In 2006, it seemed like independent music in Cincinnati woke up. Nothing against the couple of years before that, but 06′ was a banner year for new acts. Lots of great acts were just getting started or had released their debut album, including Bad Veins, Pomegranates, Seabird, Turnbull AC’s and not the least of the group, The Seedy Seeds. The Seeds began as a duo comprised of Margaret and Mike who came to the scene fully equipped with banjo, guitar, white v-neck t-shirts and a slogan that put a smile on everyones faces, “Heck Yes!”

But in 2006, you not only had to come prepared and excited, but you also had to kick ass live, and that is exactly what the Seeds did. I was pretty impressed with the live energy I saw from the duo the first time I saw them play that year, and how they combined some of the folkiness that the midwest is known for with an electronic backing track. The results of which coined the term I still think fits, “Appalachitronica.”

Anytime your sound brings about an entirely new name like that, you are doing something right, and Mike and Margaret certainly were. When it came time for the release of their debut album, Change States, I didn’t hold my breath because I really did not expect it to live up to the live performances I had been enjoying. However, I was really wrong on that count because Change States lived up to the expectations live concert attendees had been hoping for. Lots of fun, poppy anthems were included on the disc, including “Calliope”, “Eponym” and what might have been the best song of the year, “The Little Patton.” Lots of things can make up a great album, but the freshness and energy The Seedy Seeds brought to this record was unmatched at the time, and for me, this sets it apart.

Bloggers across the country took notice too, and the Seeds went from a Cincinnati secret to one of the most sought after live bands from our area. In the time since this excellent debut, the crew have added a full time drummer in Mike Ingram, and have released another great album in 2008. And the best is yet to come for The Seedy Seeds, and we can’t wait to see what that entails.

See the rest of our Decade Cincinnati series right here.

It’s the end of a decade, a decade of music that we are pretty happy to have been a part of. Since 2003, Each Note Secure has attempted to cover the local music scene for you, while also tracking the national and international acts that we loved. We are and have always been fans, and I think thats why I wanted to throw this list together. So many great albums were released over the course of the last ten years, and mentioning them all would be impossible.

I tried to give only one spot an an artist, which was tough with bands that released multiple albums I love this decade (The Shins, M. Ward, Radiohead, Spoon etc.) so in those cases I just chose my favorite. Even so, here are the albums that impacted me the most this decade, without explanation. If you know em, you know why.

31. Coldplay – Parachutes – 2001
30. The Streets – Original Pirate Material – 2002
29. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind – 2000
28. The Decemberists – Her Majesty, The Decemberists – 2003
27. The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree – 2005
26. Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts Of The Great Highway – 2003
25. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver – 2007
24. Grizzly Bear – Veckitamest – 2009
23. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago – 2008
22. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust – 2009
21. Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy – 2005
20. M83 – Dead Cities, Red Seas Lost Ghosts – 2003
19. The Strokes – Is This It? – 2001
18. Spoon – Kill The Moonlight – 2002
17. TV On The Radio – Dear Science – 2008
16. The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow – 2003
15. Whiskeytown – Pneumonia – 2001

14. The Wrens – Meadowlands – 2003
13. The National – Boxer – 2007
12. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights – 2002
11. My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves – 2003
10. Cat Power – You Are Free – 2003
9. Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel The Illinoise! – 2005
8. Beck – Sea Change – 2002
7. Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump – 2000
6. Sigur Ros – Ágætis byrjun – 2001
5. Radiohead – Kid A – 2000
4. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker – 2000
3. M. Ward – Transfiguration Of Vincent – 2003
2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – 2002
1. Arcade Fire – Funeral – 2004

Breakdown by year
2000 – 4
2001 – 3
2002 – 5
2003 – 8
2004 – 1
2005 – 3
2006 – 0
2007 – 2
2008 – 2
2009 – 2

Do you remember the band Denial? Sure you do, Denial was a Cincy act that started as a cover band and grew to a post punk act who had some labels chasing them around earlier this decade. (And who apparently recently re-formed) Dan Mecher was the frontman for Denial, but with changes in life, come changes in creativity, and that is what happened with Dan about five years ago. His songwriting was taking a new turn after the death of his grandparents, and it was that inspiration, along with some coaxing from some other musician friends here in Cincinnati, Mecher began a new project, which later became known as Turnbull AC’s, named for a gang in the 1979 movie “The Warriors.”

