Donewaiting has been a big fan of Nada Surf since forever, and our recent obsession with Cleveland’s Bill Fox pretty much makes this track required posting. It’s off Nada Surf’s upcoming covers album, if i had a hi-fi, which will only be available at shows for a while, then released officially on June 8 via Mardev Records (the band’s own label). The trio chose songs by Depeche Mode, The Moody Blues, Arthur Russell, Spoon… a real mix. Looking forward to it.
Album art, full track list and tour dates after the jump (no Columbus date; all three NY shows sold out) (more…)
For our first edition of Overlooked in Ohio, Jerry Dannemiller sang the praises of “reclusive Cleveland folkie” and ex-Mice frontman Bill Fox. Fox has made a few more live appearances lately, like the above performance last month at Boston’s Bistro in Dayton.
In other Bill Fox news, in November Scat Records reissued Fox’s masterpiece Shelter from the Smoke as a double LP. You can order it here. I’ve got the mp3s already, but this vinyl release is at the top of my wish list. The album gets better and better with each listen.
Fingers crossed that Fox makes his way down to Columbus at some point.
Editor’s note: “Overlooked in Ohio” is a new feature in which we ask an Ohio-based artist, music enthusiast, etc. to tell us about a few bands (past or present) from the state of Ohio that deserve some love. Our first installment comes courtesy of Jerry Dannemiller, guitarist/singer in Moviola and director of marketing and communications at the Wexner Center in Columbus. (Not to mention a past contributor to NPR, Magnet and a host of other publications.)
Blank Schatz (Findlay, Ohio, early 1980s): When punk rock was still something weird and foreign and only happened in big cities, the brothers Butler were kicking out the jams in my hometown of Findlay like it was the Lower East Side. I saw them only a couple times in high school and then in Columbus opening for the likes of Live Skull and (a very early) Flaming Lips. Musically, they fell somewhere in the neighborhood of Die Kruezen or a more earnest Black Flag. It hasn’t aged all that incredibly well, but back then, in the desolate environs of northwest Ohio, it was music to my green ears.
Wolverton Brothers
Wolverton Brothers (Cincinnati, late 80s, still active): My admiration for the Wolvertons—as people and as artists—knows no bounds, if you haven’t heard them, you would do yourself well to scrounge up any of their six records. Part Anglo-80s skronk-surf, Beefheart-ish mushmouth, and high-speed boom-chicka-boom, Tim, Billy, Todd, and Jay are the rarest of entities: raw, unaffected by trend, and original to a fault.
