Professional Againster - Columbus Punk and Metal

Columbus Halloween shows at Legion of Doom+The Summit 10-27-18

Legion of Doom is a long running D.I.Y. venue near the OSU campus. This was my first time going to a show here but I turned out I knew one of the people from the house via seeing them at Used Kids Records a few times. The show was just three cover bands starting with a young fella doing about 5-6 Bright Eyes covers - usually not my thing but he played really well and put a lotta heart into. Next up was Gary Numan which was just one person and she pulled off his sound really well with just a pretty minimal synth and some sampling she had done on her laptop. Visually she went for the “Berserker”-era as on his early covers like “Pleasure Principle” he’s not quite cyborg-y yet. Next up was a the guys from the also excellent Malibu Stazi who I saw awhile ago at Dirty Dungarees the same night I saw Mixed Deuce, Son of Dribble and Ron House’s recent-ish band, Psandwich (across the street at Ace of Cups). Malibu Stazi did a rousing set of all Scratch Acid covers. I twas a really fun night even before the bands played as a bunch of us had some good conversations about current and classic horror movies - especially since the original “The Fog” and “Mandy” were playing down the road at the Gateway Theater. Although no one currently at the house seems to know if they named it after pro wrestling’s The Road Warriors or the D.C. comics heel faction. 

After the show I went over The Summit and saw even more costumed cover bands for their “Weirdo Halloween 2018” which was a very apt title. I got there a bit late which caused me to missed the Insane Clown BAND (I.C.B.) who were obviously the tribute to Detroit’s famous Faygo lovers. The trio (as it they didn’t have just a Violent J and a CentralOhioggy 2Dope but also another juggalo hanging out with them though I dunno if she was in the band or not but I still joined them in a chorus of “whoop! whoop!” and “fam-ily/fam-ily!”). Said musical clowns also put a few flavors o’ Faygo on the bar which I sampled from. I believe it was a 2017 Red Pop from Detroit - excellent bouquet and a bit fruit forward. Unfortunately we didn’t get a localized version of ICB vs. The Headbangers but maybe next time. 

Then my night’s music here started with Red Threads who played as ESG and did a great job of it - it made me wanna go back and listen to them as I know they had a been sampled by a truckload of hip-hop artists and were considered ahead of their time. Essentially lots of cool drum/percussion patterns via drummer Ray Gun and guitarist/sample pad player, Rachel who were anchored by the neat n’ often funky bass playing from Stacey. The cool thing all 3 of the band members sing on different songs or trade off verses and choruses. 

i is a pretty crucial book for this blog. I checked it out awhile back from the Main Library in Columbus and really got into it. It starts with the history of the song that inpsired the title which has an oriign via Findlay, OH jazz singer Dorothy Heflick and her father , Fred Jr. who also was a jazz musician. Heflick was later nicknamed “Sloopy” in the late 40′s and she was part of the duo “Dixie and Sloopy”. The song title comes from a night where the duo was playing to a very rowdy crowd in Columbus. Her bandmates told her “Hang on, Sloopy”. 

The first verson was written by Bert Berns who had a huge hit with the Isley Broithers’  (and later that British bugs band) “Twist and Shout”. The song was first called “My Girl Sloopy” and was recorded by the LA doo-wop group called The Vibrations (previously The Jayhawks) who also had a hit in 1961 with “The Watusi”. 

Moving on into 1965, Berns started his own label with distro by Atlantic. One of his signings was a band called The McCoys which featured a young Rick Derringer along with his brother Randy who shorted his last name to just Z even though the full family name was Zehringer..Their single “Hang On Sloopy” came out in August 14, 1965 and was eventually knocked off “Yesterday” by that British bugs band off the charts on October 2 that year. Since the title got “Sloopy” and “Snoopy” often confused, Florida band The Royal Guardsmen put a few bars of into their hit “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron”. 

Welcome to Professional Againster - This blog is gonna cover a lot the punk, garage and metal bands (and related styles) tnat the local media ignores or just gives passing menton to. Some of this was born outta obsession with how many great bands have come out of Ohio’s captail city - which I was learning about by scouring through Discogs, Metal-Archives, bandcamp and MRR over the years. 

Plus, back in 2006 when living in the Bay Area I knew the three women in the noise band 16 Bitch Pile Up who also told me about other C'bus noise artists like Mike Shiflet as well as the metal band Deadsea. The latter of whom you can check out here & hear them give 16BPU and some other OH friends a shout-out as well as some drunk people shouting “O-H-I-Ooooo!” 

16 Bitch Pile Up I got to know pretty randomly as they were on the bill one night at 924 Gilman St. with the Conan-obsesso power-violence act Crom. The show ruled and sure enough the next day they played S.F.’s The Elbo Room together. Some of my Crom pics ended up in the documentary on that band buuuut I have yet to see it.