Dan enlisted the help of Mark Diedrichs (Guitars, Keys), Chris Rebholz (Bass) and Matt Retherford (Drums) to fill out the lineup and the band quickly became one of the best live acts in 2005. The local media approved as well, giving them a nod for “Best New Artist of the Year”. Mecher also received a nomination for “Singer/Songwriter of the Year” Award. And while some hype leads to a letdown, when it came time for the band to release their debut album, expectations were not only met, but were exceeded.

After all, the record showcases Mechers blooming songwriting ability that makes one think of a young Elvis Costello. And Dan’s post-punk experience serves him when he needs it as well for a heart wrenching chorus or guitar rip. Songs like “Ghost Town Land”, “Disco Bomber” and the huge sound of “Pretty Girls Don’t Go To Heaven” had an immediate impact both live and on record for Turnbull, making people forget their expectations, and just ask for more material. The band rolled the album out in a unique way as well, by playing a full weekend of performances in Cincinnati, including a show at the historic Ludlow Garage, which had not hosted a live show in nearly 30 years.

After those shows and a years worth of touring and promoting the album, the guys returned to the welcoming arms of Cincinnati in 2006 to accept CEA nominations for “Artist of the Year”, “Best Rock Album”, “Album of the Year”, and once again Mecher was nominated for “Singer/Songwriter of the Year”. All nods that were well deserving for one of the hardest working bands in Cincinnati.

While the path of the band might not have led where they dreamed it would, the guys released another excellent album in 2008 and continue to be a consistent draw whenever they play live here in Cincinnati. The debut album though stands apart for me, and to this day is one of my favorite Cincinnati albums of the decade.

Previous [Decade Cincinnati] Articles

What do you get when you combine two obsessive creative songwriter types and ask them to share the stage? Well, surprisingly, you don’t get loads of conflict, but instead, every now and then, you get the perfect storm. Thats what happened when Cincinnati area musicians Cameron Cochran (aka Paul Bunyan) and Chris Haubner teamed up to form The Sheds.

The guys both had quite a collection of songs that had yet to see the light of day, and combining their forces was a great way to get them out of notebooks and into bars and stereo systems across the tri-state. With two albums already under their belts, the prolific duo set out to really raise the bar high for their third and ultimately, their final album in 2007. And although they may not have known it at the time, and I guess it could change in the future, this last album was the perfect way for The Sheds to go out.

It’s really difficult for me to choose my favorite album out of the three actually, The Sheds Quit Smoking is such a fun record as well, but I side with Reflection because not only do Haubner and Bunyan continue to gel into a songwriting two-headed monster, but they enlist the help of some of their good friends, who also happen to be really talented musicians to make the album stand out.

In addition to delicately penned tunes like “All The Right Things”, “The World Is Changing” and the title track, on which The Seedy Seeds, Matthew Shelton and more guest, The Sheds are not afraid to show their versatility as well. From the humorous “Drunk For Lunch” to the hip hop influenced jam “Trashcan Jeans” you can tell The Sheds are not afraid to experiment, and are able to make it work as well.

Reflection Of The Sun might have been the last Sheds album, as both members have moved on to other projects, continuing to create and experiment with their talents. And if it is the last one, it was a great way to end their run, with another Cincinnati area gem that will stand the test of time.

By now, every educated Cincinnati music fan knows the story of the Heartless Bastards. Everything from taking their name from a bar-room electronic game, to their Dayton/Cincinnati roots, to their subsequent breakup and Erika’s move to Austin, Texas, where she reformed the group with a new band of musicians. The Bastards have been on the rise for the last several years, drawing opening slots for the likes of Lucinda Williams and Wilco, and more national attention than nearly any other act to emerge from the city in this decade. But it all began with Stairs and Elevators.

Seemingly straight out of a Northside garage emerged a voice. Sounding like a mixture of Robert Plant and Janis Joplin, Erika Wennerstrom brought the Heartless Bastards to the forefront of the Cincinnati music scene with her vocal chords. It really didn’t matter what kind of music was behind her, Wennerstrom and her pipes would have eventually surfaced from the crowded Midwest music scene at some point. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the music smacked you around a little bit.

