Chain D.L.K. Review of Near Paris Reissue

Back in June of 2013, electronic music review and news site Chain D.L.K. checked out the Near Paris reissue on Medical Records. Here some of that review:

Thanks the Crispy Nuggets/Medical Records collaboration, we have the possibility to check that EP plus seven unreleased tracks the band recorded at the same time. "Visions","Shattered Glass", "Ceiling" and "Believe Me" were the tracks originally on the 12" and they were a mix of upbeat new wave with synthpop inserts where the guitar arpeggios, Dana melodic voice and synth catchy lines were the main elements. Also the unreleased tracks follow a similar path and it's a fortune that songs like the sensual "Why Baby", the minimal synth melodic "Nine-7-9" and "Like A Man" (lovers of Kas Product don't have to miss these tunes) and the mysterious "Hey You" won't stay in a dusty closet no more.

New Additions: Near Paris Vinyl Reissue

It's few and far between that an obscure Columbus band from the 1970s or 80s has their music reissued on physical media, but Dana Riashi and Gerald F. Nelson of both Post Industrial Noise and Near Paris have had the lone releases for both projects reissued by Medical Records LLC. Luckily, I've been able to pick both of them up, and they are both exceptionally interesting example of early to mid-80s minimalist synth pop.

Know Yer Band: Near Paris

Band: Near Paris

Members
Dana Riashi - Synthesizer, Vocals
Gerald F. Nelson - Synthesizer, Drum Programming

Releases
1985 - Near Paris 12" EP (Imperial Records)
2013 - Near Paris re-release w/bonus tracks (Medical Records LLC)

Video: Scrawl live at Little Brother's

At Length Mag: Scrawl–Punk Rock for Grown-Ups: A Retrospective

At Length Mag has an in-depth retrospective on Scrawl from 2016 worth checking out. Here's a bit:

We think of Ohio as a Rust Belt state, and most of its great rock acts have a Rust Belt feel—Pere Ubu’s industrial Cleveland, Devo‘s deadpan robot town of Akron, Guided by Voices‘ Dayton. But Ohio borders Kentucky and West Virginia: if you ever do contract work for the state of Ohio you may be asked to fill out an affirmative-action form that says whether you are “Appalachian.” Mays, born in West Virginia, told an interviewer that she heard “a lot of bluegrass on the radio where I grew up,” and you can hear its twang in her voice, on “Sad,” and in Harshe’s voice on “1≠1,” from He’s Drunk (1988): “Can’t get one to equal one, I never seem to get what I want,” that song goes, as if even the laws of arithmetic conspired against her.

New Additions: Bloodsucker EP by Scrawl

While the vast majority of bands I've come across researching for the book have been new to me, Scrawl is one that I was somewhat familiar with prior to starting. Thanks to working in college radio in the 90s, the albums released on Elektra (Travel On, Rider and Nature Film) both made there way to our station and playlists. I was totally unfamiliar with the early years, and thankfully I'm getting caught up. Luckily, I've been able to stream online and slowly piece together the back catalog of the band, and it's been a lot fun rediscovering (and discovering for the first time) so much great music, including the Bloodsucker EP released in 1991, which I was able to snag at Records Per Minute a few weeks ago. It's even signed by the band!

Know Yer Band: Scrawl

Band: Scrawl

Members
Vocals/Guitar - Marcy Mays
Bass/Vocals - Sue Harsche
Drums - Carolyn O'Leary, Dana Marshall, Jovan Karcic

Releases
1987 - Plus, Also, Too album (No Other Records)
1988 - He's Drunk album (Rough Trade)
1990 - Smallmouth album (Rough Trade)
1991 - Bloodsucker EP (Simple Machines)
1992 - Misery / Just Plain Bad 7" single (Singles Only Label)
1993 - Your Mother Wants To Know 7" single (Simple Machines)
1993 - Velvet Hammer album (Simple Machines)
1994 - Split single w/Versus 7" (Simple Machines)
1994 - Split single w/Stereolab 7" (Radiopaque Recordings)
1995 - Good Under Pressure 7" single (Simple Machines)
1996 - Travel On, Rider album (Elektra)
1996 - Travel On, Scrawl EP (Elektra)
1998 - Nature Film album (Elektra)

Website: Columbus Watering Holes

Little bit off regular posting schedule, I recently found this website: Columbus Watering Holes. It's an ode to bars gone by and current places to bend an elbow. In the "defunct" section, you can get shirts featuring Bernie's, Mean Mr. Mustard's, Larry's and more.

