Attention Watershed Superfans: It's the Return of The League Bowlers, Sunday, June 26th, Noon @ Comfest

If you have read Joe Oestreich's acclaimed Watershed memoir, "Hitless Wonder", you know attaining status of a "Superfan" isn't easy. It requires deep pockets, a reliable mode of transportation, the lack of any sort of peer group and a healthy liver. It also requires you to know everything Watershed has ever released. Did you hear Todd Baker on the NPR story requesting the song "Freedom"? See, Todd KNOWS his Watershed history. If you missed the story on Weekend Edition, click here to check it out. 

The League Bowlers "Some Balls" is the lost Watershed Alt-Country CD

Watershed has had only one official side project, The League Bowlers. Formed in 1994 by Joe, Herb, myself and Paul Lansford Beltz III, the Bowlers were a way for us to play Georgia Satellites covers and take more than the regular amount of stimulants & depressants without soiling the good name of Watershed. Our debut gig was at Bernie's Distillery and our flier claimed that original RUSH drummer John Rutsey would be performing with the band. It never crossed our minds that anybody would believe this until 200 RUSH fans showed up carrying the debut RUSH album hoping to get it signed by John himself. Whoops. Man, did they HATE the Bowlers after that....anyhoo-- 

 The band eventually "evolved" into the classic Bowler line-up of myself, legendary drummer Jim Johnson (Willie Phoenix), current Bones bassist and 4 String Brew-master Dan Cochran (Big Back 40), and guitar virtuoso Mike Parks (The Godz). We would don our Bowling shirts and play local hot spots such as Bernie's, The Dolphin Lounge, The Library Bar, Route 33, and an occasional SCI-FI-BI-MON convention or tent festival in Wapakoneta. We spent many a Thanksgiving Eve performing at Andyman's Treehouse as Andy himself would usually close the night singing a tequila-fueled version of "Suspicious Minds" as an honorary Bowler.

At the same time all this was happening, Watershed was chugging right along recording and writing WAY too many songs. The songs on Some Balls were mostly written for Watershed but eventually deemed too "po-dunk" for inclusion on a Watershed release. This island of misfit Alt-country songs were eventually recorded by the League Bowlers and produced by Rick Kinsinger, Jim Johnson and myself in Rick's small, sweaty basement studio. Mixed by Joe Viers in one 6 hour session, the CD is not flashy but has a personality and more than a handful of memorable tunes: "Pretty in a Slutty Way," "Kids Down South," and "Half of Me" to name a few. Scrawl vocalist Marci Mays even contributes vocals to "Here I Am."

While I am proud of the music, Mike "Biggie" Mc Dermott really out did himself with the artwork. One reviewer even claimed people should buy the CD just for the cover. Click here to read the review.

Not much footage of the Bowlers exists as nobody came to our shows and the ones that did were too broke to own anything more that a $1.00 draft beer, let alone a camera, video or otherwise. Somehow Eric Broz managed to film a little bit of the League Bowlers last show, Friday August 1st, 2008, at the old Thirsty Ear. In the tradition of all great rock bands, we broke up onstage. Too bad he didn't film that. 

Much has changed since that fateful night all those years ago. The Thirsty Ear became Woodland's Tavern. With Watershed on a hiatus, I formed The Lonely Bones and recently released a compilation of all that music. Click here to check it out.

With Bones members Herb Schupp and Rick Kinsinger currently also playing in Watershed, the time seemed right for a League Bowlers reunion at Comfest, and maybe a few songs and some new music beyond that. Stay tuned at Pencilstorm.com 

"Lonely Bones" by The League Bowlers. Recorded August 1, 2008 at the Thirsty Ear Cafe in Grandview, Ohio

 

 

 

My Days & Nights as a Pinboy for The League Bowlers - by Ricki C.

(editor’s note: For our younger readers who have no idea what a pinboy is, ask your aged grandad in the nursing home, or Netflix & Chill with that 1984 Nicholas Cage/Sean Penn flick Racing With The Moon. Good movie.) 