Stairs and Elevators isn’t shy. It hits you in the face right away with arguably the best track Wennerstrom has ever written, “Gray”. The song is so good that the Bastards still close their shows with it to this day. There was nothing spectacular in the writing or chord progressions, but the songs were packaged with a deep blues spontaneity that complemented Wennerstrom’s vocals perfectly. Wennerstrom’s lyrics embodied the malaise of Cincinnati winters, where the sun seemingly disappears for three months. The opening bass and drums of “New Resolution”, the double-time switch in “Swamp Song”, and the all-out force of “Lazy” gave this album the chops it needed to make a debut mark on the national landscape. But it never quite did that.

In 2005, Ohio and Michigan were emerging as the breeding ground for a garage rock revival, with The White Stripes and The Black Keys playing prominent roles on the national music scene. The Heartless Bastards fit into that scene exceptionally well, with their enigmatic lead vocalist that seemingly struggled to make it through live shows, the backing of fellow Ohioans The Black Keys, and the songs off of Stairs and Elevators to back it up. It also probably didn’t hurt that Wennerstrom was a very crushable lead female. And yet, somehow, even with all of this in their corner, Stairs and Elevators never quite broke Cincinnati’s favorite garage rockers. It definitely makes me wonder what the future sounds of the Heartless Bastards would have been like if it did.

While All This Time and The Mountain are both good albums in their own right, neither of them stands up to the honesty, grit, and attitude that Stairs and Elevators possesses. Wennerstrom was at her best when she was at her lowest, wearing a black t-shirt, and just not giving a fuck. It is interesting that the cover of the album depicts the original trio of the Heartless Bastards, the lineup that while perhaps not the most musically adept, gave the band the most firepower. Mike Lamping standing stage left, lighting a cigarette five minutes into the show, and Kevin Vaughn smashing his highly placed cymbals gave this band the feel that they could get away with playing garage rock for the rest of their lives. And a sometimes fickle Cincinnati music scene embraced that feeling, pushing them past the bounds of I-275.

Whether they weren’t ready at the time, or whether the album just didn’t get the backing it deserves, we may never know. But Stairs and Elevators stands as an album that defines Cincinnati, for this decade or any other. The city and music scene continue to support the band, and undoubtedly will for many years to come, regardless of where they call home because in the end, we can’t forget that trio in black.

In 2002, the Americana Folk Rock sound was still pretty high on the radars of music fans. After the success of bands like Whiskeytown, Son Volt and several other punk kids that discovered their parents old country records, it was only natural that those twinges would make their way into Cincinnati as well. The Light Wires were not the first in town to do it, and certainly were not the last, but they took some of those treasured american sounds and mixed them with their own histories to form their debut album.

The band started when singer / songwriter Jeremy Pinnell was bandless (formerly of Ladderdays) and was sitting on a pretty large group of heart wrenching songs. He enlisted the help of some other Cincinnati musicians like Mike Montgomery, Rick McCarty (with Montgomery in Thistle, El Gigante, and Ampline) and Andy Hittle (also in El Gigante) to help unpack the heavy baggage Pinnell carried.

The result is one of the more underrated albums released in Cincinnati this decade. Pinnell’s lyrics hit like a freight train in the same tradition of legendary American songwriters like Young or Springsteen. As quickly as you get sucked into a achy and dark song like “Stewards Of The Earth”, you jump up and stomp your feet on tunes like “Me In Her Wild Hair.”

Roosty American music is the easiest way to describe this band and record, but it really is much bigger than that. The album struck me so much early on that I named this blog after one of their songs.

The songs speak to a potential that this band never realized sadly, and maybe never wanted to. The long awaited second album from The Light Wires never came, at least not the way they wanted it to. Their second album The Invisible Hand got a modest release in 2008 quite some time after the band played their last notes together. Pinnell went on to play in The Great Depression, who released one album, burned bright for about a year and then flamed out as well. Pinnell is currently a member of The Brothers & The Sisters. The other members have continued to be prevalent musicians in Cincinnati for the most part, picking up where they left off before The Light Wires.

