Well what do you know. Another week….another piece on a band from Ohio. There really must be something in the water up there. If I feature many more Ohio bands on here I think I’m gonna have to give Ohio it’s own category in wordpress.

Hailing from Columbus, The Wells are Robert Loss (vocals), Andy Gard (bass, vocals), Billy Heingartner (drums, vocals), Nick Mancini (guitar) and Lori Parsley (vocals). Formed as a trio in 2003, they produced the EP New Valley Death Blues in 2004, which was described by their local paper as “rustic Appalachian folk music and drawling country twang with a churning rock sensibility underneath.” In December of 2004 the trio began the recording sessions that would make up their sophomore effort, The Outcasts Will Make a Strong Nation.With Outcasts they seem to have turned down the Appalachian that was in the debut and turned up the rock. Now it would be best to revise their sound description to a loose rock and roll outfit with churning rock sensibility and a drawling country twang just under the surface stealing moments in the forefront when it can. Sheesh, that’s a mouthful. The songs on Outcasts are very well crafted both from a musical and lyrical standpoint. The principle songwriter in the band has an MFA in creative writing and puts it to excellent use in the 11 five minute segments that make up Outcasts and the soundtrack for these stories is equally well-crafted.

What really makes this album stand out is the characters in the songs. As it is noted in their one sheet; “they are shysters, little Huck Finns, farm maidens, murderers, sons and fathers, the dearly departed, drug dealers, spiritually confused, morally troubled, runners, stayers, lovers and thieves. Most of all, they are survivors.” See for yourself, all of the lyrics are published on the bands web site (always a god sign, IMO). Check out the samples here and pick the cd up for yourself. Personally, I am about to place an order for their debut cd.

The Wells - Knockdown Dragout
The Wells - I had a Dream, Jess
The Wells - Hard Way To Go

The Wells web site, Buy The Outcasts Will Make a Strong Nation from Miles of Music

The other night Robert Loss was kind enough to answer some questions for this piece. Personally I think this is the best interview I’ve put on the site to date, I hope you take the time to read it. It really proves that it is as mostly interviewee than interviewer that makes for a good piece:

9b.net: What is the meaning of the title of The Outcasts?

Robert: It’s from the Old Testament, Book of Micah. I’m not particularly wed to one religion, but I was sent to Sunday school, read the Bible. I remember first hearing that phrase at a non-denominational service for AIDS awareness week when I was about 20 and it stuck with me. The phrase can be interpreted various ways; I’m looking at it from the most humanistic point of view, I think: there’s always hope, and a dignity in surviving and persisting, and you find solace among the other outcasts. (At least that’s how it was for me in high school….) Once we were putting together the record, it seemed like all the characters in the songs were, in one way or another, outcasts…from their families, lovers, communities, or themselves. That’s when I wrote “I Had a Dream, Jesse,” which is probably closest to being a title track. I was trying to write a song to the title of the record, which we hadn’t even agreed on yet as a band, and it came out differently.

9b.net: I saw you had mentioned in a myspace blog entry that you have begun writing songs for the next cd. How is that progressing?

Robert: I’m always writing songs and we’re always working on them. By the time the record came out, we had maybe 7-8 other songs we were doing. Since then we’ve been focusing on learning more. We’re planning to record two of them for a summertime single – two that are a little different and probably won’t fit on the next record. We don’t have a strong idea of what the next record will be like, but we’re starting to make sense of all the chatter and static. Imagine a radio you can’t quite tune in, but the signal’s getting stronger. We’re going to keep taking chances. You can’t keep doing the same thing, even if not many people know what you’re doing.

9b.net: Your songs do a wonderful job of storytelling. Where does the inspiration for the characters such as Vera Lynn come from?

Robert: Very kind of you, thanks. I’m still trying to figure out where Vera Lynn came from, especially since I’d never heard of the torch singer of the same name. But I must have, maybe when I was a kid, my grandmother played her or something. All of this debris floats around in my head – maybe it’s the same for everyone – and sometimes it all floats together, like the junk that collects on the edge of a pier. I gravitate toward stories, always have tried to understand the world from a narrative point of view. A song like “Knockdown Dragout” is really about the gaps in the story, where someone knows, but they’re not telling. That interests me. The storytelling’s connected to the folk influence, too. And it’s just what other people say, too, a mix of other tunes, especially older ones, what you overhear, the news, all that. “I Shot Tom Joad” obviously connects to a novel, two songs, and some of our current political leaders; “Red Shirt Era” sort of came from Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. And sometimes I have just a fragment of a lyric – the first two lines of “Knockdown Dragout” are a good example – and I have to figure out who’s talking and why.

9b.net: Any thoughts of ever bringing your show to the sunshine state?

