Cringe.com/pilations 2001-2004

From 2001 to 2004, Joel Treadway at Cringe.com put out four compilations that are arguably the best representation of what was happening in the Columbus music scene at the start of the '00s.

Across all four, the tracking listing is impressive in terms of quality and representation, kinking off Volume One with Silo The Huskie, Pretty Mighty Mighty, Grafton, The Jive Turkeys, Lizard McGee, Guinea Worms, A Planet For Texas, The Marbles, Media Whores, Templeton and many more.

Volume Two includes Bob City, Moviola, Orchestraville, Salt Horse, The Vincents, Flippin' Hades, F**Bomb and a solo track from Brad Swiniarski.

Volume Three highlights include Bush League All-Stars, The Evil Queens, Twin Cam, The Cusacks, Teeth Of The Hydra, The Black Swans and Mrs. Children, who would later transform into The Whiles.

Lastly, Volume Four features Trapper John, Murder Your Darlings, Denovo, The Last Hotel, The Townsmen, The Fierce Lime, and Earwig.

Cringe.com: Hensley Sturgis Pictures

It was bound to happen, but I didn't expect it to be a band from the 2000s. Normally on Thursday of each week I post a video of the band being highlighted, but somehow Hensley Sturgis seems to have avoided being captured by moving picture. Alas, all we have are pictures posted at Cringe.com (thanks Joel Treadway!) from back in 2001. Here's one, check them all out at Cringe.

The Lantern (2002): Local music scene heats up in Columbus

Back in 2002 Ohio State's newspaper The Lantern ran an article on the local music scene, talking with people like Jack DeVoss of then CD101 and Joel Treadway of Cringe.com. Here is a bit of that:

Cringe was founded in 1994 as a poll to make fun of the polls local alternative papers took. Readers of the Live Shows calendar, which focuses on the Ohio State, Short North, Arena District and downtown areas, were asked to create a category and winner of their choice. The first issue was an e-mail, and a few months later the quarterly ‘zine’ moved to the Web. 

“The name Cringe is derived from the idea that if ‘grunge’ is the Seattle sound, the Columbus sound must be ‘cringe,’ ” Treadway said. “Yeah, ‘cringe’ is kind of a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek name.” 

Exposure to local music is key to a thriving local music scene. After people are introduced to local music, they are more likely to seek it out on their own through the papers and Web sites like Cringe, Treadway said. 

“We get 1,000 to 1,400 visitors who view a total of 12,000 to 17,000 pages every day,” he said. 

Columbus’ music fans are as vast and diverse as the music they listen to. However, two distinct crowds exist – the cover band crowd and original band crowd.