>Metal innovation = faster guitar players and deeper bass drums 

 

Actually I was quite surprised by what all has happened since I started listening to metal again about three years ago.  A few entirely new musical approaches have now become cliches, such as "stuttering" double-bass during what I call "white noise" thrash segments.  This I find to be actually quite interesting, with there being no pattern and no respect for context.  Of course this was done in experimental jazz decades ago as well as by some contemporary orchestral composers and flamenco 100+ yeas ago.

 

But the major new metal subgenre to emerge in the last 10 years is Stoner Metal, a subgenre launched almost entirely by Kyuss, who at their peak were opening for White Zombie circa 1995, so in other words never got that big.  The genre now has about 10 major bands like Sleep, High on Fire, and in Athens there was a band called Jacknife who unfortunately broke up and were succeeded by Olympus Mons who just recently broke up last fall.  Also I used to regularly play the 4 song EP by Slo Burn, the only recording made by a band made of ex-Kyuss members whose entire existence lasted only for two dozen Ozzfest '97 second stage appearances.  Nevertheless the EP goes for over $30 on Ebay and nearly got me two noise violations at the hands of APD's officer Lushbaugh.     

 

I think metal has a relevant future both in stoner and the speed-political realm ala Megadeth.  I mean, Dave Mustaine HATES the government.  I like songs about the devil and all that but Megadeth's lyrics from the 80's were often a step or two ahead, or at least abreast of some of the contemporary anti-capitalist, anti-authority academic theory, and I doubt Dave or any of them ever went to college.  Another legit topic for metal is mental illness, depression, et al, as practiced by cultural treasure Ozzy.   

 

   

This has nothing to do with this thread, but I was watching House on Fox the other night and there is a guy named ColDayMan on the show.  It was pretty funny.

And C-Dawg can go back to making cheezy videos that if anyone replays in front of him in five years, he'll strangle them.

 

I take it you saw my dating show?

 

No, it never made it to Baton Rouge.

Nor to my computer.

  I can't believe I actually read every post in this!!  You all had some great points on the rappers...but we all know when D Ali G breaks it down, you can't compare....and my sources tell me that he was conceived in a Denny's parking lot in Parma....I guess the Cleveland area wins!

no offense to Cincy , but i think cleveland is the spot to be for Hip Hop , there is so much unseen talent floating around , dont get me wrong  im sure there is musicians just as good in Columbus and Cincy but it seems to me like cleveland is getting more exposure in the hip hop scene . There was a show on MTV about underground hip hop and most of the show was filmed at the Metropolis in the Flats , Other artist not from Cleveland are showing the land some love too , just listen to the song Clevelands Back by G Units Stat Quo with Chamillionaire , And Lets not forget about Ray Cash who runs with them UGK Boys (Legends of the Rap Game) I heard that Ray Cash is Pimp C's Cousin but im not sure if thats true , Check out www.raycash.com and watch the bumpin my music video , he definatly shows love to cleveland . And lets not forget about DJ Mick Boogie and Dj Joey Fingaz 2 nationally known DJ's . And what about the Kickdrums , 2 very respected beatmakers who have done beats for 50 , Young Jeezy , SLim thig , Nas , And Jay .    Cleveland Hip Hop is gonna be on top real soon trust me . 

I didn't see the show but automatically, because it was MTV, it means they don't know what they're talking about.  MTV is for teenagers who are even bigger suckers for image than the general population.  No show on MTV or VH1 or even anything on TV ever talks about the nuts and bolts of playing music, writing songs, recording, or any of that.  Bands just, well, appear out of nowhere on MTV and their songs come out of thin air.  Sometimes "artists" on CMT will talk briefly about the lyrical inspiration for a song, but again where the chords came from, the instrumentation, and the approach in the studio is just never comes up.  Even with VH1's "Behind the Music", all they talk about is the band's personal ups and downs, not their various musical phases. 

 

Oh, and click here for Ohio's most outrageous noise artist:

 

http://www.lesliekeffer.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was that MTV dance show that was aired sometime in '95 or '96? I remember going to those at King's Island.

