by request, I recently re-upped the download links for FRANKENSTEIN'S KIND and the WWSU 4-PLAY.

take care

---Jones

THE WIZBANGS, demos (cassette, 1991)

2008-01-26T17:56:00.003-05:00

THE WIZBANGS were Denny Wilson's band after TOOBA BLOOZE broke up. I already wrote some of what I remember about them in the Viper's Drag post, but here's a bit more:

The WIZBANGS were:

Denny Wilson - guitar, voice
Tim Taylor - guitar, voice
Juan Monasterio - bass
Captain Karl Streuber - pans, harp, voice
J.J. Yates - "soul and groove" (that must mean drums in WIZBANG-talk)

They played groove-style '70s-ish rock -- well evidenced by the music for download today. They recorded these as demos and apparently sent them out to some radio stations (likely clubs and promoters too), but to my recollection, they never released this for general sale.

Will Dalgard told me they recorded these all pretty much in one take on a Saturday afternoon in the same order they appear on the cassette. They did it all live to 8-track at J.J.'s place. I think it was some time around March or April 1991. I don't think there are any overdubs. I'm pretty sure Will was there for at least part of the recording (he used to hang out with Denny and Tim, and he was probably this band's biggest fan -- so much so that he dedicated PLANET ED's first cassette to them, even though by then they had broken up). If I've got any of this wrong, someone correct me.

Will and Tim struck up a bit of a friendship, and I know Tim used to give Will guitar pointers all the time. Will would incorporate these into PLANET ED songs -- usually, but not always, with good results.

I saw these guys probably three or four times, always at Canal Street Tavern. In keeping with the tone of the music, they wore bell bottoms and Robert Plant style frilly shirts. They were quite the sight to see, but I must say, the girls ate it up. One reason I went to all those shows was that the place was always crawling with hot girls.

The WIZBANGS lasted a little less than a year. After they broke up, Tim and Juan, of course, went on to form BRAINIAC. Denny moved to New York. I don't know what happened to Karl or J.J.

Track List:

1. Selfish Son
2. Red Man
3. Don't Cry Mama
4. Disturbing the Peace
5. Funky & Superbad
6. Not What I See

Download It! (27 MB) (link re-upped on 4-1-2010)

My favorite tune here has always been "Red Man" (which Tim sings), followed closely by "Disturbing the Peace" (which features Karl prominently), but they're all pretty good if you don't mind this genre of music. But if you are at all put off by retro-groove, you should pass this one up.

The download pack includes scans of the insert and cassette. Those I got from Grog, but I ripped the music from a different cassette I had. Will had a first generation copy right from the original reels, and I dubbed that from him. I thought that might sound a little better than the production copy.

take care

---Jones

Belated MLK Day note...

2008-01-24T16:39:00.001-05:00

I meant to post this odd bit of Dayton history on Monday, but it slipped my mind:

"On June 30, 1974, Marcus Chenault, a twenty-one year old, African-American man from Ohio, murdered Alberta Williams King. King was sitting at the organ in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, while a church service was underway. Chenault also killed a church deacon. King was the mother of Martin Luther King, Jr. It remains unclear why Chenault killed King, although the murderer apparently hoped to kill other African-American leaders as well. After the incident, he stated that "all Christians are my enemies." In the subsequent trial, Chenault was sentenced to death, even though two psychiatrists testified that Chenault suffered from schizophrenia and was insane at the time of the murders. A judge commuted Chenault's sentence to life in prison in 1995. Chenault died of natural causes on August 3, 1995."

---from Ohio History Central - A product of the Ohio Historical Society

The entry is wrong about Marcus Chenault's age at the time of the killings. He was 23.

Additionally, Marcus Chenault's home town was (you guessed it) Dayton.

Stay tuned for more music (finally) on the blog over the weekend.

take care

---Jones

Off-site: OMATIC & SHESUS at Last Days of Man on Earth

2008-01-20T09:19:00.001-05:00

Someone posted a comment asking if the blog is dead. It's only been 12 days since the last post (we've gone longer than that before), so I think the question is a bit premature. But just to be clear: nope, the blog's still going. But I'm back to school now, so things will be slower -- probably not quite as slow as they got last semester (where I basically had to shut down the blog for about two months), but slower nonetheless. But I've still got tons of stuff to put up, and I don't see me getting tired of blathering about my misspent 20s any time soon. So one way or another, we'll be going for a long time.

