A self-described “97X listener/scenester/scruffy little punky New Wave dude,” Howard started playing in bands as a teenager and has never stopped rocking. His current band, Cereal Killers, played their first gig at Sudsy Malone’s on Short Vine in 1989, and their current set list consists predominantly of songs that graced the 97X airwaves back in the day: punk, New Wave, garage rock… We chat with Howard about dropping The Village People for Generation X, college parties and car wrecks (they go together), what 97Xposure meant to his bands, the Modern Rock 500, and his side hustle as a jingle singer/voiceover artist.
Cereal Killers at their first gig, December 15th, 1989 at Sudsy Malone’s.
If this jingle has ever gotten stuck in your head, blame Howard (and Rob Fetters)
Howard’s day job is Field Sales Rep for Great Lakes Brewing Company, Ohio’s oldest and largest craft brewery. (He’s on furlough at present.) In 2018, Great Lakes announced an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), making every employee a shareholder.
Howard is an avid, voracious reader and has volunteered for several Books by the Banks events. (Read more in this Soapbox Cincinnati feature from 2011). In this short bonus clip, he suggests a couple of recent books that may be of interest to 97X fans.
For this episode of the podcast, as well as all recordings done since March, Dave and Damian have been practicing safe social distancing. Here’s Dave at his home set-up:
And here’s Damian’s janky set-up in the Party Dungeon.
Note the books (and cat litter bucket) used for the mic stand.
If the world weren’t upside down, I would’ve been at the Robyn Hitchcock show at Southgate this past Sunday, and Greg Dulli’s gig at the Woodward on Wednesday. Instead I was stuck in my basement, staring at the same four walls. #FML.
Oh well, let’s make the best of it. Here’s another grab bag o’ recorded tunes and musical ephemera.
I love Chuck Cleaver, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’ve loved him for decades, since his Ass Ponys days. So shame on me for taking so long to let you know that Wussy band members have been doing a weekly stream on Fridays at 7. Hat tip to list member Dr. David Reid for the tipoff. Last week’s show with Chuck and Lisa was exactly what you’d expect from them: weird, wacky… and absolutely beautiful. Lisa’s questions for Chuck were especially enjoyable… and they do a few Ass Ponys songs too!
The Broken Record podcast is consistently great. I absolutely loved this episode, which features an interview with Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley of Drive-By Truckers and stripped down versions of a few songs from their new album:
Curt Smith from Tears for Fears did a version of “Mad World” with his daughter Diva. Check it out on the Facebooks.
Bert Averre, the guitarist for The Knack, posted a fun video for “Bye Corona” (3 guesses as to the tune…) Bassist Prescott Niles joins him at the end.
I’m going to keep touting Waxahatchee until you admit that her album Saint Cloud is one of the best of 2020. Here’s her Tiny Desk (at home) concert with her boyfriend Kevin Morby, which features two songs from Saint Cloud, a Morby tune and a Songs:Ohia cover.
Billie Joe Armstrong has been doing a cover song every week and posting it on Green Day’s YouTube Channel. He calls it “No Fun Mondays”… and his cover of “Manic Monday” features Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles. He also riffs on Tommy James & The Shondells, Johnny Thunders, The Avengers and Adam Schlesinger.
Shameless self-promotion
Rob Fetters is never boring. I caught up with him to chat about his free house concert live streams (latest edition is below), get some Zen advice on coping with COVID fears, and hear his story about Ted Nugent… you can check out the episode on this website (which features bonus content) or on Podbean, Spotify or Apple podcasts.
“Paul is dead.” But John Curley is alive and well.
True story: a few days ago, the Afghan Whigs promoted our podcast interview with John Curley on their official Facebook page… but the way the photo and podcast description appeared, a few fans feared that it was some sort of obituary:
Sorry to scare you, Prissy! But the inadvertent “clickbait” resulted in a record-setting number of downloads for our podcast. Thanks social media!
Worth another listen
Heard this song on Sirius XMU Wednesday, and it brought back some fond memories of my 97X days:
That song is the title track from Bettie Serveert’s 1993 album Palomine. It holds up quite well. Check it out:
Worth another look
Swedish sisters with angelic voices? Yes please!
