Category: Cleveland

Donewaiting 9: Bill Fox

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Joel Oliphint

MP3: Bill Fox – I Only Did it Cuz I Felt So Lonely
MP3: The Mice – Little Rage

I think we’ve spent plenty of time talking about Bill Fox’s two solo albums and most recent record, One Thought Revealed, so let’s take a second to revisit Fox’s beginnings with Cleveland power-pop band The Mice. Fox started the band with his drummer brother, Tommy Fox, eventually bringing bassist Ken Hall on board. The For Almost Ever EP came out in 1985, and it made a believer out of many, including Bob Pollard, who shares Fox’s love of tasty hooks and faux English accents. “Not Proud of the USA” is like a Cleveland kid’s version of the Sex Pistols.

A full-length, Scooter, followed in ’86, adding some jangle to the fuzz and further perfecting that mix of power and pop. (Superchunk later covered the track “Bye Bye Kitty Cat.”) You can now download both releases as one, For Almost Ever Scooter, courtesy Scat Records. A final album, Canterbury Bells, was never released, but you can probably find it if you dig around the Internets a bit.

Above is an mp3 of one of my favorite Mice tracks off Scooter, “Little Rage” (which Fox has been known to play solo from time to time), along with an mp3 of “I Only Did it Cuz I Felt So Lonely,” a Mice-evoking song off Fox’s recently released limited-run Before I Went to Harvard cassette.

Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Bill Fox, P. Blackk, Zero Star, Sundown and DJ Detox will play Friday, Feb. 3, at Ace of Cups. Note: That’s a lot of bands, so this will start earlier than most shows. Be sure to get there by 10pm to see Bill Fox.

Posted in Cleveland, Columbus, MP3 | Tagged Bill Fox, The Mice | Leave a comment

Download: Chip Tha Ripper “Tell Ya Friends” Mixtape

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Wes Flexner

Chip Tha Ripper returns with new project that features production from Lex Luger, Hi-Tek, Dot Da Genius and more.
Wale, Kid Cudi, Krayzie Bone are some of the notable guests on this here tape.. Peep the tracklist after the jump.

Download Tell Ya Friends at Live Mixtapes

Posted in Cleveland, Music, Wes Flexner | Tagged chip tha ripper, dj hi-tek, dot da genius, Kid Cudi, krayzie bone, lex luger, Wale | Leave a comment

MP3s: Los Nombres – “To Be Sure” & “Todos” (Numero Group reissue)

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Andrew Patton

MP3: To Be Sure
MP3: Todos

Today Numero Group, Chicago’s masters of the amazingly detailed reissue, takes another dip into Ohio’s unsung soul history with a self-titled release from Los Nombres. Los Nombres were a late 60s Latin Soul group from Lorain with a sound matching up with their more famous counterparts in New York and Los Angeles. Fresh off their two Grammy nominations for their recent monster of a Syl Johnson anthology, Numero continues to release lovingly crafted reissues of unheralded classics.

Posted in Cleveland, MP3, Music | Tagged Los Nombres, numero group | Leave a comment

MP3 Premiere: Bill Fox – “Whithering Soul”

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Joel Oliphint

MP3: Bill Fox – Whithering Soul

That right there is the album art and single for the first widely released Bill Fox record in more than a decade. One Thought Revealed comes out Jan. 17 through Jar Note Records, but you can preorder the CD now.

In one sense, the album is exactly what you’d expect: superb songwriting from someone CMJ once called “one of the most important artists of our day.” It follows the folk-inspired trajectory of Fox’s previous solo records (Shelter from the Smoke, Transit Byzantium), but One Thought Revealed isn’t a rehash of what Fox has proven he can do. It takes chances. There’s a saxophone solo. There’s giant, reverb-drenched snare hits. On “Whithering Soul” you’ll hear some in-the-red organ battling for rank with Fox’s dusty vocals, threatening to steal the song from a desperate man.

I’m sure Fox will have copies of the CD on hand at Donewaiting’s 9-Year Anniversary Show Feb. 3 with Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments (playing Bait & Switch in its entirety), P Blackk, Sundown, Zero Star and DJ Detox.

Also, file this under awesome but frustrating: In late fall, Gregory Lee Boyd’s tiny Cleveland imprint Treasure Records put out a Bill Fox cassette of previously unreleased material called Before I Went to Harvard. It’s an incredible record that plays like a bunch of Shelter and Byzantium outtakes that should have never been outtakes. (“Chain to Your Heart” could even pass for an early Mice demo.) But there were fewer than 100 released. Boyd is doing another small run, but it’ll sell out soon (or already has), and these songs deserve to be heard by many, many people.

I was able to obtain a copy (thanks Kyle Sowash!), so here’s a shot of the cassette front, which has the track list:

Posted in Cleveland, Columbus, MP3 | Tagged Bill Fox, Jar Note Records, One Thought Revealed, Whithering Soul | 2 Comments

MP3: Lolah Brown- “Here I Am” (Produced by Fly Union)

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Wes Flexner

MP3: Here I am

Cleveland R+B singer Lolah Brown becomes one of the rare human beings to get an original Fly Union produced beat without FlydotU flowing on it.
Beautiful song.

