
Bill Fox - he of Cleveland's The Mice, subject of Joe Hagan's 2007 legend-establishing piece in The Believer and an Overlooked in Ohio alum - hasn't released any new music since his two decade-old solo albums, Transit Byzantium and Shelter from the Smoke (the latter of which was reissued on vinyl in 2009 by Robert Griffin 's Scat Records .) Nor has Fox granted an interview in years. So I didn't expect much more than a polite decline when I contacted Fox about his upcoming [...]

Editor’s note: “ Overlooked in Ohio ” is a feature in which we ask an Ohio-based artist/music enthusiast to tell us about a band or bands from the state of Ohio (past or present) that deserve some love. Our fifth installment comes courtesy of Eric Davidson - New Bomb Turks singer, rock scribe and now real-deal author. His new book We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001 is out now. He'll read from it in Columbus at the Wexner Center on July 9, the night before the Turks take the stage with Scrawl [...]

COBRA VERDE HQ: Cleveland, Ohio Website: MySpace ; website The Story: Formed from the ashes of legendary '80s Cle rockers Death of Samantha (Doug Gillard, of this post, was guitarist in that band), Cobra Verde -- featuring DoS vocalist John Petkovic, Gillard and drummer Dave Swanson -- formed in 1992. Although Petkovic remains the last original member, the line-up changes haven't changed CV's timeless formula: swaggering rock & roll based around glam, punk and loose-limbed garage. [...]

In this week's paper, I interviewed Robert Griffin of Prisonshake , which is releasing its first album in fifteen years, Dirty Moons , this Tuesday, August 26. (Read my entire story HERE .) The album is coming out on Scat Records , a label Griffin has run for nearly twenty years. Started when Prisonshake was still in Cleveland, Scat is probably best-known for releasing seminal albums from Dayton, Ohio's Guided By Voices , including Bee Thousand ("Hardcore UFOs," "I Am A Scientist"), [...]