Anyway

Smug Brothers

In The Book Of Bad Ideas

Anyway

Since forming in 2004, Ohio rock band Smug Brothers have enjoyed a relaxed, almost nonchalant, approach to writing and recording, with most albums being minor Big Bangs - instant and electric. New LP In the Book of Bad Ideas, on the other hand, was a struggle against entropy - the disorder caused by plagues and departing personnel. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton wrote the majority of the tunes in "bunker fashion" during the miserable pandemic summer of 2020, then slowly started recording them with bassist Kyle Sowash, lead guitarist Scott Tribble, and drummer/Smug Brothers co-pilot Don Thrasher in 2021. That November, his contributions partially completed, Tribble decamped the band due to a new job and new demands. The exit was amicable, yet left the group in a lead guitar lurch. Melton had little choice but to enter the ring and play solos on some songs. "That was both fun and frustrating," Melton admits. "Other than a handful of tracks over 15 years, I've not really done much lead playing with Smug Brothers. When Scott left, I was initially like 'Great. What now?' It took me a few weeks to psyche myself up to just go for it." Finally, belatedly, both In the Book of Bad Ideas and its sister EP Emerald Lemonade were finished in the spring of 2022. And against the odds, the two-year slog produced pleasantly surprising results. On In the Book of Bad Ideas, the band's typical, semi-60s sound - boasting biting leads and breakneck jangles...

Jenny Mae

What's Wrong With Me : Singles and Unreleased Tracks 1989-2017

Anyway

"Jenny Mae made only two full length records, both released just two years apart in the hey-day of 90’s indie-rock where small labels rose up like mushrooms in a tropical forest and like so much of the music from that time was easily overlooked and disappeared. Jenny’s music found a small, devoted audience and her music was covered not only by many fanzines but also by Rolling Stone, Spin, Interview, even Entertainment Weekly. She played shows and some tours with Guided by Voices, Magnetic Fields, Neko Case, Chris Knox and more but to see her live one never knew what one would see, perhaps on a good night, a deeply moving set sung in her sweet midwestern voice or maybe a woman who could barely stand, her keyboard falling off a bar table she set up on stage as she usually didn’t have a keyboard stand. "Jenny lived life how an engine swallows gasoline, hot and quickly except her gasoline was alcohol which she used to quiet her undiagnosed schizoaffective disorder and by the early 2000s she went from living in Coral Gables to living on the streets of Columbus, Ohio in a matter of weeks. She remained homeless for nearly three years in Columbus and Miami with various stints in jail or the many hospitals she would visit until her predictable death in 2017, which of course, was in a hospital surrounded by her family and friends. "Her music was sweet, catchy and at times bawdy—some songs as short...

Whiles

Mercury Ghost

Anyway

From 2012-2016 The Whiles huddled together when they could, between having babies, returning to graduate school, and living in different cities the recording process was slow and deliberate. Primary songwriter Joe Peppercorn has always had a singular focus to his music, taking things slow until he feels the sound is what he is exactly hearing in his head, in simple terms he is a perfectionist. This has helped The Whiles create some of the most distinctive music out of Columbus, Ohio with All Music comparing their debut (“Colors of The Year”, 4/5 stars) to Nick Drake while Insound likened their ornate sound to Colin Blunstone. In 2016 The Whiles released “Mercury Ghost” the four-years in the making follow-up to the well-received “Somber Honey.” The record was scheduled to be released on vinyl and CD on Anyway Records through Revolver USA. Then, suddenly on the eve of the release Joe put the records in his basement and the record sat dormant until now. After several years of coaxing by Anyway Records head, Bela Koe-Krompecher—Joe has decided to have the record see a formal release. Columbus, Ohio doesn’t have the Pacific Ocean to throw the entire tapes of an amazing album in, but we do have basements so Joe did what many a conflicted songwriter does, he chucked the records in the basement until now. The reward is worth the wait.

Moviola

Broken Rainbows

Anyway

On the fringe of the indie Rust Belt scene since the 1990s, Moviola has quietly forged a low-key career of high-quality recorded output over twenty-five years, issuing ten (!) records and countless 7-inch singles (including splits with Cobra Verde, Hiss Golden Messenger, Handsome Family and many others). In this artistic continuum, the band has evolved from everything from 4-track fuzz to hi-fi country soul. Today, the band steps forward with Broken Rainbows, its strongest collection of songs to date, written, recorded, and mixed inside the group’s HQ in Columbus. Jake Housh started Moviola in 1993 as a student at “The” Ohio State University as a noisy, fuzzed out lo-fi noisemakers. Over the years, the band has morphed into a unique DIY music and art-making collective with five distinct singers and songwriters, recalling the creatively democratic lineage of The Mekons, The Band, Pink Floyd, many others. Moviola is Jake Housh, Ted Hattemer (Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments), Scotty Tabachnick, Greg Bonnell, and Jerry Dannemiller. Broken Rainbows is a milestone release, showcasing a band newly energized and assured in its artistry, and supportive of its members’ songcraft. The eleven-song album hovers over a plot of ground that’s optimistic in its despair. Album topics range from the personal to the political, showcasing each member’s unique songwriting within an overall cohesive band aesthetic.  “Moviola was one of those groups I met early on back in the day that showed me how to do it. Broken Rainbows is a highlight—pastoral thumpers, fuzzy indie radness, hooks...