I’m mostly left with sadness though when remembering this band, because for years I wanted them to be the next torchbearers for Cincinnati, but it was not to be. We do still have this album though, so if you take any time and look back at the decade in music in Cincinnati, don’t leave this album out, it might just be the best.

Cincinnati has always been known for tipping it’s cap to the sounds of great garage rock, but what happens when you take that sound and infuse pure unadulterated soul and funk into it? No, it’s not Bootsy Collins fronting Thee Shams (although we’d like to hear that too by the way). What you get is Pearlene, one of the best, but most overlooked Cincinnati bands of the decade.

The album that stands out to me from Pearlene is easily their 2006-2007 release For Western Violence & Brief Sensuality. The record was released here in the city back in 2006, and it marked the third full length album from Pearlene. This album was not only a melting pot of sounds you might hear in your “cool uncles” collection, but it was fronted by the truly special voice of Rueben Glaser. The follow up to their 2003 album, which also had a dirty bluesy vibe to it, Glaser and Pearlene employed big, thick syrupy words over top of the mix of sounds that included soulful backing singers, percussion and bass you can set your watch to, and on a few songs, some incredibly addictive piano playing from newest Pearlene member Andrew Higley.

Upon its national release in 2007, after the tri-state had already feasted on this album, Harp Magazine (may it RIP) had this to say about the record.

Pearlene’s Reuben Glaser has one of those delicious, maple-coated voices that recalls the golden age of classic rock n roll and all that was good about it, with none of the bad.

How true that simple sentence was and is, with tunes like “Hosannah”, “Watch The Way” and “We All Get Off” this was a landmark record for Cincinnati in the 2000′s. To me, it felt like the coming out party for a band deserving of some big attention, and that it was only a matter of time before they followed in the footsteps of The Greenhornes and Heartless Bastards toward a bigger national appeal. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, or at least hasn’t yet. Glaser is still a fixture on the local scene, playing on nearly every important Cincinnati album in the past 3 years. Higley is now a part of another Cincinnati band we love, The Chocolate Horse and Jessie Ebaugh has moved on to the spotlight with the Heartless Bastards.

Whether or not Pearlene release another record, I don’t know, but we will always have great records like this just in case they don’t.

Pearlene – Watch The Way

It’s that time of year, the time when year end lists begin to take over our thoughts and blogs posts. We love year end list season and this year is a special one for lists as we close out the decade of the 2000′s. So, we here at ENS thought it would be fun to do features on some of our favorite Cincinnati albums of the last ten years. Enjoy.

The Greenhornes – Dual Mono – 2002

In a time when bands were putting aside their 1990′s modern rock tendencies and returning to the roots of independent rock n’ roll, The Greenhornes were helping blaze that trail. Bands like The White Stripes, The Vines, The Datsuns and more were beginning to sound more like garage rock bands their fathers listened to than music from the 90′s like radio friendly cock rock. A new era was beginning and when it comes to garage rock, not many do it as well as The Greenhornes.

On their third full length album, the band was touting a new cast of characters to go along with founding members Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler and Craig Fox. Gone from the original lineup was Brian Olive (who left to play with Toledos Soledad Brothers) and keyboardist Jared McKinney, and in was Eric Stien (who currently is in another Cincinnati band, The Griefs). The names changed but the results were very similar for The Greenhornes on Dual Mono however, and maybe turned more heads than the first two releases as well. The signature pulse and sound was best displayed on absolute killer songs like “Satisfy My Mind” which remains my favorite Greenhornes song to date.

And don’t forget that Holly Golightly guests on “There is an End” and “Gonna Get Me Someone,” adding an element not heard on either of the first two Greenhornes albums and satisfying a new group of fans the guys may not have reached otherwise. Dual Mono is tough to compare to the first two Greenhornes records, but for me it stands as the album that defined this band. In addition to adding fans and notoriety in a time when garage rock was making a huge comeback, Dual Mono helped bring some notoriety back to Cincinnati as well, shining the spotlight on the fertile music scene that was prepping a big comeback in the years to follow.

Since Dual Mono, The Greenhornes released only one other long player (Sewed Soles in 2005) and though rumors of the band not recording again after the launching of the careers of Jack Lawrence & Patrick Keeler with Jack White’s Raconteurs, I know fans are holding out hope for another Greenhornes record someday.