Robert: Seeing as how it’s snowing here in Ohio as I write this, hell yes. We’re trying to get more out of town shows lined up. It’s tough. Any band who does it knows how hard it is. I did it very briefly as a solo act, sometimes with a friend of all of ours, Eric Nassau; that man tours a few months of the year on his own right now. You need courage, stamina, and low monetary expectations. Of the five of us in the band, two are freelancers, one works full-time 9 to 5, and two are involved in universities. So it’s a time thing, too. But to take your songs across the country…it’s the American Dream, isn’t it? So yeah, we want to come to Florida. We’ll happily play debutante balls, retirement homes, Epcot.

9b.net: Top 5 albums currently rocking your iPod/CD player?

Robert: In no particular order:

Abbatoir Blues Tour – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (It’s the double disc that comes with the new live DVD. The studio records are great; I think they’re what he’s been after these past couple years, that lean, almost elegant but still dirty sound.)

Jubilation! Great Gospel Performances, vol. 1

Secret South – Sixteen Horsepower (One that slipped past me earlier on. That man has an ungodly voice.)

Boys & Girls in America – The Hold Steady

And “Show Me What You Got” by Jay-Z, Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hours, Modern Times. Tom Waits’ Orphans (saw him live in Akron – it was stunning). Hobo’s Cookbook by Appalachian Death Ride, a great band from Athens, OH area.

9b.net: A lot of places describe The Wells as alt.country. How do you feel about wearing the alt.country label? Any fear of it pigeon holing you guys?

Robert: Like any label, it’s got limitations and benefits. It gets you in the ballpark, and most people who would be at all interested in alt.country already are looking for some different use of the country/folk thing. Anymore I don’t even know what the term means. The most recent Neko Case record reminds me of Joni Mitchell, except her voice. But that’s supposed to be alt.country? With the best bands, you can hear the label, but the songs transcend it. We just plow forward, you know, hands at ten and two, and try to do something different. But I laugh when I hear claims like “Alt.country or Americana or whatever is dead”. Bullshit. The people who say that aren’t listening, or they have too narrow an idea of what those words mean. That underbelly of folk and country and blues and the marriage of those to electricity, and other forms of music – none of that is going away. Maybe that neatly packaged idea is dead, but it was never really that simple to begin with.

backstory: the guy who was lined up to interview Slayer for Reax Magazine isn’t exactly the biggest Slayer fan on earth. So I was asked if I could maybe come up with a few questions for the band. I did and they actually got asked. So, while I did not actually perform this interview they are my questions. The interview is in the current issue of Reax so if you live in the Bay area go grab a copy.

You can read the original here.

Slayer
Interview with Kerry King
Words: Michael Spadoni and Bryan Childs <—–THAT’S ME
Photo: Josh Rothstein

Appearing:
February 23, 2007
House of Blues – Orlando

Thrash Metal gods, Slayer are visiting the House of Blues in Orlando for a highly anticipated show with Unearth on February 23. Their latest offering, Christ Illusion, marks a milestone in their career by showcasing the talents of recently reunited Dave Lombardo on drums with the rest his historic band mates. Having entered the Billboard 200 charts at number five and a surprising Grammy nomination, they have once again proved that are masters of their craft. Reax was able to speak with Kerry King before a sold out audience in Oklahoma where he gave us some insight on where Slayer has been, where they are going, and his thoughts on Metallica.

REAX: Playing Oklahoma tonight – what has it been like touring for this album?
Kerry King: It’s cool; we’ve had four shows out of six sell out… so we can’t argue with that.

REAX: So, Slayer on Jimmy Kimmel… who would have thought? How was that experience?
KK: I haven’t seen it yet. I totally forgot to set my TiVo. We were going to play Jihad as the main song, but the day before they decided that about forty percent of the song wasn’t cool. So, we were like, “bleep us”. That would be the total “Slayer” way to do it. They said no and they would edit the parts out of the song so it just wouldn’t make any sense. I saw Jimmy for about five seconds, he shook my hand and left. I don’t know if he’s a dick or anything, but he had this chick on the show that night so maybe he was just spending time with her.

REAX: Slayer sold the place out in a couple of hours…
KK: It was the fastest ticket giveaway that they’ve ever had. We had no other show in Los Angeles so that’s the only way people could come see us. We played six songs compared to the eighteen songs we usually play at a show on this tour.

REAX: Are you pulling from any specific albums or are you playing songs from your whole career?
KK: Definitely the whole career…but there are some absentees at the moment. We aren’t playing anything from Hell Awaits, Divine Intervention, Diabolus in Musica, or Undisputed Attitude. Everything else is covered including four new tunes off of Christ Illusion.

