The Lantern: Salt Horse on mission to save rock

Thank goodness The Lantern keeps all their old articles online and available. If a band put out a record over the last few decades, there is a good chance they've covered it, like the 2001 release of Salt Horse's The Best Of Times? Here is a snippet of that:

The best of times are definitely ahead for local Columbus band Salt Horse. The band combines hard-driving rock with an intense amount of energy in their sophomore CD, “The Best of Times?,” which they will release tomorrow evening at Little Brother’s, 1100 N. High St. 

Also appearing will be Grafton, Pretty Mighty Mighty and The Marcy Mays Experience who will join them in their mission of breaking new ground to help save rock. 

“We are the forging sounds of the future – more flavorful than just rock that’s unique in itself,” said Costa Hondroulis, singer and bass guitarist in Salt Horse. 

With a fed-up punk mentality and a raucously hard sound, “The Best of Times?” combines experience, enthusiasm and true rock ‘n’ roll flavor. In “Campus Riot Fight Song,” the band wanted to create a harsh sound like Hondroulis’ former band, Our Flesh Party. 

“We wanted to create a shocking sound like Our Flesh Party because they rocked harder than anybody,” said Milan Karcic, lead vocals and guitar.

Short North Gazette: Michael "Micky" Bletz

Back in 20008 the Short North Gazette covered the death of "hard rockin’ rock and roller Michael “Micky” Bletz" of The Burners. Here is part of that:

He was one of those guys who was the most memorable characters in your life,” Barnes said. “He was one of the most generous people you’re ever going to meet, one of the most loyal people you’re ever going to meet. I feel like in my life I’ve had a few relationships like that, and Michael was one of them.” 

Between his Jackie Cupid and Baffoos days, Bletz played for other bands, including The Gangsters and The Burners, local stars in the mid-1980s. 

“He was a great rock and roll performer,” remembers Dan Dougan, former owner of Stache’s (later Little Brother’s), where The Burners played. “He was a real slick dresser, too. Really natty. He really knew how to style.” 

The Burners gave a Fourth of July performance in 1986 in the Park of Roses that turned a community get-together into an event to remember. 

“Way back in the day, that band rocked,” said Bryan Wolfe, an acquaintance of Bletz’s. “When they backed Bo Diddley at what I thought would be a neighborhood picnic, there was a show going on there that was way out of proportion from what you’d expect at a holiday picnic. The music was coming hard and fast. It was a great show.”
Passion was Bletz’s musical trademark. 

“He was able to feel a song, not just play the song, but feel the meaning of the song and understand what the song was trying to say and stir in a person,” Scranton said. “And he could put his signature on that. He could make a song that you’ve heard all your life and make it sound familiar, but make it sound different.”

New Additions: Poison Berries by Orchestraville

Way back a few decades ago, the band I was in played one of it's very early shows with Orchestraville at Little Brother's here in Columbus. At the time I didn't quite get it, as my musically vocabulary simply wasn't that expansive. A band that could incorporate the pop melodies of The Beatles and The Kinks with the more esoteric sounds of Robyn Hitchcock or Richard Thompson was not something I could grasp all that well. I finally got around to digging into the actual catalog, and stating with the latest release and working backward, I picked up Poison Berries recently on crate digging trip to various stores, not able to wrap my ahead around the band what they are capable of pulling off with expertise - pop music for people who don't like their pop on a platter, but parceled out in tasty, albeit layered, bits and pieces.

New Additions: Hyde by Howlin' Maggie

Here's the weird thing about this album - the band I was in at the time played with Howlin' Maggie at Little Brother's in Columbus for this album release, I didn't pick up a copy of the album at that time. Maybe it was because I was seeing the band constantly around this time, and that I was a poor musician, but when I finally got the album, I recognized almost all the songs. It helps that Harold "Happy" Chichester is an amazing songwriter and can write a great hook, lodging these tunes in my brain for almost twenty years.

Video: Log Live at Little Brothers circa 2004

Log live 2004 "On My Way Back Home" from Old 3C Label Group on Vimeo.

Video: Scrawl live at Little Brother's

Video: Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments perform 'Down to High Street' at Little Brother's in 2000

The Lantern: Stache’s to play its last tune

In 1997, legendary bar Stache's was shuttered and Dan Dougan would spend the next ten years operating Little Brother's in the Short North. Here's a piece the The Lantern did on the closing:

The current and final owner of Stache’s, Dan Dougan, paces behind the bar answering a slew of phone calls about an upcoming show. Behind him hang pictures, clippings, letters and notes. The memories fill the wall, camouflaging the row of liquor bottles. Considering the bar’s history, which dates back to around 1970, there are many memories that Dougan will be able to hold onto once the bar closes its door for good on March 31, 1997. The bar was first called Stache’s and Little Brother’s after the two owners. One of the owners, Stache, had a mustache, while the other, Little Brother, was shorter than his mustachioed partner, Dougan said. Dougan began frequenting the 200 capacity bar in the early 1980s. By this time Stache’s was owned by Shelly and Mike Young, Dougan said. In 1988 Dougan made the leap from patron to owner.

Columbus Alive 2017: Little Brother’s, big shoes

In 2017, ten years after the closing of Little Brother's, the Columbus Alive looked back with an oral history of the venue, talking with Dan Dougan and a variety of other Columbus music folks.

Ten years after the last notes rang out at Little Brother’s, Dougan’s rock clubs are still revered as much as they are missed in the city’s music scene. For years, local rockers and concertgoers have been on the search for “the new Little Brother’s,” a mantle most recently bestowed on Ace of Cups, whose owner, Marcy Mays, is intimately familiar with Stache’s and Little Brother’s from her time in Scrawl.

Columbus Alive: Creating Columbus 1993-2011

In 2012, the Columbus Alive put together an interesting retrospective - 200 Arts and Cultural Moments that Shaped the City’s History. Here are some notable moments:

1996
Critics hail Howlin’ Maggie’s Columbia debut
Former Royal Crescent Mob bassist Harold “Happy” Chichester forms a new band with bassist Jim Rico, guitarist Andy Harrison and drummer Jerome Dillon. “Honeysuckle Strange” - the band’s first and only release on Columbia Records - is a success. 

2002
South Campus bars demolished
Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment spent several years buying land and businesses along North High Street between Chittenden and East Ninth avenues. The group finally bulldozes everything, leveling some of the city’s grungiest and most memorable watering holes to make room for the South Campus Gateway. 

2004
Columbus Discount Records releases first single
The indie imprint unleashes “Sexy World” by Terribly Empty Pockets. It soon influences, records and/or distributes music by a treasure trove of local indie bands - Times New Viking, Necropolis, El Jesus de Magico, Guinea Worms and Cheater Slicks, among others. 

2007
Little Brother’s closes
When venerable rock club Stache’s and Little Brother’s vacated its original spot in 1997, it relocated to 1100 N. High St. under the name Little Brother’s. The esteemed club draws intriguing rock, folk, roots, reggae and country bands until its unfortunate demise.