New Additions: Bone Country album by High Sheriff Ricky And The Hoot Owls

One of the unexpected discoveries of researching this book has been the influence of traditional country on a variety of artists and bands. Coming across High Sheriff Ricky Barnes And The Hoot Owls falls into that category, along with others like Hank McCoy And The Dead Ringers.

New Additions: Blind Horse Campaign album by Grafton

Seeing Grafton live back in 2001 or 2002 was a special experience - the band was loud, bluesy, boozy and able to pull off a garage rock sound that dripped Midwestern authenticity. I was 100% on board with their debut at the time but did not give the follow up Blind Horse Campaign, released on Dead Canary Records in 2003, the same consideration. For whatever reason, it didn't snap into my brain the same way the debut did, but having picked it up on vinyl, I can say it definitely hits all the right notes.

New Additions: !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! album by New Bomb Turks

My first introduction to the New Bomb Turks was actually via the Dig Me Out podcast I cohost during our fourth season in 2014 when we reviewed the third album Scared Straight. Many, many years later, as I kicked-off this project, I finally got around to giving the whole catalog a listen and started picking up other releases, including their debut !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! released in 1993 on Crypt Records. I know the band had a few years under their belt by the time the debut was released, but it's amazing to hear such a young band so fully in control and confident in their sound.

New Additions: The Bridal Album by Boys From Nowhere (1990)

Initially, I was confused about the trajectory of Boys From Nowhere. Where they a Columbus band or a Boston band? Turns out there was a documentary about Boston punk called The Boys From Nowhere, hence my confusion. But then it turns out at some point, most of the line-up (except for leader Mick Divvens) was replaced by musicians from Youngstown, so... Anyway, there were a few BFN records floating around Columbus record stores, and I grabbed a few seven-inch singles as well as The Bridal Album, which is probably as good a place as any to start with the band, even though it looks to be the last thing they released. Loud, guitar-driven garage rock, plenty of fuzz and attitude, as the Lord intended. Good stuff, too band they aren't better recognized.

New Additions: Girl Machine 1994 self-titled album

Having picked up the two seven inch singles by Girly Machine at record stores in town, getting my hands on their lone full length from 1994 took a bit more time. While in the same vein as their single releases, the fidelity on their brand of brash indie rock is elevated on the full-length, and all the parts mesh just a bit better.

New Additions: Absinthe by Ugly Stick

Dave Holm is a busy guy, and it was only a matter of time before I ran into one of his projects. In this case, it's Ugly Stick. The band formed in the early 90s and put out an album in 1993 and 7" in 1994 before he turned his attention to other bands like Bigfoot and The Townsmen. The band would occasionally play out, and another album was released in 2008, but it took me a while to track down the '93 debut Absinthe. I'm glad I did because this sort of country-rock crossover is solidly up my alley with my appreciation for bands like Uncle Tupelo.

New Additions: Trash To Treasure album by Templeton

Calling this a "New Addition" is sort of a cheat. I bought this album when Templeton had their CD release way back in 1999. But of course, like so many others, this was lost in my massive CD purge of the early 2000s when I converted everything to MP3s. Of course, a dumb mistake on my part. Luckily, years later, I tracked down the Derailleur Records release, and I'm glad I did. This was always one of my faves from the era - Christian Hurd has a knack for lyrics and hooks and the band has the right combo of raw/loose and precise/tight.

New Additions: The Creeps / Black Love split single (2000)

The first (and only) release in my collection by The Creeps is the 2000 split single with Black Love. It's an interesting document in that it's the only recording I can find by Black Love, which was the late 1990s band featuring former Carnival of Souls/Barbed Wire Dolls lead singer Johnny "Booger" Weills. When I found this at Records Per Minute, it ended up having both the green and red vinyl versions included, which for a record collecting nerd like myself, was a pretty cool bonus.

New Additions: Willie Phoenix 1982 self-titled debut album

If you're going to start with an artist you are not all that familiar with, it's not a bad idea to start at the beginning. In this case, it's the 1982 self-titled album released on A&M Records. Now, but this point Willie Phoenix was an established artist, having started with Eric in high school, and playing with a variety of folks in a number of different projects. This is Willie out front, and it's a good sound for him, midwestern rock with touches of power pop, psychedelia and more.

New Additions: The Unkindest Cut Of All seven inch single by Monster Zero

One of the fun parts of this project is finding the connections between various bands of the 2000s that are linked in the 1990s. For example, Monster Zero features Brad Caulkins, who would go on to play in The Jive Turkeys and The Sun, and Emily Allen, who would go on to play in Templeton, Estee Louder and The Means, which included her brother David Wayne Allen that played on third Monster Zero single. All that said, Monster Zero has grungy indie rock sound perfectly at home for the mid-90s, and it makes sense where this family tree extends off to in the various directions.

New Additions: Length Of Growth 1981-1989 compilation album by Great Plains

It's rare that a Columbus band has a compilation album, let alone more than one, but that's how important Great Plains are to the scene. For a long time, I had only known them as "Ron House's band before Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments." It took until this project to actually dig into the catalog, and while many of their records are worth checking out, the 2000 compilation Length Of Growth 1981-1989 released by Old3C Records is a great primer, capturing nearly every studio track the band recorded.