I guess I would have first witnessed the rock & roll assemblage that is The League Bowlers back in the 1990’s at The Library Bar just north of Lane Avenue on High Street.  Colin may have to correct my faulty memory, but it seems to me they only used to play once a year – like maybe the night before Thanksgiving – and then later it seems I remember them opening for themselves at Watershed shows.  That was back when Colin & Joe Oestreich both played guitar, Herb Schupp was on drums and Paul Beltz III on bass.  

I can’t quite recall the first time I saw the “modern incarnation” of the band – the one that recorded Some Balls – that featured Colin, Dan Cochran, Mike Parks and Jim Johnson, but it might have been at a bar at Easton that also featured video games for the kiddies.  I later became the de facto "road manager” of that band, and detailed the night they broke up onstage at the old Thirsty Ear on Third Avenue in Grandview.  (You can read all about that night – one of the Top Ten Best in my career of being a roadie, by the way – here at my old blog, Growing Old With Rock & Roll: The Friday Night Massacre: The League Bowlers Roll a Gutterball and Break Up Onstage.)

A couple of weeks after that blog first appeared back in 2012, I was handling guitars & merch sales for Joe Peppercorn’s band The Whiles at a gig at the old Kobo on High Street.  While we we were loading out gear at the end of the night Joe’s brother Matt and the other Whiles’ guitarist, Jake Remley, started asking me why I used Colin’s – and other people’s – real names in the League Bowlers blog, when it was obviously a fictional story.

“That wasn’t a fictional story, all of that happened just like I said,” I replied.  “The band ACTUALLY BROKE UP ONSTAGE?!?” Matt asked incredulously.  “Yes, I didn’t make up one word of that piece.  It may have actually been WORSE than I wrote it.”  Jake and Matt just looked at me in the dark, dumbfounded; I could tell they were trying to comprehend just HOW BAD things would have to get to have that happen to them.  Those Whiles boys are WAY too nice to each other; deep down they really aren’t rockers, they’re folk-rock guys.  (Although I did once witness a pretty good blow-up between the Peppercorn brothers just before a Comfest gig one Sunday afternoon in the 2000’s.  It was hardly an Oasis level/Gallagher brothers or Kinks/Davies brothers slugfest, but it was an impressive sibling dust-up nonetheless.)

My other favorite League Bowlers memory was during a happy hour show at the Rumba Café.  I was onstage handing Mike Parks a guitar when a discussion ensued about whether to debut the Bowler’s then brand-new cover of The Faces' “Maggie May” as the closer of the second set, or to save it for sometime in the third set.  (It should be noted at this point that "Maggie May" was probably the most, let's say, challenging tune in the Bowler's repertoire.)  That was when the future founder of Four String Brew – Mr. Dan Cochran – spoke up between swigs of the beer in his hand and said/slurred, “If we’re gonna play “Maggie May,” we better play it RIGHT NOW, because in two more songs’ time I am not gonna BE ABLE to play it.”    

I don’t think I have ever seen a more honest – or more self-aware – moment from a musician onstage.  Drink on, League Bowlers, drink on. – Ricki C. / 6/13/2016   


The League Bowlers will be reuniting onstage at Comfest, at noon on Sunday, June 26th, on the Off Ramp Stage.  I look for them to break up again right afterwards, so you might wanna catch the show, and the band, while you can.

League Bowlers Review by Stephen Slaybaugh

Before Stephen Slaybaugh moved on from Columbus to write for The Agit Reader, CMJ, The Village Voice. Paste magazine and many more, he was kind enough to write about The League Bowlers during his time at the Columbus Alive. Story below. League Bowlers reunion at Comfest, Off Ramp Stage, Sunday, June 26th, Noon.

Click here for League Bowlers story archive on Watershedcentral

Click here for League Bowlers on Facebook.

