Formed in late 2004 from the ashes of the Columbus, Ohio Punk act Go Evol Shiki, Church of the Red Museum trade in fast angular guitars for high art, Nick Cave-esque story telling and sinister waltzes. They will be playing at Cedar’s Lounge on Saturday, August 1st 2009 with The Receivers and The Sewing Machine War. I had a phone interview with Church of the Red Museum’s drummer, Robby Coleman, about the future state of his Columbus Indie rock project and what everyone in the band is listening to currently. Robby Coleman comments, “In the band we are all influenced by different things. There are certain parts with everybody. Listening- wise, we all agree on Nick Cave, Pink Floyd, Tom Waits and Murder City Devils. Harry Houdini, Bob Dylan and Robyn Hood -type people in history who lived outside the law also influence us. Everyone else in the band comes from more of a Punk standpoint. I come from a country standpoint.”

Church Of The Red Museum - Church Of The Red Museum

(Manup)

A year-old band made up of Columbus veterans, CotRM recorded this debut within the first few months of their birth. A salty mix of macabre themes and Tin Pan Alley-greased melodies, the record's darkened cavorting recalls that of The Gun Club, Man Man, and The Starvations. Lyrically there's a certain amount of blood thirst mixed in with singer Brian Travis' woes about life and love. It gives the record teeth, making Travis' indictments more spiteful than wallowing. With the up-swell of the six-piece band's mixed organic sounds matching the emotional crescendos and denouements measure for measure, this record is as much thrilling as it is chilling.

Church of the Red Museum

"Church of the Red Museum" (Manup)

by John Ross, Columbus Alive, 12/28/06

Released by Manup Music, this year's most interesting local label, Church of the Red Museum's debut album is as dark as the drawing of two corpses on the cover.  As musicially deft as it is emotionally draining, the cabaret sound is a huge leap from the typical indie-rock known to pour from Columbus.  For starters, check out "The Bay" at manupmusic.com.

Top Five Albums, Karen E. Graves, The Other Paper (12/28/06)

Church of the Red Museum

s/t

Church of the Red Museum turned in an attention-grabbing set at Comfest this year.  The group's army orf musicians filled the stage and let loose a set of haunted Americana and perfectly droning rock.  Drawing from the murderous gospel of Nick Cave, the paranoia of early Modest Mouse, and the grimy atmospherics of Tom Waits, the group combines some of the better elements of those artists on its debut disc.  Several of the songs from Comfest were stills stuck in my head by the time the band got around to releasing its debut--in October.  Nothing beats a solid hook.

Creating its own little world of sound

by Rick Allen, The Other Paper (12/21/06)

Columbus isn't the sort of locale that brings to mind Gothic horror, otherwordly eeriness and the dark underbelly of Americana.  But don't tell that to Church of the Red Museum. 

With its self-titled debut album, the band crafts a mounrful yet soulful blend of old-time murder balladry and dark country with British post-punk guitar rock and "penny dreadful" aesthetics.

This melange of styles works like gangbusters as the band creates its own little world of sound that tells the tales trapped in the far recesses of the collective subconscious.

Brian Travis is the head of the collective, and as lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, carries a lot of the weight of the band.  His vocal chops are well-tuned to the needs of the Church--half smoky, hard-living gin-joint croon, half-dying gasp as the noose chokes out the last glimpse of his veil of tears.

The band has little trouble keeping up with Travis in the creative-imagery department.  Take "A Flush Never Felt So Bad," for example.  The song opens with a droning, insistent organ tone left over from the opening number underneath a ghostly bowed saw.  It's an aural combination that says, "Don't go into those woods" to anyone who's spent too much time with horror films--and is as delightful for that reason as it is emotionally weighty.

On "After All," Leslie Jankowski's lovely violin works in conjunction with Travis's understated vocals and Bil Jankowski's tinkling xylophone in a combination that is both mournful and seductively simple-minded--before erupting into a guitar-rock chorus that showcases the howling caterwaul that is the other end of the band's spectrum.

The opening instrumentation is similar on "The Road," likely the album's strongest track, blending the Old World sounds of the violin with Tom Butler's edgy, percussive guitar line.

The band utilizes sound in creative, well-thought-out ways to construct a nervy, tension-filled album as familiar and engaging as it is intimidating and dangerous.  From a Columbus band mainly composed of former members of noise-rock upstarts Go Evol Shiki!, Church of the Red Museum is a complete surprise--and a fascinating one to boot.

Church of the Red Museum Releases Their Debut

Church of the Red Museum
Saturday, October 7th
Carabar

With a year or so under their belts and the enthusiastic buzz about them on the rise, Church of the Red Museum is striking while the iron is decidedly hot by releasing their first record this weekend. Self titled and appearing via local Manup Records, the album is a frenetic dash through 29 minutes of a Bohemian sounding dirge. Born largely from the reconstituted Columbus band Go Evol Shiki, the reassignment of players couldn't have resulted in a much more disparate or improved sound. Where GES was discordant and exuberant, Church or the Red Museum plods along in a somewhat less cacophonous, yet sinister sounding polka punctuated by a screaming wail.

