Not a bad way to relive some of TJSA’s surreal, even-better-than-I-expected set from our 9th anniversary show at Ace of Cups on Friday. Thanks to the New Bomb Turks’ Jim Weber for capturing this.

Update: The reunited Slave Apartments have also been confirmed to play Austin’s Chaos in Tejas on June 2.

Death Angel started earlier than expected though metalheads had been lined up in front of the LC hours in advance so most didn’t miss much of the band’s abbreviated 6-song (I think) set. While Testament and Anthrax have continued to release material that sounds as if it was recorded in the late ’80s, Death Angel has gotten heavier, faster and louder over the years and their blistering set was the surprise of the night.

I haven’t seen Testament since the early ’90s but the Bay Area band looks and sounds basically the same 20 years later. How the hell do these guys keep all their hair? Chuck Billy’s a pretty intimidating figure onstage though it was hard to keep a grin off his face during this performance – not sure if he was just glad to be in Columbus or if he knew the tour was coming to end and realized Testament was in the homestretch. It was entertaining watching Billy stomp around the stage using his light-saber microphone stand to play air guitar as Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson tore through Testament’s greatest hits (“The Preacher”, “Practice What You Preach”, “Into the Pit”, “Souls of Black”, etc.).

After the thrashing I received from the first two bands, I could have left the venue extremely satisfied. Anthrax was just the additional bonus. Down to two original members as this tour winds down (drummer Charlie Benante’s mom, who is bassist Frank Bello’s grandmother, is very ill so the two jumped off the tour to spend time with her), Anthrax still managed to kick out not only old school jams but tossed in some excellent new numbers from 2011′s Worship Music.

With a venue packed near capacity, there’s still an appetite for this style of music, especially when it’s being performed by bands who have been doing it 20+ years. Let’s hope more of these package tours hit the road in 2012.

Pt. 1  Dustin White leads me down a hallway and Sundown introduces themselves.

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dustin white discussess how west virginia is awesome but it could give you cancer.

more after jump

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pt 3. TK Webb briefly discusses his past and Dustin White recounts the bands beginnings

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pt. 4 dustin white discusses panic attacks and the possibility of a between the devil and deep blue sea reunion this summer

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pt.5 Dustin White Tells TK Webb the Story of Working Sound For Grandmaster Melle Mel after a Bodybuilding convention

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chris pierce discusses his musical past(tough & lovely/ mainstreet gospel) . dustin white discusses donnie monaco(hugs n kisses/kitty man)

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Vug explains how a man gets named Vug,

Max Sollisch’s post-Our Cat Philip, post-Arlo & the Otter project Dolfish has been getting some well-deserved love recently, so it seemed like a good time to a.) Post this video of the unreleased track “Grownups,” which was filmed at a basement studio called The Cottage in Atlanta, and b.) Let you know Dolfish will be wrapping up a winter tour at the Rumba Cafe on Saturday with Dane Terry and the Saturday Giant.

Dolfish’s Your Love is Bummin’ Me Out EP is available as a free download and/or 7-inch from Afternoon Records.

Rwake singer CT spent four years documenting the sights and sounds of Southern metal for his documentary, Slow Southern Steel. The film, featuring interviews and live performances by the likes of Kylesa, Eyehategod, Torche, Dixie Witch, Weedeater, Hank III, and Philip Anselmo, will have it’s one-and-only Ohio showing on Saturday night at Ruby Tuesday (1978 Summit St.). Based on the trailer, expect to hear lots of music that sounds like “Slayer dipped in syrup” performed by dudes with long hair, tattoos, and beards.

After the film’s conclusion, Hail!Hornet, a band featuring members of Weedeater, Buzzoven, Sourvein and Alabama Thunderpussy and special guests Zoroaster will bring the style of music featuring in the film to life.

Tickets are $10 in advance (available at the bar or on-line), $15 day of show. Doors open at 8, movie starts at 9, bands start at 11. Seating will be limited so show up early if you want a seat.

