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; photo by Jay Brown

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.

Keep reading for more. (more…)

(Joel’s note: I’ll be posting these in sections as I get them, which is just now, so we’re starting at the first of the tour and we’ll work our way up to the present…)

JULY 31st – INDIANAPOLIS
Two Cow has been touring for seven years and not once in that time have we ever traveled with a trailer. We’ve debated it to the point of exhaustion and I personally have railed against it. Up until this point I have won out, maybe because I do most of the driving, or maybe because no one wanted to hear me bitch, but for whatever reason it just did not happen. Until now. The tour we are currently involved with is a package tour, a sort of revue of our record label Suburban Home Records. So, the Suburban Home Records Tour is to feature Two Cow Garage, Austin Lucas, Mike Hale, and a smattering of Jon Snodgrass. Six people all traveling in our van. I finally lost the trailer fight. I will say this, at the risk of sounding stubborn, there are pros and cons. That’s all.

So we start the tour in Indianapolis, where we are to meet Mike Hale and Austin Lucas. We’ve borrowed a trailer from a friend, and before it’s even completely loaded up we realize that the taillights are not working properly. After an hour in an Auto Zone parking lot, the decision is made that they are working “good enough” and that we should just head to Indianapolis and see how things shake out. The drive is fine and once we reach Indy we decide to spend the extra time on getting the taillights figured out, which, with the help of a nice O’Reilly’s employee, and another hour in a parking lot, we do. Or I should say Andy does, I have no fucking clue about that stuff. We meet up with Mike Hale (whom we’ve never really met), and Austin Lucas at the show, which was possibly the best show we’ve ever had in Indy. It has not been a very friendly town to us in the past. The next show of the tour is back in Columbus, which is also something we’ve never done before, played at home during a tour. We drive straight back home after the show.

AUG. 1ST – COLUMBUS
Turns out playing a show at home to kick off a tour is not a bad way to start. Even with the New Bomb Turks playing at another club we still had a great show. Austin is from Indiana but a lot of his family lives in the Ohio/Michigan/Indiana, tri-state area and he records with his father and family backing him. Several of them came out and played with him, which turned out to be pretty cool.

I don’t remember how I got home.
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On Saturday, August 1, to celebrate their bassist Matt Reber’s 40th birthday, Columbus punk legends New Bomb Turks invaded Ravari Room. The good time was guaranteed. To make the event even more special the band would play their landmark debut LP !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! top to bottom! A treat, indeed… And so it came to pass. And now that it did, we, who were there, can proudly brag about being there for years to come. And those who weren’t there will probably say they were, as they tend to do sometimes.

Released by Crypt Records in 1993, !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! was met with rave reviews in both indie and mainstream music press. Spin Magazine gave the album it’s “Highly Recommended” mark. The record became an instant garage punk classic and to this day is a standard other records of the genre are compared against. As for the Turks…. Well, they went on to put out more awesome records for some pretty big labels, tour the world and influence a whole slew of bands both big and small all over the world. Not bad for a bunch of punks from Columbus. And even though they don’t gig much anymore, we get to see them every now and again, being the home town crowd and all.

Now on to the show…. (more…)

MP3: Born Toulouse-Lautrec from Destroy-Oh-Boy!

New Bomb Turks surprised a European crowd a few weeks ago by playing Destroy-Oh-Boy! from front to back. Europeans can’t have all the fun, right? That’s why the band has decided to do it again tomorrow at Ravari Room. They’ll play the album, have a drink, and likely do a second set of stuff from the rest of the catalog. Line up now.

MP3: Born Toulouse-Lautrec by New Bomb Turks

New Bomb Turks still do a few shows every year, and when they happen they are always a must-see, especially in Columbus. What is making this show even more insane is that Scrawl will be playing too. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Expect a sold out show, lots of drinking, several injuries, and many many many hangovers.

Chicago Bonus: The Turks are playing the next night @ The Cobra.

UPDATE: You can get advance tickets here.

This just in: The New Bomb Turks are playing at The Summit tonight. They’re going on sometime around 10:30ish PM.