Tag Archives: ron house

Screaming Urge Interview: Columbus Punk History and Much More


Screaming Urge High Street 1980

MP3: Hitlers In Brazil
MP3: Skitzo Brain
MP3: Killa Poe Lease (Kill the Police)

I wrote an article on Screaming Urge in this week’s The Other Paper. Screaming Urge were a pioneering punk band from here in Columbus that had their last performance on Saturday. The band had a lot of interesting things to say, so I figured I would post the interview with Columbus legends on Donewaiting.

The three above songs are off a cd Screaming Urge just released called Gory Years. Gory Years has remastered versions of Screaming Urge’s two albums, and their coveted 45. Classic material recorded from 79-81. I believe you can obtain a copy of this cd by contacting Screaming Urge’s Facebook.

I interviewed Michael Ravage (MRav), and Myke Rock (MRock) for the Other Paper story. Dave Manic, who also played in Great Plains, was not there for the interview because he lives in Erie, Pa. Dave Manic did play the reunion show. (Shirtless but without a half-beard). Danielle Kline who took the photo for the Other Paper story also asks a few questions.

W: What was Columbus, OH like in 1978?

Michael Ravage: We couldn’t get into any clubs. They wanted bands like McGuffey Lane. Cover bands. There was no punk. There was us, The Blades, (two bands whose names I couldn’t make out.hopefully someone post the bands names in comments)

W: How did you get into punk?

MRav: I was listening to a lot of Iggy Pop so that’s how I got into it and then went from there to the Sex Pistols.

W: Where was your first show?

MRav: Believe it or not it was at the Campus Methodist Center. I invented a thing called the ‘Nowhere shows’ they were called “Nowhere Fests,” we couldn’t find any place to play. I rented out the hall and we called it “Nowhere ’78” we brought the four punk bands together to play and that was our first show.

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Photos: Times New Viking, Psandwich & Mike Rep and Tommy Jay

Times New Viking, Psandwich, Mike Rep and Tommy Jay
Wexner Center for the Arts
July 1, 2011

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Times New Viking

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Psandwich

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Times New Viking

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Friday: Times New Viking’s last 2011 Columbus show + roast with Ron House

Tomorrow night (Friday, 7/1) Times New Viking will play its last Columbus show of the year, which bums me out. But, a roast hosted by none other than Ron House (Great Plains, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments) should add some levity to the evening. House’s band, Psandwich, will also play (full-length coming soon), as will kindred spirits Mike Rep and Tommy Jay. If I didn’t have to travel out of town, there is no way I’d miss this. Details, tickets for the Wexner Center event here.

MP3: Ron House & Moviola – “Fire Tressel, Not Teachers”

One lies to his bosses and gets patted on his head
The other wants to bargain and is told to drop dead
Fire Tressel, not teachers
Save the children, not Judas

MP3: Ron House & Moviola – Fire Tressel, Not Teachers

Ron House, opinionated as ever, wrote this one and recorded it with Moviola around one mic at Used Kids on Tuesday night. Also available at Moviola’s bandcamp page, along with some other great freebies the band has been releasing the past few months.

This weekend in Columbus: CDR VII

It’s that time of year again, when grilling meat, arm wrestling, and indie rock somehow end up together in awkward sentences (like this one). This weekend is the seventh annual Columbus Discount Records BBQ, where the local label shares the wealth and gives you a wealth of local/international talent to gaze upon for as free as possible. This year’s version of the tradition entails two star-studded rock shows (Friday night at The Summit and Saturday night at Carabar) as well as a multi-faceted get-together Saturday afternoon at CDR HQ (corner of Oak and Parsons, just up the street from Carabar). Highlights:

Friday night at Summit: Sets from local Uggs-rock veterans the Guinea Worms and the most-successful, longest-lasting Rock Potluck band ever, Sandwitch (featuring Ron House), are those most likely to slay. Omaha’s Yuppies will play the part of the noisy visitors from out of town, and the night will be rounded out by intergalactic party Mormons Outer Spacist and the sheer spectacle of the Unholy Two. You will probably leave this show wearing beer.

Saturday afternoon BBQ: Obviously, free PBR and grilled eats would be a highlight of any day. However, this party also includes your chance for eternal glory with an arm-wrestling tournament! The male and female brackets are both sure to be tough, but you still have a couple days to train. If all of this is not enough, local legends the Cheater Slicks will play a set in the CDR studio around 5:30.

Saturday night at Carabar: This is where the big guns come out, so hopefully you are not drunk enough or drunk enough to enjoy it. Local wonders (and musical inspirations to Beck) Times New Viking will headline and close the festivities. I am excited for another visit from the prolific globetrotter Dan Melchior, who will surely entertain with whoever might be backing him up, and a set from Harrisburg, Ohio’s favorite sons, Mike Rep and Tommy Jay, will lend some tuneful and grizzled character to the proceedings.

More information, conspiracy theories, and conjecture here.

Overlooked in Ohio Vol. 6: Belreve

Editor’s note: “Overlooked in Ohio” is a feature in which we ask an Ohio-based artist/music enthusiast to tell us about a band or bands from the state of Ohio (past or present) that deserve some love. Our sixth installment comes courtesy of Nick Schuld — resurrecter of Datapanik, player in Obviouslies and unearther of various Ohio treasures over at Minimum Tillage Farming. Nick has been here too long and is now insane.


