Wolverton Brothers Press

Crooked (2010)

DJ President of the United States reviews "Crooked" and "Old, Ugly, and Loud" - HERE

"The Cincinnati band is back with another album. Spacey, indie, post-punk with twisted lyrics a la Dick Panthers. Fairly straight-forward instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums. No FCC’s. *My Favorites*: 1, 2, 3, 6. 1. *(4:38) Mid. Spacey, trippy, echoey. Crunchy elec. guitar comes in about 1:15. Vocals about 2:00. Weirded out female backing vocals, almost a soundtrack parody. 2. *(4:54) Mid / Fast. Female lead vocals. More crunchy guitar work. Spacey. Bizarre lyrics. Kicks ass. 3. *(5:40) Mid. Spacey, jammy, stretched out post-punk. A bit Dick Panthers / Nick Cave. 4. (4:37) Mid / Fast. Mostly a guitar, drum and bass workout with minimal lyrics. Pretty rockin’. 5. (5:13) Slow / Mid. Xylophone, Neil Young mention. Although there’s lyrics, it feels mostly instrumental. 6. *(5:12) Mid / Fast. Guitar intro, pretty kick ass opening then high-pitched female vocal enters. Trippy guitar effects. More weird lyrics. Don’t be surprised if this gets a play from Your Imaginary Friend. 7. (4:55) Fast. Surf sound, female chanting, otherwise an instrumental. More guitar effects. Rockin’. Coda with 1:30 remaining." - KZSU

Wolverton Brother’s feature in the latest issue (26) of GhettoBlaster Magazine: HERE

"Wow. Another space-soaked scorcher here. Imagine if PERE UBU didn't start sucking when they should have been ROCKING (Like during Dub Housing)... That band would be The Wolverton Brothers! Crooked is the base returning to slap you in the face. It's minimal all B/W packaging hand numbered copies limited to 250 copies gives the release a sense of urgency... It seems to a trained and professional ear that the hillbilly/alt-country influences that the band was founded on are nearly culled and replaced by a psychedelic space thang... And that thang is a good thang. The Bros. are out there, on a different existence altogether surfing a new dimension into the unknown three islands over from the initial landing.
You see, its guys like this that LEAD the way. The Bothers are pioneers sailing a flat earth knowing that they will fall off the edge, but will make the journey anyway. They will go there and might not ever be back (No, they sail NEVER to return!) but that is YOUR concern, not theirs. You see its the pioneering suicidal divine wind that propels these guys sails. Fuck you Chrissy Columbus! Move o'er, there's something LEANER! All in all, these songs definitely have a harder edge than their last effort, Old Ugly and Loud which seems to be all the guitars fault. There's less chaos in the mix too. Could this be due to their re-inclusion to a studio unlike the path that had seemed to becoming forged with Old Ugly and Loud which the band recorded themselves in their practice space? Like I said, these guys sail into the deathly unknown. It's all left turns unless your expecting left turns (then its all right turns, and here we are acting like there are only TWO turns available to us; Right and left... This band defies that concept). I guess what I'm trying to say. is with any Brothers release, this one is bound to impress and even surprise. My fav track is “Memory Thieves” or maybe “Our Sons” but really, this whole release is on target, if even the target is vibrating in this dimension. Outside, the outside is where you will find The Brothers infecting you. Infecting you. Infecting you... Dont fight it." - The Neus Subjex

"Not being based out of any of the “approved” cultural meccas of the coasts, Cincinnati’s The Wolverton Brothers have been sorely overlooked during their twenty-plus year career. Their music has largely remained based in mixing solidly American root genres, such as rock and blues, with a more angular and slightly off-kilter compositional style. Crooked continues this exploration with startling results for a band so ‘long in the tooth’ who work within a genre so seemingly dated. Tim Schwallie’s range presented within his gruff vocals (and fingernails-on-chalkboard squealing on “Dr. Wu”) and Billy Wol’s crisp and bent guitar work sound every bit as fresh and relevant as they did in 1986. The closest parallels that could be drawn come with Captain Beefheart or fellow Ohio “avante garage” act, Pere Ubu. Unfortunately, with a limited printing of 250 copies, Crooked won’t be the album to “win over the masses” but you should count yourself lucky to be among the chosen few." - The Big Takeover

