BG
MUSIC
About The Jist is an online and printed zine which features art, poetry, philosophy and culture articles. The goal for the zine is to connect groups of people to inspire and be inspired. The jist is a place for the thoughtful to think and the thoughtless to reconnect.
Features The BG Music Scene In our 4th issue, we interview a pethora of bands in the Bowling Green. Jist Media Mason is a big fat queen an wrote (pg. 2) St Craptrick’s Day Beer and Mace in Bowling Green (pg. 22)
Featured Artwork
Lounge Sex Music (pg. 13) Welcome to Panranoia (pg. 9) Spit Back Redux (pg. 12) Sin (pg. 3)
Contributors Mason Balistreri
Dan Gerhardstein
Matt Boroff
Coleman Howes
Johnny Shields
Matt Cordy
Connect As more people join the jist, bigger and better things can happen. We will inspire to be inspired: Philosophy will affect art will affect poetry will affect music will affect culture. We will grow and build upon each other. We are an open community - we will listen, we will help, we will grow.
.info
(pg. 4) Big Fat Japan
(pg. 6) Human Cargo
(pg. 20) The Monday Program (pg.10) Midget Finger
William Panksy
Quentin Kilpatrick
Bruno Fugi
Matt Verlei
(pg. 18) Ghetto T
(pg. 14) Hot Damn
Join & Contribute We are always looking for new content to put in the zine. You can email us at thejist.info@gmail. com or register for an account on the website http://thejist.info. Once you register for the site, you are automatically made a contributor - this means you can post content directly for review at any moment. I urge you to do this, the more people we get, the better we will become.
Introducing Jist Media
by Mason Balistreri
A NEW WAY TO EXPLORE FILM AND MUSIC Don’t you wish that all of the bands in this issue had music easily available on the jist website? Well, by the end of march we will be introduing Jist Media. Jist Media will include a web radio station called Jist Radio and also a video service called Jist.tv. Make sure to check out these services at the end of March. Now days, not having video content on a web site is a death sentence - every blog has at least a few youtube videos. However, for the jist, we have something far more interesting planed: a monthly web tv program called Jist.tv. Jist.tv will allow any registered user to summit videos to be played in our webplayer. We want to give all the local film makers a place to distribute their content, as well as give the average user the chance to show us all something interesting.
We want to give all the local film makers a place to distribute their content, as well as give the average user the chance to show us all something interesting. Jist radio is a web radio station that can be played through our own website and iTunes. Jist Radio is unique because we allow any registered user to DJ. That’s right, as long as you have a free account on our website (www. theJist.info) you can stream your music collection to a limitless number of people. This also opens up the possibility of playing indie artists who may not get commercial play.
radio
We also hope to play various podcasts on Jist Radio - or in other words, Jist Radio will not just be an indie web radio station, but rather an open channel for users to create their own radio shows, podcasts, and stations.
Jist Radio will not just be web radio, but rather an open channel for users to create their own radio shows, podcasts, and stations. 02
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Sin by William Panksy
VECTOR
BIG FAT JAPAN by Coleman Howes
DUCEY AND JOSH I had heard word floating around about a band called Big Fat Japan a year or so ago. I thought the name ruled, and I was disappointed when nothing became of the idea. But lo and behold, this fall, in the wake of the great music death of 2007, a three-piece outfit called Big Fat Japan surfaced. And I was psyched. Featuring former members of Liono, The Uncertain Five, and a slew of other bands, Big Fat Japan delivers a thick, heavy kick in the stomach of doom- and stoner metalinjected cock rock. It’s real nice, and it’s definitely the shit to watch in Bowling Green right now.
Ducey: Beer.
D: I came up with the name like a year or so ago. I was really drunk on ancient aged whiskey because I got really into that for a month, and I just blurted “big fat Japan” out one night. Alright, so describe what Big Fat Japansounds like.
Josh: Yeah, beer.
J: Beer.
Beer?
That seems to be the catchall answer.
D: Me and Josh talked about starting a band a while ago. Long story short, me, Nick, and Josh went to West Virginia in Josh’s van to sell someone one of his speaker cabs and the whole time we were pretending to be a band, and I think it kind of dawned on us we should just probably start a band.
J: I dunno, nobody around here has really done what we’re doing. It’s just like pulling together anything that we listen to. Like Cave In and Coliseum. I think that was the initial goal. Basically anything that came out of Boston on that was on Hydrahead.
Who is Big Fat Japan, and why did you decide to start it? Josh: Beer.
