Know Yer Band: Great Plains

Band: Great Plains

Members:
Vocals/Guitar - Ron House
Guitars/Vocals - Matt Wyatt
Keyboards/Vocals - Mark Wyatt
Bass - Hank O'Hare (Don Howland), Mike Hummel, Paul Nini, Bill Bruner
Drums - Robert David Green, James Castoe

Releases:
1983 - The Mark, Don & Mel E.P. 12" (New Age)
1984 - Born In A Barn album (Homestead Records)
1985 - Naked At The Buy, Sell, And Trade album (Homestead Records)
1985 - Slaves To Rock 'N' Roll Live! album (Not On Label)
1987 - Sum Things Up album (Homestead Records)
1987 - Dick Clark 7" single (Shadowline Records)
1987 - Before We Stop To Think 12" single (Shadowline Records)
1989 - Exercise 7" single (Homestead Records)
1989 - Colorized! compilation album (Diabolo Records)
2000 - Length Of Growth 1981-1989 double compilation album (Old 3C Records)
2008 - Live At WFMU album (Old 3C Records)
2012 - Directions To The Party DVD (Old 3C Records)

Bored Out: Interview with Don Howland

In 2016, Ryan Leach at the Bored Out website conducted a lengthy and in-depth interview with Don Howland of Gibson Bros., Great Plains and Bassholes. Here is some of that:

Ryan: How did joining Great Plains come about? Did you learn bass to play in the band? 

Don: I did. I bought a bass from a kid in a trailer who needed money to buy a gun. Bass isn’t hard to learn. I was good enough to play pretty quick. There were only ten or fifteen people in the Columbus scene. Ron and I knew each other from the record store. Amrep (Michael Hummel) and Jim Shepard were around—all the Ego Summit guys. In a bigger city we would’ve likely been acquaintances, but in a city the size of Columbus we all became compadres I guess. I was the youngest in the group. I was an outsider, being from a white flight suburb, but it was no big deal.  Tim Anstaett of the Offense went to my high school, so when he moved back to Columbus from Florida there were two of us. 

Ryan: You wrote for the Offense and contributed to some of the last issues of New York Rocker. 

Don: That was thanks to Tim Anstaett from the Offense. He gave people free reign. Tim had an insane work ethic. Whatever his passions were at the time, he’d devote thirty-six hours a day to them. He wrote a telephone book-sized tome on bass fishing in Florida. Andy Schwartz and Ira Kaplan at the New York Rocker were very open to the fanzine vibe.  Through New York Rocker—I also sent some of my work with the Offense to him—I got to know Robert Christgau at the Village Voice. I started writing for the Voice. Christgau was a super nice guy. I probably learned more about writing and English from him than from anyone else, and I’ve taught English for twenty-one years. Christgau would spend two-and-a-half hours editing a two-hundred-fifty-word piece. That was a great experience. I started with the Voice in ’81 and wrote for them until the early ‘90s. There wasn’t a whole lot of great music going on then. The early ‘80s were rough. When punk died—and you could tell it died—hardcore came along and it’s like, “Shit. This is not the same. There are no girls here anymore. It’s just like a football game.” I wrote for Spin as well.

Know Yer Band: Gibson Bros

Band: Gibson Bros

Members
Vocal/Guitar/Banjo - Jeffrey Evans
Guitar/Vocals/Bass/Drums - Don "Chet" Howland
Guitar - Dan Dow
Drums - Ellen Hoover/Cristina Martinez/Rick Lilash
Guitar - Jon Spencer/Jack Taylor

Releases
1986 - Keepers 7" single (Okra Records)
1986 - Build A Raft album (Old Age)
1987 - Big Pine Boogie album (Okra Records)
1989 - Dedicated Fool album (Homestead Records)
1990 - Emulsified 7" single (Siltbreeze)
1990 - The Man Who Loved Couch Dancing album (Homestead Records)
1990 - Southbound 7" single (Glitterhouse Records)
1990 - Split album w/Workdogs, Punk Rock Truck Drivin' Son Of A Gun (Homestead Records)
1991 - Mean Mistreater 7" single (Homestead Records)
1991 - My Huckleberry Friend 7" single (Giant Claw)
1991 - White N*gger 7" single (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
1992 - Knock Down My Blues 7" single (In The Red Recordings)
1993 - Memphis Sol Today! album (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
1996 - Columbus Soul 85 album (In The Red Recordings)

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.

Know Yer Band: Ego Summit

Band: Ego Summit

Members
Don Howland
Ron House
Mike "Rep" Hummel
Jim Shepard
Tommy Jay

Releases
1997 - Ego Summit album (Old Age/New Age)

Video: Bassholes - "Microscope Feeling"

Agit Reader: Feature - Bassholes Basement Tapes

For Agit Reader #77, Stephen Slaybaugh sat down with Don Howland of the Bassholes back in 2009 to discuss their latest release "...And Without A Name" released on Columbus Discount Records. Here's a snippet:

Do you think you’d have had the longevity that you’ve had if you were trying to do this full-time and were in a van together six months out of the year? 

DH: No, I went into the Bassholes hating touring, so that was never a consideration. Our one brush with fame, I suppose—on this level anyway—was when we had the Matador record. They wanted that over-produced double-album on In the Red (When My Blue Moon Turns Red Again), and instead I gave them Long Way Blues, which to me is by far the best record we ever did. It was just so freaking weird, they didn't promote us at all. We could have toured and played with Matador bands a lot, but we really didn’t do that. We opened a couple shows for Yo La Tengo. Man, talk about pain! Oh my god that was rough. I like people who have a particular sensibility to mine, and I don’t think there are that many.

Know Yer Band: Bassholes

Band: Bassholes

Members
Guitars/Vocals - Don Howland
Drums - Rick Lilash/Lamont "Bim" Thomas

Releases
1992 - Blues Roots (Archive Series - Volume One) album (In The Red Recordings)
1993 - Cowtown EP Vol. II 7" single (Anyway Records)
1992 - John Henry 7" single (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
1992 - 98 degrees In The Shade 7" single (In The Red Recordings)
1994 - Baby Go / Hell Blues 7" single (Honeyman Records)
1995 - Hey O.J. 7" single (In The Red Recordings)
1995 - Lion's Share / Jesus Book 7" single (In The Red Recordings)
1995 - (She Said I Had A) Problem / Change Had To Come 7" single (Bag Of Hammers)
1995 - Haunted Hill! (Archive Series - Volume 2) album (In The Red Recordings)
1996 - Interzone 7" single (Seldom Scene Records)
1997 - Moody/Microscope Feeling 7" single (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
1997 - Deaf Mix Vol. 3 album (In The Red Recordings)
1998 - Long Way Blues/1996-1998 album (Matador)
1998 - When My Blue Moon Turns Red Again album (In The Red Recordings)
2000 - The Secret Strength Of Depression (Live At KSPC, Claremont) album (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
2003 - Out In The Treetops 2x7" ep (Dead Canary Records)
2004 - Broken Chamber Music compilation album (Secret Keeper Records)
2005 - Bassholes (Dead Canary Records)
2006 - Jack At Night 7" single (Solid Sex Love Doll Records)
2009 - Archive Series - Vol. 7 ...And Without A Name album (Columbus Discount Records)
2010 - I Feel Like Sleeping 12" EP (Columbus Discount Records)
2013 - Boogieman Stew album (Columbus Discount Records)
2015 - In The Dumps album (Not On Label)