Kneeling In Piss

Tour De Force

Anyway

Alex Mussawir is a product of Columbus, Ohio which means he is both literate, humble, sardonic and completely Midwest in the same vein as Times New Viking, Ron House and James Thurber were. Alex has a long history of making music and writing. His first Columbus band, The Goners were formed while he was in high school (as was his first book of published poetry) was a band who sounded like they were ready to explode off a tightrope, but broke up after they released their first tape (ex-member Catherine Elicson would move to Philly and form Empath). Alex next formed the Future Nuns, a band that sounded like a great lost Flying Nun or early Homestead band and after they broke up Alex created Kneeling in Piss which takes the best from his previous bands and melds them into something stronger but still loose enough to remain elusive, as if they were slouching towards greatness. Musically touching on both Times New Viking, Ron House’s Great Plains as well as the best of home recordings, Kneeling in Piss perfectly captures the sound of living in a large city but feeling small and questioning the world at large. Originally released on cassette on Faq-U in 2019 it quickly went out of print. Remastered for vinyl while they continue to record (check out their bandcamp for new recordings). Limited run of 500 copies with lyric sheet included. -Bela Koe-Krompecher, Anyway Records resident social worker. “…jangly outbursts indebted to a spectrum of ‘80s...

Kyle Sowashes, The

Nobody (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition)

Anyway

The third album from Columbus, Ohio's The Kyle Sowashes (and their first for Anyway Records) has been granted a 10-year anniversary expanded edition.   "Nobody" was recorded in February 2010 by John Curley of The Afghan Whigs and features guest vocals by Wussy's Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker. These ten songs of indie rock nostalgia remain among the band's most celebrated work, and now we can add ten more years of nostalgia on top!  Originally released July 6, 2010, this expanded edition features unearthed 4-track demos and a live set from a show they played just a few months before this was recorded.   RIYL: Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement

Mosses

T.V. Sun

Anyway

If you've spent any time over the last decade or so rooting around the liner notes of records or in front of stages from DIY spaces to packed out theaters you may have noticed the name and/or the radiantly smiling frame of Ryan Jewell. Ryan plays drums with a technical acumen that one could easily describe as rare, but with an aesthetic approach that only seems appropriate to catalog as alchemical. A true session man, in the most cosmic sense, Jewell has played with everyone from psych legends to contemporary indie darlings to underground noiseniks and wandering troubadours. Ryan is one of those most exotic of rare birds – a multi-instrumentalist and composer who is not only accomplished in the art of vibrating strings or skins, tickling the proverbial ivories, or manipulating magnetic tape but who has a discernibly unique voice on each instrument. Generally such talents would allow an artist access to a myriad of directions through the aural garden of forking paths. But Jewell has taken a hatchet to that verdure and reoriented it into a musical biodome where rock, folk, jazz, psych, musique concrète and post-punk all resonate together at most pleasing frequency. Lucky for us he's decided to share the results. Mosses is at its core a duo - Mr. Jewell and Danette Bordenkircher. The two share an almost telepathic musical connection; a four armed musical Shiva with a deep knowledge of the last century of recorded sound. On “T.V. Sun”, their first physical lp (not...

Hello Emerson

How To Cook Everything

Anyway

Hello Emerson’s second record is an exercise in contrasts: the local and the global, the constrained and the expansive, the pessimistic and the hopeful.  Their literary alt-folk, singer-songwriter style has made them local darlings in their Columbus, Ohio home and critically-acclaimed in Europe. With comparisons to John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats), Andrew Bird, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), and Sufjan Stevens - their debut record was heralded as “a find for the genre” and “the sublime intersection of the best American indie-folk bands.”  Their sophomore effort, How to Cook Everything, solidifies their reputation as an earnest, humble, and insistent voice in independent midwestern music. With contributions from 50 local musicians, Hello Emerson crystallizes life in a big town/small city amidst personal and political tensions - confirming, denying, and otherwise complicating midwestern stereotypes within each narrative-focused song.

Kyle Sowashes, The

I Don't Know What To Tell You

Anyway

Kyle Sowash has been toiling in the fields of Everyman Indie Rock since a period the archeologists now describe as "the 90s". Singing songs about the highs and lows of the day-to-day, Mr. Sowash and his band of namesakes have put a melody to the mundane. Backed by a who's-who of stalwarts from the Columbus, OH indie scene, his newest album "I Don't Know What To Tell You", unapologetically rocks.   Sorry, the caps lock wasn't on. I said it ROCKS. With ringing power chords that would make Mitch Mitchell (from GBV, not the Experience) shit a brick* and a rhythm section that cracks like thunder off the Great Plains, The Kyle Sowashes have delivered another polyvinyl chloride testimony to the healing power of fist-pumping.   -Mike Postalakis

Brat Curse

S/t

Anyway

Brat Curse debuts their second full-length, and first for Anyway with the self-titled “Brat Curse.” Formed in 2014 in Dayton, Ohio by Brian Baker, Justin Baker and Chris Mengerink, Brat Curse takes their cue from a long line of Ohio guitar bands such as Gaunt, Guided by Voices, Connections and Swearing at Motorists. The band members stick to a well worn Ohio pattern of playing in a variety of bands, as Brian plays in Dana (Heel Turn Records) & Sega Genocide (Just Because), his brother Justin also plays in WV White (Anyway), Chris plays in Good Shade (Dirtnap) and they welcome new comer Joe Camerlengo (Van Dale, Counterfeit Madison, Blanket Boys). The sound of Brat Curse fondly recalls the snotty spark of Guant without the late great Jerry Wick’s assholish-ness, as well as Jawbreaker and other fondly remembered bands that like guitars. The band will tour extensively in the second half of 2019.

