OBSCURO! Blog: Jim Shepard/Vertical Slit/V-3 Megapost

Back in 2014 at the OBSCURO! blog, Bizzaro Jerry compiled all of his Jim Shepard and related recordings and posted them for download. Now, generally, I am opposed to posting music for people to download for free. In this, due to the relative obscurity of Jim Shepard's work, and near impossibility to track down for a purchase, I'm posting. However, if you can pick up a copy at Discogs, I also suggest that as well.

Our Hearts Of Glass - The lost tapes of Jim Shepard

Our Hearts Of Glass - The lost tapes of Jim Shepard

August 15th, 2018

I first discovered Jim Shepard in the middle of a wildfire haze, which couldn't be more appropriate. Jim exists in a space tinged with a thick layer of smog, clouding both his history and our post-humous image of him. Even after hours of research, I've only been able to salvage a few pixelated photographs and second-hand, tale-like information about him.  

Through these obituaries and memories, I know that Jim was a blue-collar worker who lived in both Columbus, Ohio and also somewhere among the sun dirt roads of Florida. I know that he suffered through a horrific work accident that completely mangled one of his hands. And I know that due to this accident, Jim decided to dedicate all of his time to his many musical projects such as V-3, Vertical Slit, Ego Summit, and countless solo recordings. 

New Additions: Jim Shepard w/ V-3 / Lacquer ‎– Evil Love Deeper Album

Sometime over the winter, I was able to grab a copy of Evil Deeper Love from Used Kids. Like with the V-3 and Vertical Slit recordings I've acquired prior, Jim Shepard is an acquired taste I'm still trying to wrap my head around. Some of the elements hit me right, and others leave me scratching my head.

Know Yer Artist: Jim Shepard

Artist: Jim Shepard

Bands
Creature
Ego Summit
Lacquer
Phantom Limb
Skullbank
Snooks
V-3
Vertical Slit

Releases
1977 - Slit and Pre-Slit album (Not On Label)
1987 - Jagged Flash album (Old Age/New Age)
1991 - No Big Deal album (Iron Press)
1991 - Amsterdam album (Iron Press)
1991 - Whiskey Priest With A Master Plan (Iron Press)
1991 - The Folk City Aztec Drama Series: Volume One album (Iron Press)
1995 - Picking Through The Wreckage With A Stick album (Siltbreeze)
1995 - Morphine Monogram album (Iron Press)
1995 - Evil Deeper Love album (Thrill Jockey)
1995 - The Folk City Aztec Drama Series: Volume Two album (Iron Press)
1996 - The Evil Twin album (Iron Press)
1996 - Plays The Songs Of Kim Fowley - The Hollywood Hills Are Alive And Well 7" single (Anopheles)
1998 - Motorcycle Movie album (Iron Press)
1998 - Collisions compilation album (Iron Press)
2001 - The Dispossessed w/Charles Cicirella album (Shrimper)
2009 - The Voices Of Men 7" single (Columbus Discount Records)
2010 - V-3 Next Album (Not On Label)
2018 - The Letter Tapes album (Feeding Tube Records)
2019 - Heavy Action album (Ever/Never)

Sprogg Compilation Casettes

From Discogs: While in college in the early 1990s, Nick Wilson was the record buyer for Magnolia Thunderpussy and World Record (local record stores in Columbus, Ohio on the campus of Ohio State University.) His friend, graphic designer James Towning, collaborated with Wilson on the creation of both the Sprogg fanzine/magazine and the accompanying compilation tape. Sprogg was intended to be an ongoing project, but both got sidetracked by their day jobs.

Columbus bands include Girly Machine, Martyr Colony, V-3, Pica Huss, Scrawl, Monster Truck Five and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments.

Agit Reader: Ego Summit - Summit Talks

Veteran Columbus writer Stephen Slaybaugh wrote about Ego Summit for The Agit Reader back in 2008, here is some of that article:

When the annals for the rock scene of Agit hometown Columbus, Ohio are written, there are certain names that will stand out, their direct input and/or influence sewing a thread that cuts across decades and perhaps generations. Taking their cues from the “anyone can do it” ethos of punk, but losing some of the urbanity for distinctly Midwestern accents and skepticism, a close knit bunch of book-fed and alcohol-bred minds formed the nucleus of the indie-genous scene in the late ‘70s and throughout the ‘80s and into the ‘90s. Don Howland, Mike “Rep” Hummel, Jim Shepard, Tommy Jay, Ron House—among others, the contributions of these five to the Columbus pantheon (if there is one) can’t be overstated. Gibson Bros., Great Plains, V-3, Quotas, Bassholes, Slave Apartments—Columbus’ musical DNA can be traced directly to these bands. 

But despite crossed paths in various combinations, it wasn’t until a weekend in 1997 that those five all got together so that, as Hummel put it, “some documentation to that fellowship (would) be recorded on tape before the participants doddered off into old age.” With Jay, Hummel and friend Jerry Wick (of Gaunt) manning a four-track, the group convened at Jay’s studio barn in the rural suburb of Harrisburg and recorded over two days. The result was The Room Isn’t Big Enough, an album released on Hummel’s Old Age/No Age label under the fitting moniker of Ego Summit. While the contributors’ credentials spoke for themselves, the album received little attention when it was released.

