The Quarantine Blues: Musicians Killing Time In Isolation, A Pencilstorm Series Kickoff - by Jeremy Porter

Spotify Playlist - Listen While You Read!

We’re about two or three weeks into the great self-quarantine of 2020, depending where you live and when your city/state/country decreed a lock-down, if they did at all, and if & how you chose to personally adhere to it. It’s been a shock to our systems, and the whole “system” in general as we adapt to isolation. I’m certain that it’s affecting us each a little differently depending on our individual psyches, situations, and locations. I’m no expert, that’s for sure, but here’s some of what I’ve learned and how I’m coping and adapting.

While I never felt the coming pandemic was a hoax or a political ploy, I initially brushed it off as something that likely wouldn’t affect me much. I used a phrase I often go to when someone gets uptight about a potentially dangerous situation – “That’s not gonna be what kills me.” Hell, I’ve been through worse – car accidents, serious illnesses, more than a couple sticky situations. I’ve never had a flu shot, rarely get sick, and tend to live for the day. My band drove to Ohio and played a show on March 14th, just as the country was starting to shutter. Never cancel a show. Never.

That Monday morning Michigan was locked down. I watched our governor talk and I stayed focused on the news cycle for the next few days. By mid-week I was suffering from major anxiety and my OCD was out of control. I still felt relatively safe, but we had 22 shows booked for April, May and June. I’d spent endless hours, sent hundreds of emails, spent money on posters & lodging, and endured enough rejection to make a better man quit the music business altogether, but ended up with an impressive spring tour that would take us to several states, some of our favorite rooms, some new ones we were excited about, and with some of our best friends and favorite bands. Everything went from awesome to unknown in a few short days.

Then, perhaps a bit out of order, the bigger picture hit – people are going to get sick and die. Are my parents taking this seriously? My wife? My bandmates? My co-workers? My neighbors? Is it ok to have band practice or recording sessions? Is it ok to even leave the house? Pretty soon all major sports, concert tours and festivals, and public gatherings of any kind & size were cancelled months out. I still can’t find a roll of toilet paper in this town. This is bigger than any of us thought and I better figure out a way to deal with it.

The first change I made was to drastically limit my news intake. I’ll check the headlines in the morning and watch a little national news in the evening to get the big picture, but I can’t take much more than that. The daily White House press conferences should instill confidence and trust, but they do the opposite. The rest of the news cycle is endless speculation and regurgitated headlines. My anxiety decreased immediately, and I’ve since been able to channel my energy elsewhere.

I started spending a lot more time with my guitar. I’ve never had a problem with writer’s block, but I’ve often had a problem finding the time I’d like to write. Shane MacGowan, paraphrasing Christy Moore, once said that songs are just floating around in the air and all you have to do is pluck them down. I’ve always subscribed to that, and they’ve been raining on me for the last few weeks. It’s been a wonderful distraction and outlet, and I hope a few of them are good enough to share someday.

Left to Right: Lydia Loveless, Vanessa Jean Speckman & Micah Schnabel, Shane Sweeney,. James Hetfield, Ricky Rat.

I’ve also done what I expect many of us musician-types and fans have – started taking in the daily barrage of live streams and iPhone-videos of other musicians playing in their homes. I watched Micah Schnabel & Vanessa Jean Speckman from Frank Turner’s apartment in London the day after the last couple shows of their UK tour were cancelled. I tuned in for Shane Sweeney from his home in Columbus, with a guest appearance by his son. I caught a Lydia Loveless StageIt show from her home in North Carolina, Ben Nichols from Lucero going from room to room in his house playing for an hour on Instagram, Ned Hill from Nashville in his living room in Nashville, and many others. Ricky Rat (Detroit punk icon from The Trash Brats and Dead Boys) does a daily cover-song video that’s been super fun, and every Monday night Metallica is showing a full concert from their archives on YouTube at 8 pm. These Metallica videos look and sound incredible and have given me a newfound respect for the current era of the band. And then I’ve been taking in a whole bunch of friends just posting themselves playing songs by themselves or The Beatles, Tom Waits, Rolling Stones, Lemonheads, John Prine, and each other. It seems never-ending, and in different times perhaps a little annoying even, but right now I just can’t get enough and I want more, more, more.

I’ve even stepped outside of my own comfort zone and done a couple myself. I’m proud to be part of the GTG Records family, a Lansing, Michigan-based indie label, and they’re doing a daily video series called “Staying Home with GTG Records.” My contribution was a solo acoustic cover of “Voices” by Cheap Trick. I’ve got a submission in for the NPR Tiny Desk Concerts that has been posted, and on the last two Saturdays I even did the impromptu selfie-vid thing (an old Soul Asylum song and a Watershed cover) that got me out there a bit. I expect there will be more songs coming out of my own living room soon. It doesn’t beat walking into a venue in another state and bellying up with my pals I only get to see once or twice a year before we play a show together, but it’s all we got, and it’s way better than nothing.

As I work my way through this third week of isolation, save a few trips to the grocery store and a couple walks & runs, I find myself settling into a comfortable routine consisting of working, creating, exercise, and watching and listening to music. There some TV in there too (Tiger King is everything it’s cracked up to be!), and the odd home-improvement project. My wife works in health-care technology and while she’s fortunate to not be on the front-lines in hospitals, she’s working endless hours supporting those people through enabling video visits so they can tend to more patients in less time and stay healthy while doing it. She’s also helping to support the establishment of more beds and surrounding equipment in short time for the growing numbers of sick people in Michigan. I wish she had more time to play, but I’m proud of her and I’m grateful that we can be home together.