For me, I'd say my favorite Ohio Band is Cobra Verde.

no offense to Cincy , but i think cleveland is the spot to be for Hip Hop , there is so much unseen talent floating around , dont get me wrong  im sure there is musicians just as good in Columbus and Cincy but it seems to me like cleveland is getting more exposure in the hip hop scene . There was a show on MTV about underground hip hop and most of the show was filmed at the Metropolis in the Flats , Other artist not from Cleveland are showing the land some love too , just listen to the song Clevelands Back by G Units Stat Quo with Chamillionaire , And Lets not forget about Ray Cash who runs with them UGK Boys (Legends of the Rap Game) I heard that Ray Cash is Pimp C's Cousin but im not sure if thats true , Check out www.raycash.com and watch the bumpin my music video , he definatly shows love to cleveland . And lets not forget about DJ Mick Boogie and Dj Joey Fingaz 2 nationally known DJ's . And what about the Kickdrums , 2 very respected beatmakers who have done beats for 50 , Young Jeezy , SLim thig , Nas , And Jay .     Cleveland Hip Hop is gonna be on top real soon trust me . 

 

No offense to anyone but the current hip-hop scene in Ohio is Columbus without question.  The whole DipSet shit, that annoying little brat from Reyonldsburg, and those two annoying-ass DJs pretty much put Columbus in the top position, currently.  Cleveland is generating a buzz with Ray Cash (he's okay, but still nuthin yet) along with Krayzie's "emanicpation" return but still not at top yet.  Cincinnati arguably has Ohio's most pronounced artist in the game right now, Hi-Tek, and that alone puts Cincinnati in a class of hip-hop.

 

But for now...Columbus is top dog...until somebody blows up.

Hip-Hop is dying anyway; in fact almost literally. really, who cares.

Hip-hop...dying?  So is rock dead, then?  Is country singing the blues?

 

If anything, hip-hop is evolving.

hip hop doesn't evolve. its a pattern of new artists that soon die.

 

Rock has kind of taken over in the past few years. It is more popular with younger people where Hip-Hop once ruled. Hip-Hop was such a junior high thing for me and my peers. I know very few people who are still interested in it.

lets set things straight lol . Columbus isnt responsible for the whole dipset crew, only one member is from columbus and that is Camron , dont get me wrong there music is ok but he dont even rep columbus at all he claims harlem , Ohio needs to do what Atlanta did to Georgia , Think about it Ohio could be a major player in the rap scene, Theres talent brewing in Cincy Columbus and Cleveland , I go to alot of hip hop shows and theres so many people that have the talent they just need to get known , Im a very big supporter of Local Music and i think more people need to be too . Without us we cant make it happen for Ohio!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

And i heard bone is putting a new cd out , most of the songs are produced by three 6 mafia (so i read on there website a while back) Minus Bizzy , and i dont know if flesh n bone is still locked up

"hip hop doesn't evolve. its a pattern of new artists that soon die."

 

Don't be silly - they don't die, they just take each other out  :shoot:

 

Just KIDDING!!!  :-D

SHe's not a hip hop artist but Cheri Dennis (not sure about how to spell her first name) is from Cleveland and I think there is another female R&B artist who has a single with Missy Eliott out is also from here. Also the rap group "216" is also poised to make a major label debut.

I know Cincinnati has Tocka, but I'm not sure how big he is nationally.

 

As far as hip hop being dead its far from it. Its the number one genre right now. Colday is right it is evolving, only certain parts of it are dying (some argue the "Crunk" subgenre is declining for example), but overall hip hop is healthy.

what about avant he's a famous r and b singer from cleveland

^Oh yeah Don't know how I forgot about him :-D. We also have Gerald Levert, though he hasn't put out an album in a while.

What was that MTV dance show that was aired sometime in '95 or '96? I remember going to those at King's Island.

 

Oh, I just remembered ... It was MTV's "The Grind" that was at King's Island.

>What was that MTV dance show that was aired sometime in '95 or '96? I remember going to those at King's Island.

 

It was The Grind hosted by yo! yo! Eric Niece, probably the absolute first star of Reality TV from MTV's Real World season 1.  I remember they had several "The Grind" dances at Waterworks, I am embarassed to admit I went with some girl from Northwest High School in June or July of 1995.  They were on Friday nights and ran from about 8pm-11pm.  It was totally stupid, there of course was no alcohol, and had little to do with the actual show.  The funniest thing I remember from it was the trashy 16 year-old Kings High School (that's an educated guess) girls dancing in their bikinis under the kiddie pool mushroom fountain.  I remember that already by 1995 House of Pain and Cypress Hill were in retro rotations, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Ice T, Easy E, etc., were totally off the retro radar.  In fact the Beastie Boys were incredibly uncool, relegated to a cellar only a half notch above Vanilla Ice's.  Both 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. were no big deal at the time, it's so funny to me how entire industries have been built around both of those guys since then, I didn't think either were exceptionally good then or now.  So, in 35 years, when Sean Combs is hosting the 103rd annual Billboard Awards, are we going to have to put up with him yet again dimming the lights and conducting a 45-piece string section in honor of his fallen comrade?           

 

^Well apparently it took me 10 minutes to write that post.

I remember it being fun, however one night I got punched in the jaw by some random person. When I turned around there was no one to blame except a ton of people dancing. BTW, there was plenty of alcohol there, maybe not sold, but it was there ...

^Well damn.  I do remember it being somewhat tense, but that could have just been me.  I think I remember some dude briefly stealing my woman out on the big dancing patio.  Then I fumbled the ball back at her mom's apartment later.  Geesh, thanks for bringing back all these great memories! 

hip hop doesn't evolve. its a pattern of new artists that soon die.

 

Rock has kind of taken over in the past few years. It is more popular with younger people where Hip-Hop once ruled. Hip-Hop was such a junior high thing for me and my peers. I know very people who are still interested in it.

 

I know very people who are still interested in it.

 

Well, knowing your demographic, that doesn't surprise me.

 

Again, it is foolish to even think hip-hop isn't evolving.  One must look at the Gnarls Barkleys and Andre 3000s to see.

Gnarls Barkley is R&B.

It is definately not R&B.

 

Unless you call Kelly Clarkson "rock."

>Metal innovation = faster guitar players and deeper bass drums 

 

But the major new metal subgenre to emerge in the last 10 years is Stoner Metal, a subgenre launched almost entirely by Kyuss, who at their peak were opening for White Zombie circa 1995, so in other words never got that big.  The genre now has about 10 major bands like Sleep, High on Fire, and in Athens there was a band called Jacknife who unfortunately broke up and were succeeded by Olympus Mons who just recently broke up last fall.  Also I used to regularly play the 4 song EP by Slo Burn, the only recording made by a band made of ex-Kyuss members whose entire existence lasted only for two dozen Ozzfest '97 second stage appearances.  Nevertheless the EP goes for over $30 on Ebay and nearly got me two noise violations at the hands of APD's officer Lushbaugh.   

 

 

Just an FYI...Kyuss dissolved into Queens of the Stone Age, who are about 5 albums deep on a major label.  They are huge.  There are lots of derivatives of Kyuss out there.  They may be regarded as the forefathers of stoner rock, but Monster Magnet was doing in in 1991 and so were others.

 

Oh and my favorite Ohio musicial is the genious of Robert Pollard and all 30 of his side projects including GBV.

^Yeah I know that guy is in Queens but they don't really sound like Kyuss.  And what I like about Kyuss is how dumb the lyrics are, the dudes were definitely even dumber than the guys from AC/DC.  I mean, it's not every day someone comes up with:

 

you don't seem to understand the deal,

I don't give two sh*ts on how you feel,

you're burned by my lighter,

you've been burned by my lighter,

yeah my lighter is held down by my thumb

 

In Ohio metal news Skeletonwitch is touring next month, their following is getting pretty substantial and some people in the know are saying they're on the verge of gettting signed.

 

>As far as hip hop being dead its far from it. Its the number one genre right now.

 

Actually country as a genre has been the biggest for decades although country nose-dived in the late 90's.  The new country acts are mostly a bunch of jokes.  The way everything is being recorded and the way bands ("artists") are being presented is just ridiculous.  I went to the Country Hall of Fame in Nashville recently and it was a rip-off museum.   

 

I went to the Country Hall of Fame in Nashville recently and it was a rip-off museum.   

Well, Nashville has been ripping off Memphis since the 1930s.  It's one of the few thing they know how to do there in Nashville.

Alright, a new Ohio band has renewed my interest in hip hop. they play to packed crowds now and are gaining a strong following; Soundscape. Lots of jazz influences. One of my friends is in the band. Check out sample tracks on these sites:

 

http://www.myspace.com/soundscape

http://www.soundscape-music.net/

Wild Cherry - Mingo Jct.

I went to the Country Hall of Fame in Nashville recently and it was a rip-off museum.   

Well, Nashville has been ripping off Memphis since the 1930s.  It's one of the few thing they know how to do there in Nashville.

 

How is it a rip-off museum?  My in-laws often suggest it as a place to go when we're in Nashville.  I have never really been that interested (Johnny Cash is the only thing about country that I find interesting).

 

Nashville thinks that Memphis is one step up from Haiti. 

I went to the Country Hall of Fame in Nashville recently and it was a rip-off museum.   

Well, Nashville has been ripping off Memphis since the 1930s.  It's one of the few thing they know how to do there in Nashville.

 

How is it a rip-off museum?   My in-laws often suggest it as a place to go when we're in Nashville.  I have never really been that interested (Johnny Cash is the only thing about country that I find interesting).

 

Nashville thinks that Memphis is one step up from Haiti. 

 

Guess what came first?  "Beale St" or "Musicians Row." 

Beale St begats Musicians Row by 30 years...minimum.

What came first....The Orphium Theatre or the Grand Ole Opry?

The Orphium...by 40 years!

 

Beale Street was the first "urban" home for Blues.  Nashville knew they weren't going to attract the black population like Memphis did, so they focused on "hillbilly" music by the rural whites living in the Appaliachians and molded that into Country Music.

 

That's why I call Nashville a rip-off city.

 

 

The Black Keys are from Akron.  Their third album was named Rubber Factory; a tribute to their home town.

 

 

>How is it a rip-off museum?

 

It's $20 and it only took 45 minutes to walk through.  There is a dearth of actual historic objects.  They've got a dozen or so guitars, a few other instruments and some costumes, Elvis's Lincoln, another cool car, a nice cascading fountain and some palm trees in the lobby, and that's pretty much it.  You can see looking at the back of the building that there are provisions for an expansion, but what's there now is small and hardly comprehensive.   

 

Disastrously, there are sound booths and songs coming from all directions.  I remember at one point getting pretty angry and coming close to just walking out the door when I heard Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors" playing in the wash of 3 or 4 other songs and a bunch of kids running around.  It's a song about abject poverty, about the futility of materialism, and then there's some pesky 19 year-old slick hair cheese stick with headset and twang and hands gesturing just so leading a tour group around.  What's lost in such a tidy museum is what the heck is behind the strength of the truly countless fantastic classic country songs, which is poverty, loneliness, wandering, alcohol, drugs, gambling, domestic violence, getting even, prison, and running from the law.  There are scores of little light-up "interactive" booths for people to watch video clips you can see on YouTube for free, but no place where you can touch and play real instruments, or even any explanation of the evolution of the many instruments used in country, especially ones mostly unique to it like the mandolin, pedal steel, and resonator guitar.       

 

You aren't going to come out of that museum much better informed than if you spent the same amount of time on Wikipedia following links.  Amazingly a few of the bars on Broadway actually do have good live music most nights, this is definitely a solid place to go because there are no covers and you can jump to another place if where you're at is getting too crowded.  With the big money rolling into town, the Broadway strip only has maybe 5 years to live, a new Westin Hotel will be tearing down a block next year.  About half of these bands cater to tourists and wear rockabilly outfits but almost all of the bands are at least good.  Personally I recommend Robert's or the place directly across the street from it whose name I can't remember right now. 

 

A hearty late-night youtube find:

 

 

This is Skeletonwitch's 3rd or 4th show, I was at this and the back of my head shows up several times in the video, esp at the end where I'm the person closest to the camera clapping.  The bass player (the guy with his shirt off) was shortly after kicked out of the band, he is a real tough dude and worked as the doorman at The Junction. 

^^^ That was really cool!

Here's another one from 2004 from the Heroes of History, formerly known as The Pullouts.  Unfortunately they were threatened with a lawsuit by some other band called The Pullouts.  Their name change loosely correspoded with their move from Athens to Columbus.   

 

 

Not a fantastic song or video, but still better and more fun than most of the junk out there.  Plus this song features what is apparently an entirely made-up word, "dulunirary", a combination of delineate and lunar. 

Gang I dabbled in Imovie a little tonight, I put together a pair of videos of Ohio's most ferocious rock group, We March.  I have photographed about 7 or 8 of their performances since 2002 and seen another 15 or so.  They are a truly crushing group, I'm not sure how much that comes across on these low-fi files.  If you like The Stooges, Black Flag, Black Sabbath, Black Eyed Peas, etc., you'd like these guys.  Of all the live music I've seen in my life, these guys have put on some of the most devestating performances I've been witness to, the songwriting is fantastic and the musicianship is 9 out of 10 at worst.  If by some divine act these guys were given 5 minutes on national TV, it would truly change things. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjbTxiqqGYE

 

In case you're wondering, the singer cut himself up with a broken bottle in the b&w photos, it was the real deal.  Also earlier that night I had gone to a massive party with my buddy Andrew where we randomly met up with the girl wearing the white rabbit fur coat.  So what I'm saying is I'm indirectly responsible for the coat arriving on the premesis.  That night they performed as The Stooges, so it was pretty intense, despite the crowd not really knowing the songs.     

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ37uo9NYlI

 

 

(in)camera

the greenhorns

jake speed and the freddies

 

 

I kinda like Write Me Off

(on a sunny March morning......)

fun website

http://wemarch.net

Here are some pics I took of Gil Mantera's Party Dream last Saturday at Skully's in Columbus.  Unfortunately Ultimate Donny killed one of those $26 bottles of Jack before taking the stage and spent the majority of the night just curled up in a ball, emerging on one occasion to sing an a capella version of that song from around 1992 "I'm going Hungry" sung by Temple of the Dog.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

nice colday-cdawg hiphip battle royale discussion, i got a little bit of observation to add.

 

ohio-wise, all i can say i have seen advertized around in manhattan and the borough ghettos lately -- as far as being visibly active and having shows and cd's around and like that -- is dj hi-tek and ray cash. and john legend of course. also, cam'ron may have taken a piss in columbus at one point, but you would never know it if you didn't read it on this thread.

 

fwiw - all this other ohio music mentioned above i don't recall seeing anything of recently, so it isn't getting the word out in any big way i have seen out here (like in advertising for club shows or music shop ads). not that some of them care. and not that i see/hear everything of course. you guys are talking more underground anyway, but work-related i do get to hear popular hiphop music all the time and do get around town a lot.

 

for the record personally i like all kinds of music, just recently i got the older-guy-like-me-friendly downtempo various 'the world is gone' & rizza's 'afro samurai' (havent listened to that yet). since my spouse cant stand stuff like various (although she likes wu and rza, but who doesnt?) we also have some brit-pop like lily allen (chick music) and mika (totally gay/abba/queen) playing - heh! no newer ohio stuff tho.

 

fyi - various hater on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1F9Pg1bE4

and rza's: http://www.afrosamurai.com/

 

 

 

 

Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs, The Twilight Singers, The Gutter Twins, etc. - OK, lives in LA and New Orleans now, but he's from Hamilton originally)

Ryan Adcock

The Great Depression

Finding harmony in life's struggles

Bone shows strength in comeback

Sunday, May 06, 2007

John Soeder

Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic

A new major-label record deal. A star-studded new album. And an off-the-hook new single.

 

Whatever happened to Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, you ask? They went big-time. Again.

 

"I really feel like it's a brand new start for us," says Layzie Bone. "The buzz feels like it did a decade ago."

 

 

Ah, yes, the good old days, when this homegrown group put Cleveland on the hip-hop map. Bone's 1995 debut album, "E. 1999 Eternal," sold more than 6 million copies, bolstered by the chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning smash "Tha Crossroads."

 

Those rapid-fire raps. Those sing-song cadences. Those sweet harmonies. Nobody had ever heard anything quite like Bone.

 

The group all but dropped off the map in recent years, however, beset by personnel issues and shifting record-company priorities.

 

"I never thought we had reached the end of the road," says Layzie, whose real name is Steven Howse. "When the buzz was dying down, I felt the desperation. But did I think it was over? Never. . . . I got too much willpower."

 

In the midst of a coast-to-coast promotional blitz, Layzie, Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone headline a concert Tuesday night at House of Blues, the same day their new album, "Strength & Loyalty," comes out. It boasts guest appearances by Mariah Carey, Bow Wow, Twista, the Game, will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas and others.

 

Bone collaborated with superstar Akon on the album's leadoff single, "I Tried," a straight-up slice of inner-city life.

 

"We had been running into Akon all the time," says Krayzie, alias Anthony Henderson. "We'd be like, Man, we gotta do something together.' He was like, Yeah, come down to Atlanta, let's knock it out.' We finally took him up on the offer."