St. Lenox

Ten Fables of Young Ambition And Passionate Love

Anyway

Written at the cusp of his 40’s, Ten Fables Of Young Ambition And Passionate Love is St Lenox’s tribute to the tumultuous pursuits of love and professional success—a memory album in two parts capturing slices of young living from the author’s colorful past. Written, performed and recorded in off hours at night and on weekends, the author—now an attorney in midtown Manhattan—reworks two classic themes from the indie canon, with a mixture of melodic free verse, stream of consciousness, poetry and folk storytelling.“I burst into tears—big, ugly, inescapable, unbidden tears that felt like they had been stored up for ages. St. Lenox’s music has that effect … you play it and stumble into revelations, hit nerves that you may not have been ready to hit. That’s not to say it’s sad and dark and horrible. It’s just more or less like life itself, which is uncertain and plodding and often finds moments of humor emerging right alongside moments of sadness.”    —VICE / NOISEY “[Andrew] Choi’s voice is one of the most striking instruments in music today.”    —Stereogum “St. Lenox is so good and should be massively famous and revered.”    —John Darnielle

Remnant, Adam

Sourwood

Anyway

Adam Remnant came up over the last decade fronting the folk-rock band Southeast Engine. As the principal singer and songwriter of the band, Remnant and his bandmates garnered critical acclaim from publications such as Pitchfork, NPR, American Songwriter, Paste Magazine, Magnet, Stereogum, PopMatters, AV Club, and more. They established a substantial following over the years, releasing five albums and touring across the United States and Canada. As Southeast Engine wound down, Remnant began plotting his way forward as a solo artist. He assembled a little studio in his basement and earnestly began writing and recording the songs that comprise the 2016 EP, When I Was a Boy, as well as this new full-length, Sourwood. Remnant’s signature baritone voice and literary songwriting act as the focal point in the productions spanning between folk, rock, and indie sounds mined from a Midwest basement. These songs were birthed in that intersection of youth and adulthood where dreams and realities confront one another. They detail the desire to find potential opportunities beyond the horizon while feeling the gravity of home. The album drifts back and forth between those push and pull forces of home and travel, youth and adulthood, as one might drift between a waking and dream state. Somewhere between those states is a place called Sourwood.  “...a fresh burst of inspiration from a reinvigorated songwriter. It’s refreshing to once again hear his piercing vocals and modernized take on classic sounds.” —Stereogum

Counterfeit Madison

Opposable Thumbs

Anyway

Counterfeit Madison is the musical manifestation of Columbus, Ohio resident Sharon Udoh. She is a versatile artist; her funky yet classical piano-playing and gospel-tinged voice peppered with the occasional bursts of ecstasy make for an experience that is often described as surpassing genre in the warmest and most welcoming of ways.   Her magnetic performances and poignant song-writing leave you with goosebumps, tears, a soulful two-step, and everything in between. Intelligently unpretentious, emotionally explorative, and powerfully vulnerable, Counterfeit Madison is simply unforgettable.  “A follower sent me a link to this ridiculously talented songwriter. Try the third tune, “Don’t Cry Wolf,” first, then dig into the rest. Wow, wow. Expect to hear more from Counterfeit Madison, I’d guess.” -John Darnielle

Speaking Suns

Range

Anyway

Speaking Suns hail from Yellow Springs, Ohio a tiny burp of a burg that has proven to be an oasis of artistic and creative expression for over seventy years (past and current inhabitants include Rod Serling, Coretta Scott King, poet Arnold Adoff and David Chappelle). Speaking Suns released their debut record “Vanishing Country” in 2014, since that time the record has gone out of print due to persistent touring and gaining a large following throughout the Midwest and east coast. But enough about geography, it is the dare-I-say sophisticated approach to pop music that Speaking Suns bare their teeth, digging from a wide range of music that has come before them with disparate hints of Nilsson, Lambchop and most especially the Chicago sounds of Sea and Cake and the Denver based Elephant Six Collective. “Range” was recorded over a period of time spanning 2016-17, producing a smooth polished sound that is at once difficult to describe but is disarming in it’s easy going approach. While one may assume they would inhabit the “Ohio-sound” such as the nearby Guided by Voices (member David Byrne’s father played bass for both GBV and Swearing a Motorists), or the lo-fi aesthetics of the Columbus High Street scene but they choose to go in the opposite direction—choosing the polished sound akin to much of mid-nineties Thrill Jockey bands. Anyway is proud to be a part of the unveiling of the two-lp set of “Range”. Extensive touring throughout the fall of 2017 and winter of 2018.

St. Lenox

Ten Songs About Memory And Hope / Ten Hymns From My American Gothic

Anyway

Both of St. Lenox’s albums together on a two-CD set! Ten Songs About Memory And Hope, the Anyway Records album debut of New York’s St. Lenox and Andrew Choi’s singularly thrilling mix of pop-song craftsmanship, atmospheric electro kicks, rich singing, jazz freedom, and, yes, karaoke, is rendered with charisma to burn. Energetic tracks like “I Still Dream of the ’90s” colors the recent past with current longings for flying cars, while “Just Friends,” a fluidly melodic mid-tempo ballad, insists that pop-soul lives in 2013. Ten Hymns From My American Gothic is a sprawling, layered, stream-of-consciousness portrait of modern American life, presented by Choi as a gift to his father, who immigrated to the United States, in honor of his 70th birthday. Written, performed and recorded by the writer in off-hours while working as an attorney in Manhattan, the album meditates on progressive themes, immigration, cultural divide, forgiveness and manifest destiny.

