Pop duo Jamaican Queens gathers inspiration for its sound from New York City and Detroit.

“A lot of important music comes out of [New York City],” vocalist Ryan Spencer said. “And Detroit, I mean, I just grew up there my whole life. It’s obviously my biggest influence.”

The band, consisting of Spencer and Adam Pressley, will be playing at the Ottawa Tavern, 1817 Adams St., on Jan. 26, the second time they have played at the venue. Spencer said concert-goers should just expect “loud pop songs.”

Jamaican Queens’ music fits in genres like hip-hop, folk and electronic.

“It’s all a combination in the blanket of pop music,” Spencer said. “We just listen to a lot.”

Spencer said he listens to pop artists like Brian Eno and the Beach Boys.

Even though the band’s pop influences are clear, Spencer said its bio describing its music as “club-bangers to provide a soundtrack for an evening” is “definitely tongue-in-cheek.”

“It could be played at the club but it also has a lot more to it than that,” Spencer said.

Their debut album, “Wormfood,” is due out March 5. The nine-track album took six months to record, Spencer said.

“I think the title is a reference to my belief in mortality,” Spencer said. “[It’s also about] what the fairy tale of love is. Most of the songs deal with that too. I don’t believe it exists, or maybe I’ve been sold this fake idea of what love really is … [Maybe] I’ve romanticized it too much that now I’m tortured by the fact that I’m never satisfied by anything.”

One thing that can be noted is the dark themes in the lyrics, evident in the song “Kids Get Away.” Spencer said it is not something he intentionally does, it just comes out.

“I’m kind of a dark person and I’m kind of a dramatic person,” Spencer said. “It’s kind of just natural. Everything that happens in this band is pretty natural.”

FILTER magazine said Jamaican Queens’ “Kids Get Away” is a “trippy collaboration of upbeat guitar and synth provides some bone-chilling beats alongside Ryan Spencer’s expressive, shrieking vocals.”

“I have a really tall roof of my mouth, so I don’t have a lot of room for my nasals,” Spencer said. He claims that is the reason for his “shrieking.” “That’s what my dentist told me.”

The album features the songs “Annie” and “Caitlin.” Spencer said even though “Annie” is a name he made up, “Caitlin” is a friend. He wrote the song named after her as a Christmas present. It was written after Caitlin had a bad year following the murder of her grandmother.

“She was going to move out of the city,” Spencer said. “I wrote it to her as a kind of a ‘please don’t move.’”

Spencer said it was a really easy song for him to write.

Spencer and Pressley write songs collaboratively. The two are both former members of the band Prussia. After the band members were beginning to go their separate ways, Pressley and Spencer got together to start their own project 10 months ago.

“We decided to change up what we were doing,” Spencer said.

What sparked from it was a much more experimental, electronic band with a peculiar band name.

“There is no significance in the name, really,” Spencer said. “It seemed kind of provocative and it’s ambiguous. That kind of fits our music.”

Tags: Adam Pressley, Jamaican Queens, Music, Ottawa Tavern, pop, Ryan Spencer

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert, Music, Star.
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Ice Skating with DJs II might be the cure for your wintertime blues. If you are a snow bunny or aren’t fazed by freezing temperatures and gray skies, then Ice Skating with DJs II (ISDJ) might be the most fun party you go to all winter. ISDJ is an ice skating party, open to the public (all ages) at Ottawa Park Ice Rink. DJs from the sidelined Pop Explosion project out of the Old West End will spin the soundtrack to skates sliding across the ice.

The music will include sounds from funky soul records, early R&B, hip-hop, dubstep, freak-out disco and classic jams. DJs are currently taking requests from any genre on the event’s Facebook page.

ISDJ premiered in February last year on a perfect winter night. Snow fell on the lit ice rink and onto merry ice skaters’ noses and eyelashes, creating a chilly bliss. Laughter and hot cocoa warmed everyone from the inside out. As the snowfall increased, people in awe and joy laid down in the middle of the rink to watch it fall and catch a different perspective on the party.

Even if you haven’t been in ice skates since you were 7, don’t let that hold you back. It’s not about how well you can skate or how many times you fall, it’s about feeling good with romance in the air and having a great time in Toledo.

The fun doesn’t stop on the ice. The official ISDJ Afterparty is at the Ottawa Tavern, 1817 Adams St., where smiling, rosy-cheeked skaters can share stories and continue the merrymaking. The Ottawa Tavern will open at 8 p.m.

Tickets to ISDJ are $10 or $8 with a friend, and can be purchased at the entrance. This includes admission, skate rental, a drink voucher for the afterparty and loads of fun. Tickets for children ages 12 and younger are $6.  The event is 7:30-9:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Ottawa Park Ice Rink, 2200 Bancroft St. Search Ice Skating with DJs II on Facebook for more information and to request a song.

Tags: Ice Skating with DJs II, Ottawa Park Ice Rink, Ottawa Tavern, Pop Explosion

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Star.
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From its two-piece setup to its genre-bending tunes and multitude of online releases, Bowling Green-based Tree No Leaves is a unique local music act.

“That’s by design, I think,” said Tree No Leaves’ Dustin Galish. “A lot of us live in this kind of ADD culture, so it’s hard to keep an interest in one type of thing, you know? There are bands that I follow who have a very specific sound, and I appreciate that. But for myself, I’ve always liked the approach of trying lots of different things.”

Tree No Leaves is more than just Galish handling vocals and guitar and drummer Jared Schneider taking care of the rhythm and beat. Both also play keys and a wide range of other instruments, including electronic drums, bass, autoharp, omnichord and kalimba, among others.

“We try to cover the whole gamut,” Galish said. “And so it’s electronic-based rock music because we don’t have a big drum kit. There’s not huge amps on the stage. It’s more of an electronic experience, but certainly the ambient and the trip-hop kind of ideas [are present].

“That’s a lot of the stuff that we listen to, and so we try to bring that influence into, like, kind of a rock-pop song.”

On Dec. 21, concert-goers will get to experience Tree No Leaves’ wide scope of sound when the band performs at Ottawa Tavern. Formed in early 2008, Tree No Leaves may never have existed if it weren’t for “Guitar Hero.”

Tree No Leaves

“I’ve always been a video game nerd,” Galish said. “And so I was just like, ‘Wow, I actually have very good rhythm,’ which really in [“Guitar Hero”] it’s what it’s all about. I was just kind of seeing that I had some coordination there that I wasn’t aware of. I was like, ‘Well, I guess I’ll try the real thing,’ which is way harder.”

Nearly seven years after that popular video game inspired him to pick up the guitar, Galish has helped create an extensive catalog with Tree No Leaves. Including live recordings, the band has put out 17 different releases since 2008, all of which are available for free on its website, treenoleaves.com.

“I love that aspect about music,” Galish said of making Tree No Leaves’ music available for free. “I can be honest in saying I don’t really pay much for a digital album. I mean, I have physical albums that I love. That’s still there.

“But I think online music, if you really want to get it out there, just present it as art. Just put it up for free. People will go after it.”

That willingness to share Tree No Leaves’ music for free has also helped the band gain an international following. The song “Civil War II” off the band’s latest album “Tragick Magick Mystics” will be the featured song for the month of January in Speak UP, a Brazilian magazine which features various articles on Brazilian and international entertainment, culture and tourism to help natives learn English.

“People actually kind of learning English through the music of Tree No Leaves, it’s kind of like the dream for me because you’re communicating with people that don’t even speak your language,” Galish said. “The fact that we recorded the album and that happened within two to three weeks after we released it, that kind of came together; that’s really exciting, as well.”

Galish is particularly excited for the Dec. 21 show, and not just because Tree No Leaves is performing with one of his favorite bands, Mr. Gnome. On what some believe is the day of the apocalypse, Galish will be celebrating his 31st birthday.

“Honestly, part of me is like, ‘Maybe something cool will happen,’” Galish said of the Dec. 21 show. “Maybe while the show’s going on some crazy creature is summoned when we’re just rocking out to the apocalypse. That would be wonderful. But ideally, it’s probably just going to be a great night and there’ll be people celebrating the solstice.”

At 10 p.m. Dec. 21, Tree No Leaves will perform at a show that also features Silent Lions and Mr. Gnome at the Ottawa Tavern, 1817 Adams St. For more info, visit otavern.com or call (419) 725-5483.

Tags: Ottawa Tavern, Tree No Leaves

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 at 11:43 am and is filed under Music, Star.
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Desert Noises is a hot band from Utah. The quartet’s latest single, “I Won’t See You,” was featured on MTV Hive last month.

“[The song is about] the ending of a relationship. You know it’s coming and there’s nothing you can do. It’s dying,” said lead singer and guitarist Kyle Henderson.

With jangly guitar, sparkling harmonies, memorable melody and introspective lyrics, the track is instantly likeable.

Desert Noises by Jaclyn Campanaro

“It sounds really raw because it’s recorded live,” the songwriter said during a call from his Utah home. “We went in to just record some demos because we’d written a bunch of new songs, and we didn’t really plan on releasing them.”

“I Won’t See You,” a three-song EP, came out earlier this month.

“We didn’t have anything out as this lineup in the band, and so we just really wanted to get something out there that people could have during the tour, kind of a tour souvenir,” he said.

Henderson, guitarist Patrick Boyer, bass player Tyler Osmond and drummer Brennan Allen will play a free show at 10 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Ottawa Tavern. The Strong Talk and The Nathan Roberts Band will open.

And yes, that Osmond is related to the family music group from Utah.

“Tyler’s dad is Alan, the main songwriter,” Henderson said, adding that this lineup of the band has been together since January.

The group started its own label, Kid Canvas Records, to maintain control of its music.

“We were in a contract before with a record label and it was really, really difficult to be able to do a lot of the things that we wanted to do. And it felt like we weren’t getting that much support,” Henderson said. “After a lot of arguments, we were able to get out of that and start our own thing and be able to move on and do what we want with the music.”

That includes making those tour souvenir EPs extra special. Band members hand-packaged and stamped the seven-inch vinyl records, which come with digital download cards.

“We’re constantly touring and we love playing music,” Henderson said. “I love a ton of people in a room being there for the same cause, listening to the songs, just having lots of positive energy in there.

“I hope they feel the honesty that’s coming from us to them.”

Tags: Brennan Allen, Desert Noises, Kid Canvas Records, Kyle Henderson, MTV Hive, Ottawa Tavern, Patrick Boyer, Tyler Osmond, Vicki L. Kroll

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2012 at 5:45 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert, Music.
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In their formative years as musicians, guitarist Jared Wekenman and bassist and keyboardist Kertis Lytle of Paucity toiled around the local rock ‘n’ roll scene searching for what all artists crave: success. But when the Grand Rapids, Mich., natives realized their course of action wasn’t working, they ditched the pipe dream of romping in the mainstream alternative landscape for a new philosophy.

“We just gave up on trying to impress people and just wanted to do something that we were proud of. That was when we started playing Paucity music,” Wekenman said. “We really didn’t expect people to take on to it that much, but in Michigan it really took off extremely quickly and kind of recharged our hope in playing music.”

When Paucity, an instrumental progressive rock band, formed in 2003, Wekenman said the local scene was rife with groups trying to re-create the hits of East Lansing, Mich., stalwart The Verve Pipe, and that revamping the tunes of a ’90s rock ‘n’ roll era that the industry had moved away from was not in the cards for Paucity.

“I would not speak ill of The Verve Pipe, especially what they were doing at the time,” Wekenman said. “But when me and Kertis let go of that certain brand and started playing music that was more the story of our own time, our own place after the ’90s, I think people responded to something that seemed like their own lives right now as opposed to a sound that they remembered from when they were 14.”

Paucity

Paucity will perform at The Ottawa Tavern July 27. Wekenman said the band will mainly play songs from the second album, “Deer Bird Bear Ship,” which was released through Friction Records in 2009, but will preview songs from the new album, set to be released in early 2013.

Paucity credits Mogwai, Tortoise and Don Caballero as major influences of the group’s sound, which strays from the “pregnant repetition of emotive chord progression” and “over-glorification of technical prowess” that have become stale in prog-rock, according to the band’s Myspace page.

The three-piece band has endured several lineup changes. Former keyboard player Ric Carrol recently left the group to focus on a single-serving baby formula invention that he has patented and sold, and drummer Sam Hutchinson left to concentrate on raising his children, Wekenman said. Jay Bolt joined about a year-and-a-half ago to replace Hutchinson. “Deer Bird Bear Ship” was written and recorded while Paucity still had four members.

Though it sounds impromptu and experimental, the oft-psychedelic feel of “Deer Bird Bear Ship” was premeditated. Each song idea, often arising from an extended jam session, is subjected to a long and thorough workshopping process before the final product is written and recorded.

“We learn songs in such a way that they’ll sound a little bit more free-formed than they actually are, but we generally know exactly, note-for-note, what we’ll play and when we’ll play it,” Wekenman said.

The group took two years to finish “Deer Bird Bear Ship.”

“It takes a long time, and it’s a result of each of us being fairly unyielding on squalls that we have within songs. If something is not up to snuff for any one of the members then it goes back into the workshop until everybody agrees that it’s ready.”

Wekenman said the album was an expression of the difficulties of finding success in Michigan. He endeavored to live in Seattle while working for a video game company but eventually moved back to Grand Rapids. He said that while the money was good, it was not fulfilling. It didn’t feel like home, a place which he is emotionally torn over.

“The Midwest is a kind of a tough place and it can feel like a grind sometimes,” Wekenman said. “The album for us was the story of living in Michigan. Sometimes it’s beautiful and sometimes it’s beautiful in a way that’s kind of heartbreaking.”

Tags: Grand Rapids, Ottawa Tavern, Paucity, The Verve Pipe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 at 10:09 am and is filed under In Concert, Music, Star.
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Shakers, a harmonica, a couple of keyboards and the occasional guitar make up the musical sounds of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. But don’t forget the Shovels & Rope.

To celebrate the upcoming release of its album “O’ Be Joyful,” Charleston, S.C., duo Shovels & Rope will perform a free concert in Toledo on May 31. The show will take place at Ottawa Tavern on 1817 Adams St. at 10 p.m.

While “O’ Be Joyful” is the first official release for the two under the name Shovels & Rope, Hearst and Trent released an album together in 2008, “Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent: Shovels & Rope,” the record responsible for the birth of the name.

“When we decided to become a band and market ourselves with a specific brand, it was convenient and it just seemed like perfect sense to use ‘Shovels & Rope.’ So we just swiped the name from the album,” Hearst said. “We kind of made [the album] for fun as a side-project from the other bands we were in.”

Shovels & Rope: Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent.

For the release of “O’ Be Joyful,” Nashville, Tenn.,-based Dualtone Music Group partnered with Trent and Hearst’s Charleston-based label, Shrimp Records, Trent said.

The duo met in 2004 when their bands were on tour in Athens, Ga. Trent said his band, based out of Denver, had made the decision to move to Charleston before he met Hearst.

“I was living in Denver playing in a rock band with guys I went to high school with, and we were on tour opening for the band Jump, Little Children in Athens, Ga.,” Trent said. “Cary’s band was also there opening for Jump, Little Children too.”

Prior to recording with Trent, Hearst had been a successful singer and songwriter in her own right. In 2006, she released her first solo effort, “Dust and Bones.” On March 9, 2010, she released her album, “Are You Ready To Die,” a five-song set including her song, “Hells Bells” which was used in an episode of HBO’s “True Blood.” A year later, on March 1, 2011, Hearst released her third album, “Lions and Lambs.”

Trent also enjoyed solo success. In 2007, he released his self-titled solo album, followed by his second release, “The Winner,” in 2010.

“The whole band was completely by accident,” Hearst said. “We started playing together in bars just to make money but what I think people really latched onto is we’re very crafty with what we have to work with. We’re not musical virtuosos, but what we try to do is present songs with spirit and heart and leave the audience feeling something. Our style is songwriting based. It’s about the way we sing together, we both have very powerful voices. We could play without any guitars and we’d still be good. That’s what’s up.”

Combining their busy touring schedule with a small, portable recording setup, Hearst and Trent said they had to find many creative ways of recording the new album.

“We have a very modest recording setup, and it’s portable too,” Trent said. “We even ended up recording in hotels, our backyard, our house and even the van. The fiddle parts that were recorded for the album were all done in the van.”

For more information, visit the website www.shovelsandrope.com.

Tags: Cary Ann Hearst, Michael Trent, Ottawa Tavern, Shovels & Rope

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 11:29 am and is filed under In Concert, Star.
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Central Ohio bands invade Toledo when five Columbus bands take the stage at Ottawa Tavern on Feb. 24 and 25.

INVASION is the brainchild of Adam Sattler of Ottawa Tavern and Stephen Pence of Kobo, a Columbus venue. Last weekend, Toledo groups The Forest, The Miracle Vitamins, GOLD and Thirty Three & 1/3 played in Ohio’s capital city in support of the Columbus Music Co-op. This weekend, Alert New London, Dirty Girls, This Is My Suitcase, She Bears and Old Hundred will play at the Ottawa Tavern. Netherfriends, a Chicago-based artist, and The Dub Starlings of Toledo will join them.

“We were all becoming friends but everybody was coming through at different times and we decided [INVASION] would just be a good time for all of us,” Sattler said of the groups’ decisions to form a collaboration. Other cities have approached Sattler about doing similar swaps, building what Sattler hopes will become a “more connected Midwest music scene.”

There is no cover, but a $5 donation to the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo is suggested. Shows begin at 10 p.m. Feb. 24-25 at Ottawa Tavern, 1817 Adams St., Toledo. Visit otavern.com to learn more.

Tags: Adam Sattler, Alert New London, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, Brigitta Burks, Columbus, Dirty Girls, Gold, INVASION, Kobo, Netherfriends, Old Hundred, Ottawa Tavern, She Bears, The Dub Starlings, The Forest, The Miracle Vitamins, Thirty Three &1/3, This Is My Suitcase

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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It’s an exciting time for Toledo folk-rock band The Faux Paus. Not only have the three members been touring extensively outside their home area, they have a new EP, “Basement,” comprised of high-quality recordings of three original songs.

The group recorded the tracks —“A Village,” “Camper” and “Dustin Hoffman” — with a producer in Detroit during the past few months, and now the CD will be available for purchase at Allied Record Exchange.

“Those three songs are done and mixed and mastered, and we’re getting professional CD packaging and stuff like that, and really going all out for this,” said Hannah Fritch, vocalist, guitar player and keyboardist.

In addition, “Basement” will be available on iTunes, marking the first time the group’s music can be downloaded there.

The Faux Paus, from left, Amanda Thompson, Carrie Theuring and Hannah Fritch outside Downtown Latte.

To celebrate, The Faux Paus will perform at a CD release party Nov. 25 at The Ottawa Tavern, sharing the bill with fellow local favorites the Dirty Damn Band and Lightning Love.

“We’re really excited, because Adam Sattler from the OT has been trying to get these three bands together for a long time,” Fritch said. “And we finally are playing together.”

Vocalist/guitar player Amanda Thompson added, “This is the first show where all three bands are female-led bands that we’ve played at. So, it’s kinda cool, and these are two bands that we’ve seen, we’ve heard a lot about, but we’ve never played a show with either of them.”

The show will be the latest in a string of performances for the Paus, who have also been touring extensively the past few months.

“We’ve gone out for three-to-five day runs. We just were in Youngstown a couple weeks ago, a couple weeks before that we were playing festivals in D.C. and Atlantic City and Philadelphia. We’ve been keeping busy on the road,” Thompson said.

But for now, the EP is the band’s primary focus. Fritch said it’s interesting how, as a band like theirs evolves, recording music becomes as much a snapshot of who the group used to be as who it is now.

“I think those three songs really do get across a big part of what our sound is, or who we are as songwriters. But at the same time, it’s kinda funny because it was several months ago that we recorded it, and even longer before that that we even wrote these songs and kinda perfected them.

“And so now that it’s time to release those three songs, I feel like we’ve evolved slightly more and we’ve taken a kind of darker sound that isn’t really so much reflected in that EP,” Fritch said.

“I take that as a good sign that we’re still growing,” Thompson added.

Thompson said producing something that looks and feels professional is an effort to give back to the people who have supported the group as it’s grown.

“Just to give our fans something that looks nice,” she said. “Pretty much anyone who comes to our shows, it’s like they only have heard us live, for the most part.

“We don’t have a lot of recordings — we have some old recordings that we did a year ago. But for the most part, a lot of the people who come out to see us have only seen us live, they don’t have any recordings. So it’s just gonna be nice to give them something that looks nice, it sounds good and is kinda reflective of how we want to treat our fans,” Thompson said.

The band said the album is being sold at Allied on a “pay what you want” basis.

“You know, give us $1, give us $2, give us $5. Because we want people to have this. We do have to make our money back. But at the same time, if we only can make a buck on you, that’s cool,” Fritch said.

The band will continue to work primarily on recording in the months to come.

“We’re setting up a lot of the recording stuff in our apartment and trying to really perfect that, just to have more, because we really have come a long way,” Fritch said. “So we’re gonna be focusing on recording for a little while; I think that’s the most important thing.”

Tags: Adam Sattler, iTunes, Ottawa Tavern, The Faux Pas

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 10:28 am and is filed under Music, Star.
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When Mind Fish frontman Dean Tartaglia returned home to Toledo from Ohio University this summer to do his internship and play shows with his band, he was not anticipating much out of the local music scene.

“I had no expectations going into the summer,” Tartaglia said to Toledo Free Press Star. “Even in early June I had little expectations, and now strangely enough it’s August and I have a lot of expectations for Toledo in the future within the next couple years.”

The seeds for those changed expectations were planted in April, when Mind Fish was on the bill at Frankie’s Inner City with GOLD and The Fight Within for Tropic Bombs’ first show.

“[Mind Fish] came up to Frankie’s in Toledo and played a gig with us, and we ended up having Dean actually come onstage with us to promote a film we were doing,” said GOLD vocalist/guitarist Zach Ruetz. “We made him wear this rabbit mask and, like, jump around with a poster of our movie. That was right after we met him.”

Mind Fish

Tartaglia and his band forged a friendship with GOLD and Tropic Bombs that night, one which has led to a productive summer in Toledo for all three groups. On Aug. 27, Mind Fish, GOLD and The Strong Talk will play a free show at the Ottawa Tavern.

Growing scene

Rather than wearing a rabbit mask, Tartaglia has since been playing saxophone with GOLD in addition to jamming with Mind Fish and his other pursuits. This summer, Tartaglia was an intern for The James Poure Consultancy, which is consulting for Creadio founder/CEO and TEDxToledo curator Will Lucas.

TED — which stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design” — started 26 years ago in California and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to “ideas worth spreading.” Tartaglia said that Lucas commented on how there is a growing arts scene in Toledo he has never seen before.

“It’s just cool because it’s real easy for someone within the scene to know that ‘Yeah, we have a good scene’ or whatever, but when you have someone completely removed noticing it, that’s when you kind of get the idea that maybe something bigger is going on than you could have even expected,” Tartaglia said.

Adam Sattler, who does booking, marketing and promoting for the Ottawa Tavern, said  the venue’s attendance keeps improving and that touring acts making stops in Toledo often comment on the positive response they get from locals.

“The other thing that I see is sort of a disappearing of a generational gap,” Sattler said. “Some of these older guys that have been in the music scene for a long time — Jimmy Danger, Dave Piciutto, guys like that — come out and support the younger bands, and the younger bands go out and support these guys. I think that more than anything as far as camaraderie goes, I’ve noticed that in the last, say, six months or a year.”

Tartaglia has noticed support on nights which typically do not draw big crowds, nights like the Tuesday he played saxophone at Manhattan’s.

“It was my friend’s 21st that night, and I brought my sax and was playing and it was, like, ass-packed in there by midnight on a Tuesday night,” Tartaglia said. “I was absolutely shocked that’s even happened on a Tuesday in Toledo.”

DIY effort

Sattler said more local bands are producing and promoting their material.

“GOLD and Mind Fish, they do it right,” Sattler said. “Just with this show, they didn’t wait for us as the venue to create a Facebook event. They did it, and they want to self-promote. The difference between the bands that promote themselves and [the bands that] don’t is one band plays to 200 people and the other plays to 50.”

Tartaglia credits that promotion as a big factor in how this summer has gone for Mind Fish, GOLD and Tropic Bombs.

“It’s the energy of the promotions going into the show because I’ve known a lot of bands that have a lot of great energy and bands that draw well over the past some-odd years,” Tartaglia said. “I know GOLD and Tropic Bombs — I’m sure they’d say the same about us — just the amount of promotion that goes into it, it’s hyped up. There’s a lot of buzz and we all know that, but we’re still real dedicated, real professional about what we’re doing.”

Beyond the promotion, GOLD used Garage Band to self-produce its 2010 six-song EP.

“It’s a pretty simple program, but you can move really fast with it,” GOLD bassist Tom Martin said. “That’s not a plug for Apple, though. I’m glad we did it ourselves because of the problems with some of the early bands me, Zach and Jacob [Czerniejewski were in]. When we went into a recording studio, you’re on the clock and it’s not a very comfortable atmosphere, and the technology has become more affordable.”

That affordability is one of the pluses Sattler highlighted for local musicians.

“In a city like Toledo, a band can get a record made for half the cost of what they can do it anywhere else, and you’ve got people doing it,” Sattler said. “I know GOLD recorded theirs on their own. Thirty Three and 1/3 just put an album out. I know that bands aren’t having to pay what they used to, and so I think Toledo’s really good for that. And not to mention, we’re surrounded by five great music markets that these bands can head out for a weekend and do a show in Columbus, or Cleveland or Detroit.

“Toledo’s a great place for a band to start.”

Irons in the fire

Mind Fish, GOLD and Tropic Bombs all have future, full-length albums in the works. While each band has its own distinctive sound, they all try to make the live shows as fun and energetic as possible.

“I think that’s what the three of us bands have in common,” said Ruetz, who at 24 has been playing music with Martin and Czerniejewski for eight years. “It’s all really positive stuff, and I think we need that right now in these times, in the recession and everything. People want to be entertained.”

Tropic Bombs vocalist Ryan Wayton echoed Ruetz’s sentiments in a July interview with Toledo Free Press Star.

“We all feel this resurgence, which is what we wanted out of the music scene,” Wayton said. “I feel like a lot of the people — like the fans and friends and stuff — are having a good time. A lot of them I think just embrace it because it takes them back to the old days with Promise of Tomorrow and stuff like that from what they’ve told me. It’s great.”

Tartaglia said Mind Fish plans to play in 15 different cities during the next two months with the ultimate goal being to do local spotlights on 89X. The band is aiming for a January release of its new album and will soon launch its new website — themindfish.com — as well as a Kickstarter.com project to try and produce hard copies of the new record.

“I just hope it keeps spreading exactly how it is right now, just little by little,” Tartaglia said. “I don’t think I can ask for anything more.”