You’ve probably seen this video before, of an all-star crew doing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, but watching Prince’s absolutely ungodly guitar work and seeing him play with Tom Petty always makes me smile.
In this coronavirus “Local Lockdown Lixx” bonus episode of the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast, singer/songwriter/guitarist Rob Fetters (The Raisins, The Bears, psychodots and solo releases) talks about the free house concert live streams he’s been doing every weekend, provides some Zen guidance on how to cope during COVID craziness… and tells the tale of a time long ago when Ted Nugent brought him from darkness to light. [Back then Ted called himself “The Motor City Madman” but was semi-sane. Now he’s a batsh*t crazy, gun-totin’, Trump-votin’ nutjob. – Ed.]
You’ll find links to Rob’s upcoming house concerts via his website, RobFetters.net. (His next show is Saturday, May 2 at 9 p.m. EDT.) You’ll also find links to the YouTube recordings of previous shows, and a great video for his song “Not the End” — also posted below.
(Due to scheduling conflicts, Dave couldn’t participate in this interview. You’re stuck with the schmuck, Damian.)
Bonus content for the bonus episode: Here’s Rob talking about how the “Not the End” video came together rather quickly a few weeks ago.
Rob’s been writing songs, playing guitar and singing for a looooong time. Adrian Belew produced The Raisins self-titled debut back in 1983. That platter featured the song “Fear is Never Boring” – a perennial 97X favorite. Here’s the original video:
Here’s the same tune, performed at the psychodots farewell show (with Bam Powell sitting in) back in November of 2018. (Shot/edited by Robert Mills, the same guy who did the “Not the End” video.)
But Rob was even in bands before the Raisins. In his teens, he was in a band called the Red Hot Tots… which would also be a great name for a side dish at Applebee’s.
Legendary Mad magazine illustrator Mort Drucker, who died on April 9th, did the album cover art for The Bears self-titled debut album. Here’s a CityBeat article about how that happened.
Rob’s house concerts are most assuredly NOT hippie-strumming-acoustic-guitar affairs…
Rob is plugged in and amped up (in more ways than one… the energy of that guy!) and can add backing tracks via his studio-like wizardry. Check out his most recent show below and you’ll see what we mean.
Let’s focus on the positives of the music world. Our favorite artists now have more time than ever to create new music. (Unless they lost their day job… or they need to get a day job to make up for lost touring income… welp, that positivity didn’t last long, did it?)
But hey, Lucinda Williams has a new album out today called Good Souls Better Angels, and new Lu is always good news. This record is gritty, greasy, gutsy and guitar-driven. Check it out on Spotify. Read the profile in the NYT. Here’s a track from it called “Man Without a Soul”:
It isn’t difficult to figure out who Lu has in mind with lyrics like this:
You bring nothing good to this world Beyond a web of cheating and stealing You hide behind your wall of lies But it’s coming down, yeah, it’s coming down
Want more new album good news? X has a new album! It’s their first disc in 27 years, and it features the original lineup of John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake (best drummer name ever). Read more about it and stream the entire disc on Slicing Up Eyeballs, a great website for middle aged modern rockers.
The Pretenders also have a cool new song out. Here’s the video:
Liz Longley put on a great show last Friday. It was in Liz’s living room in Pennsylvania, when it was supposed to be in list members Dave & Jacqui’s home in Ft. Thomas, but Dave & Jacqui made the best of it:
The new releases from Laura Marling, Half Waif, Watkins Family Hour, Peel Dream Machine, The Chats, The Strokes, Lilly Hiatt, Catholic Action, and Why Bonnie are also worth a spin.
Coming up: the usual suspects
I’ll let you fish for yourself on the virtual gigs. NPR, Billboard and several other outlets have a running list of all the shows on the interwebs – YouGram, InstaFace, BookTube, etc. And if you’ve read this blog, you know about most of the standing gigs:
Radiohead streams a concert Thursdays at 5 on YouTube.
Amanda Shires (with Jason Isbell) does “Iso-Lounging” pretty much every day at 6 on YouTube.