On other topics, I generally skim a lot of other music blogs, and every now and then I come across something with a Dayton connection. So as I did with TOXIC REASONS a couple months ago, I will post links to any Dayton stuff I find on those other blogs. As it happens, I ran across some such stuff just a few minutes ago. Here it is now to tide you over between now and the next entry here:

A great write-up on the band OMATIC with a download link for the full album Dog Years.

Another such write-up on SHESUS with download links for selections from Ruined It for You and Shesus Loves You (the blogger doesn't offer the full recordings because they're apparently still for sale somewhere).

I was glad to find these because I hadn't planned on posting anything here on SHESUS and I've only got one seven-inch by OMATIC. But both are great bands worth remembering.

Both of these are from the excellent Last Days of Man on Earth blog. While you there, check out the rest of it. Great stuff.

take care

---Patrick

COLAVISION, Joan of Arcwelding (7" vinyl, 1993)

2008-01-08T10:42:00.003-05:00

Ever see the movie Fright Night? Roddy McDowell plays a has-been actor named Peter Vincent with an inflated view of the importance of his own career (as a b-grade vampire killer in Hammer-esque horror films). He hosts a local late night horror movie show, and every time he shows one of his own shitty movies, he heaps praise upon it. Every time I post something on this blog that I played on, I feel just like Peter Vincent. That being said, here we go again.

I can't even feign ambivalence on this one. I fuckin' love this record--and as it happens, so did Ben Weasel. Here's his review:

"Quirky, snotty punk that really hits the spot - this is the best debut record I've heard in a year. Good production, nice hand painted-on-tin-foil covers... One of the few total low-budget D.I.Y. releases that doesn't fit that category just 'cause it sucks. It ain't perfect but it is pretty original; references to other bands are pointless. The headline is: Bored Dayton Brains Crank Out Great Midwest Punk. This is fucking rad. Go ahead and spend a few bucks on it."

---Ben Weasel, (Panic Button #8, 1994)

I got into COLAVISION at about the same time that OXYMORONS was breaking up (late 1993). I had played with drummer Dave Graeter (of LIQUID DRAINO) in PLANET ED. Daphne (a.k.a. Jen Cook, then Jen Simmerlink -- Grog's girlfriend at the time, later his wife, now his ex-) had never played bass in any band -- or, for that matter, ever played bass at all. We got together in Dave's basement and wrote some tunes. Dave wrote some lyrics, and I wrote some lyrics, usually only finishing them the night before we went into the studio. We played around Dayton (including the first gig for Kattie's band REAL LULU, which was then called BOY WONDER) and once or twice out of town. Then we just drifted apart. I think it was all over by the end of 1994. Joan of Arcwelding is the only thing we ever released (though I've got some cringeworthy demos of stuff we recorded later).

A few years after this was released, Phil Seilly told me that around 1996 or so, Renaissance Records was selling what they said was the "last available copy" for $50!

In addition to the music, I also love the fact that we took the time (at Dave's prompting) to hand paint each and every record cover on tinfoil. On the first one I painted, I wrote "This is not a Fugazi t-shirt." Dave frowned and told me, "Now everyone's going to think it's a Fugazi bootleg! That one's yours!"

Unfortunately, we pressed this on a particularly lousy grade of vinyl (which we jokingly called "cola-colored" because if you held it up to the light, you could see through its brown translucence--just like a glass of cola!), so the vinyl record sounds like absolute shit. And since the master tapes seemed to have disappeared long ago, I was afraid I was going to have to post that. But last fall, Dave told me that, lo and behold, the original DAT had reappeared in his house. He went to some studio and had them transferred to CD (apparently, the studio guy who did the transfer just sort of shook his head when he heard the music -- like "I can't believe you're paying to put this shit on CD"). So here's the record straight from the original digital master. Rawk...

Dave wrote the lyrics for "Problem #11" after staying up all night studying for an economics test (that's his textbook that Daphne and I are reading from).