THE LEAGUE BOWLERS
SKULLY'S MUSIC DINER
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26
by Stephen Slaybaugh
The Columbus Alive, November 20, 2003

Following in a long Columbus tradition, the League Bowlers have concocted enough tall-tales (connections to Axl Rose, stories about hitchhiking, fake Rolling Stone articles, etc.) surrounding the band that it's hard to distinguish the bull from the shit. Be that as it may, some things are known: The band is comprised of Colin Gawel, also of Watershed, on guitar and vocals; Jim Johnson, of Willie Phoenix's band, on drums; Mike Parks, of Godz fame, on guitars; and Dan Cochran, formerly of Big Back 40 and Feversmile, among others, on bass; and will be releasing its first CD, which this show celebrates.

The album, Some Balls (B Minus), following in another Columbus tradition, relates tales of drinkin' ("Been Thinkin'"), girls ("Pretty in a Slutty Way," "The New Girl") and, well, more drinkin' ("Saturday Night There's a Party"). The Bowlers match such timeless themes with a particularly impressive deluge of Midwestern-soiled rock that's at once casual and off-the-cuff as well as well-played, and it's worthy of the bandmates' lineages.

Things start early so everyone will have plenty of time to sleep off their hangovers before heading out for the holiday the next day.

Great Band, Worst Song: Van Halen's "Jump"

Van Halen – the greatest rock band of the 80's.  The original line-up will go down in history as one of the amazing hard-rock bands ever. When their songs came on the radio, you automatically turned it up.

Their drummer, Alex Van Halen, merged traditional rock beats with mind-blowing drum fills that you couldn't help but pound along on your steering wheel to. He was the first to effectively use a double bass drum, demonstrated here in Hot For Teacher.

Add in a front man, David Lee Roth, with such bravado and presence, plus a twist of humor. His ego was so huge he needed three names. This guy didn’t really care at all but knew how to sing a hook, tell a story, and make you want to come back for more. Just watch this video of Panama to truly understand this guy’s talent.

Not to mention, the world’s most underrated bass player, Michael Anthony, who was an amazing vocalist in his own right and laid down heavy righteous low-end rhythm.  Just listen to the raw bass line in Ain’t Talking About Love and the backup vocals in Beautiful Girls.

But Van Halen wouldn’t have been Van Halen without the best rock guitarist in history, Eddie Van Halen: the virtuoso who owned rock guitar in the 80's. Everyone wanted to play just like him. He came up with distorted grooves, rip-roaring bluesy solos, and perfected the tapping technique which became his signature move. He’s probably one of the most influential rock guitarists. He tops lists that include Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Jimmy Page. Heck, even Michael Jackson asked him to guest solo on Beat It (start at 3:10). Check out the solo on Ice Cream Man.

Van Halen was an awesome band.  Even their covers were kick ass.  You Really Got Me, Dancing In The Street, Pretty Woman.

You want to hear something that rocks? Listen to any Van Halen song… any song with the original line-up and you’ll crank it up and relive what it’s like to be surrounded by 80's hard rock.

Except for one.

Jump.

This song stands out like a sore thumb on their album 1984. It had so many killer Van Halen songs… Panama… Hot For Teacher… Top Jimmy… Drop Dead Legs.

But what do you do when you have the world’s greatest guitar player?  You do a heavy synth song like "Jump"?  I’m not knocking the tune… it’s a great song.  But it belongs on Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet - not 1984.

If Poison would have recorded this song, it would be by far the best Poison song.  But it’s the worst Van Halen song.  It’s too poppy. Too synthy. Lacks a powerful bass line. Lacks any strong guitar riff. Lacks any killer drums. And lacks powerful vocals.  It’s like they took all their energy and put it into Panama and Hot For Teacher and then said, “Hey… let’s do something really cheesy. Let's do Jump.”

Unfortunately, this song opened up the era of keyboard-heavy Van Hagar… with songs as Dreams, Why Can’t This Be Love, Love Walks In, and When It’s Love.  All good tunes, but each overshadows the guitar virtuoso and hard-rockin’ band Van Halen was during the late 70's and early 80's.

The good news is, it left a void to fill from guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, and others: all of whom brought their own skills and talent to create some of the best hard-rock music we've heard.