REAX: A lot of people have praised “Christ Illusion” as the return of Slayer’s brutality. How much of that do you feel is true? And, how much would you credit Dave’s return to the band with that?
KK: I think God Hates Us All definitely went down that road. It was a very angry record. Dave plays with such reckless abandon that it translates to the music. Once Dave came back, everyone was asking if he was going to play on a record and we said it was up to him. When he decided he was into it we took it from there.

REAX: “Christ Illusion” earned a Grammy nomination…
KK: Yeah… [laughs] did you hear the chuckle in my voice? Who decided that? If they go by longevity, yeah, we’re going to win. If they’re going for somebody new, then it will probably be Mastodon or Lamb of God. It would be cool to have a Grammy sitting on my shelf just so I could say, “Look at what the fuck I won… how’d I do that?” It’s not really meaningful to me because its not the fans picking it, its generally people who have no idea what we sound like. It’s people in the industry picking the winners, but if you don’t like metal and you’re just going by who you’ve heard of… chances are it’s going to be us. I am nominated, so I can vote. When I got the hip-hop area, I knew Little John, so I’m like, “Yeah, pick him!”

REAX: You have had some well-publicized feuds with other bands over the years and were recently quoted referring to Metallica as “a sinking ship”. Has there been any blowback from those statements?
KK: I don’t think there is anything to say back to that. What are you going to say? I wasn’t lying. They could start taking pot-shots, but realistically there is nothing good about their last record. If you took the whole album and took riffs from there and there, you would probably have one good song. That’s not just talking smack, that’s how I really feel.

REAX: Do you think there is any hope for a band like Metallica to return to what they once were and do you think Rick Rubin can help them do that?
KK: Rick is a very hands-off producer so I don’t know if it’s a good marriage or not. When he passed up doing Christ Illusion and decided to do Metallica’s record… it better be the best fucking thing they’ve done since the Black Album. It would be bad for both of them.

REAX: While some bands seem to be becoming a caricature of their former selves, how is it that Slayer has managed to maintain your relevance in the metal scene over all of these years without ever compromising your integrity?
KK: I definitely keep my finger to the pulse of what’s going on. If there is a metal show coming through town, I’m always there. I go to the Anaheim House of Blues so much that people don’t even want my autograph anymore.

REAX: How do y’all feel about all of the old 80’s hair bands trying to make a comeback – like the Van Halen / David Lee Roth reunion?
KK: Generally… it’s just a moneymaker. They’re doing it because if you take one piece out of the puzzle, the puzzle isn’t cool any more. People realize that even though Van Halen was gigantic with Sammy Hagar. Maybe its giving fans something they’ve been dying for… realistically David Lee Roth was cool in the seventies, but now he’s just a fucking old man, a little bit fucking creepy too. Eddie is out of his fucking mind. I just got the last Guitar World where he is on the cover with the DVD and I couldn’t wait to see what he had to say because that guy is nuts.

REAX: In a recent article in Maximum Ink, they said Slayer has become more than a band that you have become a right of passage. Did you ever imagine that Slayer would become such cornerstone of metal?
KK: We just kind of roll with it and when you’re not rolling, you have to stick your head up and see what’s going on. I’ve heard from one of our fans, “I just went to church, I just saw Slayer and that was church.” I thought to myself, wow, that’s pretty cool. What I like to do… I don’t do in a preaching kind of way. I got fed up with all the fucking religious-heads around that I had to write songs about it. Usually I’ll throw out an idea where ten kids will hear a song and they will get ten different ideas about it. I like to raise questionable issues, throw them out there and let people know what I think. Kids are so impressionable that you have to be straight up. I want to let people know what I think, but don’t think the same way because I said so. Make up your own mind.

Slayer - Dead Skin Mask
Slayer - Fleshstorm

Two Cow Garage is labeled alt.country…they are described as country-punk and Two Cow is regularly compared to Uncle Tupelo. Two Cow would prefer you call them a rock and roll band. At the risk of sounding trite these guys are an american rock band in the classic sense…young, brash and loud traveling the country in a van and sleeping in it as circumstances require….as happy playing to 10 people as they are playing to 1000….okay, I probably got a little carried away there….nobody is as happy playing to 10 as they are playing to 1000…BUT…yes, but…they will play with the same energy and vigor no matter the size. DIY to the core, they are coming to us by way of Ohio with no tour support and no smug attitude to match. They are playing New World Brewery on Monday (10/30) and it is a show you should not miss. To quote Glorious Noise:

“You don’t get many second chances in life. Maybe you didn’t get to see the Who in 1965, or the Jam in 1977, or the Replacements in 1985, or Nirvana in 1990. No, you missed all the greats on their way up and now what can you do? Don’t let it happen again.”

So, Monday Night, New World Brewery….playing with local favs The Human Condition and Tennessee rockers Glossary, Two cow Garage will bring the rock show…with or without you…please let it be with you.

