Tag Archives: Sword Heaven

Three Years at The Monster House

Jimi “James” Payne posted this over on Banalization.

James “Jimi” Payne

For the past three years I have lived in the Monster House, a DIY punk house in Columbus, Ohio. I co-founded the Monster House with Pat Crann, Austin Eilbeck, Ryan Eilbeck, Jeff Love, Kristina Markey, Matt O’Conke, Joe Scarbro, Dylan Taylor-Lehman, and Nick Wong. A few weeks ago the last three original roommates – besides me – left. And, as of this week, I’m moving out as well. A group of our friends still living at the Monster plan to continue hosting shows and events. On October 8th, Apache DropoutLandlordReverse The Curse, and Cody Troyan are performing there.

After “the jump” is a list of every performer who occasioned the “stage” at the Monster House in the last three years. 400 different performers have played over 150 shows booked by over 20 promoters. The list is representative of the Columbus punk scene as well as the national DIY touring circuit from 2007-10.

More than 30 people paid rent at the house during this time span.

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Major Bobby

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You may know Bobby Silver from some band Brainbow or whatever they’re called. One thing you may not know is that he is an aspiring nunchuk olympic champion. Also, he does badass interpretative nunchuk routines. This is one of those routines set to Major Lazer’s Pon De Floor. I give it a 10. At least.

If you’re lucky you can catch Bobby Silver and the Terrible Boobs Friday night at Skylab as part of Aaron Hibbs of Sword Heaven‘s world record breaking 120 hour hula hoop marathon. There may also be impromptu imperative nunchuk action throughout the course of the weekend.

!!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! Revisited

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…. Continue reading

Joy Divisions Art Show June 4th,2009

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This is most interesting art show in a minute.
Lifted from the OSU Urban Art Space Website.

Joy Divisions
Thursday, June 4th 2009 | 2 to 7:30pm

Columbus Metropolitan Library
96 S. Grant Street
Downtown Columbus Ohio

Curated by Eva Ball, this exhibition and outdoor listening party explores the band Joy Division and the Nazi forced sex slave camps of the same name.

Joy Division, the band, is an English post-punk outfit, who changed their name from Warsaw to Joy Division in 1977, borrowing their new moniker from the sex slave wing of a Nazi concentration camp described in the 1955 novel, The House of Dolls. The group played their first show as Joy Division on January 25th, 1978.

The House of Dolls describes Joy Divisions as groups of Jewish women in WWII concentration camps who were forced into slavery for the sexual pleasure of Nazi soldiers. The book is currently part of Israeli high school curriculum.

Evidence suggests that between 1942 and 1945, Auschwitz and at least nine other Nazi concentration camps contained sex slave camps, called ‘Freudenabteilung’ or ‘Joy Divisions’, used by the government to reward both Nazi soldiers and cooperative non-Jewish inmates. This kind of slavery is not an uncommon war crime.

While bassist Peter Hook and keyboardist/guitarist Bernard Sumner of the band Joy Division later admitted to being intrigued by fascism at the time, Morris (drums) insisted that the band’s interest with Nazi imagery came from a desire to keep memories of the sacrifices of their parents and grandparents during World War II alive. He argued that accusations of neo-Nazi sympathies merely provoked the band “to keep on doing it, because that’s the kind of people we are.”

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Athens (Ohio) Experimental Music Festival

The Action Committee and Grundale Records are pleased to announce the Athens Experimental Music Festival, taking place May 15th and 16th, 2009. This festival is an eclectic mix of noise, metal, electronica and hardcore based in Athens, Ohio, one hour southeast of Columbus. The Athens Experimental Music Festival is donation-based, non-profit and will hopefully establish Athens as an up-and-coming hotbed for experimental music.

Keep reading for the full press release. Continue reading

Brainbow: Trance Figure

MP3: Trance Figure by Brainbow

For a few years in Columbus, it seems like the most anticipated release has been the debut album by Brainbow. Their intricate music and epic live shows have made them a crowd favorite for a long time, drawing comparisons to everyone from Mogwai to Explosions in the Sky.

I’m happy to say that the time has come and it’s been worth the wait. They’re releasing the album Saturday, October 11 @ Skully’s. Joining them will be Sword Heaven and Envelope. Full details here. There will be lots of people. Get there early.

First Annual Ohio Experimental Music Festival Coming To Columbus

From Mark Van Fleet’s (of Sword Heaven) email bulletin:

NOV 30th -DEC 2nd
THE OHIO EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

Friday the 30th at Bourbon St, Sat the 1st at Skylab, Sun the 2nd out in Delaware

Full line-up coming soon. Almost 30 acts from every corner of Ohio…

Should be interesting. Stay tuned…

UPDATE:

More from MVF

Here is the final line-up for this thing. There was some talk of having a three day pay pal pass deal, but I think you are looking at 5 bucks on Fri, $5-10 on Sat, and $5 on Sun…

Cheap for so many bands, so bring money for merch, please.

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