J: That’s actually what happened. Then we got lost and there was a red river. D: So West Virginia’s directly responsible. And who was it that came up with the name? 04
D: Or anything that came out of Louisville and was on Auxiliary You and Nick use a lot of vintage equipment. What’s that all about? J: Tone. When it comes down to it, it’s just tone. You can get the same tone out of newer stuff, it just takes a lot more effort. If you find the right
older stuff it’s there. Tell me about your rigs. D: Nick’s guitar is a ’69 Guild m75. J: And he runs it into a tuner which is used as an A/B box. The clean channel goes into a Guild Thunderstar bass head which goes into a Guild 115 cabinet. The other one goes into an old Boss pitch shifter delay which goes into a Sunn O))) studio PA into a Guild 215 and a B52 412. And mine’s a Gibson G3 bass into a tuner as an A/B box into a Sunn O))) concert bass into an Emperor 215 and the other one into a Traynor YBA1 into two Sunn O))) 215s. So pretty much the hugest sounding rig ever. D: Lots of 15s J: Is there an ashtray anywhere? You’ve all been in successful bands before. How is the dynamic of BFJ different from/the same as bands you’ve been in previously?
ing a 7” when we get him good recordings and then we’re going to Louisville eventually to do a full length. In the summer and fall of 2007, there was a sort of mass extinction in the Bowling Green/ Toledo music scene. As much as it sucks, do you think that this has provided an opportunity for a new generation of bands (Big Fat Japan, Human Cargo, Stop Don’t Stop, etc.) to flourish? J: I think so. Also, Manute Bol is part of that. But I think Human Cargo and us are the right group of people to make this town have something happen, as opposed to what it’s been in the past, where it’s pretty much been everybody fending for themselves, going through Broc, and just getting fucked at the end of the day. I think now there are the right people doing things that can make good things happen. D: Yeah, I think now, especially with you guys [Human Cargo], it’s getting better. For a while there, especially at Howard’s over the last year, everything almost became more of a social event on a Friday or Saturday night…
D: I feel like this band feels less forced compared to other ones I’ve been in. When we write songs, things just kind of happen; we all have similar ideas. What I’ve always noticed is that we function like three individuals and one solid unit at the same time.
J: Where you would pay ten dollars to see the same local bands every week and a couple of touring bands and stand around and look cool.
J: It’s more fun and easy.
J: Or a high school football game.
D: Yeah; it’s the easiest band I’ve ever been in.
D: But now I find myself actually wanting to go out (I’m sure being 21 hasn’t hurt either). But I really like to go out and support my friends, and I’m actually interested in what’s going on, which is exciting, because things were really going to shit for a minute there.
What are your plans as a band for the near future? J: Become Guns ‘N’ Roses D: Put out one album every 17 years. J: Write Chinese Democracy for them. D: But really, we just want to take it as far as we can go. J: Basically just have fun. D: Yeah; if it stops being fun, I don’t want to do it anymore. J: Well, we were supposed to go to Louisville to do that this week, but shit got fucked up and we can’t. But Shane from Maravich is record-
D: Like an eighth grade track meet.
J: I’ve always viewed BG as such that the only people who care what’s going on are the people who are in bands, but I think that’s slowly changing, especially if there are going to be more house shows, because people are going to have to get used to paying to see them, and if more people start going and showing interest, it’s going to draw even more people in. Basically, shows are going to become less and less like high school football games because people will actually be interested in the music as opposed to just going because everyone else is. So the future looks bright for music in Bowling Green?
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Human Cargo by Mason Balistreri
ED, JOHN, QUENTIN, COLEMAN I’ve been hovering over this band like a cloud of smoke for several weeks - going to their shows, sitting on their couches, littering their floors with old jist magazines - but most importantly, I have been trying to absorb as much knowledge on the BG Music Scene as possible. Each memember seems to be bring something different to the table, but thier conglomeration of perspectives creates something entirely new yet, at the same time, familiar. Human Cargo has a sound ann an attitude that we can all get behind.
So it seems like over the past couple months, there has been a shuffling of musicians; I’ve heard a lot of people talk about this. How did you four members end up together? John: Skateboarding? Ed: Ha, that‘s exactly how it happened! Skateboarding. Coleman: Yeah, skateboarding and beer. No, but really we had all been in bands together before. Ed: John, Coleman, and I were in a band called the citations at one point.. Quentin: Coleman and I were in a band called Violent Horse Coleman: So yeah, we sort of just realized that all of our bands were dying because people were leaving, so we got together. We wanted something to just fill the void but it’s amazing 06
what can happen when you work. Ed: I wasn’t even in the band at first Quentin: Oh yeah, that’s right, because you were leaving. John: We were just like, “we’re fucked” Ed: We ended up completely different. Bands are never what you plan them to be, we were supposed to be a psyche-rock band. So you all were in band’s together, how do you go on to create a different musical style than the previous band’s you were in? Or in other words, how is human cargo different than your previous bands? Ed: We’re trying way harder. Quentin: It’s sort of all our influences coming in.
Coleman: I think that human cargo has less generic pretense than our other bands. We’re just a loud rock band but violent horse was a math rock band, citations… well the citations were just shitty…
John: Every song has a force behind it; we really try to cut all the fat
John: Well, we were just a crazy completely over the top punk rock band. You know, kick everyone’s ass…
It seems like there is a variety between your taste and style, do you have something that unites you? A common aesthetic? Does the name of the band play into that?