Mind Fish, GOLD and The Strong Talk will perform a free show Aug. 27 at the Ottawa Tavern, located at 1815 Adams St. in Toledo. The show starts at 10 p.m. In addition to the concert being Tartaglia’s 21st birthday, Mind Fish will release two new songs off its upcoming album that show attendees can pick up for any price they choose, including for free. The band will also have new, $10 T-shirts available, while GOLD may play some new tunes as well. For more information, call (419) 725-5483, or visit http://otavern.com.

Tags: Adam Sattler, Gold, Mind Fish, Ottawa Tavern, TED, The FIght Within, Tropic Bombs

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 at 9:08 am and is filed under In Concert, Music, Star.
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Jayson and Sarah Benn owe a passion for music to their 3-year-old daughter Suzi. The husband and wife duo from Akron left separate bands to form Shivering Timbers after they started putting nursery rhymes to music to entertain their daughter.

The result is their debut album “We All Started In The Same Place.” Jayson provides backing vocals and plays guitar and banjo, and Sarah sings lead vocals and plays upright bass and banjo. Family friend Dan Auerbach, frontman for The Black Keys, produced the album in his Akron studio after the couple performed at his 30th birthday party.

Shivering Timbers

“The birth of our daughter made the band,” Sarah Benn said. “We weren’t playing together until then. You spend a lot of time trying to entertain a baby. She had an embroidery piece on the wall with ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’ on it. Jayson grabbed her toy ukulele and we started stomping and dancing around like a couple of monkeys, howling the lyrics over and over. I liked the way it sounded. That’s how we wrote our first song ‘Evening Prayer.’”

Most of the other songs on the album developed from entertaining Suzi.

“I wrote ‘Noble Duke of York’ while I was changing her diaper,” Benn said. “I wrote another song while I was nursing her. It was a period of creation. It came in weird ways. Another one was getting puked on.”

With such a musical upbringing, it’s no surprise Suzi is learning multiple instruments.

“She has instruments all over the house,” Benn said. “There’s always a little parade in our house with banging out rhythms and being silly. It’s just what we love to do, and it’s what she’s learning to love to do.”

Suzi stays with her grandparents when the band hits the road, but she could eventually replace drummer Brad Thorla and tour with her parents.

“When she comes to the basement when we’re doing rehearsals, Brad is really nice,” Sarah said. “He loves Suzi. He lets her drum. Sometimes she’ll sing. She gets to be the frontwoman for Shivering Timbers down in the basement. That’s the running joke in the band. Brad calls Suzi his future replacement. It would be awesome if she’s good enough in a few years and she wants to.”

“That’s always been the plan,” Thorla said. “I’m just the fill-in drummer until she can play shows with them. I’m alright with that.”

Thorla can’t make the band’s July 30 show at the Ottawa Tavern, but Suzi isn’t ready to step in yet. They have a friend filling in on drums, but Sarah and Jayson do occasionally perform as a duo. The band’s debut album was recorded before the band had a drummer. With Thorla playing drums, the band’s second album is shifting to a more adult sound.

“We have been leaning a lot more toward a darker, more adult album,” Benn said. “We’ve all come into our own and found our sound. I’m really excited about the next album. I can’t wait to make it. It’s much more powerful and stirring.”

The band plans to start recording the album in January before starting its first tour of Europe in March. Benn said the band is considering running a Kickstarter.com campaign to raise money for the next album.

“We’re really broke,” she said. “We’re totally working our butts off. Jayson has a job, and the band makes a little money, but it goes right out the door for all the equipment and travel. It’s expensive to be in a band. We’re totally independent. Every move we make comes out of our pockets. We have a mortgage and a child. We’re trying to make it all happen.”

Shivering Timbers plays at 10 p.m. July 30 at the Ottawa Tavern, 817 Adams St. Visit ShiveringTimbersMusic.com for more information.

Tags: Ottawa Tavern, Shivering Timbers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 at 4:52 pm and is filed under In Concert, Music, Star.
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