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.

Good Time To Support A Local Record Store

With so many local artists unable to play shows, it's a good time to call your record store and place an order to pick up a release or two from one of the many Columbus bands and musicians hurting during this, as well as supporting a local business. Here's some places to a check out:

Lost Weekend Records

Elizabeth's Records

Used Kids Records

Magnolia Thunderpussy Records

Records Per Minute

Ohio Magazine: Great Ohio Record Stores

In 2017 Ohio Magazine highlighted a number of record stores around the state, including Used Kids in Columbus. Here is a snippet of that:

“Used Kids was created as a very organic enterprise,” says Bela Koe-Krompecher, who worked at the store from 1990 to 2007 and was co-owner for 14 of those years. “Both Ron and Dan were well educated, but wanted to live a life that existed around music. There was really no intention to make money beyond paying bills and being submerged in music.” 

In the pre-Internet days, record stores often served as a gathering place for musicians and other like-minded people. Used Kids Records became a sort of clubhouse for the Columbus music community, the walls and ceilings plastered with album covers, stickers, concert fliers and photos. 

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.

Columbus Monthly: Exile on High Street

In 2016 former Johnny Go's House of Music owner John Petric reflected on his history selling records on High Street, Campus Partners and more at Columbus Monthly. A snippet of that:

Campus was record-store nirvana back in those days. In addition to Mole’s, you had Singin’ Dog, Capitol City, Discount Records and Magnolia Thunderpussy, as well as Used Kids and its sister operation, School Kids, which focused on new product. The competition was fierce, and Mole’s, the first used-record store in Columbus, struggled to keep up. In 1988, I dug into my savings to buy what was left of Mole’s from the IRS for the ungodly sum of $2,500, as well as paying Ken Stone’s $3,600 in unpaid rent. I now had my own business right in the heart of campus, taking over the old Mole’s space on the second floor of the Wellington Building at 16th and High. I christened my store Johnny Go’s House O’ Music, naming it after my band, Johnny Go and the Awesome Dudes.

Aquabear Legion visits Used Kids

Aquabear Legion, via Ghettoblaster Magazine, talked with Dan Down back in 2012 about the history of Used Kids. Here's some of that article:

“I started up Used Kids in 1986,” remembers sole remaining owner Dan Dow. “Ron and I both worked for another record store called Mole’s… I could actually briefly explain why it’s called Used Kids.” True to his word, Dan goes into a short explanation of Mole’s relationship with a record store down the block specializing in new releases, School Kids, where customers could take credit from for trading in old records at their shop. “Anyway, School Kids moved into an upstairs level spot and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you guys move downstairs for Moles and then people will get this concept better?’ Fortunately for me, the guy who owned Moles didn’t want to, but I did and Ron was working there too, so we both went down and literally overnight set it up and started.”

Columbus Underground: 30 Years and Still Kicking - The Ongoing Plight of Used Kids Records

Back in 2014, Greg Hall took over legendary Used Kids Records, and 2016 Columbus Underground covered the 30th anniversary of the store, which had just relocated:

“I’d like to think even though we’re thirty years old, we’re not over the hill. Fifty is the new over the hill, right?” asks Greg Hall, who has been the owner of local vinyl shop Used Kids Records since he took it over in 2014. 

Hall’s involvement with the store actually started in 1979 at School Kids Records. Used Kids Records was introduced in 1986 as the used records supplement to School Kids. 

Over the next 30 years, there would be plenty of changes for the store, willingly and forcibly. Various trials have threatened to close the store multiple times, but those changes are precisely what Hall attributed its success to. 

“The big thing about the music business is, things change, and you’ve got to be ready and willing to change,” Hall said. “That’s the only way that you’ll survive. Any business person will tell you that.”

New Additions: The Official Post Industrial Noise Anothology

One of the hard parts of researching music from thirty to forty years ago is simply the lack of access to the music. Most of what was released on cassette is impossible to find, and the vinyl, while a bit more plentiful, can be hard to track down as well. If there are no streaming options, well, that makes shelling out a few bucks necessary to hear it. Sometimes you get lucky, as is the case with Post Industrial Noise. A fairly obscure band from the early 1980s, they only managed two releases in 1983 before separating. However, thanks to the Medical Records label, a reissue is available both digitally and on vinyl, which I was able to scoop up at Used Kids recently. It's minimal early/mid-80s electronic music with some gloomy elements, and very unique to the Columbus scene during that time period.

 

New Additions: Straight To Video by Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments

While music formats have changed consistently, the 1990s were dominated by the compact disc. For some, this was a step backwards in sound quality. However, with the resurgence of vinyl in the past decade, many albums released exclusively on CD have been getting re-releases on vinyl. That includes Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartment's sophomore release Straight To Video, originally released by Anyway Records in 1997 after their brief stint on a major label. In 2015, the band reissued the album on vinyl via Straight To Video Records, which I picked up recently from Used Kids. To my ears, TJSA is band better heard on vinyl, their raw energy and sharp edges properly captured and reproduced by analog.

New Additions: Screaming Urge (1981) by Screaming Urge

The latest addition to my Columbus music archive is another not available to stream - the second and final self-titled album by Screaming Urge in 1981 on Rawdeal Records. Screaming Urge have been called by some the first Columbus punk rock band. I don't know if that's true, perhaps they are just the only record an album at that time. That said, I found this very nice copy on a recent trip to Used Kids Records here in Columbus, and was in a bit of shock when I saw it there. Based on the age of the release, I figured it would take awhile to track one down, yet now it's spinning on my turntable I couldn't be happier.