Ed: Human Cargo doesn’t have an easily definable sound or image. John: We haven’t done ska, and we don’t plan on it. Ed: There might be an upstroke or two, but no more no less. Coleman: We just wanna play loud, fun music You try not to limit yourself to one sound? John: yeah, that’s why we switch it up all the time. Coleman: Yeah, if you look at the morphology of our songs – there isn’t really one/ Quentin: They’re rapidly evolving now. Coleman: It’s really liberating not having to play something just because we are this kind of band. Quentin: Switching of the instruments is, like Coleman said, is very liberating. If anyone is having writers block then someone else can write a song. Those are all positive things, but does switching instruments mid-show present any problems? Ed: A little bit. We get heckled a little bit. Quentin: I don’t even think we get heckled – I mean some people have noted it but we don’t stop for too long. John: Yeah, as long as we don’t take a smoke break. Ed: I think the show is good enough that it doesn’t matter if we stop and trade instruments.
Coleman: Switching instruments also catches people off guard for better or for worse.
Ed: The name doesn’t have a real meaning. We could create a meaning after words. Coleman: Our common aesthetic is that we don’t really have one. We are pretty much a no bullshit band. We are just about playing some music and making people have fun. John: I do think thought that for this band I’m writing songs for other people instead of myself. We definitely want to be catchy, but we also have all these other elements that give us an edge. It seems like Human Cargo has exploded onto the scene. Quentin: We had a good 5 months of just solid practice without playing in front of a live audi-
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ence. Once we did though, it was really reinforcing. It can be frustrating for bands not to get feedback. Did you guys use your time together in other bands as a base or common ground for human cargo? John: In the citations Coleman and I were completely dialed. If he had a song, I could pick up the drums. And, we had Ed as our singer. Coleman: Likewise, Quentin and I were dueling guitarist in violent horse. So now we have like this powerhouse where we can crank out and polish songs much faster than before. John: It’s weird too because we all kind of sound the same on guitar but not really. Quentin: I think if there is one thing that links all our styles, then it would be our intensity. Coleman: That’s true for you guys, but my songs fucking sound like blink 182 Quentin: I get all this feedback from people – some people say that the song john played on guitar was the best, some say that the song coleman played was the best, and some people say that the song I played was the best. I think each of our styles hit different people. There is a real dynamic then between the members, but where do you each pull influence from?
John: Swagger. Gotta have swagger. Coleman: The more I think about it, Human Cargo is just a pop-punk band that has too much pride to admit it. John: No! We’re a scenester band. Quentin: No, we’re all townies so our audience is the hipsters but we have always been slightly removed from that. So Ed, I’m interested in where you’re coming from, because all the musicians compare what they listen to, where does your inspiration come from? Ed: I don’t really have a clear idea… I never have a specific musical artist that I draw from when I sing. The vocals are more attached to the emotion of the song than anything else. As far as the lyrics go, I just write about the world and the way I perceive it – which is very very cynically. What’s it like being a band in BG? Ed: ugh… different. John: We started off fast but you gotta hit the road.
John: I come from a real punk base, but also sad-sap music.
Quentin: You really have to hit the ground running.
Coleman: It’s anything for me, whatever shitusic I’m listening to that week is just the shameless inspiration. I don’t know if I ever admitted this but Frost Bite Mutiny is totally based on a Recover song.
Ed: The thing about Bowling Green is that it’s fairly culturally active for a small town but it also does a really good job of shutting itself off from the rest of the civilized world.
John: Hey you never did come clean about that. Ed: Well, basically Coleman is a fucking human sampler. That’s why I want you (Coleman) to start listening to Lil’ Wayne so we can have really ridiculous guitar staffs. John: Ugh, we’re not doing that.
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Quentin: I’m influenced by power cord-heavy sappy punk rock. Brainiac is the only band that I’m gonna name but I like stuff that is catchy but not entirely right.
John: BG does have a good scene though, it’s really tight knit. Quentin: I think we shine best at informal shows. Coleman: Maybe I’m just an optimist but I think that the BG music scene is much better with the rise of these new bands.
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w elcome to:
Paranoia
Welcome to Paranoia by Dan Gerhardstein
MIXED MEDIA
midget finger by Johnny Shields
a quest for fun at fat dans apartment.
Four years of black out drinking and drugs have been the only substitute to trials and tribulations for Midget Finger. Today they are still hitting the road and recording music.
Dan: From the Huron County Creeps!
What was the catalyst to making you guys want to start a band?
Dan: And its been a glorious year and a half.
Mike T: It was… environmentally based.. Dan: The Pollyeyes dishwasher MT: yeah but before that, you know, I was already playing guitar and I hated it, because I always played that, you know shitty kind of punk rock that no one likes. And then our friend Brett Mozena brought Bryan No Sweat back from the army, so I started jamming with him, like right before I was about to throw my guitar away. Dan: Byron would never sweat ever. MT: So I worked at a factory when I met him… and got a DUI, so I was gonna lose my job.. and I went back to work at Pollyeyes and met this asshole (pointing over to fat dan) and he was always singing NoFX lyrics and shit. I wanted to punch him in the face. Dan: But over time… actually over a dispute at the pollyeyes dishwasher.. MT: we figured out we were both douchebags and probably the right kind to hang out together. Dan: and right afterwards he asked he if I had a band, and I told him I played bass. MT: and I was still playing with Byron.. Dan: So that night we went out and partied together and it was for real. But you guys where with Nick Wray (currently recording under the name Dr. Redunkolus) back then.. when did you hook up with Kurt? Dan: yeah I brought him with me that night MT: Nick was out first drummer, but when he left we went though a bunch of drummers… Bob Mckenize from Bigfoot, Mark Terveen 10
MT: yeah, and Fun Juice, but we knew they weren’t permanent, and Kurt liked our stuff.