I still find myself on the anxiety roller-coaster, but I find peace in knowing that there’s not a damn thing I can do about it other than to do my part not to spread it, and maybe share a little music. If you’re suffering from anxiety, turn off the news. If you’re bored, watch some live music or some not-live music. If you want to help, stay home. Go to the website of your favorite bands and order a record or a shirt, or buy some music from them on Bandcamp. I’m talking about indie bands that need the money - Dave Grohl is a good dude, but you have musicians, artists, and venues in your city that are really hurting. A lot of bars and venues have funds set up to help their employees who are laid off. These are good people I was planning on tipping after a post-show shot after our set next month. If you want to do more still, THIS is a good article about many places that could use some help.

In the coming weeks we’ll be asking other musicians and artists how they’re coping & creating with the isolation and quarantine and sharing their responses here on Pencilstorm.

Do something creative today, stay positive, stay safe and keep up the isolation so we can get back to sharing our art, stories, and lives together again!

xx

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos.

www.thetucos.com

Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.

www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic

Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic

www.rockandrollrestrooms.com

Top 10 Albums of 2019 & Other Great Stuff - by Jeremy Porter

Spotify Playlist - Listen while you read!

1. Bleached - Don’t You Think That You’ve Had Enough? Picks 1-3 were really tough this year. It could have easily been a three-way tie. I went with Bleached because this record was such a dramatic step in a new direction. There’s still moments of that surf-punk/mega-hook sound they started with two records ago, and after their last record, it could have gone in one of a couple different ways, but there’s a discernible right-turn into the pop world on this one, with forays into disco, dance, bubble-gum, and pure pop. I thought the record was a little long early on, but I eventually decided it’s just right. “Somebody Dial 911” is one of my top songs of the year for sure, and “Just a Heartbeat Away” is right up there. This is a band still on the way up and it’ll be exciting to see what’s next.

2. Ex Hex - It’s Real - I loved their debut Rips but this is a more fully-realized record - more confident and cohesive, better songs, and more identifiable. The production is crisp and clean and the performances are spot on. It was also one of the best shows I saw in 2019. “Rainbow Shiner” is my jam here, by guitarist Betsy Wright, with it’s Holy Diver-era guitar riffs and great vocal melody. Love cranking the vinyl.

3. Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury - I haven’t been able to latch on to Stu’s previous albums, but not for lack of trying. I love his politics, and that he’s got some Michigan connections in his band, I just couldn’t dive in like everyone said I should. That all changed when I heard Sound & Fury. It took me two listens to realize something special had happened, and another two to be up to my neck trying to figure it all out and digest it. I’m still working on that - but the record is fearless, and that alone is not enough to make it great, but the songs and production are, and it’s gonna be at the top of a bunch of lists this year. This is a ROCK album, not a country record, though you can catch a glimpse of Waylon here and there. It’s not for everyone - it takes a little work - but it’s worth it.

4. Foxhall Stacks - The Coming Collapse - This came out of nowhere and kicked me in the ass like an unexpected record seems to every year. Ex-members of Jawbox, Velocity Girl, and Minor Threat/Bad Religion make it a bit of a supergroup but the record plays like a well-oiled machine. If I have a wheel-house, this is it. Killer hooks and melodies, loud AF guitars, a real live sound and feel, and tempos that are upbeat but held back just enough to keep you squirming in your seat. At the top of the list though is just really great songs. Killer album, huge surprise. Really hope it’s not a one-off.

5. Micah Schnabel - Teenage Years of the 21st Century - Micah’s follow up to my #1 of 2017 Your New Norman Rockwell is a logical step forward into themes that are even more personal, more political, and more daring than those on ...Rockwell. The spoken-word introspective narratives have not been abandoned, but there is a familiar rock and roll aspect to a lot of these songs that fans of Micah and his Columbus-based band Two Cow Garage will embrace with open arms. He’s got a kid-like innocence and vulnerability but the skepticism, wisdom, vocabulary (and maybe just a dash of bitterness) of a well-read old man. There’s an underlying optimism that rears its head from time to time too, lest we jump off the nearest skyscraper at our earliest opportunity. It’s a special combination and Micah continues to set the bar of what one guy and a guitar can accomplish.

6. Todd May - Let’s Go Get Lost - Another Columbus entry. I can’t imagine why Todd May isn’t a superstar and Ed Sheeran is selling out arenas. These songs are masterpieces and his voice and delivery just tear me up. I hear elements of a lot of different things going on, more in spirit than sound, from Tom Waits here and there, to Jeff Tweedy, to his raspy Columbus colleagues Colin Gawel and Micah Schnabel in other parts. The record feels very Midwest - honest and melodic.

7. Juliana Hatfield - Weird - This was released in January, on the heels of her amazing album of Olivia Newton John covers (my #1 of last year). It’s more along the lines of her previous album of original material and homage to our political climate, 2017’s Pussycat. It’s got some really smart songs, played in her more recent indie-pop-rock, not quite lo-fi style. She’s made some life changes that have allowed her to make music a priority, so her productivity has been off the charts these last couple years. With quality standards like this being met, we’re on board.

8. North Mississippi All-Stars - Up and Rolling - Another band I never latched onto before. The production is amazing, the songs are fun, and the performances are killer. The guitar playing is engaging and inspiring. It’s a really comfortable and timeless record, sounds super warm, and made me a fan.

9. The Highwomen - S/T - These things usually don’t work. Take the two Highwaymen records, for example. Great story, amazing artists, not great records. This record is more unified, more thought out, and better executed. It suffers from a bit of sameness across the three-sides, and it’s at it best when it strays in style from that formula, but it’s an easy listen and at-times goosebump-inducing experience.

10. Taylor Swift - Lover - Don’t be a h8r. This record is the first one of hers I’ve been able to sit through. It’s got some stuff, probably half of it, that I’d classify as pure drivel - over-produced, formulaic, cookie-cutter, dime-a-dozen pop-radio garbage meant for girls 1/3 my age. But….there are a handful of songs that are really, truly great when you get right down to it. Interesting production, challenging arrangements, good vocal performance, and a super-sticky melodies. I’m not taking the TayTay train to Little Caesars Arena to pay top dollar for a nosebleed seat, and I’m not in the “greatest artist of our time” camp yet, but there’s some really good pop music on here that transcends its genre and social stature.

