Dayton/Ohio music

[transmothra]

so i've been getting into some local artists here lately, and i thought i'd tell you what i've been listening to. everybody already knows how great Guided By Voices, The Breeders, Brainiac, and The Oxymorons (, etc.) are, but you have GOT to check out:

Lab Partners
really amazing dreamy shoegazer sort of band. i went to high school with the keyboard player! that Daystar disc is about 11 hours long, and well worth every single second. some great noisy guitar. sketchy production in spots: you can't hear the bass, it often sounds muffled or muddy, and there's noise and distortion where there really shouldn't be, but in fact it's all quite overlookable somehow. the overall mood of the album is just incredible. and it feels all swirly in my ears!

Maery Lanagan
the most original songwriter i've heard in a long time. check out her song "The Birds" from her latest CD, Live Underwater (recorded live at Refraze with an audience). this disc is the most honest record since Cowboy Junkies put out Whites Off Earth Now! sort of like folk/world music/rock/jazz/electronic pop music. utterly amazing stuff, actually. great, spacious production by Gary King, too.

Woosley Band
(from Columbus) sometimes, these guys can sound EXACTLY like Del Amitri, only with more denim. and that's not a bad thing at all. everything i've ever heard by them is just astounding. totally solid songs - and terribly clever lyrics. this band is just classic (without sounding stale one bit) all the way through. nothing mediocre has ever come out of them. latest disc has a bizarre three-way song at the end (almost like a medley or something... think the unfinished songs that ended up as a side of Abbey Road) that's not to miss.

[sthslvrcnfsn]

I'm going to school over in Oxford ... the Lab Partners have played out here a few times, but I've never seen them. I hear they are pretty great though.

Lately I've been into Pearlene, a sort of dirty footstompin' blues band from Cinci. They record with the Soledad Brothers as part of the band. The Soledads are from Detroit, another similar band, and also very good. I saw Pearlene a few weeks back and a band called the Tough and Lovely from Columbus played too. They sound more like 50's lounge music a-la the Detroit Cobras. They were pretty fun to listen to. They might play in Oxford sometime soon.

I finally caught Thee Shams a few weekends ago. They are another Cinci band and I had heard good things about them from City Beat magazine. More of a 60s vibe here. Really nice sound to all their instruments, a big distorted hollowbody and a jangly Fender Mustang, and a really good bass sound. Good solid rock songs.

Then there is always the Greenhornes, another "garagey" sounding band. I hate that term, but it gets my point across. The newest album Dual Mono is miles better than the first album, and they put on a good show.

If you want to check some of those guys out, The Greenhornes, Thee Shams, and Pearlene are poaying at the Southgate House in Covington KY on Aug 23. $8 for all that - it's going to be a great show. Also the Deathray Davies, The Not, The Socials - heard good things about all of those bands - are playing that night too.

Jim

[Roman Sokal]

...and of course Swearing At Motorists! (though Dave Doughman now lives in Bloomington, IN...and possibly moving to Belgium as I was told some time ago). They are amongst my fave indie bands.

[blameshifter]

hey, my buddy ian plays drums for lab partners. he'll be happy to know people dig them.