 

Page 2 of 7

Good move. "I Tried" is Bone's first Top 10 national hit since "Tha Crossroads." Over a mellow piano groove, Krayzie raps:

 

I'm just a black man

 

And I come from the dark side

 

 

So I'm having a hard time staying on track, man

 

My mind be racing

 

And I don't even know what I'm chasing

 

"We hadn't heard anything but the beat, and it was like, 'This sounds like the one,' " Krayzie says. "When Akon put the hook down, we were like, 'This is the one.' Then we put our verses down and it was like, 'BAM!' Now the song is doing what it's doing."

 

The video for "I Tried," shot this past winter on location in Cleveland, is airing on BET and MTV.

 

"We're definitely blessed to be still in the game," says Wish, aka Charles Scruggs, the only Bone member who still resides here. Krayzie lives in Los Angeles and Layzie lives in Atlanta. They're all in their early 30s.

 

"It's not a big deal," Wish says of their lack of proximity. "If we need to get together with the family and throw a barbecue or whatever, we can just jump on a flight, or we all drive and meet up in one place."

 

Page 3 of 7

'We're relevant

 

and we're back'

 

Their latest album is coming out via a freshly inked deal between Bone, producer Swizz Beatz's Full Surface Records and Interscope Records, home to such hip-hop heavy-hitters as Eminem and 50 Cent.

 

 

Beatz, whose previous clients include everyone from Beyonce to Jay-Z to T.I., is a longtime Bone fan.

 

"Their music felt like cult music back in the day, especially when you listened to the albums," Beatz says. "Some people were into the singles, 'First of tha Month' and so on, which is cool. But listen to 'Mr. Ouija' [a cut off Bone's 'Creepin' On Ah Come Up' EP] and you're like, 'What the hell is this?' "

 

He was impressed by how efficient Krayzie, Layzie and Wish were in the recording studio.

 

"They went in, knocked out however many songs and never complained," Beatz says. "They just stuck to the script."

 

Bone manager Steve Lobel declined to discuss specific terms of the group's new contract.

 

"It's a very lucrative deal, with a great recording budget, a great marketing budget and a great promotion budget," Lobel says. "Jimmy Iovine [president of Interscope] told everybody there we're a No. 1 priority, and I'm seeing we're a priority.

 

"We're on the radio. We're on TV. We're on the newsstands. We couldn't have asked for more.

 

Page 4 of 7

"We're relevant. We're current. And we're back."

 

Truth be told, these guys never really left. They just fell off the fickle pop-culture radar.

 

Their back story reads like a rap fairy tale. A group of teenagers from the neighborhood of East 99th Street and St. Clair Avenue went from selling drugs to selling 12 million recordings, after they took a bus from Cleveland to Los Angeles in 1993 and auditioned over the phone for N.W.A.'s Eazy-E, head of Ruthless Records.

 

 

He produced "Creepin' On Ah Come Up," which came out in 1994. The following year, Eazy-E died of complications from AIDS.

 

"After the guy who had been guiding their career passed away, nobody really knew which way to go," Beatz says.

 

"E. 1999 Eternal" was followed by two other Top 5 albums, "The Art of War" (1997) and "BTNHResurrection" (2000). Between group projects, Bone members kept busy with solo careers.

 

Then came the lean years. Singles failed to crack the charts, while the albums "Thug World Order" (2002) and "Thug Stories" (2006) fell short of the platinum sales of Bone's previous efforts.

 

Lobel blames insufficient record-company support for the commercial dry spell. After a long run on Ruthless, Bone was briefly signed to Koch, an independent label.

 

"Bone never stopped making incredible records," Lobel says. "The world just didn't get to hear them sometimes.

 

"There were a lot of issues with the previous companies. People didn't want to put up the money to do certain things, so you didn't get the right exposure."

 

Page 5 of 7

A huge "Strength & Loyalty" banner hangs outside Nikki's, the landmark record shop on Cleveland's East Side. Customer interest in the album is running high, says store owner Sanders Henderson (no relation to Krayzie).

 

"We're anticipating a big release," Henderson says. "I think it's going to go over well because they have a lot of guest artists on there."

 

Bone even hooks up with gospel singer Yolanda Adams for "Order My Steps (Dear Lord)," one of Krayzie's favorite new tracks.

 

"It's about how we know we need God to help us through our struggles," he says.

 

Fleetwood Mac is in the house for another standout tune, if only in spirit. "Wind Blow" heavily samples the rock 'n' roll band's oldie "The Chain."