Are you guys still apart of Roughneck Records? Dan: We are recording with them next week actually. Whats going on with Roughneck now? MT: Not much, too many have succumbed to whats typically happens to people around here, you know, they move away. So then what going on with Roughneck? Dan: They still put out a few records, they are doing ours, and a couple of comps. MT: And they work with other bands to help record them too, and they run the Voodoo, which is up and coming venue. It still hasn’t reached its full potential I don’t think. Whats different about the Voodoo? Kurt: You can do whatever you want. (laughs) Get wasted and throw shit at people or whatever. MT: Its not like theres a bouncer there. Kurt: Exactly! If people are being assholes then the crowd will take care of them. Dan: Yeah, people there know the difference between an antagonist and someone who is just there to buy the ticket and take the ride. MT: Way to throw your Hunter S Thompson quote in there Dan. (all laugh) So as a local group, on a local label, where does the standard of success lie? Dan: Playing shows.
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MT: Its just about having people show up and have fun.
changed. The bands have all changed. We try to find new places to play all the time though.
Dan: I think it’s a success that we have even managed to keep playing. (laughs) that’s a success in itself.
Dan: yeah you have to get out as much as possible.
Whats the future of Midget Finger? Dan: A couple of shows on the West Coast, and that thing in Memphis. MT: Yeah we are playing Memphis music fest. Dan: we will find a way to keep going man. This is how its always been, since we started four years ago. something goes wrong and we will find a answer to it: going though our friends, the people who help us and record us. We are brothers and will find a way to poke though all the clutter. For a band that’s been around for four years, whats changed between then and now?
MT: We played at a Rodeo once, down south of Columbus. Kurt: What was that placed called, Buckaroos? (all laugh) MT: they converted into a BMX spot, but it rained all day so we just played to some rain drenched drunken BMX dudes. Kurt and Dan: That was awesome! MT: But yeah we try to play out as much as we can, house parties are always a plus. Dan: As soon as we stop having more fun than everyone else we’ll quit!
Dan: We still have fun. MT: But its all changed, the people have all
To watch the full interview go to TheJist.info
Spit Back Redux by Matt Boroff
TRADITIONAL PAINTING 12
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Lounge Sex Music by Bruno Fujii
ILLUSTRATION
Hot Damn by Quentin Kilpatrick
an account of beer swilling to swaggerish blues
Its hot as Hell up here, the apartment above the VooDoo Lounge in downtown BG. The boys jump around swilling beer as the girls awkwardly try to avoid the most egregious offenders. The last band ends their set shouting ‘Alcohol on my breath, cigarettes in my heart. Can I get a hell fuckin’ yeah?’
Their last chord is drawn out and finally lost to the crowd. They begin taring down, John and Justin move into the six foot square at the back corner of the room. Justin’s notably minimalist set consists of a kick, a snare, a hihat, crash and a floor tom. He situates his stool and picks up a cracked drumstick, in frustration he quickly breaks it over his knee and grabs a fresh pair. John’s sifting thru his cables, dressd in his best outlaw attire---black cowboy boots, a vest and a red bandana. The people in the crowd sporadically glance over at the amps and drums while a muffled country song is playing thru a bass amp. Once they’re ready, John looks at Justin and they enter into 20 seconds of grinding chaos. He kicks out his cable but no one gasps! Justin holds his rolling beat, John plugs back in and they never missed a beat. Thru the frantic atmosphere, You can hear the blues. but its not some old timey standardized, bastardized blues or for Christ’s sake the Black Swamp headliners you hear once every year. Here its been deconstructed, reworked, maybe purified even in its new raw and youthful intensity. Its like Muddy Waters played by Swedish hardcore metal kids in an Ohio college town. What the fuck? its unfiltered, thru the distorted guitar, the rolling drums and the dancing masses. As their third song enters its final stages some in the crowd start banging on whatever Justins not--the crash, the floor tom. This hardwood floor seems to be giving a little more with every beat..Johns face is reddenning, dripping sweat onto the floor as he focuses on his melody. Toward the end of their set, Justin stands up, grabs his half-broken hihat and parades it thru the crowd as others coalesce around what left standing of his set, bangin on whatevr makes noise. When he marches back to the set, they go into their last hoorah, now fully a group effort. John starts singing ‘Give me Give me Now Now Give me Give me’, which the crowd loyally picks up and starts chanting.. As the attention shifts from the band to the crowd, you can see all those bodies edging closer, packed in like cattle or human cargo for that matter, but they don’t care, they’re enjoying the ride. It’s Beer-swilling, loud fuckin’ blues. 14
Why and how did you guys get started? John: Justin and I were neighbors freshman year in the dorms and I was in a hardcore band but I was listening to a lot of Mitch Rider and Soledad Brothers, Soledad Brothers was a big thing (for me), so I had all these rock’n roll riffs and Justin said that he played drums, and that he was gonna bring his drum set up and put it in his dorm room and I was like ‘Well I’ve got a guitar, let’s play some songs’ and at first I was like..well..just because if you live in the Toledo area, you know that there’s like two or three good drummers. So initially I was like ‘Dude, this guys gonna suck,’ It was too perfect for him to be good. We played a song, ‘Only Want What I Need’, and the first time we played that we havent changed a fuckin thing, we have not changed one thing since the first time we played it. So that first song I just showed it to him and it took him like a minute or two, and then we played it and we got started. I told him, ‘I wanna start a band that plays at parties and plays garage rock’.