WV White

House Of Spiritual Athletes

Anyway

WVWhite’s follow-up album to the acclaimed 2014 debut, West Virginia White, on Anyway records. Since forming in early 2012, WVWhite has played with bands such as Parquet Courts, Doug Gillard, Sic Alps, Teen Suicide, Archer Prewitt and a short tour with Sleepyhead. They played the 2014 Nelsonville Music Festival as well as the 2014 CMJ Music Marathon. The debut album made several Best of 2014 lists including Village Voice Pazz and Jop.“There’s the wildly psychedelic American shoegaze of The Swirlies and The Lilys, the slacker-pop quirk and drawl of Pavement and Built to Spill, even the space-age percolations of Stereolab. It’s where they converge, shatter, and form blissful swells of chaos that is the most intriguing and refreshing quality of WV White. They simultaneously sound like a band that rolled out of bed and onto stage, scratching the sleep from their eyes but deciding to wail, and a band that have been trained hours on end by bards of the recent past to preserve the indie rock touchstones of the ’90s.” - Kevin Elliot, Agit Reader

St. Lenox

Ten Hymns From My American Gothic

Anyway

Ten Hymns From My American Gothic is a sprawling, layered,stream-of-consciousness portrait of modern American life, presented by St. Lenox as a gift to his father, who immigrated to the United States, in honor of his 70th birthday. Written, performed and recorded by the writer in off hours, while working as an attorney in Manhattan, the album meditates on progressive themes, immigration, cultural divide, forgiveness and manifest destiny. “[St. Lenox’s] voice is one of the most striking instruments in music today, a harsh and commanding howl that reminds me of John Darnielle, Michael Stipe, and Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart but is something entirely its own. His subject matter is equally transfixing and unique, a mix of queer love songs, protest music, and savvy observations about the modern American experience.” —Stereogum

Mary Lynn

My Animal

Anyway

Singer­Songwriter Mary Lynn's debut on Anyway Records finds her stepping into the sheen of a full rock band to bring powerful songs on love, growing pains, and relationships. Based out of Columbus, OH, and armed with her piano, voice, and emotions ­ she has the superpower ability to spin a phrase with the catchiest hooks imaginable. Her former band of nearly a decade, This Is My Suitcase, released three records of noise­inflected art pop before the band decided to move on, leaving Mary Lynn to pursue her own music. Following up from the quirky pop diary that was her first solo album, F​amiliar Things & Places, h​er upcoming release strikes a louder, braver pose. Drenched in beautiful melodies and confident vulnerability, "My Animal" dives into the same emotional territory as Aimee Mann and Regina Spektor while maintaining a unique pop­rock energy that consistently surprises. As she sings about the confusing states of being alive, Mary Lynn makes her songs sound effortless. Her strong melodies soar above the painful experiences that birthed them; all while sticking to listener's minds like glue ­ which means they may find themselves singing the choruses of "Two & Two" or "Funeral" when they wake up in the morning. Quite simply, "My Animal" is full of terrific pop songs. Mary Lynn partnered with Bill Moriarty (Man Man, Dr Dog) to help bring "My Animal" into the, well, true sonic animal that it is. And Mary Lynn says she wants her music to be...

Closet Mix

01 Ep

Anyway

"Closet Mix are minimalists. Or maybe they’re lazy. It’s hard to know for sure. They definitely don’t do too much. They’ve been together for years, but have just now gotten around to releasing their “debut” five-song EP. They play, on average, one or two shows per year. They move at their own pace, which, it will surprise no-one, could be described as “glacial.” Their musical approach is deliberate, simple and straight-forward. They like good songs, first and foremost. They believe that the open space in their “sound” is just as important as what they play and sing. They like a lot of bands and records both new and old, but keep coming back to unadorned masterpieces such as the Velvet’s third LP, from whence their name derives. Closet Mix are not young, ranging in age from their late-40s to mid-50s. They’ve been in a lot of bands over the last thirty years, including but not limited to Great Plains, Log, Peck of Snide, Househearts, and Vena Cava. They proudly call Columbus, Ohio their home. It would be romantic to think of them as “survivors,” but in reality, they’re just stubborn midwesterners who refuse to stop making music. We’d like to tell you to keep an eye out for their next release, but truth be told, have no idea when that will be. So, please enjoy this one, and we’ll get back to you when there’s something new to report. Or maybe not. It’s hard to know for sure." LIMITED EDITION...

Connections

Midnight Run

Anyway

Connections came out of Columbus, Ohio, at a rush, releasing two stellar LPs and several singles in their first year. They felt like the wind rushing through the open window of a car hurtling down the highway at 90 MPH. In the second year, they firmed up their sound and shook off some of the bedroom-lo-fi-Oh (as in Oh-hi-O) for the almost radio-friendly Into Sixes, which earned the band continued praise in Pitchfork, AVClub, Stereogum and more. And like the previous two records, Into Sixes wound up on a plethora of “Best Of” lists (Village Voice, Still Single, etc.) as well as on the pages of ESPN. They took a year off to record a single for Chicago’s tasty HoZac label and a play handful of shows including several sold-out NYC dates.  Midnight Run kicks the murk of basement four-track recordings from the soles of the five members’ collective shoes with the sound of two guitars that growl as if they are echoing out of the propellers of a B-12 bomber. After the gentle hiss for the opener “Raise Awareness,” which echoes the early power pop of the Shoes or Cars played through a 1987 Mustang’s tape-deck, “Month to Month” shatters the windshield as singers Kevin Elliott and Andy Hampel stand atop the chorus like they just conquered a Two-for-Tuesday slot on your local classic rock station. From there, the record rolls over the speakers with a great band getting greater, flexing sinewy guitar with Hampel’s and...