Rob Fetters plays every weekend on YouTube (link via his website)
Speaking of Mr. Fetters, when he cancelled his gig at Roebling Point Books, they refunded the money that same day. Classy move! We’ve already discussed TicketBastard’s B.S. “refund” policy. Other promoters seem to be following their lead. The National’s Homecoming announced that refunds would be coming “in the next few days” on 4/3, and then on 4/20 there was another email saying we’d get a refund “within 30 days”. C’mon, man, millions of folks are out of work, and you’re going to sit on their hard-earned cash (Homecoming tix were about $120 for the weekend) for months?
Wait, I was supposed to stay positive, wasn’t I? Better fire up The Hold Steady batsignal:
Instagram is the worst of the virtual venues… the viewing area is tiny already, and then all the comments cover up half of that area. But this Waxahatchee set is stellar:
Robin James is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte and the author of three books… with a book about 97X in the works. She grew up listening to the station from age 11 on, including her time as an oboe major (yes!) at Miami University. Robin still has a fond place in her heart for the 97X/woxy.com music community, and the DIY ethos that made it truly unique. Dave and Damian talk to Robin about her research for the 97X book, the Modern Rock 500 and intersection of philosophy and music.
As a teen, the Modern Rock 500 was the closest thing I had to a catechismic text. I grew up on the other side of Butler County from WOXY, on the outskirts of Cincinnati. Every year I recorded parts of the broadcast on cassette and listened to the top of the countdown late into Memorial Day night. Radio led me to music I would otherwise never be allowed to buy or hear live (if I could even get a ride to Looney T-Birds, Everybody’s Records, Bogart’s, or Sudsy Malone’s).
My dad didn’t like music, and I didn’t have older siblings, so the Modern Rock 500 was the curriculum I used to educate myself about cool music and its history.
In May of 2021, Robin is scheduled to give a talk on the Modern Rock 500 at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland – a draft of that presentation is here.
You can also visit Robin’s Soundcloud to listen to a few of her lectures and some original compositions.
In our podcast, Dave and Robin mentioned the 97X Mission Statement. Here it is, direct from Dave’s basement:
Musician. Producer. Recording Engineer. Photographer. Non-traditional college student… John Curley is best known for his work with the Afghan Whigs, but he’s also played in a few local bands, and produced and/or engineered music for hundreds, mostly at Ultrasuede Studio. He’s still playing, still producing, but recently went back to college as well. We chat with John about all those things — and the worst radio promotion the Afghan Whigs ever did — in this episode.
John Curley, WXPN/former 97X DJ Dan Reed, and Greg DulliThe Afghan Whigs original lineup. John at Ultrasuede Studio (Photo credit: Anna Bentley, the Cincinnati Enquirer)
After 25 years in Camp Washington, John’s Ultrasuede studio (formerly the historic QCA Studio A) was forced out in 2018 when a new owner bought the building . Check out this CityBeat article about Ultrasuede’s final days on Spring Grove Avenue.
Photo credit: John Curley
At the Spring Grove address, John produced and/or engineered essential recordings by numerous acts, including Joe’s band Wussy, The Greenhornes, White Stripes, Ronnie Spector, Patti Smith, Ass Ponys, Buffalo Killers, Magnolia Mountain, Pearlene, Heartless Bastards and Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. His early production successes include the Whigs’ covers EP Uptown Avondale and album tracks such as Congregation’s “Miles Iz Ded” and Gentlemen’s “If I Were Going.” He even recorded the violin-like whine that opens the Whigs’ Black Love album by ambient mic’ing the railroad tracks that wind past the studio and recording the sound of a freight train’s squealing brakes, which were later cross-faded in the mix with a Hammond B-3 organ.
Joe Sampson joined 97X as a Miami University student intern (a.k.a. “Breakfast Club co-producer”) in 1993 and stuck around as a weekender after he graduated before moving on to short stint as a writer for CityBeat, and a 12-year career as a news producer at Channel 19 and later Channel 9 in Cincinnati. He now has come full circle as a Miami U. professor. We chat with “Mighty Joe” about his late nights with “Mama Jazz,” 97X softball teams, and his undying love for both Steve Baker and another 97X student intern.