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John: Its the only way to put it. When everybody’s plasterd, we do great. But, I mean, I dont think you solely attribute that..But you like playing the house show circuit, so it’s beer and what else? Justin: When I play shows I like people to get into it as much as me, so.. John: Yeah, cause there isnt a stage. We dont like stages. Stages kind of differentiate, like here’s the band, here’s the audience. We’re separate. We’re gonna play for you...Fuck that man. We’re a band of the people (laughter). We are a band that will drink beer with you, smoke cigarettes with you and that its. We don’t need a fuckin stage. Now are alot of your songs covers? or are they orginals?
I definitely pick up that vibe from you guys, you have your intensity when your playing a house show-
John: Yeah, the covers that we do we try to do it.. covers that other people dont do, like we do an MC5 cover, we do a Johnny Cash cover, a Shamshan and the Pharaohs*, a frat rock band from the sixties. There’s a Stooges cover.
John: Yeah, when everyone’s drunk.
Justin: We do a Neil Young cover.
Hah, that might be one way of putting it.
John: Well thats the Shamshan and the
Pharoahs*, that’s um Farmer John. Actually I figured that we should play that when I found out that Justin’s dad was called Farmer John. (laughter). That’s how he introduced himself to me, he rolled up in a tractor on their farm and he said ‘Are you guys here for the rock ‘n roll show?’ And I said yeah.. and he said ‘Well your here, and uh, I’m Farmer John. And then he said ‘Follow me’ and he rode off on his tractor. Hah, what at like 5 miles an hour? John: Hah, fuck no man, it was 20 miles an hour. Farmer Johns don’t fuck around. So you’re from rural folk then? Justin: Yeah, I live on a farm. So what’s BG like to you?
Justin: Toledo kinda went down for awhile. When I was in UC5, it was pretty good cause we had the Underground, we had a lot of shows going thru there but once the Underground closed, Toledo kinda got dead. But now with Wesley’s* on Thursdays and Frankie’s reopening its picking up really good. I’ve seen alot of Frankie’s shows that are packed and i’m really happy about that. We’ve been playing Frankie’s alot lately, and then March 8th and 29th. Well given how many shows you guys are playing now, what do you consider success to be? Justin: I don’t know, we want to start playing out of town more.
Justin: BG’s a big town to me. You know, the reason I came here is because I wanted to get into a bigger school. I always wanted to go to a bigger school in high school cause I graduated with like 80 people. So BG’s a huge place, especially when I first got here. To me there were a lot of things going on here! When I came here I was really into the music scene.
John: Success to me has always been when someone comes up and says ‘I’ve never heard anything like that before’ and you know ‘I fuckin love your set, it was really new, original’ Thats success to me. Like I dont really give a shit about being on a record label but as long as you respect people and they’re into it...If you see people going crazy, that’s success right there, you dont need anymore.
Who was around at the time?
And tonight was a success?
Well I knew John so I went to a couple UC5 shows and they were sweet. I really liked Blooddumpster (John:Fuck yeah, dude). Yeah and Bullet Teeth shows, I liked alot. So I was pretty excited about the music scene, cause in Canton, its all punk and hardcore shows and thats it. I’d never heard a noise band before I came here.
John: tonite was a real good show. My guitar was outta tune, I didn’t break any strings..Yeah it was a good success and of course it was a house show.
John: Yeah and after noise bands you got into Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, electronic stuff.
Justin: I wanted to say I think of success a little differently than John. When I think ahout success, I think of..I dont give a fuck what anyone else says about our show, I just wanna have fun doing the show and if I think its good jams then its good jams. I care what I think about it and what John thinks about it.
Justin: Yeah, whenever we play a Toledo its like ‘this is a big city, man’ Compared to Toledo, how does BG situate itself in the music scene? John: Ahhh, I dont know man, Toledo’s getting a lot better. Toledo used to be pretty dead. Im from the Toledo area and when I was younger, I was like 12, there were all these bands goin on that I had no idea about. When I was in junior high the White Stripes were coming down to Toledo and playing all these shows with Soledad Brothers, Fieldy Wilson, Fedual Lords. 16
There was this great garage rock scene and i’m still pissed off that I didn’t get to see it.
So would you say that your definition of success ties into your mentality, like where you wanna play? how much fun you have?
