Album artwork by Mr. Clinton Reno
MP3:Bookmobile – Weekends of our Youth
MP3:Ben Schwabe – Crystal Branches

First a little disclosure right upfront- I’m an official part of the Columbus Music Co-op volunteer machine, so this is a project which is near to my heart. Looking beyond my obvious lack of objectivity, I think most of you reading this have some shared interest in the Columbus music community and will appreciate both the efforts and the results of this undertaking. Something like a year and half ago, a plan was hatched by Jon Fintel (Relay Recording) and Erin Moore of the CMC to provide a vehicle to showcase the variety and quality of music making in town. Of particular importance to the founders was the notion that equal attention should be given to young (high school age) artists, who would be showcased adjacent to more veteran musicians. Over the past year, Fintel donated over a 100 hours of studio time to record and master eleven original tracks, some of which are the first professional recordings made of the participants. All of them are available only on this compilation, which turns out to be a really strong collection.

On Saturday, February 13th Relay and the CMC will host the first of two CD release shows at Carabar, where copies of the compilation, complete with original album art, will be available for $5. In the spirit of providing a musical experience for young people, a second all ages and family-friendly multi-faceted release show is scheduled for Sunday, February 28th in the North Market Dispatch Test Kitchen from 1-5 pm. All bands are volunteering their time, so should any profits be made from shows or sales, they will go to fund the CMC’s Columbus Music Assistantship Program to provide emergency medical expense grants to working musicians in need. Keep reading below for additional information on bands, a track listing, and set times.
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Flotation Walls (photo by Jen Duane)

MP3: Flotation Walls – Willis The Fireman

MP3: This is My Suitcase – Fish and Dishes

On Friday night, Circus will be hosting the fourth annual Mission:Kids benefit, and they’ve enlisted some great Columbus bands to help raise money for CD101’s children’s charity CD101 for the Kids. This means that in addition to a night of high-quality local music (see lineup below), you’ll also get that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that your five dollars (21+, or $7 for 18+) is helping out kids in need. And in this season of giving, isn’t killing two birds with one stone what it’s all about?

The schedule, according to CD101:
Doors @ 9:00pm
9:30pm   Stucco Jones
10:15pm Besieus
11:00pm Couch Forts
11:45pm This Is My Suitcase
12:30am Flotation Walls

Wing & Tusk I Flotation Walls
Skully’s Music-Diner I Columbus OH
August 14, 2009

Keep reading for more photos… (more…)

Three Columbus bands are playing album-release shows on Friday night, and they’re all worth mentioning/attending.

At the Rumba Cafe, Brian Harnetty will be releasing Silent City, his second album for Chicago’s Atavistic Records. This one again finds Harnetty mining the treasures he collected from the Berea College Appalachian Sound Archives, but this time Harnetty’s instrumentation (accordion, bells, etc.) sets the tone for the songs. And floating above three of the tracks are the vocals of Bonnie “Prince” Billy. It’s Harnetty’s best work yet.

Harnetty rarely plays live, so catch him when you can. The Black Swans and Super Desserts open the show.

mp3: Brian Harnetty – Sleeping in the Driveway
mp3: Brian Harnetty – Silent City

Here’s how Monolithic Cloud Parade describes the concept behind its debut: “The album tells the story of a pack of turn-of-the-century carnival freak show children with wolf heads who escape their wagon train in a deadly accident one night and head off into the forest to fend for themselves, where they are confronted with fears both real and imaginary.” If you like Neutral Milk Hotel, you’ll dig these guys. Corey Fry has created an ambitious, lo-fi concept album that succeeds much of the time, bizarro storyline and all. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t even play an instrument a couple years ago.

MCP’s record release is at the Scarlet and Grey Cafe with The Lost Revival and Darynyck. It’ll also serve as Darynyck’s farewell show.

mp3: Monolithic Cloud Parade – Airplanes Full of Flames

Another debut concept album, Wing & Tusk’s The Secret of Toadflax Tea tells a story from three different viewpoints: an old monk, a young monk and a doctor, all of whom are on a European island stricken with the black plague, for which the only cure is a drink called Toadflax Tea. But that cure is known only to the monks… Betrayal, murder and heroism ensue.

Along with Harnetty’s Silent City, this is one of my favorite Columbus releases of the year so far. Singer Josh Rea reminds me a lot of David Bazan, a good thing in my book. Wing & tusk takes its folk-rock foundation and builds on it till it reaches the ether, adding strings, horns, beautiful harmonies and such along with way. Epic stuff.

mp3: Wing & Tusk – Home, Sick Home

Concert posters after the jump. Wing & Tusk’s is particularly cool/creepy.
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Pictured: Twinkie Wiener Sandwich@Hillbilly Drive-In.

HAHAHA JK!!! I’m gonna keep it up until Duffy stops paying me HAHAHA

I guess I’ve finally recovered from/managed to totally repress the Rock on the Range debacle enough to move on with my life and regurgitate more of my feeble thoughts into words for all you super awesome, totally amazing jerks to read. I think I’m scarred for life. I mean more scarred. Whatever.

This account of events that I observed actually occurred only over the weekend because I’m too poor to drink at bars every night…Duffy, is that expense check really in the mail? (more…)

MP3: Willis the Fireman by Flotation Walls

Flotation Walls, lead in one version or another by Carlos Avendaño, have been haunting the Columbus music scene for what seems like nearly a decade. During those years there have been flourishes of activity and long periods of apparent dormancy. But one thing we’ve been missing throughout is a proper full length from these guys. So to say that the release of the Nature LP tomorrow at Skully’s has been a long time coming is no exaggeration.

I mean, with all the talk and speculation and legitimate anticipation surrounding a release date and the subsequent passage of those dates, this record is pretty much Columbus’s Chinese Democracy. Really- after the release of a nugget or two in 2003, people were pissed when this thing was delayed until December of 2004. The Chinese Democracy comparison is mostly for the sake of humor, but it has its utility too. In both cases, the elapsed time between conception and delivery was used by the respective captains to tweak, add to, and retool the contents and production in an effort to produce a grandiose master work. To a degree both Carlos and Axl have, in striving for an epic album, managed a certain amount of success and at times to overdo it as well. The analogy begins to break down when looking at the final product though, as the triumph versus try-too-hard ratio clearly favors the Flotation Walls. (more…)