More Titles Than Tracks:
An Excuse to Pillage the Scenic Railroads Vaults
Each month this year I'll be posting unreleased works by Scenic Railroads, my duo with Joe Panzner. Some will come from scrapped projects, some long-forgotten recording sessions, some may even be new. Despite only publishing a handful of releases over our eight-year existence, we've actually been quite prolific in the studio and I look forward to sharing these works.
The August installment is a track that utlizes a few key edits to harness the power of several different sessions. The result is quite a beast. Body Linguists:
As a follow-up to yesterday’s posts about Columbus bands, here are a few of my favorite experimental artists from around town that you might not be familiar with. If you’ve been reading this for any amount of time, you should already be familiar with David Reed, Ryan Jewell, and Joe Panzner. Here are a few more of our city’s gems:
Brian Harnetty
Brian is probably best known for his recent collaborations with Will Oldham, but he’s been composing his dreamlike Appalachian-inspired works for as long as I’ve known him. One of my favorite performing experiences was playing glockenspiel with him in a trio that opened for Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano.
Ben Bennett
One of our preeminent scrapers, Ben is a percussive cohort of Ryan Jewell. The two of them were jockeying for and pushing each other to creative extremes for a couple years, but they’ve nestled into slightly different niches at this point with Ben concocting a collection of unique breath- percussion-rooted handmade instruments. Always down to throw in a major curveball or two, he is one of my favorite live collaborators.
Rocco DiPietro & Larry Marotta
This is kind of a two-for-one special. Rocco and Larry are the forefront of avant composition and improvisation (respectively) in town, but they are in the streets with the rest of us scumbags. In the last month alone, Larry performed a trio with Ryan Jewell and I and Rocco schooled the Monumental Documents crowd on Bruno Maderna.
Brad Griggs
Noise youth! Despite a lack of releases, Brad never ceases to kill live. He’s easily the best harsh noise artist here and there is no close second. Now if only he’d get his act together and throw some tapes or vinyl out there for the people…
Face Place
This husband-wife Sword Heaven side project is so under-documented and un-google-friendly that I had to dig up a six-year-old clip from the GMBY archives. It’s hard to go wrong with tapes, junk and oscillators, but it’s also hard to hone in on a unique voice that rises above the crowd. These two floor me so much that I’m even willing to post a link to Myspace where you can hear another track.
I'll be honest, I am not that big on local music (and it's not particularly big on me either). But when I went record shopping this weekend and came home with a couple LPs by Columbus acts and nothing else I realized there are a handful of truly great things going on here and figured I should share a few of the acts I do enjoy with all of you.
The Black Swans
Frontman Jerry DeCicca spent years alienating people with his deep voice and extreme melancholy. Only after making sure everyone in town had chosen a side of the fence did he tear it down and force everyone to reconsider. He now seems to get his kick putting together bills that are as perverse as they are diverse and watching his audience squirm. My kind of guy.
Time and Temperature
If you listen to any of these songs and think "this is a girl who would do weekend tours with Jason Zeh and Mike Shiflet and is head over heels for Hair Police" then you are a much more intuitive being than I. Congratulations.
Deadsea
These gentlemen are an insanely tight unit. If more metal sounded like this, I would like more metal. Though he is far more popular around town for his wild on-stage persona, I usually manage to catch guitarist/vocalist Adam Smith in far more low key settings manning a mountain of 8-track players and a Moog. And those sets are just a tech & tight as the Deadsea. No slop.
Moon High
With male-female harmonies, excellent production/arrangements, and just the right amount of twang, this four-piece offers up a lot of what I want to hear. Their record sounds so massive that it's hard to believe it was recorded in a little house a few blocks away. Props to David Fowler for his excellent recording and post-production work as well as his in-band duties.
Brainbow
Brainbow are prone to getting epic and I have no problem with that. The band also features one of the three (I would say biggest, but I'm not sure there are more than three...) Oren Ambarchi fans in Columbus and that same gentlemen (Mr. Chris Worth) first turned me on to Tim Hecker years ago, so there's that too.
And of course...
Times New Viking
Odds are if you've heard of any band on this list, it's TNV. They have always been supportive of me and the experimental scene in general, which is icing on a cake I would have happily gobbled up anyway.
More Titles Than Tracks: An Excuse to Pillage the Scenic Railroads Vaults
Each month this year I'll be posting unreleased works by Scenic Railroads, my duo with Joe Panzner. Some will come from scrapped projects, some long-forgotten recording sessions, some may even be new. Despite only publishing a handful of releases over our eight-year existence, we've actually been quite prolific in the studio and I look forward to sharing these works.
This month we reverse the trend of the past few posts and step of the way back machine, instead offering a piece not only from this year, but recorded this very month. Without further adieu, Deconstruct a Sammich.