John: I agree with him. When we were at Frankie’s last time, I really loved it. But there’s two types of shows, there’s the one show where everybodys crazy into it and then theres the other show where everybody is just kinda staring cause they haven’t seen anything like it before. And that’s equally as great cause when you do look at the audience, nobody’s talking. Nobody’s even drinking, nobody’s smoking, nobody’s doin shit, they’re just gawking, looking
at you like ‘What the fuck is he doing? I really dont know’ And so tonite, everybody was into it so i didnt need to move around that much, I had about 2 feet that I moved around from but I didnt go crazy, I didnt have room for it. But at Frankie’s, we were the only two people being crazy. Justin: There was enough people knocking over my drums.
Jist Clothing
I’ve mainly seen you guys in a house show setting, except Howards, but you guys seem to draw the energy from the crowd the best in that (format). So what what do you prefer? Justin: I prefer to play the house shows, but you get to play to a different crowd at Frankie’s. John: yeah, I’m like 50/50. I cant say that I like one more than the other. I think its really important to have a balance because--one time I heard this Neil Young quote: You can be the best band in the world, playing the best songs ever, but if you’re playin in Moosejaw, Canada nobody’s gonna fuckin hear you, you’re not going anywhere man, cause there isnt a crowd. So if you just play house shows all the time in Bowling Green, even though BG, for what it is has a great scene, you still..there aren’t a huge amount of people coming out to see you like there would be in Chicago, or Detroit, or Philaedelphia, you know. So I think its good to have a mix. You always gotta go back to the house show. Justin: I was gonna say, I be disappointed if we only played bars all the time.
Justin: It’s more personal. John: It’s personal and it reminds you of why you’re doing it in the first place. Like say a house show, there’s beer flying over everywhere, Justin’s toms and his cymbals are thrown over my head, people are hitting eachother, it reminds you ‘This is why I started a band’. ‘This is what I wanted to do’. Go Online To Watch This Interview http://thejist.info
http://thejist.info
John: Exactly, thats the thing, you gotta have a mix because if we played bars all the time it would fuckin suck because nobody would be dancing or anything, or having a good time about it. So you gotta play the bar because you have to have the exposure if you wanna go anywhere. But you gotta have the house show because..
Ghetto T by Matt Cordy
BOWLING GREEN RAP ARTIST
“Head to the sky, feet to the ground. No matter what I’m gonna hold you down.” - Ghetto T MATT CORDY: What got you interested in making music? GHETTO T: I was tired of listening to the same old rap, so I started making my own. Matt Cordy: When did you start recording your raps? Ghetto T: Around 2001, I was like 15 years old. Matt Cordy: Any new material coming out? Ghetto T: In March “2 High 2 See” is coming out. It’d different than what the fans are used to - it’s happier. Matt Cordy: Where do you stand politically? Ghetto T: Hillory Clinton sucks, but politics are pretty much bullshit. Obama seems like an educated candidate.
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Matt Cordy: What inspires you? Ghetto T: People talking shit, makes me wanna say something. Also the world we live in, I started on 9/11 in 2001 with all the terrorism. Also political things like minimum wage. Women from the past, and the present one. Matt Cordy: Life and Death is an interesting double album. Ghetto T: You can’t live without dying and you can’t die without living. My cd’s are like that, Feel It. Cry is a life album about living around a a dying family. Then you have the other part called Suicidal Music. Matt Cordy: What’s the rap scene like in BG? Ghetto T: Some people are just fake. I was opening up a house show for Fun Juice and one of the members of Group Home started talking shit and it started a feud. There ain’t no gangsta’s in BG! Singing about rims and bs.
Smile Sinister
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by Mason Balistreri
SUTTON & BRITTEN So how would you describe the sound of smile sinister? Britten: Wow, do you want to take this one?
a lot of people can go and hangout and listen to music at the same time. It’s a good atmosphere.
Sutten: Ugh…
What do you think about other bands in BG? S: Many of them are really talented.
Britten: Well as far as genres go, I think we are something like, New Age Space Rock.
B: I just want to say that TMP is my local favorite.
Space Rock? I can tell from the performance, and promotional things like myspace, that aliens and space are a big part of the band, is that the influence for the music? S: It definitely influences our music. B: It’s a way for Brandon to symbolize his music. It’s his style of writing – space and aliens work with his creative flow. It really gives the band a theme. Three of the band members are in high school, is it hard to have a band at this stage of the game? S: Yeah, it’s hard working around every ones schedule. I mean everyone is doing a lot of different things. I hope we can get more stuff done in a few years when we are out of highschool. B: Yeah we can’t really tour and can’t play a lot of shows, but hey, what’s summer for right? So you guys are planning a tour? B: Yeah., we’ve been talking about a two week mini tour for the summer. Where do you guys normally play at? B: Howards is really our hotspot, that and club beju. S: Yeah, also we are doing a battle of the bands thing right now, the finals are coming up. Oh and soon we will be booking shows at the NewPort Music Hall I have seen you guys at the UCF a few times, how do you feel about playing there? B: Yea we play there and it’s really great. Just,
It seems like your band has a pretty rampant and young fanbase, how do you feel about your fans? B: It’s just fun , it’s cool to help people through the music. S: Yeah, having people at everyshow that really connect to you is awesome, I mean we see the some of the same people at our shows that I know feel and connect to our music. B: Having people that connect to you, having the same 30 people at the show What don’t you like about the BG music scene, or more specifically the highschool scene? B: I don’t think it’s big enough. It just seems like everything has died a little bit. S: We like to see a lot of music. B: Our band is lucky because we connected in the right way. There are tons of talented musicians but it’s hard to get things going.