Day in Eden: Joe is in the 3rd row, in the red hat… next to Dave, who is doing his best “Schneider from One Day at at Time” impersonation. Joe in his MU dorm room, circa 1992. He wanted us to note the presence of both Foghat and firehose posters…
Joe is now a Senior Clinical Professor of Journalism (sounds fancy!) at Miami University. His students have won several regional and national journalism awards over the years.
“It’s a major award!!!” Joe is back row center… back row right is Ringo Jones, lead singer of the band Mad Anthony.
As far as we can tell, Joe and his wife Alison are the only former 97X Breakfast Club co-producers who are now married to each other. Alison was a co-producer for Dave and Rictile in the mid-90s as “Connie Consuelo.”
Rumblings from the Big Bush was NOT Joe’s podcast debut. He and another MU prof created a podcast about “being Muslim in the Midwest” as part of a cultural exchange program with the Goethe Institut in Germany.
Lest you think Joe is all work and no play, here’s a photo of him posing with a bunny.
In case you missed it (and there’s a 99.9% chance you did miss it), the podcast that I co-host is yesterday’s news! Er, I mean, it was in yesterday’s Cincinnati Enquirer. What do you mean you don’t subscribe to a newspaper? What do you mean you don’t even know what a ‘newspaper’ is?
Full disclosure: Luann Gibbs used to work at 97X. But neither Dave nor I knew that she was going to mention us.
“Extra, extra… two old guys talk about a radio station that died a decade ago!”
It was our “the new phone book’s here” moment.
Actually, Dave and I don’t harbor any delusions of grandeur. (Occasionally, we do have delusions of adequacy, but we lie down until those go away.) Our podcast is extremely niche. Some podcasts have thousands of regular listeners, some have hundreds… we have “tens” of listeners. As I often say, “we’ve made about 50 people very happy” by bringing back fond memories of a small-but-mighty and much-beloved indie rock radio station. But it’s always nice to get a bit of recognition for the hard work you’ve done.
And now that we’re all under house arrest, there’s never been a better time to check out some new podcasts.
Kathie Lucas went from fast food to “Fast Times at WOXY.” She worked at 97X for a decade, yet was never live on the air. Instead she handled a number of crucial behind-the-scenes roles from 1994-2004… “Director of First Impressions,” Traffic Director (i.e. scheduling the commercials), Promotions Director… she even raised her daughter Sophie at the station! We chat with Kathie about her many roles (including a starring role in a commercial), her Harlequin romance moment, the infamous “butt coolers” at Lollapalooza, and her amazing warehouse stash of 97X promo items.
Kathie and Bryan J. outside the station, with the giant wood-carved Elvis looming in the background Kathie savoring her Dave Matthews moment. 97X staffersJulie Maxwell, Susan Schreiber and Kathie Lucas
Here’s just a sampling of the type of promo items that 97X gave away back in the day:
Ah, the days of floppy discs…
“Gonna be another hot one… better get your ass to the butt cooler!” Kathie with her husband (and Dave’s man-crush) MikeKathie with her daughter Sophie, who spent her baby/toddler years at the station. Both Dave and the Farrah poster are scheduled to appear at the 97X reunion at Bake’s house this summer
16 months ago, Dave and I launched the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast. We had absolutely no experience in the medium (it showed… still does) and zero expectations. We just liked getting together and talking about the great memories that were formed during our time at 97X, and we thought we’d get the old gang back together, press ‘record’ and put these stories out into the ether, just for kicks.
Over those 16 months, we’ve rediscovered something that we always knew back in our radio days: 97X listeners are a very loyal bunch. Somehow, some way, despite our complete ineptness at self-promotion, the folks who loved 97X/woxy.com found us. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised — after all these are the same people who had to stick a aluminum-foil-wrapped boombox antenna out their window to tune in back then. But when we get emails at 97Xwoxy@gmail.com like the ones below, it gives us our own Sally Field moment.
