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Avg: 4.0 (9 ratings)
- Date Released: January 1, 1995
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Alternative, Indie Rock
- Label: Old 3C Records / IODA
Gloriously punny punk.
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We Say...
Warners' reportedly lavished all of $800 on these aging Columbus, Ohio punks for their shambling debut — but, of course, that's in 1995 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, this album must be worth at least a grand, and both Ron House's geeky blurt and Bob Petric's junky guitar slashes deserve every penny.
As the lead singer of '80s indie jokers Great Plains, House asked the important questions about his scene: "Why do punk rock guys go out with new wave girls?" (If you have to ask…) With the same keen wit, he unholsters his "itchy middle finger" and documents the life of an aging bohemian on "Negative Guest List" ("Even if I pay I can't get in"), "Down to High Street" (about the only place in Columbus worth getting sloshed) and the swaggering "You Can't Kill Stupid."
And he's still got an eye for the new wave girls, posing the crucial question about a quiet yet oddly flirtatious scenester: "Is she shy or is she stuck up?" But the punkest masterstroke here is TJSA's cymbal-heavy aerial bombardment on "RnR Hall of Fame," a diatribe with lyrics that should be engraved at the base of the Terminal Tower. "I don't want to see Eric Clapton's stuffed baby!" And "Blow it up before Steve Albini makes a speech!" And, above all, "Cleveland's cool! Cleveland's cool!" -
They Say...
After a bevy of cherished singles, Columbus, Ohio's favorite inebriated sons turned out this spit-caked debut full-length. How it managed to find its way out on a major label is anyone's guess, but it nevertheless confirmed Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments' stature as one of the most excellent rock band's ever to drink and spew its way out of Cowtown's sloppy bars and subterranean clubs. Bait and Switch is punk rock at its snotty, anarchist best, music to both revere (the band was championed by none other than Thurston Moore) and revile (Ron House's cat-screech voice is an acquired taste, to say the least). Depending on where you're standing in the crowd, the album is either fingers on the blackboard or a perfect, thrilling sort of mess. Skanky, violent venues were built precisely for songs like "Is She Shy," "Quarrel With the World," "Negative Guest List," and "You Can't Kill Stupid," all of which hold their own next to the thrilling cover of "Cyclotron" from Cleveland punk legends the Eels. The music is every bit as polarizing and polemical as, say, Rage Against the Machine, but far more satisfyingly resonant and authoritative because its jibes are nondenominational and self-effacing. House mines his traditional obsessions (getting drunk, dissatisfaction, sex, getting drunk) with typically witty and curmudgeonly spite. But scrape off the first layer or two of vitriol, delve beneath all the bluster and sarcasm, and he is surprisingly candid about grave subjects like cancer and death. And if ever there was a deserved guitar hero (just listen to the metal-splintered stylings on "Down to High Street") it is the criminally unheralded Bob Petric. Aside from a "love" tune and the attempted atmospherics of "Contract Dispute" (let's be honest, the Doors TJSA is not), though, Bait and Switch finds the band pissing into the fire, and its fans would have it no other way.
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| 01. |  |
My Mysterious Death (Turn It Up) |
4:00 |
|
| 02. | |
Is She Shy |
2:43 |
|
| 03. | |
Down To High Street |
3:42 |
|
| 04. | |
Quarrel With The World |
3:11 |
|
| 05. | |
Cheater's Heaven |
3:47 |
|
| 06. | |
Cyclotron |
2:05 |
|
| 07. | |
Negative Guest List |
2:41 |
|
| 08. | |
Fire In The Swimming Girl |
3:47 |
|
| 09. | |
You Can't Kill Stupid |
2:53 |
|
| 10. | |
RnR Hall Of Fame |
1:06 |
|
| 11. | |
Contract Dispute |
4:32 |
|
| 12. | |
Wrongheaded |
2:33 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 37:00 Total Length
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Credits
- Ron House - Vocals // Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments - Main Performer // Craig "Big Dad" Dunson - Bass // Bob Petrick - Guitar // Bob Petrick - Vocals (Background) // Ted Hattemer - Drums
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