St. Lenox

21st Century Post-liberal Blues

Anyway

An errant single from St. Lenox, "21st Century Post-Liberal Blues" recounts modern liberal angst in an era of political upheaval and social media fatigue.

Motel Beds

Mind Glitter

Anyway

The Motel Beds are back!  Though last year saw the Misra Records released “hits” collection, These Are They Days Gone By, Mind Glitter is The Motel Beds’ first new album in three years. Which may not seem long until you notice that they released five albums in the three years between 2009 and 2012.  Which makes Mind Glitter pretty special. Starting an album as soon as the latest one’s final tracks are done (guitarist Derl Robbins, who also helped record the last few Guided By Voices albums, records the band himself), they’ve had 36 months to throw out hooks, choruses, puns and bad jokes, and then try them all out in front of live audiences.  What materialized with Mind Glitter’s songs are some of the most varied and beautiful the band has laid down yet. Highlights are scattered all around with “Open Ocean” kicking off to waves of acoustic guitar and drums, the gorgeous Beach Boys harmonies of “Queens for the Summer,” the airy psychedelic drone of “Paper Trees,” the unrelenting, fist-pumping riff from “Live City,” the pure 90s-ness of the breakdown on “Set Ender,” and then throwing a sweaty arm around you with “We’ve Killed More for Less.”  Yup. The Motel Beds are back and more infectious than ever. You won’t be able to get rid of them this time.  I’m alluding to bedbugs, guys. Bad jokes!  “A sun spotted psych pop cousin of post-Britpop Supergrass.” - MOJO

Kyle Sowashes, The

Everybody

Anyway

It would be easy for me to start by saying every fertile music scene in America has a Kyle Sowash to call its own. He's the integral, overambitious, indie-rock everyman responsible for bringing to town bands that, barring his begging, would otherwise pass on by. He's the fervent local enthusiast always in the front row, even on a wintry Tuesday. His floor's been infinitely crashed upon, his bank account tapped from self-financed/self-made tours of the country --- basically he's racked up enough D.I.Y. karma points that you're obligated to buy his new record Everybody on his good works alone. Sowash's selfless moral character may be common in places like Cleveland, Portland, Athens, and Chapel Hill, but his style, his demeanor and his songs are distinctly Columbus, Ohio.  Normally, naming a band after oneself is a shallow stroke of ego (e.g., Steve Miller, Bob Seger), but for Kyle Sowash, it couldn't be any other way. After slaving over a decade's worth of unrecognized lo-fi indie anthems, he deserves a complete, full-throttle band to flesh out his earnest ballads and scrappy pop songs.  The Kyle Sowashes are a supergroup of sorts, composed of four dynamic players assembled from formidable Ohio bands such as 84 Nash, SPD GVNR and The Cabdrivers, but each is channeling a little Kyle Sowash on Everybody.   Recorded in August 2014 in Columbus, Ohio by Keith Hanlon, Everybody's 16 songs are straight out of the indie rock cookbook. Tracks like the propulsive "King Shit of...

St. Lenox

Ten Songs About Memory And Hope

Anyway

Ten Songs About Memory and Hope, the Anyway Records album debut of New York’s St. Lenox, is Choi’s singularly thrilling mix of popsong craftsmanship, atmospheric electro kicks, rich singing, jazz freedom, and, yes, karaoke. All of this, rendered with charisma to burn, is precisely what you hear on an energetic St. Lenox track like “I Still Dream of the ‘90s,” which colors the recent past with current longings for flying cars, or “Just Friends,” a fluidly melodic mid-tempo ballad that insists that pop-soul lives in 2013. For St. Lenox, emotion starts, although doesn’t end, with Choi’s voice, an agile tenor with an undewy top-end glow. His voice is, at any rate, one reason why songs such as “That Old Time Religion” and “Bitter Pill” occupy a listener’s memory long after the tracks finish. - James Hunter

Connections

Into Sixes

Anyway

One would think that Columbus, Ohio's Connections took a breather in the early portion of the 2014. After cracking onto the music scene in 2013 with two critically acclaimed full length LP's (album of the year by Still Single, glowing coverage from Pitchfork, Stereogum, Onion AV Club...), one EP and several singles, tours with the Breeders and Ex Hex, the band has waited until the summer of 2014 to release Into Sixes -- a muscle flexing study that displays the epic proportions of the band's true anthem-driven nature.  Connections prowess lies in the head-spinning gift for melody, fortified by a stout backbone of wiry guitars and are as tight and loose as a well-worn sweat-suit in the chip section at Wal-Mart. Into Sixes presents Connections in full rock regalia, recorded at famed Columbus Musicol Studios with engineer Adam Smith. Stuffed with ringing harmonies by dual singers Kevin Elliott and Andy Hampel, sing-song roundabouts that can floor the listener after one chorus ("Minister of Ah Ah Ah"), Into Sixes is about as tasty as a sound one can devour. The songs are still brief, with a handful extending past the FM radio friendly three minute mark, and a couple showing a subversive tendency to jam. "Apartment by the Interstate" and "Extremely Boss" though, are the aural equivalent of a summer roller-coaster ride, quick and satisfying and urging to be played over and over again. The sturdy confidence of "Brothers and Sisters" may be the closest that American underground rock has...

Koe-Krompecher, Bela

Do You Remember Rock And Roll Record Stores ?