"Ford" is my absolute favorite Colavision song ever. I've foisted it on dozens of people through mix-tapes and CDs over the years.

Phil had been under the impression that "Johnny" had been inspired by the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers. Not true--it was inspired by Oakley Hall's novel Warlock. I liked that book so much, I named my son Oakley.

"No Damn Cat, No Damn Cradle" was, of course, inspired by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s novel Cat's Cradle.

We called the record "Joan of Arcwelding" after a poem written by Gail's (and my) good friend Laura Albrecht. I just liked the title.

I could go on, but even I'm sick of my gushing by now. I'm guessing you bowed out right after "I feel just like Peter Vincent."

Track List:

1. Problem #11
2. Ford
3. Johnny Walks on the Right
4. No Damn Cat, No Damn Cradle

Download it! (24 MB) (link re-upped 4-1-2010)

There's also an outtake from these sessions on the CD that Dave gave me, but I'll post that some other time.

In addition to the songs, the download package contains scans of the cover (my copy), insert, and the vinyl record itself.

By the way, as I mentioned above, each record cover is different. Gail lent me a copy of hers for scanning a couple of months ago. If anyone else has a copy, I'd love to borrow it for scanning some time.

take care

---Jones

making the paper...

2007-12-28T12:32:00.000-05:00

So my ex-wife calls me and tells me the Dayton Daily News wrote up the blog in the Go section today. That was very nice of them. I hereby take back any nasty things I've said about them on this blog and any nasty things I will say about them in the future.

Now if anyone's reading this blog for the first time, there a couple of things I want to mention:

1. Skim the label list (on the right) if you're looking for something from a particular band or person from Dayton's musical past.

2. If you don't see what you're looking for, you can e-mail me or post a comment somewhere (I'll see it wherever you post it). If I've got it to post, I'll post it. If not, you'll have to wait until I get it (and I don't know when that will be, but I'm always on the lookout for stuff, so who knows?).

Oh yeah, I moderate comments on the blog, so your comment won't show up right when you post it. It'll have to wait 'til I approve it. I do that ONLY because some spammers started coming by and posting stupid advertisements as comments. So I always dump those, BUT everything else gets approved (even if it's criticism).

3. If you download, you'll be downloading through Rapidshare, which is a bit of an involved process. Just follow the instructions though. It should work.

4. If Rapidshare tells you the file doesn't exist, let me know (Rapidshare deletes files that haven't been downloaded after some specified period). I'll re-up the link at my earliest convenience and post a notice to that effect.

take care

---Jones

BOB BRAUN, "The Spirit of Christmas" b/w "Welcome Home" (7" vinyl, 1973)

2007-12-24T00:53:00.003-05:00

I watched a lot of Star Trek as a kid (no surprise there, I'm sure). One episode in particular I remember is the one where Spock goes into that Vulcan mating psychosis and has to fight Kirk to the death over his wife. At the end, after Spock thinks he's killed Kirk and his wife tells him she's hot for some other dude, Spock just shrugs, lets her go, and tells the other man that, "You may find that having is not so pleasurable a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is true."

And that's why Christmas Eve is the greatest day of the year -- better than your birthday, better than Halloween (though it's admittedly a close call), better even than The Day itself. Even when I was a kid, it didn't take too many Christmases for me to realize that no matter how great my presents would turn out to be, nothing was so good as the anticipation. Waking up on the morning of Christmas Eve and knowing that Christmas was almost here but not quite here was better than waking up Christmas morning and finding what Santa left (though I have to say that was pretty good too).

Of course, the older you get, the less the gifts matter. But for me at least, that just makes Christmas Eve better. If the 24th falls on a weekday, what Scrooge termed "the even handed dealing of the world" still continues. You can go out, or you can go to work if you have to, but for that day at least it seems people take everything a little less seriously because most everything will come to a halt the next day. Got to file that report? Got to write that paper? Fuck no! It can wait 'til the 26th! Even the most obnoxious Type-A's among us have to goof off a little. And compared to the way we are the rest of the year, it makes work almost a pleasure.

So if you are at work right now and reading this blog, good for you! Goof the fuck off as much as you want. That's what Christmas Eve is all about. Today's download is an absolute pile of dung! Download it and force everyone at your workplace to listen!