Ron House is obviously a fixture in Columbus rock music.  Columbus emcee Zero Star is also impressed by Ron House’s swag. (did the phrase Ron House’s Swag make you throw up in your mouth? sorry)

Anyway, I am waiting for you tube to make an interview I did with Zero Star and DJ Pos to exist. So I figured I would share this since TOP told you to look at our site today,

Zero Star is playing Donewaiting’s 9th Anniversary along with a band Ron House is in, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments doing “Bait & Switch”  along with Bill Fox, P. Blackk & DJ Bruni, Sundown, and DJ Detox tomorrow Feb 3rd at Ace of Cups.

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.

Gotta admit, I’m mildly interested in attending this year to see Megadeth, Down, The Darkness, Slash, Mastodon, Cypress Hill, Black Tide, Kyng, and Rival Sons.

More info at Rock on the Range.

P. Blackk drops a video for Chasin’ Dreams Off P. Blackk’s project Blackk Friday.Produced By Iyeball (of Fly.Union). Shot by P. Blackk. Live performance shots by Luke Sirimongkhon.

P. Blackk is confirmed to play Donewaiting’s 9-year Anniversary and needs to email me back confirming the set-time and what his needs for his deejay set-up are.

MP3: My Mysterious Death (Turn It Up)

The more your hear about the origin of Old Columbus bands, the more you realize how many of them formed accidentally, the result of spontaneity and serendipity. Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments was one such band. On a night about 20 years ago, soon after the dissolution of Ron House’s previous band, Great Plains, a band playing Stache’s ended early.

The story could have ended right there. Everyone at the bar could have just continued to get drunk and/or gone home. Instead, though, House and Girly Machine guitarist Bob Petric hopped on stage with some friends, borrowed the idle guitars and amps and started jamming on blues riffs. “We just kind of jumped up out of sheer boredom,” Petric said when I interviewed him last year. But something clicked, and they decided to do it again. And again. (Sound familiar?)

“It was kind of a fuck-off band for a couple of years where we just got together and jammed,” House said last summer. “The Columbus scene was really taking off—like the New Bomb Turks, Gaunt. So I didn’t have to do very much, just shout and scream and people would notice us locally. The whole scene was a more brutal, punkier scene. There was enough things going on that all we had to do was just go out and play and things would happen for us.”

That’s probably not giving the band quite enough credit, especially House’s lyrics and snotty delivery and Petric’s axe-wielding. But things did happen, like eventually signing to Onion, a subsidiary of Rick Rubin’s American Recordings, to release Bait & Switch.

“Johan Kugelberg was looking to sign bands for [Onion],” House said. “He asked three other bands and they all turned him down so he asked us.”

“The fact that Rick Rubin read my name on the liner notes — that, to me, is sufficient grounds for satisfaction,” Petric said. “When Johan put out the record, he was more of a little kid about it than we were. I remember Johan calling me up, saying, ‘Hey, Bob, the second time this week I walked into Rick’s office and he was laying on the couch listening to the Slave Apartments record, man.’ To me, that’s like having Johnny Cash make dinner for you or something.”

Petric also looked back fondly on the time TJSA spent on the road with Guided by Voices. “Being able to go on tour with GBV for three weeks, that was like vacation,” he said. “There was a positive but gentle-hearted competition between us and GBV. Bob [Pollard] was just effusively praiseful of the Slave Apartments. He really liked us. He said nice things about my guitar playing, too. I remember one time in Seattle, Bob got a kick out of the fact that Ron and me and Craig Dunson and Ted [Hattemer], we all huddled up and did this chant, ‘Beat GBV! Beat GBV!’ Bob Pollard came up and was just laughing his ass off, saying, “That’s why you guys rule!” He ended up singing ‘Cheater’s Heaven’ with us.”

A jam at Stache’s. A fertile scene. A big Swede with art-rock tastes running part of a major label. It’s an unlikely series of events, but one we’ll gladly celebrate this Friday at Ace of Cups, when TJSA plays Bait & Switch in its entirety —- something that’s never been done, and likely never will be done again.

See you there.

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.