Anyway

Adapted from Bela Koe-Krompecher's (co-founder of Anyway Records/former co-owner of Used Kids Records) blog. "Do You Remember" is a true story of the interactions of two record store employees how had several interesting experiences with the Ramones. It is not necessarily a story of fan-dome but a reflection of a time that has since passed with the dismantling of record stores and the pre-internet era, where meeting idols was doable especially when they hold the same passion as their listeners. Bela's blog has a readership of over 60,000 and has been featured in Paste, WFMU, vinyljourney.com, Dusted and many other blogs and music journals. "Do You Remember" is a full-fledged comic, drawn by Marvel/DC artist Andy Bennett and adapted by Nix Comics honcho, Ken Eppstein. With a limited run of only 500 print copies (with 350 pre-sells), "Do You Remember" is a nice time capsule for those who survived the past two decades. Bela also contributed to "Malls Across America" by photographer Michael Galinsky which was named one of Time magazine's books of the year for 2013.  Some words about Bela's writing: "Very few of us are able to write about the formative experiences of our twenties without coming off as nostalgic has-beens, wannabes, or never-weres... As unfortunate and perhaps even depressing as the story sounds, it's a fascinating phenomenon to observe from within oneself, and by my count, no one is doing a better job of chronicling the metamorphosis than Bela Koe-Krompecher"-Read.My.Back (WPRB) "Bela wrote the finest ode to Jim Shepard"-fuckinrecordreviews "the best...

WV White

West Virginia White

Anyway

The Americarnal. Midwestern existentialism. Sonic surrealism. Suburban ennui turned up all the way. Flora and fauna undisturbed...... For Tyler Travis (guitar, vocals), Caeleigh Featherstone (keyboards, vocals), John C. Fisher (bass), and Tayler Beck (drums) these things are real. Ohio boredom and isolation breeds certain tones in the music of WV White that shakes bones and melts away the conceptual percepts of what a rock band should be and sound like. Travis pounds riffs with a slack-jawed awe, Featherstone gilds them with bubbling organ drones, and the battery dances their own spartan jig around it all.  .....Rural voodoo. Attic rituals. Man vs. Man. Nature vs. Nurture.  Pieris Virginiensis. It's the species of insect from which this Columbus crew get their name. There's barely significance in that name, but a butterfly's metamorphosis is an apt analogy to describe what WV White was and what they've become. The move from caterpillar to chrysalis and onward to floating in the breeze of summer is something both ugly and beautiful. Evolution is not usually spoken when describing a debut, but WV White have certainly evolved from a scrappy clubhouse of blotto jam sessions to a band that now sounds completely comfortable in their own skin. Distortion and noise still carry them through -- check out the American shoegazing of "The Mess," or the almost-punk yet-buoyant "Multiple Bathrooms" -- but they've also become sleek and elegant. Pianos twinkle and harmonies start to creep out of the once prevalent cacophony on such clear-headed rambles as "Cockroaches" and "Mastercraft,"...

Connections

Year One

Anyway

A perfect primer for the uninitiated, Year One accumulates everything released by Connections in the year 2013. Included here are both LPs—their debut, Private Airplane, and its followup, Body Language—plus the Tough City EP.

Connections

Body Language

Anyway

"Body Language" is the second full length from Columbus' Connections, whose sound at once echoes Ohio but also the vast history of the bands and their collective knowledge of music. They say the mid-west is the breadbasket of America and that Ohio is the heart of it all. The state is, in fact, shaped like a heart and in the center of the heart lies Columbus. A town larger than the rest and a melting pot of transplants from around the state, Cleveland, Cincinnati and of course Dayton, where the core of Connections hails from. The homegrown in Ohio breed loyalty whether it's tragic loyalty (ala any Cleveland sports fan) or the hope of yet another Big Red Machine, and the men in Connections have a distinct loyalty to sound, the creation and bending of sound to transport the listener to the front seat of the car, with a 40 oz between your legs singing along to your favorite song as the "Summer Creeps" does to total FM radio perfection. The sounds of massive record collections are squeezed into and spit out into two and three minutes bursts from the gleeful spree of "Late Shift" which recalls hints of the Homosexuals "Astral Glamour" and the best Brit-pop of the 1990's, to the Wire-esque "Girl's Night Out" while the fatter sound of "Aimless" and "Hang On" have nods to the sound of Gaunt and Guided by Voices, they know that some of the best finds are in your own back yard....

Winter Makes Sailors

Moving On

Anyway

Winter Makes Sailors is the car that drives the engine of Sean Gardner, a Columbus,Ohio music fixture who has played up and down the main streets of mid-western cities in a variety of bands for the last decade. He lives a simple life with his wife, he works as a third-grade teacher and spends his weekends teaching guitar and crafting his own music. While Moving On carries the full sound of a band, it is in reality much more of a collection of friends coming together to help Sean exhale the music he makes, at times it is reflective of growing up in rural Ohio ("I think My Time Has Come") while others show the best of orchestrated pop music at its finest ("Maybe Someday Soon" & "On The Beach") all carry echoes of spinning vinyl records that support a 4am seduction, such as The Kinks "Something Else", Elliot Smith, Jeepster Records and the oft forgotten Silos. Sean pulls it all with a stellar sense of pop song arrangement. Dig in. 