Today's download comes to us from the collection of Ms. Gail Dafler, who found this little treasure while thrifting some time in the mid-'90s. Okay, not only is it neither punk nor indie rock nor anything approaching that, but it's also technically not from Dayton. So it really has no place on this blog.

Then again, maybe it does. Anybody who had grown up in Dayton and was making music fifteen years ago doubtless grew up with Bob Braun, the ubiquitous TV personality from Cincinnati whose eponymous talk show aired weekday mornings in both the Cincinnati and Dayton markets (and undoubtedly many other places in the tri-state area). No doubt every city had (still has) someone like Bob. He was cheese personified. His non-threatening voice and commanding good looks tended to grace anything that could be dubbed "community related." He opened supermarkets and city centers, had recurring guest opinion spots on radio and television, judged baking, livestock, and sewing contests. I distinctly remember he sliced up the pie that went for $2000 at the 1979 Ohio State Fair (I was there). Bob was the happy mask behind which hid the grime, decay, and desperation of urban life in Dayton of the 1970s. He was the face of denial in a grasping, scratching, wheezing, post-Vietnam, pre-tech boom Miami Valley.

We hated him, but in a fucked up way, we loved him. I'm going to go out on a limb here and declare that my generation was the first to openly acknowledge and even promote the legitimacy of irony as an art form. And even the most primitive sense of irony had to respect the perverseness lurking behind the ridiculous veneer of civility that Bob Braun stood for. He is a treasured cultural icon 'round these parts precisely because he could not possibly be confused with anything that should have serious artistic value. Even better, just like Big K Cola and the venerable Voss Hoss, he was all ours -- whether we liked it or not.

Of course, as Bob's Wikipedia entry notes, he would not be ours forever. In 1984 he left southwest Ohio to pursue a career in Hollywood. Although he landed jobs in commercials (even if you don't live around here, you may know him as the former spokesman for Craftmatic Adjustable Beds), local talk shows, and a few feature films (he had a bit part in Die Hard 2), by 1994 he was back in Cincinnati hosting a radio show with his nephew "Bucks" Braun (himself a noteworthy radio personality in Dayton at the time). He retired in 1997 and died of Parkinson's Disease in 2001.

Now lest anyone think I speak ill of the departed, I'll also add that although I question the value of Bob Braun's contribution to culture, no one can question the good he did in his lifetime as a staunch supporter of the Ruth Lyons Children's Fund (to which you can make contributions at the preceding link). And at no time did Bob do more for the fund than he did at Christmas...

...which, of course, leads us (finally...) to the record itself, a 7" vinyl record recorded by Bob Braun with The Cliff Lash Orchestra (I dunno...) and something called "The Fun Bunch" (and if you're expecting me to make some parenthetical joke about that, you'd be right except that I can't think of anything that's really funnier than just typing "The Fun Bunch"). "The Spirit of Christmas" appears to be a Cliff Lash original. It's seasonal schlock from the '70s at its schlockiest and '70s-est. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The label places this in 1973, which would be six years into Bob's seventeen-year stint as host of The Bob Braun Show on WLWT-TV in Cincinnati (check out this customer review of a Ruth Lyons Christmas album at Amazon.com for more information on the show and its peculiar Christmas traditions).

Download It! (15 MB) (link re-upped on 3-29-2010)

Okay then, that's about it. I'm posting this just after midnight, Christmas Eve. If you read this early in the day, do yourself a favor: drop whatever you're doing right now and go have a Christmas adventure. No shit. If you can at all manage it, do at least a little something you hadn't planned to do today. Doesn't matter what it is. If you're cynical about holiday commercialism, go downtown right now and give somebody fifty bucks (doesn't matter if you think they'll spend it on booze, doesn't matter if there are billions of others still starving -- give somebody fifty bucks). If you can't get out of work, give it to the person sitting next to you. If you're the kind of person who regularly does unto others, go buy something for yourself. If you can't do any of that stuff, do something else. Do something you didn't know you would do when you got up today. And if you can, make somebody happy -- doesn't matter who.

Merry Christmas,

---Jones