 

More big plans

 

in the works

 

Conspicuous by his absence on "Strength & Loyalty" is founding member Bizzy Bone, on the outs after a series of missed concert appearances and other incidents over the years.

 

Bizzy, whose real name is Byron McCane, has spoken of struggling with alcohol and drugs in the past.

 

"With Bizzy, we tried - we really, really tried - to get dude onboard with everything," Layzie says. "His refusal to cooperate and to roll with how the majority of the group was rolling set us back years."

 

Page 6 of 7

Bizzy and Layzie made a CD together, "Bone Brothers," released in 2005.

 

"That was my initiative to get him closer to Bone again," Layzie says. "He was there for the recording process. But the first show we had, opening for Ice Cube, dude didn't show up. Left me out there high and dry, you feel me?"

 

Bone members say the last straw was when Bizzy opted to back out of their new record deal at the last minute.

 

"He decided to tell us he didn't want to be a part of it, the day we were supposed to sign," Krayzie says. "It made us look stupid all over again. So we said, 'Man, look - we're not about to start this new career with you like this. You go do what you do. Good luck with your life.' "

 

Says Layzie: "After Bizzy refused what Swizz was putting on the table, I was like, 'You got to go about your business, because you're taking food out of my children's mouths.' Don't get me wrong - I love dude to death. I just don't understand what turn his mentality took."

 

Bizzy "likes to be an outcast, make himself look important or something," Wish says. "He's an idiot."

 

Attempts to reach Bizzy for comment through various associates were unsuccessful.

 

"No one can find him," Lobel says.

 

For now, Bone also remains without the services of another founding member, Layzie's older brother Flesh-N-Bone (Stanley Howse). He was sentenced to prison in 2000 for weapons possession, resisting arrest and assault.

 

"He goes up for parole next year," Krayzie says. "He's staying out of trouble. It's really looking good for him."

 

Page 7 of 7

In the meantime, other Bone projects are in the pipeline. Krayzie, Layzie and Wish recently finished shooting an independent film, which imagines what life might be like for Bone if the group had never crossed paths with Eazy-E. The movie likely will be a straight-to-DVD release, Krayzie says.

 

Bone members also have big plans for their own record labels, which they hope will provide launching pads for other artists.

 

One thing Bone won't be doing is heeding the call of Russell Simmons and Benjamin Chavis, co-chairmen of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network advocacy group. In the wake of the Don Imus controversy, Simmons and Chavis issued a statement calling for the recording and broadcast industries to ban the N-word, "bitch" and "ho."

 

Bone always has sprinkled the N-word liberally throughout its albums, and "Strength & Loyalty" is no exception.

 

"It's just a word," Wish says. "If you take offense, maybe that's what you are."

 

The N-word is "part of everyday life," Layzie says. "I probably heard it in the womb. You're told 'Nigga this' or 'Nigga that.' Or 'Li'l nigga, go wash the dishes.' Or 'Li'l nigga, let me see your report card.' It's in black homes. Some people were raised differently, but not the majority of kids running the streets."

 

Bone speaks the same language as its fans, Krayzie says.

 

The N-word "has been around forever, so I don't see that [expletive] changing," he says. "We use profanity. But we ain't really out there talking about bitches or hos. That was never our style.

 

"We're more into socially conscious things, like hard times, living in the 'hood and struggling. Bone is about the struggle. That's why so many people understand and feel our music, 'cause they can relate to what we're talking about."

 

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

 

jsoederplaind.com, 216-999-4562

 

 

http://www.cleveland.com/music/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1178354039234600.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

 

 

 

 

 

Youngstown's finest, Gil Mantera's Party Dream played again in Columbus for Cinco De Mayo at the Don Pablo's in the big shopping center across from OSU.  Ultimate Donny actually showed up in a proper state of mind and body to play this time so the band put on a decent show.   

 

Gil Mantera:

 

Ultimate Donny:

 

 

 

 

 

Special Guest:

 

 

 

Annoying Teenagers:

 

Some recent photos of Dirty Johnny & the Makebelieves, a rock outfit from Athens who have been together since about 2001:

 

 

 

2004(?) in the Athens Lunatic Asylum

 

Fall 2002 at The Union in Athens:

 

Same show with a cameo by Zach Fuller of We March:

 

 

 

 

 

great local punk era article in the peedee today, i love the last quote....except i feel the same way about them - lol!