Posted in Cleveland, MP3, Music, Wes Flexner | Tagged Fly Union, lolah brown | Leave a comment

Bill Fox reveals new album details in interview

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Joel Oliphint

Bill Fox at the Treehouse, July 2010

Bill Fox — he of Cleveland’s The Mice, subject of Joe Hagan’s 2007 legend-establishing piece in The Believer and an Overlooked in Ohio alum — hasn’t released any new music since his two decade-old solo albums, Transit Byzantium and Shelter from the Smoke (the latter of which was reissued on vinyl in 2009 by Robert Griffin‘s Scat Records.) Nor has Fox granted an interview in years.

So I didn’t expect much more than a polite decline when I contacted Fox about his upcoming Columbus show on Saturday (details below). To my surprise, he emailed responses to some questions and revealed a new album coming in January:

As far as new material is concerned, there will indeed be an album released in January. The record is titled One Thought Revealed and will appear on Jar Note Records, a label which is being created by [friend and manager] Tim Rossiter. The CD was recorded autumn 2009 into last year with a couple of tracks written right around that time, a couple others around the millennium’s turn and several more 2006/2007, to the best of my recollect.

Read the full interview over at The Other Paper, where Fox also talks about Nada Surf’s cover of “Electrocution” and his song “Men Who are Guilty of Crimes,” which soundtracks a recent Occupy Wall Street video by ex-Clevelander Michael Nigro.

Bill Fox will play Cafe Bourbon St. (2216 Summit St.) Saturday (11/5) alongside acoustic sets from Jim McKeivier and Marcy Mays (Scrawl). Doors at 9 p.m. Cover: $6.

Posted in Cleveland, Columbus | Tagged Bill Fox, Cafe Bourbon St., Jar Note Records, Jim McKeivier, Marcy Mays, Michael Nigro, nada surf, Occupy Wall Street, One Thought Revealed, Scat Records, The Mice, The Other Paper | 2 Comments

Unreleased Bill Fox song soundtracks Occupy Wall Street

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Joel Oliphint

Last year, at a rare in-store performance at Lost Weekend Records, Cleveland’s Bill Fox played a tune called “Men Who are Guilty of Crimes.” I don’t know when he wrote it, but it felt particularly timely last summer, given that the cleanup of the BP oil spill was ongoing and the song implored Congress to “put the blame on BP.”

Ex-Clevelander Michael Nigro realized the song’s 2011 potential as the anthem for the Occupy Wall Street movement and tracked down a recording of the unreleased tune to soundtrack an OWS video montage called “Faces, Signs and Sentiments at Occupy Wall Street.” Check it out, above. (HT: I Rock Cleveland.)

Bill Fox was slated to play the Megacity Music Marathon last month at Woodlands Tavern but couldn’t make it. Fortunately, he’s coming back to town Nov. 5 for a show at Cafe Bourbon St., along with two acoustic sets from Jim McKeivier and Marcy Mays (doors at 9pm, $6).

“Men Who Are Guilty of Crimes” lyrics:

Oh canvassers, activists, congressmen plead
Put the blame down on Dow, put the blame on BP
But the ones who are guilty are the ones we don’t see
These men are guilty of crimes

Polluters of earth, they stand far away
They lay in their mansions, they hide away
Send down their lawyers, send them for pay
To get themselves out of their crimes

Now this earth is yours and this earth is mine
This earth has been trampled for a sad design
Children are poisoned, there’s lives on the line
These men are guilty of crimes

Crimes against love, crimes against birth
Crimes against women and flesh of the earth
Crimes by the men who would lead us to dearth
These men are guilty of crimes

In a downtown skyline, towers they leap
To the birds of the air where the soil’s not deep
And every day there are contracts to keep
Signed by men who are guilty of crimes

Crimes against me, crimes against you
Crimes against many for the profit of few
What can be done? What will we do?
These men are guilty of crimes

Then a courtroom, some corporate judge will sound
Pounding his gavel with the lights all around
And the only ones who will not be found…
Men who are guilty of crimes

Posted in Cleveland, Columbus, Video | Tagged Bill Fox, Cafe Bourbon Street, Jim McKeivier, Lost Weekend Records, Marcy Mays, Michael Nigro, Occupy Wall Street | 3 Comments

MP3: Ray Jr. “Sloppy” RMX (Feat. Machine Gun Kelly & Krayzie Bone)

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Wes Flexner

MP3: Ray Jr. ft. Machine Gun Kelly and Krayzie Bone – Sloppy Rmx (Dirty)

Cleveland’s Ray Jr. adds Bad Boy’s MGK and Bone Thug’s Krayzie Bone to his Ohio Club hit Sloppy. This is like a Cleveland “Flava in Your Ear” or something.

Posted in Cleveland, MP3, Music, Wes Flexner | Tagged krayzie bone, machine gun kelly, ray jr | Leave a comment

Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star Fall Tour Dates 2011

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Wes Flexner

If you were like me and missed Rock the Bells this year then this next announcement will make you really happy.

Guerilla Union and House of Blues have partnered to send Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star on a Rock the Bells tour where they rock their 1998 ground-breaking self-titled debut album.

If you live in Ohio then be stoked on the Cleveland and Cinci dates.

BLACK STAR Tour Dates
09.21 Detroit, MI – St Andrews
09.22 Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
09.23 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
09.27 Miami Beach, FL – Fillmore
09.28 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
10.05 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
10.06 Los Angeles, CA – House of Blues
10.29 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
11.03 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
11.04 Charlotte, NC – Fillmore
11.05 Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s
11.11 Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room

Posted in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Music, News, Tour, Video, Wes Flexner | Tagged guerilla union, house of blues, Mos Def, rock the bells, Talib Kweli | Leave a comment