New Additions: The Room Isn't Big Enough by Ego Summit

Is Ego Summit the Columbus equivalent of a super group? The coming together of artists to form a one-off project from bands such as Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Mike Rep & The Quotas, V-3, Bassholes and more. Maybe none of those bands made an impact nationally, but locally, they all have are all of legendary status. It does speak to the stature of this release that it has been re-released twice, once in 2009 on CD, and then again in 2013 on vinyl. I managed to track down an original copy, and glad I did, as the artwork is much more DIY than the re-releases, a cool aspect of many Columbus records.

Rolling Stone: Lo-Fi Loss - Jim Shepard Dead

The death of Jim Shepard reverberated not only through the Columbus music and art community, but the nationwide music scene, particularly the lo-fi and experimental scene. Rolling Stone wrote about this death in 1998, here is some of that article:

Shepard, who was forty-four, began his primordial assault on the collective consciousness back in the late Seventies, presaging the lo-fi revolution to come on a slew of self-released cassettes and micro-pressed albums. After an enforced break — one caused by a work injury that left him with a severely mangled hand — Shepard turned the Vertical Slit “project” into a full-time band, with an attendant name change to V-3.

Video: Jim Shepard's V-3 play cover of The Gun Club "Preaching the Blues"

SPIN: Blame Nirvana - 40 Weirdest Post Nevermind Major Label Albums

Back in 2013, SPIN magazine compiled a list of the 40 weirdest albums released on major labels after the release of Nevermind, otherwise known as the alternative rock gold rush. Landing on the list is Jim Shepard's V-3 and their 1996 album Photograph Burns released on Onion/American.

By the time of his first and only major-label release, the late Columbus, Ohio musician Jim Shepard had compiled a body of work that was a veritable maze of home-recorded D.I.Y., stretching back to the late-'70s. Photograph Burns is a chaotic, from-the-gut amalgam of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, post-punk, and the muddy sounds of the "lo-fi" explosion, from a guy who lived through it all.

New Additions: Evil Love Deeper by Jim Shepard w/ V-3 / Lacquer*, etc...

Jim Shepard, and the various bands he was part of like V-3 and Vertical Slit, have some of the most obscure recordings that I've been trying to track down. Many are simply not available thanks to being released on limited runs of cassettes, and others are so long out of print even CDs are nearly impossible to track down. Luckily, recently Used Kids Records here in Columbus somehow ended up with a small batch of V-3 pressings specifically the 1997 album Evil Love Deeper credited to Jim Shepard w/ V-3 / Lacquer*, etc..., released on Thrill Jockey. Perhaps Thrill Jockey had a few extra copies in their vaults, who knows, but I was able to pick one up. Every release I've come upon for Shepard has been equally perplexing and fascinating, as he definitely an acquired taste most mainstream listeners would quickly turn off, yet there is something intriguing to his art I cannot quite put a finger on.

Know Yer Band: V-3

Band: V-3

Members
Vocals/Guitar - Jim Shepard
Vocals/Guitar - Roxanne Newman
Bass/Keys - Nudge Squidfish / Leland Cain
Drums - Rudy Smith / Dave Mikula / Sam Brown

Releases
1991 - Psychic Dance Hall album (Ropeburn)
1991 - Monsters Of Hollywood 7" ep (Iron Press)
1991 - The Earth Muffin 7" ep (Siltbreeze)
1992 - Negotiate Nothing album (Ropeburn)
1995 - Evil Love Deeper (w/Jim Shepard, V-3, Lacquer, etc.) album (Thrill Jockey)
1995 - W.N.U.R. Chicago Radio Show album (Iron Press)
1995 - American Face / Son Of Sam Donaldson 7" single (Anyway Records)
1995 - Russian Roulette (Chinese Style) 7" ep (Birdman Records)
1996 - Photograph Burns album (Onion Records)
1996 - Elevator To The Gas Chamber ‎7" ep (Spirit of Orr)
1997 - Live '97 album (Old Age / No Age)
1997 - Launchpad Explosion 2x7" single (Spare Me Records)
1997 - The Other Side Of Darkness ‎compilation album (Not On Label)
1998 - Pimping In The 90's (Action Painting #Ninety-Eight) ‎album (Iron Press)
2014 - Live At Bernie's '97 album (Not On Label)

Know Yer Band: Greenhorn

Band: Greenhorn

Members
Vocals/Guitar/Keys - Dan Spurgeon
Guitar - Mark Spurgeon
Bass - Steve McGann
Drums - Pat McGann

Releases
1992 - 7" single Conversations With Myself (Anyway Records)
1992 - 7" single The Progress (Datapanik Records)
1992 - 7" split single w/V-3, Belreve and Gaunt (Anyway Records)
1994 - 7" single Through The Thick Of It (Anyway Records)
1994 - 7" Liars' Song (3 Beads Of Sweat)
2005 - Self-Titled album (Lord Baltimore)