Support touring musicians Tampa. And we’ll see you Monday night. It’s a $6.00 cover….

Recently Shane from Two Cow was kind enough to agree to an interview with ninebullets.net….I apologize in advance for my poor interviewing skills but I hope this will help y’all get to know the band a little bit:

Two Cow Garage Interview

9b.net: First things first for the uninitiated: Who is Two Cow Garage and how long have you guys been a band?

TCG: We are Micah Schnabel, Dustin Harigle, and Shane Sweeney. But just Shane right now. We actually just passed the five year mark back in sept.

9b.net: A lot of places describe Two Cow as alt.country. Would you rather folks look at you as a straight forward rock and roll band or do you not mind wearing the alt.country label. any fear of it pigeon holing you guys?

TCG: We are a straight forward rock band. The alt country thing seems kinda silly to me. Its like, well, are you and emo band or a screamo band or whatever. And then people feel the need to stand by that, like hardcore bands hating pop punk bands when all it really is is marketing to people. Genres are created and then sub-genres, and the sub genres of sub genres and its all meant to compartmentalize music into something pre packaged and easy to sell. You wouldn’t call Springsteen Alt country but look at The ghost of Tom Joad or Nebraska or Devils and Dust. They’re pretty country sounding records.

9b.net: This is where the professional interviewer asks you who your influences are but I am just gonna say thank you for not fearing the guitar solo! It was an endangered species for a while there. so, who are your influences?

TCG: I can honestly say we’ve never intentionally written a part of a song specifically for a guitar solo. Most of the time we’re a three piece so guitar solos fill the void where some bands would have other instrumentation, but its really about whats appropriate for the song more than wanting to shred or something. There is no good way of talking about influences without sounding overly pretentious. I don’t think you can really say “hey they are influenced by this band…” without making people think that we’re trying to be that band. Though people will do that. Plus every record or song for that matter is influenced by different things. What you’re listening to at that moment, what book you just read, how the last six months have been going. That’s a really round about way of not answering your question. Sorry.

9b.net: What got y’all down to Tampa? The show just sorta sticks out there with nothing around it per your calendar. I mean, I am digging it but it is hard to get people down this far.

TCG: We’re really kind of laying low until our next record comes out but we were offered a slot at The Fest in Gainesville and it seemed like a good opportunity so we were going to be in the area. Actually its hard to get us down that far, we haven’t played in Florida in like two years and we’re typically always on the road.

9b.net: How is the new cd progressing? Does it contain any drastic departures in sound from your first 2 cds?

TCG: The new record is done and will be coming out in February. Its different but, I think it’s a natural progression. There are still flat out rock songs, but there’s some other stuff too.

9b.net: Where did the idea for your documentary “The Long Way Around” come from?

TCG: We had met the director John Boston several times at our shows in Chicago and we all became close friends. When he pitched it to us we were all really down with the idea.

9b.net: Has it helped get your name out there very much?

TCG: Its always nice to have something else to hang your hat on. That being said John had free reign to make the film he wanted to make, we had nothing in it except being the subjects, so it could possibly have hurt us. We don’t have a lot of drama but, he could have cut things out of context and made us look extremely bad. I need to thank him for not doing that now that I think about it.

9b.net: In between tours how do y’all make ends meet?

TCG: We don’t really that’s why we’re always on the road. Its hard to get someone to hire you when you can only be there for a week at a time and then you’re gone for a month and a half. But we don’t have any permanent residence either so bottom line is lower.

9b.net: The song “Burn in Hell” seems like quite the fuck you track. Was it written to someone in particular? While we are on that topic…was there an actual drunken saturday night behind “Saturday Night”?

TCG: We played a show in Lansing Michigan at this bar called Macs and Micahs amp caught on fire. It just went up and it was pretty scary. So I guess that song is more about living doing this or dying trying. And that amp. Micah could answer this more succinctly. I didn’t write the words. Saturday Night is about many, many drunken Saturdays. And repeating mistakes. Every word of it was true and unfortunately still is.

9b.net: What are y’all listening to heavily these days?

TCG: There are things that are constants that we listen to. Mostly friends like I Can Lick Any Son Of A Bitch In The House, Centro-matic, and Grand Champeen. Micahs been pretty heavy into a Cursive record lately though I don’t know the name of it. I’ve been listening to Born to Run a lot. I’m not sure about Dustin, though Ophelia by the band is his ringtone so maybe that counts.

I hope that helps you get ti know the band a little….I also hope to see you at New World on Monday evening. Look for me, I’ll be the drunk guy.

Here are some Two Cow tunes for you folks:

Two Cow Garage - Burn in Hell
Two Cow Garage - Alphabet City
Two Cow Garage - Saturday Night

Also, here is a 10 minute trailer for the Two Cow Garage Documentary mentioned in the interview: