Music
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Victoria has been singing with a guitar from the age of fifteen. Her original songs range in genres. Victoria hit the Cleveland folk scene in 1974. Bob Gibson said of her, “she sounds like herself and writes great songs, don’t compare her to Joni Mitchell or Joan Baez. Don’t change anything.” Victoria has had more than forty years since writing her own brand of song.
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A couple of months back, I mentioned that longtime central Ohio music veteran Jeff German had signed a three record deal with Slothtrop Records. Last Tuesday, Slothtrop released German’s debut album, “12 R.O.U.N.D.S.”
The impressive thing about German’s record deal is not that it happened, but when it happened – the album is being released just after German’s 50th birthday. A fixture on the Columbus music scene in the 90’s with the Flying Saucers, German shut down his music career, moved with his wife to Granville, raised a family and coached hockey. When his children were old enough, German returned to playing with the Cur Dogs, who self-released the album “Chasing Tales” in 2010. He also put in some time as a side-man, playing lead guitar with several acts, including Lydia Loveless. In 2013 German formed his current band, the Blankety Blanks, and made some recordings which found their way to Slothtrop Records, who contacted German in the fall of 2013.
When he was first approached by the label, German thought that he was the victim of a music industry con.
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I couldn’t find a spot closer than Neil Avenue. Having been deserted by my brother and nearly squashed by a bus when I attempted a High Street drop-off, there is no choice remaining but to park the car and start hauling equipment up the hill to Dick’s Den. When I finally get there, a little out of breath, I open the door and walk into mayhem. The place is absolutely jammed. I am literally pushing through the crowd, trying to keep my guitar from being knocked out of my hands.
It’s the 9th annual Columbus tribute to the late, great Townes Van Zandt. Dan Dougan is onstage, opening the event with the self-penned “Song for Townes.” I squeeze my way into the pool room, which has been turned into a de facto musician’s lounge.Veterans of the event have preemptively scotched any attempt to start a game by loading the table with guitar cases. I add mine to the pile, take a deep breath and head back to see the end of Dougan’s set. Wowee, there are a crap-ton of people here and they are all very drunk.
Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) was one of the great American songwriters of the 20th century.
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Schoolboy Q sold out the Newport Saturday. The Southern-Central L.A. rapper’s new album Oxymoron had debuted on the Billboard charts as the number 1 album in the country earlier in the week. While one would assume both of those facts have an obvious correlation, I would also offer that his chart and touring success is a testament to not sensationalizing the extreme negative in marketing makes for a good financial decision in terms of touring the Live Nation/Clear Channel type of venues.
There are plenty of ways to make money in rap. But this is probably the most efficient.
And as the saying goes: If You Don’t Work. You Don’t Eat.
Not that this a new phenomenon: A$ap Rocky packed the Newport when I saw Schoolboy Q open for him in October of 2012 and so on and so forth. In between songs, Schoolboy Q extolled the virtues of smoking weed on stage to the adulation of his audience.
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I wonder how the late Townes Van Zandt would feel if he knew two or three of his songs provided 15 minutes of fame and spotlight to a dozen-and-a-half performers in a crazy little time warp of a place called Dick's Den?
Given the sometimes ragged but nearly always heartfelt performances Friday night in a very packed Den, I think he would've been mildly amused and secretly deeply satisfied. Because there is something very, very special about TVZ's lyrics. Has anybody lyrically captured the essence of lives lived with more naked poignancy? And with novella-like depth and tight economy, never a wasted word or an unnecessary image? If nothing else, if that were my work being sung, sometimes butchered, I'd have been prouder than a three-legged dog winning the Kentucky Derby. The glory was ragged, but the work stands.
It should be noted, in my opinion anyway, Townes is probably the single greatest underrated American songwriter in our recent musical history. As much as I love tribute nights to the Beatles, Stones and Dylan, I think it's great guys like Eric Nassau organize these TVZ nights. And it's reassuring so many aspiring singer/songwriter types love his work.
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Brooklyn’s Cosmo Baker is set to spin at the Wexner Center’s Off the Grid Party Saturday, March 8th. Local support will be provided by George Brazil and Nick Tolford & Company.
Cosmo Baker is a heavily revered deejay.
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During it’s five O’clock Traffic Mix on Monday, Power 107.5 dropped Fly Union’s new song “Flatline” off their new album Small Victories in between various hit records after DJ Big Bink took a request from a female caller to play the Columbus hip hop group.
I caught up with Fly Union earlier in the week to interview them on the heels of the aptly titled Small Victories.
Power 107.5 has played Columbus records here and there. They also have a Sunday show hosted by Yaves Ellis that addresses community issues but, really, there hasn’t been a Columbus record with impact on the station since perhaps “Welcome to Buckeye City” a long time ago.
Fly Union’s manager, Chea explained reciprocation is the key to any good relationship, and especially with a media outlet like 107.5, “It has to work both ways. I think we are on the same page of us showing our support and them showing their support. We need to bridge that gap between people over Fly Union in Columbus. But they don’t listen to radio because they don’t want to.
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In my capacity as music writer, I have been asked by Editor-in-Chief Bob Fitrakis to write a review of the police band Hot Pursuit's 1988 D.A.R.E graduation concert at St. John Arena. This has presented some difficulty -- first, I wasn't at the concert, and second, I'm not entirely sure the event occurred. Although I'm not necessarily averse to stretching the truth in the service of a good story, outright fabrication of an entire concert seems a bit much.
I try, however, to be accommodating to Bob. Therefore, I have collected before me a 1988 AP piece on the band which somehow ended up in the Los Angeles Times, some slightly terrifying pictures, a YouTube clip of the band performing "The D.A.R.E. Song," a 2013 Dispatch article in which the members of the band are crying about having their funding cut off, and my own vague memories of 1988. I also watched some videos of people playing volleyball in the arena to get a feel for the space. It's weak, but what am I supposed to do? Anyway...
It's a brisk windy day in April, and Hot Pursuit is about to take the stage at St. John Arena for the D.A.R.E. graduation, whatever that is. I personally missed out on the D.A.R.E.
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I once got a job writing for a magazine because of a James Brown tribute I'd written focusing on his shiny patent leather shoes during his performance on the old '60s television show, Shindig.
When the Stones played the Shoe back in '97, I was photographing them and standing on a special step built on the front of the stage just for the photographers. I was close enough to Jagger several times I could've untied his hard leather street shoes, which I thought were an interesting choice of footwear for a hyper-active front man such as he.
And Nick Cave? Don't even ask. He used to wear these ridiculous boots with super-long points curling up several times over, like how the dead witch's feet curled up when Dorothy's house fell on top of her. Nick, ha, what a weirdo. But you gotta love him.
My point? You can tell a lot about a performer by what they wear, especially on their feet, which you don't ever normally think about or can even see. What it says I'm not always sure but it sure says something. And no, freaks, I don't have a foot fetish.
Which brings us to Lydia Loveless at the Rumba Cafe last Friday night.
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I really wanted to write that Columbus band WV White got their name from the documentary the Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. But I just read an interview with band in Agit Reader that stated they took their name from a butterfly. I am using that as an intro just so we both know the first idea that comes to mind when you read their name, and new album title West Virginia White is a wrong assumption.
I also wanted to write they are a Dustin White tribute band but that is not true either. WV White’s self-titled album on Anyway Records starts off with “Angela Lapper, Pregnant,” the title of which does reference the Marc Quin Sculpture of the limbless British artist who was featured in the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony.
But it is not an inspirational “Wind Beneath My Wings” type track, nor is it a strange acrotomophilia love song.