The Monday Program by Mason Balistreri
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BAND - JEFF, JOHN, & DAN Mason: We interviewed TMP’s singer, Alex Baird in the first issue of the Jist, has anything new happened with the band in these past months?
gressive punk rock, which is like a lot of bands around. Even though Woocha (Dan’s previous band) and TMP are different bands, I think we had a similar style and outlook on music.
Jeff: We started playing some acoustic shows, they were pretty tight.
Mason: Tell me about this outlook.
Dan: Yeah, at Howard’s and the UCF Mason: How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard you before? Jeff: I don’t really know, people say that it’s unique. Dan: Yeah, it’s hard to say. I might call it pro-
Dan: We’re musicians before rockstars. Jeff: And friends before musicians. Mason: What’s it like playing in BG? John: The UCF is tight. Jeff: Howard’s is fun too but you never know who is gonna be there.
We are musicians before rock stars and friends before musicians. -Jeff and Dan John: UCF shows are just at a perfect time, everyone is there – its awesome.
Mason: How has the music scene changed since then?
Dan: I just want to play where it’s warm.
Dan: I don’t know – it just seems insincere. Myspace sucks, highschool bands wanna get famous…
Mason: Who is cool to play with? Dan: Hm… Phantas is sweet.
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John: They’re so good.
Jeff: There’s this band from BG that said that they just wanted to be bigger than the other bands in the area.
Jeff: Woocha was tight to play with also.
Dan: You should just play to entertain.
Dan: Yeah, back when woocha was around there was a lot of cool bands to play with; we liked playing with gravel salad back in the day. I don’t know, it’s different.
John: Yeah, I hate that. Dan: Bands like that just want to be bigger, not better.
Mason: What do you want to see from BG as far as music is concerned. John: Less ungrateful people. You always hear people talking about how “BG is shitty” and “no one should stay here after they graduate” but really, there is so much cool stuff here. Dan: I want to see music be more accessible to more listeners. Mason: True, many aspects of the BG music scene seemed sort of elitist. I remember back a few years ago, bands wouldn’t watch other bands – fans hated other band’s fans for no reason. It just seemed really hostile. You guys, TMP, seem to be turning that over in the highschool scene. Dan: Yeah, I think we are following the rock formula in our own way, and not reinventing music. We have our own style but a lot of people can tap into it. John: Yeah, the fans like it. It’s funny at a UCF show where a lot of people come to see smile sinister but also get to see us – and they seem to like it. They don’t have to know anything about us to like our music.
Mason: What’s TMP all about?
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Jeff: Hanging out with friends, playing music. Mason: Do you have a goal as a band? Dan: Play music with our friends and not have to worry about it. John: My goal is to have an actual CD of our band, something to show your kids or something. It would be an amazing feeling to have something accomplished like that. Jeff: Yeah, we need to record. John: People are ready to hear it. Mason: Speaking of fans, what can you say about your own? John: UCF shows are packed, everyone is really into it, and they know our lyrics. Dan: I think that its hard because many of them are so young. We are gonna have an awesome fanbase in a few years when everyone is out of highschool.
St. Craprick’s Day
by Matt Verlei
A HORRIBLE TITLE
Were the cops completely at fault? They descended upon the situation literally macing first and never really asking any questions because they desired no answers. As St. Patrick’s Day approaches and with it, the grotesque debauchery that accompanies it, I am reminded of last year and how much of a drag it was. Then I feel compelled to write this story to the citizens of Bowling Green, the students of Bowling Green State University, and the civil servants who are there to protect and serve. I was a student teacher in Napoleon and working 25 – 30 hours a week at Pagliai’s pizza (buffet not stuffed sticks). The festivities last year were on a Friday. I had to student teach, come home for about thirty-nine minutes, then go work a healthy nine hours at Pagliai’s. I was looking forward to a Guiness when midnight rolled around. Brian, my friend, and I managed to make it to Howards around 1 or 1:15. Long story short: we drank. However we only had about an hour to do so and ended up only putting back a handful of drinks and catching a nice buzz. We weren’t sober; weren’t drunk either. As we left the bar, the downtown area resembled Mardi Gras or New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. There were at least two cop cars for every bar, people covered the streets and sidewalks, and arrests were being made left and right. In our minimal daze, Brian and I found this electricity in the air quite entertaining. There is an alley right next to Madhatter Music that runs north and south connecting Wooster with the parking lot behind Finder’s, Junction, Downtown, etc. It was in this alley where we found a friend of ours who I will (appropriately) refer to as Moron. Unlike Brian and 22
I Moron had been helping himself all day to Grünes Bier and as a result was quite belligerent. When we came upon him, he was saying incomprehensibly rude things to a guy and his girlfriend. We’ll call the guy “Guy” because he is virtually unknown to me. Surveying the situation, Brian and I stepped in between Moron and Guy trying to talk Moron down and pacify Guy. Moron continued saying off-color remarks about Guy’s girlfriend until Guy pushed past Brian and I, grabbed Moron’s head tucking it into his body like a football and pummeling it repeatedly with his flailing arm. Shocked but not surprised that it had elevated so quickly, Brian and I grabbed Moron and Guy, respectively, by their elbows, separating them. Guy was stronger than me and slowly started to rip free of my grip all the while angrily cursed me for holding him back. As much as I didn’t want Moron to get beat any more, he really deserved it, and hell, I didn’t want him to whip around and wang me in the face, so I let him go and slunk back to the perimeter of people that had formed around the spectacle. To Brian’s credit, he didn’t back down after I did but rather stood between them like a tree and with outstretched hands kept both of them virtually apart. Then cops materialized as if out of the cement and brick and chaos swirled around my spinning head. I remember darting visions of the three of them, Brian, Moron, and Guy all going down while the cops barked at each other and the spectators. The officers scooped up the two fighters and put them in cuffs, their faces red from fighting.
