The Other Paper - January 4th-10th, 2007
HOUSE MUSIC
Columbus music legend RON HOUSE is getting
radio airtime-this time as the subject of a new song
On Dec. 13, the alternative music station CD101 added a new single from a local band to its rotation. The song, Earwig's "Used Kids," is vaguely about the campus-area record store and its assistant manager, Ron House.
At 5 p.m. that same day, when CD101 played its top-five requested songs, "Used Kids" came in at No. 1.
The song-- which depicts House, a Columbus rock 'n' roll guru, as a rebel listening to the voice of God on his Walkman--has been a fixture on CD101's daily Five Spot since it hit the airwaves, making half a dozen appearances on the list in the last few weeks.
Clearly, alternative radio listeners can't get enough of the catchy tribute. But House himself insists he has yet to hear it.
"People have been telling me about it a lot," he said. "My wife's been listening to CD101 in the car. If she likes it, I'll listen to it."
House said his listening preferences lean toward talk radio.
"I'm more of a WCBE guy, you know, for the news," he said. "But now that I'm getting all this publicity, I might launch a comeback."
In the song, Earwig frontman Lizard McGee offers to give House a ride home; House replies, "Hey, man, don't worry, I got a ride/I'm going home with Jesus tonight." The lyrics posit House as an apocalyptic sage spinning records at dance parties and fashion shows.
House has been a fixture in the local music scene over the last couple of decades, playing in popular bands such as Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and Great Plains. He still plays occasionally at Cafe Bourbon Street, he said, where he has an open invitation.
McGee said he's always been a fan of House's music and remembers playing his frist gig at Used Kids when he was in high school. The store and Ron House have become a part of his subconscious, he said, which explains lyrics such as, "He says kids today are used up and anxious/They think they see a sympathetic look in my eye/Ron says he never says sorry/Because he doesn't like to lie."
McGee said he wrote the song when he was working as a carpenter at the Carpenter Inn, in Carpenter, Ohio, in late 1999, during the Y2K hubbub. He was a little homesick for Columbus, he said, and after spending his days working with a religious right-winger who played Rush Limbaugh on the radio all day, the prophetic lyrics came to him in a fevered dream.
The song is a mix of his memories of the time he spent at the record store with House and his time with his southern Ohio co-workers and their obsession with the possible Y2K doomsday.
"I just had this crazy dream, and I woke up and wrote the song in, like, 10 minutes," McGee said. "It was a bizarre and poignant dream, and for whatever reason, the dream was centered around Ron House."
Earwig has cut three studio albums and toiled in the Columbus music scene for more than 10 years, playing shows at local venues and touring the country to carve out a national reputation. The trio's latest release, Center of the Earth, which bears the "Used Kids" single, is getting some West Cost exposure on Seattle's independent radio station KEXP in addition to the local play on CD101.
"This song is an anthem for local independent rock," McGee said. "I was really glad this was the lead single off the record because Used Kids is such a big supporter of local music."
House said Used Kids Records is sold out of the new Earwig CD and that he's glad to see the store getting business from the phenomenon. But, he said, he remains fairly humble in the face of all the publicity.
"I'm kinda right up there with Art Schlichter and Tom Noe," he said. "But I didn't do anything bad." |
