Introduction to Home

So....With all the free time I've had since the hostile takeover of my livelihood, the Alive! (at this point Columbus' foremost experts on blood-sugar raising martinis), I've decided to get back to what's most important. And that is, by all means necessary, booking my favorite bands at my favorite clubs.

By some freak coincidence my correspondence with Oneida's Kid Millionaire resulted in learning about an open date on Home's tour schedule. For those who don't know, and I realize there are a lot of you, Home (whom I now regard as my favorite band on the planet) should be (in an alternate universe) as big as the Flaming Lips. They've existed in one form or another, on the periphery of indie culture, since 1991. If you are lucky enough to own their first 8 albums on tape (let me know) I want them dearly. It wasn't until 1995 that a mass majority of the population got to hear what the Tampa, Florida natives had concocted in late nights alone with the 8-track.

Relativity Records??? released Home IX. I was 18. Their song "My Friend Maurice" was tacked onto the end of a free CMJ disc that I bought with the "journal" at Troy's Little Professor Bookstore. My friends and I immediately scoured Dayton record stores for the album even though it was impossible to find. I can easily say that their, lo-fier than Pavement, aesthetic was a major influence on my band, 84 Nash.

Anyone that eventually discovered their subsequent records (more on that later) will find that this first taste has all the hallmarks the band developed later on; the highly orchestrated children's anthems, the 2-track sing-a-longs, the instrumental Zappa-influenced freak-outs, and more importantly their penchant for perfect pop.

To say that IX is the band just fucking around may be true (they were still young and living in Florida), for later in thier career they developed their idiosyncracies into something grander. I never noticed before but this album includes a twenty minute ("day in life") field recording of the band singing along to backing tracks, making jokes about pot brownies in the van, buying cigarettes, and eventually playing a off-the-cuff song about vampires for a late-night talk-radio personality. It's brilliant; worth the price of the disc alone (if you can find it). That's another story in itself.

This I will post again and again -- HOME is playing at Cafe Bourbon St. June the 17th with Times New Viking and another TBA. (Hopefully Moviola, the only other Home fans in town). You must be there.