Life is a cabernet:
Members of Times
New Viking, Psychedelic
Horseshit, and Pink Reason
The Spin
20Ranking
on Pop
Culture
Since 1998

SCHOOL’S OUT! No-good kids now free to

1 text each other, ignore grown-ups in privacy of own homes

₂ IT’S NOT THE HEAT, IT’S THE HUMIDITY _{Also, though, it’s the heat
3} SUMMER TV DOLDRUMS Remind us a lot of the _{winter TV doldrums}
VELVE T REVOLVER SEARCH FOR NEW SINGER ONLINE

4 It’s currently a toss-up between Tay Zonday and the talking cat

5 ^{L.A. GALLERY SELLS $5,000 BONGS We’re so high} _{we thought that said} “$5,000 _bongs”
NEW COLDPLAY ALBUM INFLUENCED BY FRIDA

6 KAHLO Snow Patrol take note, hire Salma Hayek to design their new cover

₇ WEARING FLIP-FLOPS TO WORK _{Comfortable, but sanitary?}

RADIOHEAD DECREASE CARBON FOOTPRINT

8 And you know what they say about smaller carbon footprints...

[ANATOMY OF A SCENE ]
Sh*tgaze
Columbus, Ohio, gives lo-fi a new, sorta gross name
> THE GENESIS

Though Columbus is probably best known as a way station between Cleveland and Cincinnati, Times New Viking’s signing to grown-up label Matador Records has made the city the center of a burgeoning lo-fi scene. Art-school kids TNV befriended Psychedelic Horseshit singer Matt Whitehurst in ²⁰⁰⁵, who in turn befriended Green Bay, Wisconsin native Kevin DeBroux, the only constant member of Pink Reason. DeBroux enjoyed his trips to Columbus so much that after dropping acid at a party one night, he decided to stay. (He is now also Horseshit’s bassist.)

The term shitgaze originated, as all good rock nomenclature must, from a drug-induced inside joke. “We were sitting around stoned listening to the Psychedelic Horseshit album, and I knew Matt was into [’⁹⁰s U.K.] shoegaze stuff,” DeBroux says. “I’m like, ‘Man, this isn’t shoegaze; this is shitgaze.’” Whitehurst stuck the word up on Horseshit’s MySpace

page, and it became the tag for a Columbus-centric genre, though it’s also becoming an umbrella term for other lo-fi Midwesterners such as Tyvek and TV Ghost.

>THE SOUND

Everything these bands record is spiked in the red and cloaked in caustic fuzz. Vocals are intelligible every so often, and snare hits resemble chopsticks on tinfoil. You could say Psychedelic Horseshit’s bass drum sounds like a cardboard box...’cause it is.

“I’d rather be called shitpop or tweecore,” says Times New Viking singer/keyboardist Beth Murphy, and she’s right to want the pop aspect accentuated: Underneath all that hissy static and garbled vocals are well-crafted albeit primitive songs. “Devo & Wine,” and “(My Head)” are not too far removed from the output of fellow Ohioans Guided by Voices.

>THE HUB
The locus of the scene is Cafe
Bourbon Street, neither a café,

nor on Bourbon Street. The appropriately grimy dive is nestled in an area christened Washington Beach (after a neighborhood in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City), north of Ohio State University. TNV’s singer/drummer Adam Elliott and guitarist Jared Phillips work there, and Whitehurst used to. At Cafe Bobo (as the locals call it), ceiling tiles are shredded and big beams obscure patrons’ view of the stage. Be it ever so humble…

>

ESSENTIAL MUSIC

Vinyl is the medium of choice for shitgazers, and Philadelphia indie label Siltbreeze is the best place to begin. Times New Viking’s Dig Yourself started it all, followed by last year’s Present the Paisley Reich and this year’s Matador release, Rip It Off, which keeps the noisy hiss but adds stronger songwriting. Psychedelic Horseshit’s ramshackle debut, Magic Flowers Droned, is required listening, while Pink Reason’s Cleaning the Mirror is a more intimate and personal DIY gem.

JOEL OLIPHINT

9 ^{NATALIE LOVES DEVENDRA That’s it. We’re done} _{with this whole showering thing.} ^{10 HIVES SONG HELPS SELL SEARS WASHING MACHINES} Too bad it only cleans black and white clothes

11 ^{MIKE MYERS’ THE LOVE GURU His casting even} _{offended C. Thomas Howell}

CONTEMPLATING THE DEATH OF PRINT Did we

12 mention every issue of Spin comes with a free back rub? C’mere, you!

AKON’S THREE-YEAR PRISON STINT EXAGGERATED...

13 BY ABOUT THREE YEARS Also revealed: He’s a white 53-year-old mother of three from Shreveport

58 PERCENT OF MUSIC IN U.S. DOWNLOADED FOR
14 FREE What happens when you can no longer buy _{20 albums for a penny}

^{15 MILEY CYRUS PENS AUTOBIOGRAPHY Publishers} are delaying release until her fans learn how to read

^{16 CONOR OBERST RELEASES SOLO ALBUM Chan} Marshall leaves Cat Power over creative differences

17 ^{NBA PLAYOFFS Haven’t watched since they} _{stopped using John Tesh theme song}

₁₈ JUNE IS NATIONAL PEST-CONTROL MONTH _{We’re looking at you, Mom}

19 ^{THE GAME’S LOS ANGELES TIMES An insightful song-} _{cycle about the decline of print media}

^{20 CASTING SKINNY ACTORS AS SUPERHEROES A} byproduct of hiring pro wrestlers to play babysitters