Holy Cats. Put up a Gram Parsons quote and watch the emails pile in. Thanks to all who answered, and sorry if I haven't replied to you yet. We have co-winners, as they replied virtually simultaneously. Congrats Eli and Audrey&Dan. I'm gonna have to make next Monday's harder.
Before I get to today's music stars, I'd like to encourage you to head over to Locust Street and read his Monday post/disclaimer. I've been lax in putting up a disclaimer on this site, mostly because I couldn't get the language quite right. Like most mp3 bloggers, I spend money, not make money, to run this site. I've never solicited so much as a free cd. Nor do I intend to. And, like Locust Street and a host of other similar blogs, I'm not exactly attempting scoops or trying to post the latest hottest future cover star. Anyway, I think Locust Street really nails the philosophy/disclaimer angle perfectly. Check it out.
More nostalgia today. I attended college near Columbus, Ohio, and spent many a night on Columbus' infamous High Street. A mess of University students, punks, jocks, hippies, hipsters, Steve Albini wannabes, soul men, trustafarians, and whatnot. A little something for everyone. Apparently High Street's going through some changes, and some of my favorite spots are gone, closed down, or moved elsewhere. Fare thee well Staches and The Monkey's Retreat.
Columbus has unleashed some mighty bands/musicians in it's time. The New Bomb Turks, Gaunt, Tim Easton/Haynes Boys, Mark Eitzel, Ron House (of the mighty Great Plains and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments), and countless others. Used to be, and maybe still is, that you could walk into House's Used Kids record store and see him sitting behind the counter. Been a long time since I've been back, so who knows what it's like now.
One of my favorite Columbus bands is The Bassholes. Formed from the ashes of slop rock legends The Gibson Brothers, The Bassholes perfected the lo-fi two-man bluescountrypunk howl long before a certain (non)brother and (non)sister decided to get married, divorced, and confuse us all. Taking the guttiest of gutbucket production, Don Howland fucks his guitar like it was ghost of Howlin' Wolf, and filters his voice through the distorted pipes of Hank Williams.
Revenant Records (a great label founded by John Fahey...with free mp3's on their above linked site) reissued The Bassholes first "recording", Blue Roots back in 1997. It's a trashy masterpiece for fans of Bob Log's Doo Rag, White Hassle, and Hasil Adkins. Yup.
Bassholes: Cigarette Blues (mp3)
Bassholes: Nakema (mp3)
Be the coolest kid on yr block. Shop at yr local independent retailer. The other kids'll be jealous.
1 comment:
faaab as usual...like the loose wild rawk sound of the bassholes. Where do you find all this stuff..as you say a gutbucket production...keep up the good taste and fab blog
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