Other Cool Things (EPs, Reissues, Honorable Mentions, etc):

Shane Sweeney - Love The Dynamo (EP) Columbus mention #3. Great songs a la Cohen/Cave/Waits recorded on an iPhone. As raw as it gets. A beautiful collection.

Royal Scene - Meet You At The End (EP) Lansing, MI Replacements tribute band member’s collection of fantastic original songs - sounds great, high-energy, and super fun. Fans of well-executed Midwestern rock and roll should take note.

Drinking Mercury - S/T - GTG Records full-length recorded in a cabin in northern Michigan. Reminds me of some different British things - Who, Oasis. Super smart songs and instrumentation.

Popular Creeps - Bloodshot Red (EP) - Detroit-area dudes with a great batch of songs that remind me a bit of early `80s garage-alternative stuff. Think Murmur-era R.E.M., a less-punk Hootenany-era Replacements, stuff like that. It’s loose and raucous and raw with great, efficient songwriting and tight guitars. Great stuff.

The Replacements - Dead Man’s Pop - Desperately needed remix of their 1989 album Don’t Tell a Soul. Finally, the record it was meant to be. The extras are cool, but the album remix is pure gold.

The Stick Arounds - Hot Single Of The Month - Each month these dudes gave away a new song for free. The cover images are takes on classic album jackets. The songs are to the Stick’s standards - very well written and executed Michigan powerpop with a couple great covers thrown in. Look for #12 - their Cheap Trick cover coming out Christmas week on their Facebook page!!!

Keith Richards - Talk Is Cheap (box set reissue) - Long overdue remaster of this amazing record with a great book and some extras in a Telecaster case-like package. It was overpriced, the extras are forgettable, and I thought hard before I pulled the trigger, but it’s a great package and I’m glad I did. Now, where’s Main Offender?

Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police - I like this record, but it falls a bit short of her Olivia Newton-John covers album. Maybe the material is too familiar, maybe it’s not executed with quite the same level of commitment, maybe it’s just me. But that’s not to say it’s bad - it’s a fun listen - especially if you love Juliana and you love The Police - and I’ve gone back to the vinyl a few times.

Top Two Albums of the 2010s

Lydia Loveless - Real - The 4th Columbus record here, though she’s since relocated. This record is still in rotation. The best songs, the best band, great production. But that voice is what ties it all together. I find myself writing my own versions of these songs again and again. I just can’t get sick of it.

Jason Isbell - Southeastern - I still get goosebumps when I hear “Outfit” or “Decoration Day” live, but this record is so intimate, honest, and raw. The two follow ups are solid, but, for me, lesser extensions of this record, and haven’t quite had the staying power. “Elephant” is the best cancer song I’ve ever heard. A very personal and intimate record, and never a dull moment.

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos.

www.thetucos.com

Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.

www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic

Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic

www.rockandrollrestrooms.com

What Columbus Means To Me: My History In Ohio's Biggest City - by Jeremy Porter

Jeremy Porter and The Tucos will be performing at the Rumba Cafe in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, January 19th. Doors 7 pm. Jeremy and the band are on at 8 pm. Colin Gawel and the Bowlers follow. FREE SHOW.

Growing up in northern Michigan, far from Ann Arbor and that great rivalry, Columbus wasn’t even on my radar. We knew about Cincinnati because of WKRP and the stampede at that Who concert, we knew Toledo from M*A*S*H, and we knew that Cleveland was a place, but not Columbus. Then I moved downstate in the fall of `88 and overnight Columbus was a thing to be hated, in November at least. A few years later, the guy who ran our record label turned me onto a band from there called Scrawl, who did a cover of Cheap Trick’s “High Roller” that he knew I’d like, and I’d been hearing about a band called Watershed too, that was supposedly cut from the same cloth as I was, but I didn’t pay that any mind.

October 21, 1995 I was playing in a punk band from Detroit called SlugBug. We had just come off a couple years of playing a ton of shows, a couple Midwest and east coast tours, and a lineup change. We weren’t getting along all that well at the time and it was cold. We drove down to Columbus for a one-off at a place called the High Street Downunder. We thought it had to be a cool place because Scrawl had recently played there. Maybe it was, but you can’t even find it on Google today. I remember I was under the weather, and after load-in I had to go #2 (sorry, TMI) and there was NO WAY I was doing that in the disgusting men’s room, so our bass player’s girlfriend stood watch outside of the much more presentable ladies room for me. If memory serves, we played to a decent crowd but didn’t get paid, the other bands weren’t very nice, and it was a long, cold, depressing drive home though the frozen Ohio night.

September 27, 1997 I became obsessed with Keith Richards and The Stones in the late `80s and by `97 I was all in. I bought tickets in Ann Arbor, but for the Columbus show. I didn’t have to wait on line, because the Detroit show’s tickets had gone on sale an hour earlier. Seventh row center, right between Keith and Mick. I remember the marquee at Taco Bell on High Street said “Free Taco for Mick Jagger” and I loved that. I was feeling great as my wife and I walked across campus into the Horseshoe, and all the way down front. It was a beautiful evening and they were the best band on the planet that night.