New Additions: Gut Piston Puts The Flavor Back Into Smoking! seven inch single

Via one of my many mass purchases over at Discogs in the last year I picked up the Gut Piston seven inch single "Gut Piston Puts The Flavor Back Into Smoking!" from 1995. It's the sort of high-energy/low b.s. sound that Columbus was producing in a variety of styles in the 90s, and slots nicely both into the punk and rockabilly sounds that could be found up and down High St. at that time.

New Additions: Hank McCoy & The Dead Ringers self-titled album (1992)

Stumbling upon Hank McCoy & The Dead Ringers during my research for the book gave me pause. Was this really alternative country, in the way that the Haynes Boys or Burn Barrel were alternative country? To my ears, though it might be interpreted slightly differently, there appeared to be nothing "alternative" about it. But then how does that factor into a book primarily about rock music and its various sub-genres? I'm not quite sure yet, I do know that members of a variety of bands, including Greenhorn, Great Plains, Ronald Koal And The Trillionaires, and more.

New Additions: 1000% Fox / 9 x 11 seven inch single by The Yips

The first thing I was able to grab by The Yips was their 1995 seven inch single 1000% Fox / 9 x 11 released on Siltbreeze. This deep into researching the book and history of Columbus music, and it is quite interesting how much music Siltbreeze put out in the 90s by Columbus bands for not being a Columbus based label. The Yips are pretty raw here, but the melodies and evolution that would take place over their next three albums are pretty evident.

New Additions: The Death Of The Self Preservation Society album by Two Cow Garage

It's fun to watch a band develop and evolve in real time, and Two Cow Garage is one of them I've had the opportunity to observe. I recently picked up their 2013 album The Death Of The Self Preservation Society, though I had kept track of the band from their beginnings in the early 2000s when they were a new band just as the band I was playing with was over four years into existence. They were scrappy and rough sounding, but they had an identity straight away, and that made them instantly interesting as they navigated punk via folk.

New Additions: Dancer Equired! by Times New Viking

This should be "most recent addition" in addition to new, because I've been pickup Times New Viking releases for a while now. Although I'm not always in love with the production aesthetic, like with previous albums, Dancer Equired! has the proper level of sugary-sweet melody to go with harsh sounds that counter balance it. This was released on Merge, with the previous two released on Matador, and it's fairly amazing a band that can be as blatantly lo-fi and noisy can still manage to interest prestige indie labels that need to move units to stay afloat.

New Additions: Limited Edition EP by The Press

For someone who enjoys research and crate digging for records, a band like The Press is right up my alley. Here's how I came across their 1987 release Limited Edition EP. I was at Spoonful Records flipping through the local section, and stopped at a sealed copy of The Press 12". The band name didn't look familiar, so I flipped it over wondering what it was, and the name "Jeff Gastineau" caught my eye. How did I know that name? Why was it familiar? I pulled out my phone and searched the Discogs app for the name, which came up with Engineer credits on Razor Penguins and Eurogression, as well as contributing a track to one of the Q-FM 96 compilations. At that point, it didn't matter what The Press sounded like, I was buying the record based on the connections alone. Turns out it's pretty solid 80s pop/AOR, but more importantly I was able to locate Jeff and not long we had an interview via Skype for the book.

New Additions: Reviled! album by Burn Barrel

Burn Barrel's 1999 album Reviled! is not that easy to come by, which surprised me. CDs tend to have the lowest resale/easiest acquisition ratio, even more-so than cassettes, whose more fragile nature makes them a bit more scarce. In the case of Burn Barrel, this is the first instance where "addition" simply means "listening on Spotify," because I wasn't able to track down a copy of the album.

While I'm a music collector, the liner notes of albums have have been incredibly important and discovering the links and backstory to many albums and bands, so not having the physical release is disappointing, but it's the music that counts. And the music here is very good. Elements of 90s alternative country tinged with occasional psychedelic freak-out jamming and 70s singer/songwriter balladry all mix nicely.

New Additions: Keepers seven inch single by Gibson Bros.

When I decided to dig into the Gibson Bros., I wanted to start at the beginning. That meant tracking down their first release, not only for the band, but for the Okra label as well - the 1986 seven inch Keepers. Appropriately, it sets up the sound of the band, that would stay consistent with the slightest augmentation in players and instrumentation - a lo-fi/garage interpretation of rockabilly and traditional country. This was, of course, wildly out place in the mid-80s alternative/indie rock world, which makes it all more the fascinating.

New Additions: A Secret Reward by 84 Nash

I have now purchased A Secret Reward by 84 Nash twice. Once back in the early 2000s, probably at a local store like Used Kids or Magnolia Thunderpussy, where I used to go to pick up local and used CDs. But in the mid-2000s, when MP3s and file sharing and external hard-drives became a thing, I dumped most of my CD catalog off for cash and unfortunately parted with this album. Luckily, the internet provide a multitude of ways to reacquire albums lost in a such a foolish decision, and A Secret Reward has made it back into my collection. I remember at the time the band being compared to Guided By Voices, but A Secret Reward really sounds like a band fully in charge of their sound, with lo-fi sketches fleshed out to near-power pop rockers.