Whiles

Somber Honey

Anyway

The Whiles’ Somber Honey weaves a five-year track through the interruptions of adulthood, doubts and uncertainty—somewhat like the history of the band itself. Formed shortly after graduation from high school in the late ’90s, The Whiles have persevered through friendship, death, and the birth of children.  Built around the strong songwriting of Joe Peppercorn, The Whiles’ construct songs that, at times, have taken years to finish (“Somber Honey” went through four different recording sessions). At one point in their career, they appeared to be the indie band to break out of Columbus, with press coming from Rolling Stone and Paste and a tours planned with The National, Andrew Bird, and My Morning Jacket. The curse of 614 entered and a member quit, thus putting the brakes on the group. After the release of 2007’s Sleeper’s Wake, they collectively retreated to careers, family and the recording studio. Somber Honey displays Peppercorn’s strong sense of melody and sharp song craft, with orchestral arrangements courtesy of violinist Samantha Kim (Ghost Shirt). The album recalls hints of Colin Blunstone’s finest work, Eric Matthews and the pop sensibilities of Tommy Keene, early Cat Stevens and The Byrds. Limited to 300 hand-screened LPs with download included, Somber Honey is as majestic as the sun cutting through the gray Midwestern din of February. The Whiles will play select dates in support of the album’s release.

Connections

Private Airplane

Anyway

I don't want to talk about the Ohio water, as in what's in it, as the raison d’être for another instant classic of underground pop to surface to vinyl with Connections’ Private Airplane. This allusion is justifiably thrown up in the hands of well-wishers at a loss for words, yet to say Ohioans are dosed from the tap with a certain knack is to slight what constitutes the substance. Other liquids are more conspicuously involved: blood, beer, whiskey and gasoline - although I wouldn't recommend that order. Songs like "Finally", "Casuals", "Cindy" and "Love St." don't just happen, albeit by the time we hear them it certainly seems like they do; spontaneously, with whatever working degree of immaculacy you uphold. The five members of Connections are not bystanders for a conduit; Kevin Elliott and Andy Hampel of 84 Nash, Adam Elliott of Times New Viking, Dave Capaldi of El Jesus de Magico and 'peach district laureate' Philip Kim have been clocking in for awhile now. Private Airplane is a result of their craft; fifteen paragons of song, each laden with hooks you can't pay for, never mind get, anywhere else. - Elizabeth Murphy (Memphis, TN 2012)  touchstones: Dayton Ohio circa 1991, Columbus Ohio circa 1993, 4-track recordings ala "lo-fi" rejuvenation, longing, sweating beer and massive record collections.

Obnox

A Ragin’ In The Sun

Anyway

Anyway is proud to release "A Ragin' in the Sun" by Cleveland's Obnox which is the alias by Lamont "Bim" Thomas, who has spent a lifetime immeresed in music. Some may look at Obnox “A Ragin' in the Sun” ep as another overgrown 7" with no direction, but in actuality, this record is simply a pop record that's been sprinkled with raw punk and a little hip hop beat culture. "Ragin" is not unlike this year's previous three releases by Lamont Thomas, best known as the drummer in Bassholes, This Moment in Black History, Puffy Areolas, and Unholy 2, all of whom have records to be released in 2013. Needless to say Thomas is responsible for nearly a dozen releases last year and there's not a bad one in the bunch. The "A Ragin in the Sun ep" is one of the strongest releases of the pack with its blown out, some what, Spectorian production.  This record is limited to 500 copies and then it will be gone.

Kyle Sowashes, The

Somebody

Anyway

Every fertile music scene in America has a Kyle Sowash to call its own. He’s the integral, overambitious, indie rock everyman responsible for bringing to town bands that, barring his begging, would otherwise pass on by. He’s the fervent local enthusiast always in the front row, even on a wintry Tuesday. His floor’s been infinitely crashed upon, his bank account tapped from self-financed / self-made tours of the country—basically he’s racked up enough DIY karma points that you’re obligated to buy Somebody on his good works alone. Sowash’s selfless moral character may be common in places like Cleveland, Portland, Athens and Chapel Hill, but his style, his demeanor and his songs are distinctly Columbus, Ohio. Sowash readily admits his debt to indie rock’s golden age—Somebody is a study in the work of bands like Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Silkworm and Pavement—but he draws on those influences judiciously. In other words, this is no tribute album. While “Pain Don’t Hurt” and “Gray Hair” will certainly signal a nostalgic flag, the themes are distinctly Columbus, distinctly Kyle Sowash. This album makes getting older and longing for the mid-’90s sound fun... It’s time to get your beard ready again.

The Lindsay

Deep In The Queue

Anyway

***Even in Columbus, where it’s hard not to spit without hitting an independent musician who is carving out a luxuriously hardscrabble existence, the Lindsay are still an anomaly. They’re nowhere near as experimental or lo-fidelity driven as you’d imagine coming out of this city. In fact, of all the bands living here (of which there are quite a few), the Lindsay ply closest to actual “rock music.”  Deep in the Queue is a uniquely American album -- inventive and complex, full of sonically robust riffs and feedback, but underneath it all there’s a very terrestrial base (to suppose Dragged Out was their love letter to British nuggets). In the band’s own words it’s akin to “R.E.M. moving from Mumur to Reckoning.” I’ve never been able to hear Peter Buck in the guitars of Schmidt and Olexovitch, but the influence makes sense when you step into the homespun quality of the record. What I hear, in the epic moments of “Bang a Left” and “Power Auger,” are arena-ready blasts resembling those transcendent epiphanies that came in 10th grade, wearing a cassette of Siamese Dream thin in the dashboard deck. Or maybe even Wings in the pomp and piano that comes to the surface of finale “Don’t Get Uptight.” The Lindsay may be of the street (and in your wildest fantasies, the basement) but they shoot for the stars here – they shoot for moon landings and galaxies – and it pays off. At the heart Deep in the Queue is...

