Columbus Discount Records Year VI Party gets rolling tonight at the Summit Bar in Columbus, Ohio. The two-night shindig will celebrate the the success of record store turned record label over the past six years, and features a mind-boggling line up worthy of any amount of gas money it may take to get there. Over the past six years, CDR has turned heads, and callused the spongy ears of the collective underground's music lunatics into bony protuberances foaming at the mouth, waiting for what they will release next. Responsible for putting out such essential mind-blowers as the bedroom fuzz cult darlings, Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit, to the modern day folk/blues punk savant tune smith, Dan Melchior, the label has etched it's own cozy nook in the underground ether, touching on as many artists as genres, in their consistent swatting at what is musically relevant these days.
Tonight gets underway with an excellent line-up starting with the mysterious Columbus outfit Sandwitch. Fronted by none other than Ron House, their songs carry the same muted, rolling inner turmoil that made his Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments such a force during the early 90s, and carries the same aesthetic that CDR and Siltbreeze fanatics drool over. Then, TV Ghost, who are on their way back home from the tour in support of their debut full length LP Cold Fish on In The Red Records, hits the stage and will certainly wipe the slate clean with their no-wave hum and jagged creepy surges of string-stretching noise. But being followed by the Columbus golden boys Cheater Slicks, that same slate they cleared will be left soiled by the thuggish and sluggish melancholy songs that can go from zero to a hundred in a matter of chords, leaving the audience as wrapped up in their toil as they portray though their songs. After an appearance by Deathly Fighter, long time Columbus darlings, Bassholes take that stage to reaffirm the fact that 2-piece bands are still cool, and after banging the tunes away off and on over 17 years, their gift for melding the classic 60s sounds with modern nuances will remind the crowd just how weird and simple great rock'n'roll can be.
Saturday night's line-up takes a little change of scenery and will go down at Cara Bar on Parson Ave. Starting out with the brutality of the the Pittsburgh foursome Rot Shit, who are known for their aggressive stage manner, and saw-toothed songs that rip through melodies like a ravenous pack of underachievers. Next up another Ohio band that's been making the rounds though the Midwest and carving their brilliantly stupid name in the skulls in everyone within earshot, Puffy Areolas. Featuring Teets from Tyvek on lead guitar, they come from the same aural corner as the former, but blast their songs forth often with a galloping madness that can only equate to the necessary episodes of beer spraying and apathetic dancing that causes as much harm as it does fun. After a set by the local 3-piece, The Unholy Two, another gang of modern weirdo shit, Guinea Worms take the stage to cool things off a bit. Playing often downtrodden tunes that carry melodies like sacks of rocks over their pasty shoulders, these guys fit in well with the like of CDR's ilk, and play the perfectly tempoed songs that it takes to keep comfortable in the stagnant dredges of everyday life. The fest headliner, the undisputed king of song-crafting, Dan Melchior hits the stage to remind everyone, that brave choices in facial hair are only for those with the music catalog to back it up. Just releasing a double album on SS Records this spring along with another album on Toppers Records, Melchior's got more songs in him than any of those fancy ipods, and he spits them out like the gospel truth every time. Missing anything this guys does his a huge mistake, so don't miss this weekend in Columbus, no matter what.
check out a video clip of Dan Melchior performing "Post Office Line" off his Columbus Discount Records singles' club release from this spring, right here, courtesy of villejavat.
