Mates of State

Tin Armor

Flotation Walls

Other Lives

Mates of State

Tin Armor

Flotation Walls

Check out more photos!
Mates of State & Other Lives @ Newport Music Hall
Tin Armor @ 83 Gallery
Flotation Walls @ Carabar

These photos include Flotation Walls, Swimsuit Edition, TK Webb, Kyle Sowashes, Andrew Graham, Nick Tolford, You’re so Bossy, Bird & Flower, Chris McCoy, The Bygones, Tin Armor, The Lindsay, Saintseneca, Tree of Snakes and Bigfoot.

Tree of Snakes

Nick Tolford & Co.

Flotation Walls

Swimsuit Edition

TK Webb

Andrew Graham

Nick Tolford & Co.

You’re So Bossy

Bird & Flower

Chris McCoy

The Bygones

Tin Armor

The Lindsey

Saintsenceca

Tree of Snakes

Bigfoot

Check out the rest of the photos here

Check out the rest of the photos.

Check out the rest of the photos.

Flotation Walls

Full set here

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.

Saturday, February 13th Carabar lineup and set times:
Jinx Palm 10PM
Shin Tower Music 11PM
The Lindsay 12AM
Bookmobile 1AM

Sunday, February 28th North Market (upstairs) lineup and tentative set times:
Jordan Martin 1:30PM
Time & Temperature 2:15PM
Sean & Dan of Bookmobile 3:00PM
Flotation Walls (accoustic set!) 3:45PM

Also special vendors will be in attendance for the North Market , including Clint Reno, What The Rock, AmyD, Sweet Stella Designs and balloon animals for the kids.

Track listing and band links:
1 Bookmobile – Weekends of Our Youth
2 Time and Temperature – Lake of Glass
3 Shin Tower Music – Pine Tree Trails
4 The Lindsay – Laid Back
5 Jinx Palm – Matchstick in a Coal Mine
6 Dolby Fuckers – Escargot
7 Flotation Walls – Earthquake at a Country Club
8 Deadsea – Circles
9 Jordan Martin – Sticks and Stones For Bones
10 Dylan Kappler – And the Earth Moved
11 Ben Schwabe – Crystal Branches

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

Keep reading for more photos…

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.

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?

O.K. so I went to Skully’s for the Flotation Walls cd release on Friday, on Saturday went to Skully’s again(I know right)for the Benco presents Black Moth Super Rainbow and School of Seven Bells show and saw twinkie wiener sandwiches consumed in real life at the Hillbilly Drive-In on Sunday. Also Columbus apparently now has a Peach District or something…uhhhhhhhhh…

Pictured:Swamp Leather@Peach District thingy

So, yeah, there is apparently a neighborhood called the Peach District here in Columbus. I used to live in the Peach District and I didn’t even know it. They held a gathering called The Peach District Classic between Viking and Dragonfly…across from Hampton’s whom insisted on competing with the bands via there sound system…it was an awkward set up and it was weird /not safe being so close to King Ave. traffic…also it’s lost on me why an event like this would start at 3:00 p.m. on a Friday but whatever. I managed to catch Swamp Leather play an avant garde/experimental/noise set that included a drummer ripping the head out of a tom, putting said tom over his head until it reached his waist, dropped his droors and sprinted around the block. Swamp Leather played a pretty interesting set that likely translates a whole bunch better in a dimly lit bar at least a 6 pack deep. I only stuck around for their set as I had planned to go to the Flotation Walls cd release at Skully’s.

Which I did...Brainbow or whatever they’re called opened and sounded AWESOME oh man I love Brainbow so much I wish they would talk to me. I didn’t watch much of The Receiver‘s set, but the sound was really good…I was distracted what can I say. Flotation Walls had a 10 piece orchestra backing them up and they sounded epic as fuck…I mean as epic as a band like that can…Nature was a long time in the making and I’m glad to finally see it’s release…congrats dudes.

Oh yeah, sometimes I don’t even bother trying to take pictures at Skully’s because it’s such a pain in the ass…there were a ton of people out both Friday and Saturday…FYI Skully’s actually feels like an almost cool rock club when there aren’t silly dance club lights inducing seizures all night as evidenced on Saturday.

Pictured: Black Moth Super Rainbow@Skully’s

I knew nothing of School of Seven Bells prior to deciding to go to this show other than it’s some dude from The Secret Machines and it turns out they’re pretty rad…like electro/dancyish MBV or something.

I really didn’t know what to expect crowdwise going into this…it turns out the 14 year old kids that just started smoking pot LOVE Black Moth Super Rainbow…for real this was a pretty packed house and I’m prettty sure half of the crowd was underage…also, this was Zachery Allan Starkey‘s 14 year old surrogate nephew’s first show no shit.

So BMSR are pretty much Gil Mantera’s Animal Collective…total vocoder vocals and hippie psych “freakout”…mind you in the best way possible. The vocals were a little suspect, as they appeared to be prerecorded but upon further investigative photojournalism, I discovered that the vocals were in fact not prerecorded but that the singer is paraplegic and apparently not able to stand and sing so that people don’t think the vocals were prerecorded. People paint their faces for BMSR WTF. Good show would see again.

I closed out my rather subdued weekend with a double feature at the ole Hillbilly Drive-In. UHF and Krush Groove…Now I don’t know if you know, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Weird Al and have no shame whatsoever in admitting it-there was no way I was gonna miss it. It was a blast per usual and Twinkie Wiener Sandwiches were served. Seriously. 10 of them. There were 10 dudes that actually ate those fucking things…uhhhhh. As fun as it was-dudes…back to the B movies.

Give me money somebody…email me for paypal info.