Ghost Shirt

Domestique

Anyway

"Domestique is Ghost Shirt's full-length debut on the legendary Anyway Records (Guided by Voices, New Bomb Turks, Jenny Mae, The Ass Ponys, Gaunt). "I distinctly remember my first time hearing the band. It was late 2009, the song was 'History of the Radio,' and 30 seconds in, I went Kool-Aid Man onto the Ghost Shirt bandwagon. I immediately played 'Radio' again, just to make sure I had heard what I thought I heard. I've had this experience with three (now four) songs: The Beatles, 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun'; Flaming Lips, 'Five Stop Mother Superior Rain'; Teenage Fanclub, 'The Concept.' "Who has the balls, let alone talent, to join that triumvirate of awesome? Five songs into their career and they're already in the pantheon. Get in now, friends. The record contains New Pornographer sing-alongs mixed with She-and-Him-style boy / girl vocals. This band has all the ingredients for a Neutral Milk Hotel or Surfer Rosa-era Pixies-type breakout. Beyond that, who knows?" --The Audios Lounge, Austin, TX

Kyle Sowashes

Nobody

Anyway

Normally, naming a band after oneself is a shallow stroke of ego (e.g., Steve Miller, Bob Seger), but for Kyle Sowash, it couldn't be any other way. After slaving over a decade's worth of unrecognized lo-fi indie anthems, he deserves a complete, full-throttle band to flesh out his earnest ballads and scrappy pop songs. The Kyle Sowashes are a supergroup of sorts, composed of four dynamic players assembled from formidable Ohio bands such as 84 Nash, Sun God and SPD GVNR, but each is channeling a little Kyle Sowash on Nobody. Recorded in February 2010 in snowy Cincinnati, Ohio by former Afghan Whigs bassist John Curley, Nobody's ten songs are straight out of the indie rock cookbook. Tracks like the propulsive "Rough Week" and "Blast From the Past" are fortified with extra heft and sonic vision, but they retain the goofy charm and sharp hooks that have defined Sowash's career. Sowash readily admits his debt to indie rock's golden age--Nobody is a study in the work of bands such as Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Silkworm and Guided by Voices--but he draws on those influences judiciously. In other words, this is no tribute album. While "Can't Make Up my Mind" and "I Would Like To Speak To Yr Manager" will certainly signal a nostalgic flag, the themes are distinctly Columbus, distinctly Kyle Sowash. This album makes getting older and longing for the mid-'90s sound fun... It's time to get your beard ready again.

Whiles

Sleeper’s Wake

Anyway

***A brand new album from Columbus, Ohio’s THE WHILES, and the awaited follow-up to the group’s Colors of the Year album. Several years in the making, it is a wonderful lilting record that is just a genuine pleasure to take in.

Terribly Empty Pockets

Get Wet

Anyway

For more than a year, Terribly Empty Pockets have yelped and twitched through set after set of crunchy pop all across Columbus, Ohio. Consistently holding their own in any dive, they stand shoulder to shoulder with the city’s best art-punk outfits (Times New Viking, Necropolis, Tree of Snakes, El Jesus De Magico). The band’s debut EP, Get Wet, comes across with all the nervous energy of their live set, but in the studio they’ve refined their style, crafting a weird wall of sound from delicate instrumentation and a seemingly inexhaustible string of sparkly melody lines. Apparently, if the Terribly Empty Pockets can get sound out of an object, they’ll immediately create a melody with it. Recorded at Columbus Discount HQ and mixed by Nashville studio pro Jason Lehning, Get Wet is a confident statement of purpose backed by a powerful batch of tunes. “Brother,” for example, sounds like Swell Maps-gone-Sonny-&-Cher, sweet and alluring, but with the type of complex harmonic arrangement that only new wave / funk crossovers ever seem to achieve. To describe the group’s sound, name-drop a motley crew of new wave’s best and brightest — The Eurythmics, The Talking Heads, Bow Wow Wow, The Smiths, Nick Lowe, The Wedding Present, The Bats — and you won’t be far off the mark. Get Wet is a mesmerizing listen, to say the least — a left-field live band that never fails to impress and invigorate even the most cauliflowered of ears has executed their craft in the studio.

Patsys

On The 13th Kick

Anyway

***A compilation CD featuring all THE PATSYS’ Umbrella Records singles, plus three previously unreleased tracks.  So who are The Patsys? The band and I alike appreciate your cooperation here as we make the requisite introductions. They hail from Columbus, Ohio, and number four: Tutti Jackson on vocals and bass, Stewart Nicol on guitar, Jeff Regensburger on drums, and John Stickley on vocals and guitar. Before the Patsys’ formation in the spring of 2002, the four of them performed in various other bands, the most notable being Gaunt (Regensburger) Action Family (Jackson) and The Boy Scout Love Triangle (Stickley). Hyper-alert readers might also recognize Tutti Jackson’s name from the credits on Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. She provided backing vocals for “Soap Star Joe”.  While The Patsys sound is rooted in their love of 60’s garage, pop, and soul music, they’re hardly revivalists. Don’t get me wrong, matching denim jackets and haircuts are fine for other bands, it’s just that it all looks a bit contrived when The Patsys try it. And that’s fine. There’s enough three-chord stomping, blues-based caterwauling and guitar savagery to more than make up for any negligence regarding image. Critics will appreciate the shared male/female vocals courtesy of Mr. Stickley and Ms. Jackson (see also John and Exene, Nancy and Lee, Mama and Papa). While those are fair comparisons, be forewarned that The Patsys version of the duet can often rise to the intensity of a hard fought shouting match (Hide the ashtrays.) Perhaps things...