For a band of relative newness, they spend a considerable amount of time focusing on expiry. With a vocal griminess and depth that will likely forever be (favorably) compared to Tom Waits, and the heavy somber sounds of pyre-worthy organs, these songs seem forever close to death- or at the very least, calamity. Lyrical content doesn't do much to dissuade the listener from the theme, as front man Brian Travis sings such foreboding lines as "there's no escape from the murder in my head…" and "there'll be a moment of truth before my baby breaks…There'll be a shotgun blast." While that sort of tone is almost universal throughout, one shouldn't confuse the proximity to a funeral with lifelessness. On the contrary, the songs have a compelling drive and energy. That is due in part to interesting arrangements of violin and muted trumpets, crackling guitars, and unusual percussion. While some tracks blend almost seamlessly, others have abrupt changes in tempo or feel within a particular song, so that the listener is held on edge.

In a year of absolute bounty regarding Columbus releases, Church of the Red Museum's offering will surely be a standout. There's an urgency, a darkness, and a uniqueness that makes it stick with you. Bravo.

Joining CoRM at the Carabar will be the guitar orchestra/hurricane that is Brainbow, punk blasters El Jesus de Magico, and The Hills Have Eyes.

MP3: Shotgun Blast

Posted by ben on October 6, 2006 08:35 AM | Permalink

Church of the Red Museum sound unlike anything you've heard before

[4 Comment(s)]

By Mollie Wells

If the newest Columbus dark-wave darlings Church of the Red Museum seem as if they've been together for years, it's because most of them have – in some respect. Singer and principle songwriter Brian Travis spans time with Tom Butler and Bil Jankowski in Go Evol Shiki!, who have in turn shared the stage with Leslie Jankowski's former group Frostiva and current project the Flotation Walls. Donnie Roberts and Robbie Coleman hold up the rhythm section in The Gospel, and, of course, Donnie lives with Brian, and Bil and Leslie are married, so the whole thing wafts of a sort of musical incest that not only tends to typify the best Columbus bands, but also lends the group an air of both live and recorded comfort.

"We've been playing together a long time now," said Coleman. "It definitely helps to have familiarity with one another."

But, he continues, that doesn't mean the songs sound anything like the members' previous projects. Certain elements may stay intact, but it's the experience, not the sound, that feels most familiar.

"If the rhythm section sounds like The Gospel's, there's a good reason for that," he said. "But I don't necessarily think that we're influenced by our past groups."

Tom Butler agreed. "COTRM was a chance to do something different from the other bands we were in. Brian's songs are much more organic than anything we did in Go Evol Shiki!."

They're both completely dead-on; COTRM, for all its veteran Columbus underpinnings, sounds like nothing you've heard before, at least not from these musicians. Their self-titled debut (released on Manup Records, the local label run by Carabar owner Ron Barker) is moody and dark, a funeral dirge that calls up the Slaves or Nick Cave far more easily than Go Evol Shiki! or Frostiva. And maybe their poetic cries – and upsurging popularity – are in some way a product of time spent navigating the most unforgiving business in the world. This time, however, they're taking a different tack.

"I think because our other bands had such trouble releasing a record, COTRM really pushed to get something out." Leslie Jankowski explained. "Our record was recorded in three days, and it wasn't too long before we got it pressed. It's not a perfect record, but we're proud of it, and I think it captures more of what we sound like live rather than an overproduced, unrealistic ideal."

"We're not spring chickens here," Coleman added. "Hopefully, we kind of know what to do this time because of a lot of previous trial and error."

It's definitely working. For a band that started humbly in a basement a year ago, just another in the host of the members' many projects – "Isn't everybody in at least four bands?" Coleman mused – they've been privy to a lot of accomplishment. Supportive label? Check. Enthusiastic local following? Check. Well-received debut? Total check. And they've been busy planning a tour for spring of 2007 and maybe even grabbing a slot at next year's South by Southwest. COTRM is truly poised to take the country, maybe even the world, by storm.

"Our response in Columbus has been really good and we appreciate it," Leslie continued, "and we hope that when we start playing out of town more, that will continue. Someone in Sweden bought our CD off the Manup Web site, so who knows – maybe we'll even get out there someday, too."

"Ron has my parents tied up in the basement of Carabar," Butler added. "He tells me that if we don't rock, they get it."

Church of the Red Museum will perform at Little Brother's on Nov. 16; doors open at 8 p.m. The Midnighter, Guardrail Angel, the Wells and Lost State of Franklin support. For more information, please call Little Brother's at 421-2025 or visit littlebrothers.com. For more information on Church of the Red Museum, please visit myspace.com/churchoftheredmusem online.

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Originally Published: Issue 478 - November 15, 2006