November 9, 2003 I was playing in a powerpop band called The OffRamps. We got added to a show at Small’s in Hamtramck, MI being promoted by my friend Brian, supporting a band I really liked from Texas called Grand Champeen. Brian’s band Porchsleeper was playing too, but it was a Sunday night, so it was bound to be a disaster. Still, I was happy to play with both of those bands. A few days before the show a band I’d seen at The Elbow Room in Ypsilanti a couple of times called Two Cow Garage was added to the bill. That really annoyed me. I didn’t really like them much, and I hated the idea of a fourth act being added to a Sunday night show. But Brian said it was kind of a done deal because they were touring with Grand Champeen, so I went along with it….but they were playing first, dammit! After soundcheck their bass player went out of his way to sit next to me at the bar, extend his hand, and introduce himself as Shane. “Goddamnit,” I said to myself, “they’re really nice dudes too.” That was equally annoying. I had to begrudgingly admit that they were good that night, better than I’d given them credit for. Channing, the singer for Grand Champeen, was sick as hell, there was no one there, and it was otherwise a fairly miserable night. A few months later, Two Cow Garage released their second record, The Wall Against Our Back, and I got completely sucked in by the stripped-down production and balls-out execution of amazing songs that just completely resonated with where my musical mindset was at the time.

They’ve put out better records since, but I still have a soft spot for that one, and take some joy in prodding them even today to pull out one of those tunes occasionally (they never do). Over the next 16 years, I’d go see them when they came within an hour of Detroit, eventually weaseling my way onto most of their Detroit shows, and becoming dear friends with Micah and Shane (and Murph, Vanessa, Todd, George, and Jay), and I just think...God I was an asshole back in Hamtramck that November.

June 28, 2012 For a few years I wrote for a now-defunct Detroit blog called Motor City Rocks. I was asked by a friend, Sue Summers, to do a book review for a new book by Watershed’s bassist Joe Oestreich. Sue was an early champion of my music around these parts, she knew Watershed early on, and she’d been telling me I need to hook up with those guys since I’d met her in 1990. The book really connected. The opening scene takes place in Small’s (the same bar we played at with Two Cow Garage nine years earlier), one dude is playing Cheap Trick deep cuts on the jukebox while another is washing down Percocets with PBR. Next thing I know, the protagonist is pulling giant bong hits with the guy who was currently producing our first record at the time. To say the book hit home is an understatement. So on this night, June 28, 2012, Watershed was playing Small’s (same bar, again) after a book reading. I couldn’t make the book reading, but I made the show, met Joe for the first (and only) time, and enjoyed the set.

April 4, 2013 Jeremy Porter and The Tucos play Columbus for the first time, at The Tree Bar, a cool little place down a scary, dark alley that looks more like back-woods Mississippi than the middle of Ohio’s biggest city. I don’t remember much about that night, but I remember Roni was our bartender and had a heavy hand. I know that we’ve played there a bunch and none of the shows were amazing but they were all fun, and there were always good people around.

February 26, 2014 The Tucos opened the first night of Columbus-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Lydia Loveless’ tour for her album Somewhere Else at a sold-out, converted Ponderosa restaurant in Pontiac, MI. Trust me when I say that “The Tucos” and “sold-out” rarely appear in the same sentence, plus I was completely mesmerized by that record, so it was a big deal for us. I said hi to Lydia and we talked about Shane and Micah for a minute, but I kinda hit it off with her guitarist Todd May, who was digging our set, and hit it off even more with her bassist Ben, who was selling merch next to us at the end of the night. We’d play with her again in 2016, when she was supporting Real (my #1 record of this decade so far), again up in Pontiac, and I’ve been completely mentally immersed in her amazing music for five years now.

July 14, 2015 Somehow I was asked to play guitar and lend some backups on two songs Watershed had recorded but not finished for a summer single. On this day I drove out to The Loft in Saline, Michigan (where they’ve done most of their recording) to add my parts over their songs. I came prepared, and Tim Patalan (reference the bong hits above) seemed excited as we tracked. I tried to act cool, but I was just beside myself to do it. The songs, “Best Worst Night” and “Hey Lydia” happen to be my favorite songs they’ve ever done, but I am biased. Damn, that was fun.

July 21, 2015 I was surprised to wake to an email from Colin Gawel - Watershed’s singer/songwriter/guitarist - thanking me for playing on the songs (I’d had no direct contact with the band about the session, and I hadn’t met Colin yet) and complimenting me on my work. I was still in awe that they’d asked, and to this day I’m super proud of it.

September 17, 2015 Another sparsely attended but heavily imbibed show at Tree Bar on the 17th, memorable only because Two Cow’s then drummer Murph and his girlfriend Erin were there.  We traded war stories with him all night, and Erin and I bonded over our love of hair metal, and I told her all about the Saxon concert Gabe and I had just attended two nights prior in Detroit. She requested a W.A.S.P. song during our set, which sadly we couldn’t deliver, and I may or may not have promised to learn “Love Machine” next time through. (Please don’t hold me to it this time!)

September 18, 2015 The next morning The Tucos stopped at Colin’s Coffee for a triple espresso on our way to Louisville. We traded coffees for a record, had a good long chat, mostly about Cheap Trick, and have since become good friends, albeit mostly through email, text, and rock & roll. After that we stopped at The Starliner Diner in Hilliard, strongly suggested by Murph, and that’s been a priority every single time since. Possibly my favorite breakfast spot on Earth.

March 11, 2016 This was the last time we played Columbus, at The Tree Bar, to about five people. We were on a run with a band from Lexington and a band from Cincinnati and I don’t think there was a local on the bill. We ate at a nearby sandwich shop before the show. Our then-bassist Patty and I got tomatoes on ours, drummer Gabe didn’t. Patty and I would spend the next 16 hours climbing over each other in and out of the bathroom of that horrible Motel 6 room. Goddamn tomatoes.

September 7, 2016 My first article for Pencilstorm, the Columbus-based blog that Colin runs, was published. It was a review of a fairly forgettable Ace Frehley concert in the parking lot of a Harley dealer in suburban Detroit. I’ve since written a bunch for the blog, participated in a KISS Non-Makeup-Era Song fantasy album draft, gotten photo passes for a Steve Earle concert, typed up a Grant Hart obituary, and more. It’s a thrill to be on the roster.