 

Wal Ozello, a child of the 80s, is the former singer of the Columbus hairband Armada. He's the author of the science fiction time travel books Assignment 1989, Revolution 1990 and Sacrifice 2086 and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.

The British Invasion is Playing the Hollywood Casino This Saturday Night and Ricki C. Is Going To See Them

I don’t go to the Hollywood Casino much.  I fully admit I’m one of those former West Siders who thought it would be great to put the Columbus casino on the West Side rather than downtown, who thought that it would revitalize the entire West Side and be really great for my former neighbors.  Of course, that’s not the way it turned out.  The casino ABSOLUTELY should have been downtown, where it might have actually attracted clientele from the Convention Center, Huntington Park, etc., and been better positioned for people from all over the city to converge at one CENTRAL LOCATION to gamble their hard-earned money, as opposed to the West Side senior citizens pissing away their Social Security checks at the penny slots, the way I see it now.

But I digress………

The British Invasion is playing the Hollywood Casino this Saturday night, May 7th, 8-11:30 pm in the H Lounge (formerly the O-H lounge) and that’s more than enough to lure me back to my old neighborhood.  (I could throw a softball from my first apartment in Lincoln Park West and hit the casino.)  The British Invasion is five guys playing all the 1964-1967 British Invasion tunes I cut my musical teeth on, but more importantly, not just the normal mishmash of Beatles ‘n’ Stones tunes bands of this genre normally play: The British Invasion goes Deep Cuts on The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Hollies, The Zombies and The Troggs – among others – and charms the hell out of this West Side rocker's heart.  (And, you’ve gotta understand, normally Ricki C. is not gonna venture out on a Saturday night ANYWHERE – let alone the Hollywood Casino – to see a cover/tribute band: has Ricki EVER seen The Menus or The Reaganomics?  Not on your sweet, short life.)

My sister’s coming up from Grove City to meet me for the show, too, and that’s cool, because she’s the one who turned me on to The British Invasion to begin with.  A coupla years ago they played some downtown street bash in Grove City and all I heard for the next two weeks was Dianne babbling, “You’ve gotta see this band I saw!  They’re called The British Invasion and THEY WERE GREAT!  We’ve gotta find out where they’re playing next and go see them!  You’d love them!”

Now let’s keep in mind, ladies & gentlemen, my sister’s tastes in music run to the likes of The Four Seasons, Lawrence Welk and Wayne Newton.  (She once actually called me up in the 1980’s and announced breathlessly, “Ric, Wayne Newton is playing at Beulah Park!  We should go!”  When I replied, “Dianne, I wouldn’t go out in my backyard to see Wayne Newton,” she was genuinely crestfallen.)

So I didn’t have particularly high hopes for whatever outdoor show Dianne dragged me to that summer to see the band, but damn, if The British Invasion DIDN’T DELIVER BIG TIME!  First off, they dress up in matching 60’s outfits (which Di loved) and anybody who knows me well realizes that I’m a TOTAL SUCKER for bands in uniforms, from Paul Revere & the Raiders in 1965 to The White Stripes in this 21st century.  (The Strokes also kinda fall in that category, come to think of it.)  (So do The League Bowlers, but that's a different blog for another time.)

Secondly – and most importantly – The British Invasion doesn’t just PLAY mid-60’s rock & roll music, they UNDERSTAND mid-60’s rock & roll music.  They understand that all the little hooks – guitar arpeggios, backing vocals, little drum-breaks coming out of solos – are all JUST AS IMPORTANT as the words & music of the songs.  It’s those little touches in the songs that put these guys heads & shoulders above the middling cover bands I have to think litter The Hollywood Casino stage week in and week out. 

Anyway, I’m WAY over my allotted 500 words, so let me just say this: If you like rock & roll that is equal parts MELODY, SMARTS & POWER; if you like rock & roll that is as far from alternative hipster bullshit as you can get; if you like rock & roll that is FUN, come and see the British Invasion at the Hollywood Casino this Saturday night.  It don’t cost nothin’ and I GUARANTEE a good time.  See ya there.  -  Ricki C. / May 3rd, 2016