Video: The Beetkeepers play SInce He's Been Gone @ Rumba Cafe in 2010

Columbus Alive - Local music: The Beetkeepers

Back in 2010, the Beetkeepers lone album was reissued by Old 3C and the band got together to play a show, per this Columbus Alive article:

In the winter of 1988, J.P. Olsen, Steve Perakis and John Messersmith gathered in what Olsen calls “a crappy, cold apartment off North High” and became The Beetkeepers, concocting a thoughtful, jangly brand of college rock reminiscent of what R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven were doing in those days. 

The band practiced almost daily for a couple of months. Then they started playing shows and quit practicing altogether. After releasing an album the following spring, The Beetkeepers called it quits a few months later when Olsen moved to New York for a reporting job 

Time-wise, the band was little more than a blip in Columbus music history, but they made a deep impression on Ohio music archivist Paul Nini -- enough that he reissued their self-titled album this year on his Old 3C label. And just in time for a new generation to discover the recordings, The Beetkeepers will take the stage for the first time in two decades Saturday at Rumba.

New Additions: Beetkeepers s/t Album

Some bands have multiple releases and tracking them down can be quite the quest, especially when self-released or released on long out of business local labels. Luckily, though the Beetkeepers only released one self-titled album in 1987 on Curt Schieber's No Other Records, a few copies have been floating around Columbus record stores, and I was able to grab a pristine copy recently at Elizabeth Records on Indianola. Based on a few descriptions, I was expecting a take on alternative country, but this less alternative and more straightforward, with a strong 70s singer/songwriter vibe.

Know Yer Band: Beetkeepers

Band: Beetkeepers

Members
Vocals/Guitar - James Olsen
Bass/Vocals - Stephen Perakis
Drums/Marimba/Vocals - John Messersmith

Releases
1988 - Beetkeepers s/t album (No Other Records)

Shit-Fi.com - Back to Ohio Blues Reissue Review

At Shit-Fi.com, there is nice in-depth review of the Back to Ohio Blues album by Raven, here is a sample of that:

This record, from 1975, could be considered a progenitor to the unique admixture of forward-looking sound and retrograde, gutter lyrical subject-matter associated with rocknroll from Ohio. Raven doesn’t approach the cerebral proto-punk of a band like Pere Ubu in any way; rather, the darkness, nihilism, and desperation of Electric Eels or even H-100s, as well as the fuck-you-I’m-gonna-do-it-my-way independence of Vertical Slit or Mike Rep, are apparent here. (Mike Rep wrote the liner notes to this reissue; although they’re enthusiastic, writing basement guitar riffs is clearly his forte.) The context of Mike Rep’s “Rocket to Nowhere” and “Mama Was a Schitzo,” both cream-of-the-crop skeletal early punk songs recorded circa 1975, comes into focus listening to Raven. This record doesn’t diminish the shit-fi achievement of Raven’s Columbus compatriot, but rather, when listening to them side-by-side, affinities emerge that make punk rock’s musical rupture less stark than we often consider it to be. Ohio from 1975 to 1978, when “Rocket To Nowhere” was released, was a long way from Kings Road or even The Bowery, but knowing that the Velvets played in Ohio often and Iggy & co. began only three and a half hours away, I would like to think that Johnny Ramone or Johnny Rotten would have heard a sound in both Raven and Mike Rep and the Quotas that made sense to them and their respective interpretations of what would be named punk rock.

Video: Back to Ohio Blues by Raven

Cleveland Scene: Mad Jam Man - Raven brings his badass biker blues to the Beachland

After the reissue of Raven's lone album Back to Ohio Blues, he actually did the thing - came back to Ohio (from California) and played a show. In this case, it was in 2008 at Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom along with Times New Viking and Mike "Rep" Hummel, the man who helped resuscitate the album. Cleveland Scene wrote up a piece on it at the time:

"He made the music because it was inside of him and needed to be expressed," writes Rep in the liner notes. "Like a shark has to swim to breathe, Raven has to record his gut-wrenching creations - perhaps exorcising his demons onto wax, one could say." 

As so, many of Raven's messed-up eulogies to drugs, death and sleaze were derived straight from his outlaw biker escapades throughout the early '70s. "I was in Florida working for this guy [who] would fly his Learjet to Columbia and bring me the kilos to cut up with my musketry," recalls Raven in a phone interview. "I walked into his place, and there was nothing in the house but brown paper bags full of pot. There must have been one living room, one kitchen, three bedrooms full of dope."