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My eyes eventually searched for Brian who I found sitting on the ground, shoulders slumped. I ran over to him and saw that he was cradling his face with the palms of his hands and rotating his upper body like the loser of a battle in Mortal Kombat II. Our mutual friend, Burke, whom I had not seen standing nearby came to Brian’s side at that exact moment. “I think he got clipped in the face by a fist or an elbow,” I proposed. “His face is as red as theirs.” Burke who had been more tuned in and less caught up than I had looked at me quizzically, “I think they got maced, Matt. I think all of them got maced.” Just then Brian let out a scream that fluctuated between anger, frustration, and severe pain. “What are you two doing,” asked a brash voice. I looked up to see a female police officer who was so intense she may as well have had one hand on her gun. The sound of her voice and the sight of her elicited an explosion of words that I wish I could have recorded. I rebuked her for being so unfeeling. I explained that Brian had not been fighting but had in fact been trying to break up the fight. I explained that I was not drunk, thinking clearly, and telling her the truth. I also explained that she was acting like a heinous animal and that she should back off unless she was there to help. She responded by calling over five or six superfluous officers and having them forcibly eject me from the alley even though my friend was requesting that I stay with him. After I left, they gave him dry paper towels to clean the mace out of his eyes. I waited about ten minutes and then approached the other side of the alley cautiously where I met the only sensible police officer that night. We talked. I listened; he listened. Then the officers let me drag Brian back to my car about five blocks away. No one even offered him a ride. Were the cops completely at fault? Let me answer that in a roundabout way. They descend-
ed upon the situation literally macing first and never really asking any questions because they desired no answers. I don’t think the police academy teaches its cadets to run in mace spraying in faces before trying to use physical prowess to subdue said disruptors. To compound the already sloppily handled yet seemingly routine encounter, they failed to help my friend Brian whom they had inflicted a great deal of pain upon. They didn’t even offer a semi apology like, “Sorry, man.” In any event, the answer is no. The cops were not completely at fault.
After I left, they gave him dry paper towels to clean the mace out of his eyes. I’d also like to the thank the members of my generation, the students at Bowling Green State University for getting the town so beer soaked and insolent that even the Romans might be disgusted at our extensive hedonism. Don’t go to class if you’re drunk. Being drunk isn’t as glamorous looking to sober people. Coming to class on St. Patrick’s Day, though quite a sacrificial gesture is usually a bad idea if you aren’t sober. It’s a distraction and a disgrace. Is it any wonder that the cops acted so brazenly? After all the complaints the university and citizens file, it’s a wonder that we haven’t heard about more instances of gunjumping on the part of the police. They have to keep order and clearly that’s a tall order on such an dangerous day. Have fun this weekend. I know I will. I’ll be in downtown Cleveland for the parade, and even though I grew up in Cleveland, I never went to the parade once. My mother who is responsible for the Irish in me (and my Irish curse) always used to say to me when I went out, “Keep your wits about you”. Good advice for students and cops alike. Oh yeah, and don’t get maced.
for the thoughtful to think and thoughtless to reconnect ART - PHILOSOPHY - CULTURE
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Lead Stories Monday Program
Alex B aird t alks about t he band’s new CD and plans
lery
rt Gal ary A
Janu
Food Not
Stencil Tutorial Sp
st
li iva
er Daze
o Re view
Photoshop Tutorial
A simple tutorial with lots of room for variation
Vile Album Covers II
iv
Summ
Sick
So
Po etr y
eR
I’m
ies s
Th
15
s vie Mo
er Ov
FireAlarm + Stencil
A true story that shows the power of 7 sheets of paper
Bombs
over Art by Mason Balistreri
Gritty, dirty, and just plain offensive
Also Inside
Death Life Sticks, Jist Clothing, Poetry of Spiess
Coverart by Dunny