December 9, 2017 I played a small, sold-out solo acoustic show with Two Cow Garage’s Micah Schnabel and his partner Vanessa Jean Speckman’s pop-up art show at the AirB&B Loft above PJs Lager House in Corktown, Detroit. We couldn’t find a venue worth doing, and PJ saved the day with a great idea. It’s the only show they’ve had up there, and was the perfect setting. I wanted to bring my little amp up but Micah talked me out of it, and it was the right call. No amps, no PA. Solo acoustic shows can be hit or miss, to put it generously. This was a special night and I was so happy to be a part of it. (photo credit: Marlissa Shwarz, in front of Vanessa Jean Speckman art on the door to the Claddagh Loft at PJ’s Lager House, Detroit, 12/9/2017.)

This coming Saturday, January 19, 2019, we are playing at the Rumba Cafe with Colin Gawel & The League Bowlers. We are on at 8 sharp and it’s pay what you want. That means it’s cheap and you can go to bed early. It’s our first show with our new bass player Bob, who’s never been to Columbus before. I can’t wait for him to meet you all and take him to the Starliner Diner for breakfast. We’ll be avoiding tomatoes. Come and make this our best Columbus show yet. I’ve paid my dues here. Xo

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos.     
www.thetucos.com

Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic  

Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic

www.rockandrollrestrooms.com

One Night, Two Cities and Six Amazing Columbus Bands - by Colin Gawel

This Friday night, November 4th, 2016

Ace of Cups (Columbus, OH): The Whiles (CD Release), Ghost Shirt and Bicentennial Bear

The Pike Room (Pontiac, MI): Lydia Loveless, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Jeremy Porter & the Tucos.

The Whiles

Obviously anybody who reads Pencilstorm and/or is a fan of Watershed knows we go deep with The Whiles. Ricki C. has been a raving, slobbering fan since their first demos and still wrangles guitars for the Peppercorn brothers. I've had many a late night discussion pleading my case that Colors Of The Year is the best record to ever come out of Columbus. And I've been lucky enough to have Joe Peppercorn help out on both my solo records and the Watershed record Brick and Mortar.  And to top it all off, original lead singer Zach Prout is now my son Owen's 7th grade English teacher. 

Though the band has stayed active, this show is a release party for Mercury Ghost (Anyway Records) their first new record since Somber Honey in 2012. The word on the street is that  it could be their best yet, so needless to say, Ricki and myself are over the moon with anticipation. The band also performs their annual Beatles Marathon every Holiday season (this year it's December 10th) so this may be the last straight show of originals from The Whiles for - ahem - a while, so try not to miss it. You'll be glad you did. 

Lydia Loveless

Similar to The Whiles, Lydia Loveless' early records are so damn good they can overshadow her more recent work. And that's a shame, because although it doesn't reveal itself on the first listen, her latest record Real is her best to date and another big step forward for the talented Ms. Loveless. She and her kick-ass band have been touring since what seems like the last time the Indians won the World Series and in the process even became one of the few Columbus ensembles to perform on a national TV show. Click here to check it out.

Hot on her heels in the national sense, the pride of New Albany, Aaron Lee Tasjan has been making waves with his brand new release Silver Tears out on the very cool New West imprint. Aaron left Columbus for Brooklyn before settling into East Nashville where he has amassed a jaw-dropping resume as a side-player while simultaneously cranking out quality solo work. Don't take my word for it, check out his bio here.  The title track off his latest record is a must listen and a must watch.  Dig it here.  

Speaking of cool labels, while browsing around for this article, I realized five of the last eight 12" records I have bought were released on Columbus' own Anyway Records. One of those bands, Ghost Shirt will be making a rare live appearance to support their pals in The Whiles. I flat wore out the grooves of their last release, After the Spark, and I recommend it highly to fans of power-pop that falls not far from the Nick Lowe tree.

Bicentennial Bear is led by Miranda Sound alum Billy Peake and his talent for combining clever lyrics & clever arrangements played at stupid volumes is truly awe-inspiring. If you have never heard the song "Black Quarterbacks," I truly pity you. Click here to remedy that situation.  

OK, you got me, Jeremy Porter and the Tucos aren't from Columbus. They happen to be yet another kick-ass rock n roll band from Detroit. There is a local connection, however: Jeremy is longtime friends with Watershed producer Tim Patalan and - in fact - Jeremy added some musical parts to our last single Best Worst Night / Hey Lydia that was just released this summer. Like Lydia and Aaron, Jeremy is a touring machine who has built up quite a following around the Midwest and East Coast. Click here to check out some of the tunes. It's great stuff.

My best advice would be to try and attend one of these amazing bills in person, my next best advice would be to check them all out online and tell a friend. 

Colin Gawel thinks it's weird when guys in bands are also music critics. It's like being a baseball player and a sports writer at the same time. But he wrote this, so I guess he is weird. He owns Colin's Coffee and founded Pencilstorm. His latest video is here.

The Pencilstorm Interview - Lizard McGee of Earwig

Lizard McGee and his band Earwig are the very definition of DYI and have been making waves both in Columbus and the national music scene for parts of three decades. Earwig will be playing the Big Room Bar Saturday October 15th with The Kyle Sowashes and Bava Choco. This interview originally ran in May 2016. 

Details on the new Earwig record and more at www.lizardfamily.com 

Questions by Colin Gawel

- Before we dive in, tell everybody about the new record and the best way to get a copy or to hear the music?
 
This record is a Sci-Fi rock opera and all of the songs relate to a short book that I am writing (a rock and roll memoir) called “My Own Secret Service” which tells the story of Earwig and how the band began in the basement of a Columbus orphanage and ended up fighting demons in an alternate reality... and eventually used the power of a great song to save the multi-verse. It’s a true story, of course. It’s very experimental for us. James joined the band while we were making the record and she sings on many of the songs (she's from the alternate universe). We are a 4-piece now. That spiced things up a bit. It’s a departure from the usual Earwig record. It has a lot of Japanese on it because in the alternate universe (the mirror image of Columbus is called Capital City and it exits in an alternate universe called ‘The Unreal’) everyone speaks Japanese. Yes, it’s a concept record. Go ahead…call it a comeback. Also every song has a guitar solo or guitar break which takes me back to the early days of Earwig. I like playing guitar. 
 