Photos by Jay Brown; copyright 2010 jfotoman

MP3: Assorted tracks from Cowtown EP, 45s, etc. (mediafire archive courtesy Minimum Tillage Farming)
MP3: Walk

A little while before I moved to Columbus in the summer of 1988 I discovered the glorious phenomenon that is the used record shop, so one of the first things I did when I got here was to scan the yellow pages for all the locals. At the time, cds still seemed neat and lotsa previously hard-to-find (for me at least, in small-town Virginia) stuff was showing up on that most durable of physical formats (*ahem*), so I took my giant Bekins box of tapes to Used Kids and wandered upstairs soon after with loot in hand to “little Mag’s” – the relatively short-lived cousin of the still-thriving shop now calling the Short North home – since Used Kids was still strictly analog. (Well, maybe they had a few discs in a magazine rack by the door – but they woulda prolly been a little to the current/good/hip/obscure side of the Misfits and Lemonheads ones I was jazzed about.) Little Mag’s was cool, trafficked mostly in t-shirts, and closed pretty soon after.

Fortunately this fate didn’t befall Used Kids (tho’ I did buy a t-shirt there once), and in the following months I started going down to the shop whenever I could find a ride or felt sufficiently over-enthusiastic enough to ride my skateboard from the suburbs and back. One day I bought a My Bloody Valentine tape and the guy behind the counter mentioned how good the upcoming show at the Ohio Union Ballroom was gonna be. I think I averted my eyes and barely mumble-nodded in agreement on my way out the door – for I was not always the obnoxiously assertive lug you all now recognize – but after the show I grabbed the fellow and yelled over the ringing in my ears how indeed it WAS quite the revelation. He grinned and said the last song was on their best record and had I heard it? I said no and he said he’d tape it for me; thus, my introduction to the illustrious Ron House. Continue reading

Overlooked in Ohio: Vol. 4 (Kevyn and the Kasualties)

Editor’s note: “Overlooked in Ohio” is a feature in which we ask an Ohio-based artist/music enthusiast to tell us about a band or bands from the state of Ohio (past or present) that deserve some love. Our fourth installment comes courtesy of Ron House, a guy you likely already know from Great Plains, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and/or his most recent band, Sandwich (currently recording). Or from his days at Used Kids. Read on for his reflections on Kevyn and the Kasualties.

MP3: Kevyn and the Kasualties – Holy Trinity

Kevyn and the Kasualties‘ first LP is ambivalent even before you put it on: one side is labeled “Punk?” and the other is “Pop?” Pathology on vinyl is always better with a crack rhythm section and Kevyn had Nudge Squidfish and Rudy Krash n Burn (not real names heh heh). They went on to form V3 after this release which shows that at least Jim Shepard was listening to this confused, heartrending, and ass-kicking LP. Like more than a few post-punkers in the mid-eighties, Kevyn was torn between Hardcore’s demand for manly toughness and Alternative’s feeble plea for originality. Four songs on the punk side are disquisitions on his aesthetics; as he sings in-the-pocket punk in his nasally midwest Johnny Thunders style all he can sing about is punk. Injustice for Kevyn struck home only where his music was. “Let’s Kill R-N-R.” “Screw FM.” For a man determined to be “Drunk Loud and Obnoxious” there is something almost polite and modest in his ambitions. Continue reading

MP3: Ron House – “Twenty or Thirty People”

MP3: Moses Carryout (Ron House) – 20 or 30 People

They’re always there/They’re everywhere I go
They’re the 20 or 30 people that I know
We go to talk/We go to dance
And when we get real bored we listen to the band
We argue some/We never fight
We wonder if we’re drunk or something’s happening tonight

This song has been implanting itself in my morning bedhead ever since I started listening to Blind Boy in the Backseat, the Ron House LP that was originally a 1986 cassette tape on Mike Rep’s Old Age/No Age label and was recently re-issued by Columbus Discount Records. If you’re even slightly interested in Columbus music history, or a fan of Great Plains or Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, you’d be wise to pick it up (though you’ll have to go through a local shop or distributor — CDR is sold out). Everything was recorded between ’78 and ’81, mostly with the ever-sardonic House’s former bands The Twisted Shouts (feat. Rep and Tommy Jay) and Moses Carryout, but you’ll also find True Believers backing him up on the B-side version of “Chuck Berry’s Orphan.”

It’s a must-have for House devotees & completists. And if you’re new to the House of Ron, it ain’t a bad place to start, either.

Daymon Day 2009 Photos & Videos

A few weeks ago we celebrated the 4th annual Daymon Day here in Columbus. We had a basketball tourney, tribute mural, emcee battle, parade and a rowdy dance party. We got our Rucker park on and then brought it into the streets.

For those that aren’t familar with Daymon Day but like things perhaps reading this article before or after viewing the following videos and pictures might give you some background info.

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This video shot by A.J.(i think) shows the parade.

Watch it if you think marching 300 plus people in the middle of the road to Black Sabbath, Dilla, Cam’ron, M.O.P. , DJ Przm, Camu Tao, Jim Jones,Pharoah Monche and Racist Joe instrumentals to honor their fallen loved ones on an OSU gameday sounds interesting.

Photos taken by Danielle Kline that show a different detail after the jump. Continue reading