It always warms my heart to have a little local flava in my national media. Spin brought back the love this month with a pithy article on a local audio contagion known affectionately as “Shitgaze”, written by local boy Joel Oliphint and centering on the bands that call Cafe Bourbon Street home sweet home. (But no reference to the Taco Ninja. Tragic.)
Out of love and respect I won’t mention the fact that I have nearly no patience for the stuff. What can I say, I like my music a little more crispy. I’m all for low-fi and DIY, but still, I’m the guy who’s favorite Clash album is Sandanista and who was secretly relieved when Iggy lost some of the Raw and just kept the Power.
Still, for a second-string city, Columbus has so much going for it. It’s a place where the little trickles of mid-western creative juice pool up and nurture something new. Not every blossom blooms to my liking, but sometimes you’ve got to gaze on some stinky shit to make the garden grow. I’m glad we’ve got it. I’m going to miss it when I’m gone.
Joel’s a good guy. Good for him on the national exposure, both for some local bands and for himself.
I like raw, I like DIY, and I like lo-fi, but for some reason I don’t like Times New Viking and their ilk. It’s just repackaged Guided by Voices. Which is fine, but why would one listen to TNV when one can listen to Guided by Voices?
There’s a streak of noisy that runs through the DNA of Ohio Rock ‘n Roll: The Breeders (and by extension The Pixies) Brainiac/Enon, Rocket From The Tombs / Pere Ubu / Great Plains… It’s kinda cozy, but it’s best when wrapped around real songs. Bob Pollard’s no slouch when it comes to penning a jingle. That’s hard to do.