As of this writing, the record is being mastered by Fc Bester who is from South Africa and masters records on his 1992 era PC in his basement. I’ve never heard anything he mastered but I’ve met him and I trust him because I can tell he’s part-crazy. We recorded it with Eric French in his basement and with Paul Abbot in the hallway outside of a dentist’s office in Clintonville. One song, we recorded the day we wrote it (All My Sins Are Blotted Out) on an iPhone at our practice space. I added a bunch of over-dubs in a garage somewhere in Ohio. Then Tom Boyer (GBSRecords.com) and I mixed it. Tom is a genius and a very talented guy, he fixed everything. We are co-releasing the new album with Anyway Records which is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time but the timing has never been right until now. That means that the album will be available through Revolver distribution, which is good for getting the record to more people. The album will be available through all of the usual digital and streaming channels (iTunes, Spotify etc.) and we have 2 music videos. The release date will likely be mid-Summer. But the BEST place to find it early, order the vinyl, download the album or find out anything about what we’re up to is always www.lizardfamily.com
 

Before reading further, let's check out the video for "Wasted on You" featuring Lydia Loveless. 

Official video for Wasted On You by EARWIG (featuring Lydia Loveless) from the upcoming album PAUSE FOR THE JETS on Anyway/LFM Records. Directed by Mike Beaumont for Spacejunk Media. www.lizardfamily.com

- The first single off the new record, "Wasted on You" is an instant classic. Tell me about writing it. Was it in the morning? The night? On guitar or just in your head? Did it happen quickly or evolve over time?  

 *(First, thanks)*
 
I have a friend named Amy (Amy Turn Sharp). She is a wonderful poet and a great friend...and we had talked about writing a song together for a while. The genesis for this song comes from those conversations. It came very quickly, once I had the basic idea and sat down to write it. Like most Earwig songs, I thought about it for a long time before actually sitting down with an acoustic guitar. I wrote the song in the morning, but only wrote “place-holder” lyrics for the second verse. My thinking was that they were too straight-forward and easy and I would come back and write something different, something deeper.  Over time, I got used to the second verse and it stuck. It turns out that they are very deep. Like most Earwig songs, it’s a relationship song. But it’s based on real-life circumstances and it also relates to the story of the two main characters in my novel (My Own Secret Service).
 
- Did you immediately that this song was special? Have you felt that way about other songs you have written? Were you surprised it got some much love on CD1025?
 
Because I was writing from a more right-brain, spontaneous level…I was spit-balling and collaborating, just putting most of the lyrics in as place-holders, I didn’t over-think them. They were just the first things I thought about to get the point across. They weren’t poetic. The lyric "I'm only saying this because it's true. I still want to be with you. You mean the world to me and baby I'm sorry.” is far more direct and plainly spoken than I would usually write. But it’s one of my favorites now and not over-thinking it contributed to making this song more direct and relate-able lyrically. “Used Kids” was sort of similar, it came directly from a dream... so I woke up and wrote it down without too much thought. I absolutely love CD1025, you know how that is. We had a great response there with "Used Kids" and I tried to replicate that with our last album (Gibson Under Mountain) but nothing happened. We worked hard to make sure that people heard this song and it just clicked. We had tons of requests. The response from the station and the listeners was huge, the biggest yet for us, which was exciting and cool. A little aside…I gotta admit that I did examine the details behind how “Used Kids” did so well and connected with listeners on the radio. I designed the structure of Wasted On You (before writing the lyrics) with a similar skeleton. It has the same arrangement and chords in the verses and the bridge. That part was very purposeful. 
 
 
- How did you get the idea to have Lydia Loveless sing on the track? Were you guys friends from before or did you just call out of the blue?
 
Earwig had played with Lydia’s first band, Carson Drew (with her sisters and her dad on drums) at Bernie’s Bagels. I had always kept her in mind but had not heard any of her solo records until the same month that I was writing "Wasted On You." I don’t remember why, but I had just ordered all of her albums. She was on my stereo daily at the same time I was writing this song and when I envisioned it as a duet, she was my first person I thought of. It was a bit out of the blue. I did not know her well, but I reached out to her and asked her and she said yes. Earwig’s drummer at that time, George Hondroulis, was friends with Todd May (who plays with Lydia) and now George actually plays drums with Lydia Loveless. 
 
- Lydia is very busy these days, did you guys actually record together in the same place or did she add her vocals at a different time?
 
We recorded them together at the same time. I recorded all of the other vocals and over-dubs from this record at my house, in my garage (Moonville Recorders).  When I knew that Lydia was on-board, I wanted to make sure it was special, I wanted us to be together. I also wanted it to be very easy and professional. I called my friend Tom Boyer, a wonderful producer in Columbus. Tom does fantastic vocal sessions, has a great ear and has great gear. Plus he’s in Columbus, where Lydia lives (I live in southern Ohio). We set up the microphones for the vocal session face-to-face and sang the duet directly to each other in real time. We did a couple of takes, but it was very quick and it was important to me that we sing to each other at the same time, not separately. I had heard a story about George Jones and Tammy Wynette recording a duet this way (they were married at the time) and it just seemed like a great way to go. 

I really wanted us to be in character and deliver these lyrics to each other. It was the same for the video, which turned out great. I sang my lines directly to her and she sang her lines to me. I really concentrated on her and focused on delivering the lyrics with real emotion behind them. She did the same. Lydia was fantastic to work with on this song and the video too, she’s a real killer. I’m a big fan. 

Watch This! A bootleg video of "Wasted On You"

- Can you get us up to speed on the current Earwig line-up and how it compares to previous incarnations of the band?
 