 

 

Punk rockers rebelled in 1977 with their own 'summer of hate'

Monday, July 09, 2007John PetkovicPlain Dealer Reporter

 

Clouds of pot smoke wafted around the girders of Richfield Coliseum as a mob of stoned worshippers raised their lighters to glorify arena-rock gods.

 

Meanwhile, in a basement on the East Side of Cleveland, the Pagans got drunk and made a punk racket. Rock ’n’ roll was a tale of two venues in 1977 — and the beginning of the end for the hippie ’60s.

 

Ten years after the Summer of Love, punk rockers declared a “summer of hate” in opposition to the peace-andlove hippies.

 

Nowhere was the rejection louder than in Cleveland — even if you had to go to some hole in the wall to hear it. The city is credited, along with New York and London, with spawning punk, with bands such as Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys, Devo, Rocket From the Tombs and the Electric Eels.

 

It was a scene fueled by anger and a desire to do something different — and rebellion against the mainstreaming of ’60s counterculture.

 

“Punks hated hippies, the ’60s, the whole change-the-world thing,” said Mike Hudson, lead singer of 1970s punk band the Pagans. “By the mid- ’70s, the ’60s generation already had a dominant role in the culture, and they were worse than the parents they were rebelling against in setting the agenda.”

 

Hudson, who runs an alterantive weekly in Niagara Falls, N.Y., pointed to the rise of self-important rock stars, a complacent coun terculture and political correctness.

 

To punks, the decline started with the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which came out at the height of the Sum mer of Love.

 

While many see the disc as an artistic triumph, detractors call it an exercise in grandiose pomposity that paved the way for bloated bands that took rock ’n’ roll from the street and into the arena.

 

“By the mid-’70s, everyone was content to get stoned to Led Zeppe

 

lin or listen to WMMS playing Led Zeppelin or go see all these stupid cover bands in bars,” said Hudson. “If you wanted something raw or different, you had nowhere to go.”

 

Well, there was disco, also an al ternative to arena rock. But that was the last place to see a punk.

 

Instead, like the early hippies, punks created their own scenes outside of the mainstream.

 

“We put on our own shows because we couldn’t get booked in clubs, since we didn’t play arena- rock covers,” said Hudson. “Our first show was at a roller rink in Euclid — July 7, 1977 — with Pere Ubu, Devo and the Nerves.”

 

The next week, the rink hosted the Dead Boys — and a riot.

 

“Everyone got out of control,” said Hudson.

 

Losing control is what made punk so vibrant — and yet so vola tile, said Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome.

 

“Hippies had become stoners, like Cheech and Chong,” said Chrome, referring to the pothead comedians. “We were against com placency that had become the ’60s generation.”

 

Rebellion, especially in a work ing-class city that had welcomed arena rock with open arms and rolled joints, was hardly hip. “If you looked different, or ‘punk,’ you were called ‘weirdo’ or ‘fag,’” said Chrome. “Even people who you’d think would have an open mind hated us.”

 

The confrontations only embold ened punks, here and abroad. The Sex Pistols donned fascist and communist emblems, mocked hip

 

pies and bands like Pink Floyd and toured the American South, play ing in redneck bars, because it would be, well, “punk.”

 

After moving to New York, the Dead Boys embraced rude, crude antics, from getting in bar fights to adopting a nihilist attitude. Their “young-loud-and-snotty” image turned them into punk icons — and even earned them a spread in Time magazine, in which they were portrayed as a shock to rock’s staid state.

 

The Pagans embraced confron tation on a more basic level.

 

“We’d play the Pirate’s Cove on the one night when they’d let punk bands play,” said Hudson, refer ring to the now-closed Flats club that was the nerve center of the punk scene. “People would [expletive] with us — but we would kick their [expletive] because we were criminals and we hated them.”

 

The punks won the battle, but not the war — at least not overtly.

 

“Punk was the first public rejec tion of the ’60s and, over time, in fluenced the culture in a way that people see the hypocrisy and fraudulent ideology of the ’60s,” said Hudson. “They’re still in control — people will always talk about the anniversary of the Summer of Love, not the ‘summer of hate.’”

 

That’s not to say Hudson, 50, has “dropped out” of society.

 

“I can’t wait for the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love,” he said. “Because even fewer of them will be around to make a big deal about it.”

 

Still hating after all these years.

 

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter [email protected], 216-999-4556