From Fred G.:
Hi guys, LOVE the podcast thank you for doing this. I could write an extremely long email trying to explain how much 97X/WOXY meant to me but I would most likely ramble on and on. The reason I am writing, outside of wanting to share me praise is I had a WOXY related memory come up on Facebook today from 2013 and thought I would share it. Here goes:
Was listening to NPR’s “Talk of the Nation”, in the car, on the way home from work. There were talking about personal important moments in radio in response to World Radio Day. The moment that came to my mind was not a big national event. It was the last terrestrial broadcast of Oxford’s Ohio’s 97.7 (97X) (WOXY) “BAM The Future of Rock n Roll”
WOXY was not only one of the first independent “Modern Rock” radio stations in the country but they were OUR station. In a local market that was and is dominated by big Clear Channel cookie cutter stations and talk radio, this was something cool and oh so local. The station started in 1983 and I stumbled upon it in high school around 84 or so and my outlook on music was changed. Not only was there great music but there were the DJs themselves, the quirky self-produced commercials and so much more.
When it was announced in 2004 that WOXY would be ending all broadcast (including internet as far as we knew at the time) I was devastated. 97X went out in style though, which brings me to my whole point: I was trying to listen to the last minutes of the broadcast over the internet on my home computer. Technology was not cooperating, so I had to drive my car to the top of the hill in Mariemont in order to get a signal. (97X was notorious for not having the strongest signal in the Cincinnati area.) So I sat in my car in the dark of an empty parking lot as Steve Baker does his poignant and heartfelt final sign off and then silence…. The internet stream was revived. It was awesome and I loved it so until it too came to an end in 2010, but 97X truly died for me that night in 2004.
Thanks again!! And keep up the great work. Fred Gumbert
Thanks so much for this podcast! It really has made me so nostalgic for my childhood. I grew up in Oxford and religiously listened to the station until I left for college… There are so many bands and songs that make me think so fondly of 97X. 97X will forever have a place in my heart.
From Aaron Borns, former 97X employee later interviewed in Episode 22:
Loving the podcast! Great to hear your voices…and so cool you’re doing this. I discovered them last week…going through them in order and just finished listening to Julie’s episode.
I am so incredibly grateful for being given the opportunity to work at the station for the time I did….I can’t believe my good fortune. It truly was something special, and for you guys to bring those memories back to life in the way that you are is just too much fun (joy? 🙂 ).
From James Brubaker (his research was later featured in this 97Xbam post):
I’ve really been enjoying the podcast. I actually stumbled across it while doing some research for a project I was working on, and figured I’d share it with you guys. Here goes… I recently came across the archive of Modern Rock 500 lists on Craig Froehle’s website, and thought it would be fun to crunch some numbers and come up with a Modern Rock 500 Top 500. So, with the caveats that I had to do some data entry that might have some mistakes, and that Froehle’s site is missing lists for 94 and 98 (well, lists are there, but they appear to just be the 95 list repeated), here’s a ranking of the Modern Rock 500 Top 500: https://jamesbrubaker.net/the-modern-rock-500-500/
Anyway, the podcast is a nice mix of nostalgia and fun behind the scenes info. I’m really digging it. Keep up the awesome work.
Thanks for the pod. It is like finally being able to talk with someone about the treasure that was WOXY. I was overjoyed the times I went back to Oxford to visit old professors (handful of times only) and even more so when I accessed the stream and saw WOXY was still the best station in the universe. It’s absence is a very felt presence still. Thanks for the pod and for the WOXY spirit in which it is produced. Eagerly awaiting each episode!
Thank YOU for listening!
Folks are thanking us when really we should be thanking them for tuning in. As 97X station owner Doug Balogh liked to say, “without listeners we’re like one hand clapping.” Emails like the ones above really warm our hearts (and Dave is one cold-hearted SOB most of the time).
Grumpy Dave
Connecting with you makes us do our happy dance.
Sure, we’re not exactly conquering the podcasting universe… Serial and Joe Rogan don’t need to worry about us overtaking them anytime soon. But I like to think that Rumblings from the Big Bush is the Velvet Underground of podcasting.
“My reputation is far bigger than my sales,” he said with a laugh on the phone from his home in Manhattan. “I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band! So I console myself in thinking that some things generate their rewards in second-hand ways.”
Brian Eno, in an interview published in the Los Angeles Times in May 1982
We may have only a handful of listeners, but for those dedicated folks, we’ve given voice to the songs in their hearts. We’ve helped them reconnect with some old friends and fond memories, and we’ve had quite a few laughs along the way. That’s success in our book.