Earwig started as a trio, which has a sort of magic of it’s own. By the time the first record happened, we were a 4-piece. It didn’t last long and Earwig has been a trio for a long time...until James joined the band officially about a year ago. James is a big Earwig fan (she's my daughter) and we had talked about her singing with Earwig for fun. We did a couple of shows with her singing lead/back-up vocals. We did a show at Skully’s last summer, it was super fun and we just decided that we should do it all the time. At that same time, George was leaving Earwig to join Lydia’s band full-time. They tour year-round and he gets paid, so it made sense. Nick Nocera (he runs Alison Rose t-shirt shop with his wife, Alison) was a friend and a drummer so we asked him to sit in with us for a few shows. Costa (Costa Hondroulis, Earwig’s bassist and George’s brother) and I liked Nick  so much, we asked him to join the band full-time and he accepted. He plays in a few other local groups (Winter Makes Sailors, Joel Walter Band). It sounds cliche, but I’m more excited about Earwig right now and more excited about this new album than I have been in a while. We all are having a blast and we really have a great time hanging out.

 - Can you remember the first Earwig gig? Where was it  and how did it go?

Earwig’s first gig was at Apollo’s. We had just recorded our first EP in my garage on a 1/2” reel-to-reel tape machine. I remember this gig because at the end of the song “When You’re Dying” I sang so loud and hard and long that I actually passed out while I was standing up and fell over into the wall. The band kept playing and everyone thought that I was screwing around and that it was part of the show. This has become a sort of tradition as over the years... there’s usually that moment in the show where I do something spontaneous and dumb… all in the name of Rock and Roll. I have done things like bite down on a cymbal just before the drummer makes a big crash (turns out it was a bad idea, chipped tooth), climbed on top of my amp and dove over the drum kit at the bass player (he wisely moved and I landed with my face in the monitors and broke my guitar) and decided to be a super punk rocker and fist-punch an air duct during the middle of a guitar solo (it was actually made of concrete and I broke my hand). 
 
- Who are a couple of bands you have shared the bill with that really stand out?

I don’t know. We’ve played with a lot of great bands that I really like. We opened for Archers Of Loaf a few times and that was cool. To me, being in a band and playing shows is a lot about hanging out with your friends. Some of the best shows I remember were from the early days of running my record label LFM Records and we had a tight-knit scene of bands. Earwig, Monster Zero, Preston Furman, Bigfoot, Ugly Stick, Parsnip…we would play shows as fundraisers and pool the money to press more records. We would do tours together. Making friends with other bands from out of town is always nice. We had great shows with The Boy Wonder Jinx/Goner from Raleigh, NC. and Ditch Croaker from NJ.
 
 
- Tell us about an Earwig show that sucked.

Thinking back about those LFM shows, some really incredible things happened. It was a lot about the idea of making your own fun. One particular show kinda sucked but it was amazing too… we rented a YMCA in West Columbus to host an evening with LFM bands and some of our friends, more punk bands from Cleveland. A big group of outcasts from the area high school came out and they were basically the group that had organized and promoted the show. Unbeknownst to us there was an apparent feud of West Side Story proportions in that area between the Jocks and the Punk Rockers. Halfway through Earwig’s set a group of Jocks showed up to deliver a mass beatdown to these punks. They launched their surprise-attack by throwing a cinder block through the large plate-glass window at the back of the hall. I remember looking out over a mass of kids and seeing that huge window just crash to bits and, like a nightmare, some dickhead football team pours in through the hole and starts tearing into the crowd. It was a bit of bad luck for them though because the Cleveland crew was hanging by the back of the hall and they had brought along a crew good old boy, heavy hitting, lumberjack punks with them who immediately took the situation in hand and basically laid waste to the Jocks. I threw my guitar down and ran back to the action but it was over pretty quickly with most everyone scattering. The police were called, we lost our deposit and were banned from the YMCA. Epic show.
 
How about a show that was really great?

There was a family in Delaware that had 4 sons, each one in a different year of high school. Every year they, as one son would graduate, would have a big graduation party, rent out the VFW and all of their family and kids from the high school would come. Every year they asked Ugly Stick to play the party. On the fourth year, Ugly Stick couldn’t play and the family asked if Earwig could play. I was excited because this show was a legendary thing to us at that point. It was an honor to be asked. The mom from the family contacted me early and sent me a check for $300, they were paying for all the food, had rented a PA and a sound guy…the works. Their grandpa who was in the war was even going to be there. It was a big deal.

I got nervous the week of the show and for some reason lost my voice the day before the gig. I couldn’t sing loudly at all, it was terrible. But there was no way we could just cancel the show or back out at that point. We arrived the next day and set up to play and I had knots in my stomach as I sang the first song. It was okay, but by the second song I basically couldn’t sing and had lost my voice. I stopped and apologized to everyone and said that I had lost my voice. I felt horrible but the kid that was graduating and his friends and brothers all came right up front, took another microphone and basically sang the whole show with me. His family was really cool and the grandpa even got up and danced. Everyone had a blast. It was a negative that turned into a positive through the gracious, good attitude of Earwig fans...just a really great energy and it turned out to be a fantastic, fun show. 
 
- What are a couple of your favorite rooms to perform?

* I always liked Apollo’s, I played a show with a young band called The Wire there once.*
I liked Stache’s. The Metro in Chicago is cool. We had a lot of fun playing at Bernie’s even though it was so shitty. I love the Newport and we have played there a few times, but always somewhere on the floor. We have never played on the big stage. I’d really like to. I love the Newport.

--Let's take a break and enjoy some music before we continue--

Reward on reward-link : http://reward-my-music.com/54038 Earwig. Live footage from 2007, edited by Matt Parker.

 - Switching gears, another really popular Earwig song is "Used Kids" written about the record store now getting ready to move off campus. Where did you get your records growing up? What were some of your first records you loved?

When I was a little kid I joined the record club and sent in a penny and got 10 Elvis records. The record club sent me bills and tried to make me pay more than that penny and I remember that my mom wrote them a letter and told them I was a kid, that it was their fault and to leave me alone. The first 7” records I bought were ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rodgers and ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ by Queen. Then I went through a phase when I bought a lot of Duran Duran cassettes. I’ve always been a huge Prince fan since I heard the album Controversy. When Purple Rain came out I would walk to the local record store and buy every Prince single on 7” the day they came out. I still have all of those. They have incredible B-sides and the Purple Rain record is on purple vinyl. I still play those. I probably have more John Denver records than anything else.
 
 
- Along those lines, do you still play records today? Where do you live? Describe your house.

I live at a secret location, deep in the woods of southern Ohio. It’s a magical, haunted place and I love it. It is a little blue house and I have done a lot of work on it. When I found my house it was abandoned and empty. Strange things happen in the woods, the previous two owners/tenants actually died there at the house. I have no neighbors and it is beautiful here. It’s a bit like a farm but with only dogs, cats and chickens. I drive 3 hours round-trip to Columbus for band rehearsal. I have a 9-hole golf course that is part on my property and partly in the woods. It’s true. 
 
 
- You moved to California and toured the West Coast for a time. What took you out there?

In 1999 Earwig’s bass player moved to NYC and I moved to California (the Bay Area). My wife had been offered a job as an office manager at the new internet division of a large newspaper. I found a job at a recording studio called Avalon and I also worked at a haunted house called The Winchester Mystery House. That was very cool.
 
- Why did you return to Ohio?

We had been living dirt poor in Ohio and decided to move to California and save money to come back to Ohio and buy a house with. That’s what we did. We had just released Perfect Past Tense. I kept the band active the whole time I was in California. I did solo tours from AZ., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon and Seattle. The whole West Coast really. I also met a great guy (Raj Kapololu) and he played drums with Earwig. We performed as a duo and played clubs and colleges mostly around the Bay area. He was a great drummer and I split the output of my guitar and played through a guitar amp and a bass amp (Local H style). I talked to a lot of A&R guys during that time as it was right when there were a few labels interested in signing the band. Most of my trips to LA were about that. But nothing ever panned out. We did end up with songs in a few movies and some ads. I also would go busking in SF and Santa Cruz, which was a lot of fun…playing on the sidewalk and meeting crazy people. The plan was always to move back to Ohio. I wrote a lot of songs in California and we made some recordings on the sly at the studio I worked at (I had the keys and we would go there and record through the night). But I was itching to get Earwig back together in Ohio. It took a few years once we moved back but things finally coalesced with a new line-up.
 
- You have always been hands on both with the music and the business side running your LFM Records. What is your least favorite part of running your own label? 

I’m very Do-It-Yourself oriented. So I’ve always loved having my own record label put out our records, booking our own tours and things like that. But it has turned me into a bit of a weirdo, I’m sure. It becomes hard to let go of anything and have other people help. I’m learning, though. The worst part of the label is the self-promotion. When you have to create a compelling argument for people to pay attention to you and then say “Hey! Pay attention to me!” or “I think my record is really good!” it can seem very disingenuous and it’s not a natural thing to do. Plus people want to hear those kinds of things from a third party, not from the artist themselves. It’s a really hard line to play and not feel like you are begging people for attention.
 
 
- With all the changes in technology over the years, has that made running LFM easier or more confusing?

Both. I like to keep up on trends and see what is working in the music business now and adopt that method. It’s hard because my initial reaction is usually the very codgerly response to new technology and new methods. I typically feel like the old way was a better way and this is all stupid and not “how things are supposed to be.” But in reality there are a lot of new ways that people want to listen to and consume (buy) new music. For instance it used to be a very gauche move and you were a sell-out if you had your music in a commercial. But that really interests me now and I think that as lame as advertising can be, there are some very cool artistic ads and that is often how fans are exposed to new bands.
 
 
- If you pick a single Earwig song off each record for people to listen to, what would they be. You can pick three of the new record.
 
Dead Slow Hoot (1st EP) - Dinosaur Song (also our first 7”)
Mayfeeder - Sleep Standing Up
Perfect Past Tense - Drag
Center Of The Earth - Japanese Girlfriend
Gibson Under Mountain - Shiny Morning
Pause For The Jets - Wisdom Teeth, Silverheels, Holy Ghost Letter

Check out the song that inspired the DVD, "Year of the Drag". This video is a collection of clips of Earwig playing the now "infamous" song, "Drag". Pick up a copy of the DVD to hear the band commentary to this song and many others. www.lizardfamily.com

Reward on reward-link : http://reward-my-music.com/54039 Earwig video of She is a Witness from the album Center Of The Earth on LFM Records www.lizardfamily.com www.myspace.com/earwig

The Columbus Zoo, Huntington Park and Global Village Host Maggie Brennan

If there are three things  everybody in Central Ohio can agree on, it's that the Columbus Zoo, Huntington Park and WCBE Global Village Host Maggie Brennan always make the day a little brighter. And none of them break the bank doing it. Clippers tickets are just $6 for adults and $3 for kids.. A family Zoo membership for the entire year is something like $120 and listening to commercial free WCBE doesn't cost a penny unless you choose to chip in.

This Wednesday at the Rumba Cafe is your chance to chip in and see some of the finest musicians Columbus has to offer while doing it. 

WCBE Benefit at the Rumba Cafe Wednesday October 14th with music starting at 7pm and food provided by CITY BBQ. Tickets just $9.50 and all proceeds to benefit WCBE 90.5

Featuring: Lydia Loveless, Todd May, Erica Blinn, Angela Perley and the great Jessie Henry.

And don't forget, Lydia will be performing with her full band the following night at Skully's Music Diner. The  show is being filmed for inclusion in the upcoming film, "Who is Lydia Loveless?". Tiks for that just $5.