"Standing outside the practice space used by Cincinnati’s legendary mainstays of underground Rock, The Wolverton Brothers (Tim Schwallie, Bill “Billy Wol” Stuart, Jay McCubbin and drummer T. Lothar Witt), I reminded them it was their 25th year in brotherhood. The band’s first gig was in 1985 at the C.A.G.E. Gallery on Fourth Street. “It came about,” Stuart remembers, “as Kate Gallion (of C.A.G.E.) asked me to do some musical thing.”
Half made up of roughshod artpunkers from the Punk band BPA and half from elegant, fashion-forward New Wave band Junta, something about it worked, leading to The Wolverton Brothers’ subsequent legacy of seven studio albums, several tours and countless live performances in this area. Early on, The Wolverton Brothers accepted Roots elements into their music, but to say they belong to the canon of Country-inspired Alternative music is incorrect. If anything, the band’s work is characterized by a state of conflict with American Roots music. The Wolverton Brothers are eclectics, more comfortable with abrogating the contract implied by genre than in adhering to it, resolutely going their own direction and making some great music along the way. After working under an alias, the group settled on “The Wolverton Brothers” after some eccentric siblings Stuart and McCubbin had known in high school. “Worst mistake we ever made,” Schwallie offers.
The band’s self-titled debut LP for Okra Records in 1988 tended to typecast the group. Its front cover image of a group of hunters was found along the roadside in Franklin, Ohio, by Al Combs, who, according to Stuart, “was very important to the Junta side of the formulation.” As Witt recalls, the band’s early brand of conflicted, reinvented Roots music helped The Wolverton Brothers break through. “It was not until we opened for Leon Russell and Edgar Winter — and virtually started a riot — at Bogart’s that we took off,” he says. “ We’d had the plug pulled on us. Me and Jay went back to get paid, and (club owner) Al Porkolab writes out the check, looks up and says ‘You guys got guts.’ ”
From there, the Wolvertons sustained a long and impressive track record as one of the Cincinnati club scene’s strongest draws in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Their second Okra release, Sucking Hind Tit, was distributed by major indie Rough Trade, which went out of business on the very day of its release. “At the time,” Schwallie remembers, “playing out locally was extremely satisfactory. From ’88 to ’95, it was amazing. I’d go home from shows and be on cloud nine for a week or two.” Out-of-town appearances were more problematic. “We had a couple of wonderful shows in Boston” Schwallie says. “We had really good shows in New York and Chicago. But there were places where we were passed as a Country band when we were no longer a Country band (and) we were passed as a SubPop band because we had that single coming out then.” That Wolvertons single — “My Assassin” backed with “Max Gomez Love,” part of the original Sub Pop’s Singles Club — was from 1993, during the label’s nadir as a true indie. McCubbin remembers, “I talked to Jonathan Poneman on the phone and he said, ‘You guys are kind of cerebral.’ ”
Subsequently, the band released two albums through Kurt Kellison’s Chicago-based Atavistic label, the exceptionally rare Liar Man (1994) and Glad (1995). “Back in ’95, a lot of local bands were getting signed,” Stuart says. “We felt like Glad was the best record we could ever make (and) it got us absolutely nowhere. I think the Glad flop really spoiled our appetite for the music biz.” This led to what the Wolvertons refer to as their “missing years,” an impasse when they seldom recorded, played few shows and experimented with other concepts, including the short-lived C.O.P.S. (Collection of Police Soundtracks).
Ultrasuede’s John Curley and Chris Koltay encouraged The Wolverton Brothers to resume recording after a nine-year hiatus, resulting in Hospital Records’ A Better Place in 2006, which, as Schwallie observes, “is a hellaciously long CD, about 60 minutes, and a couple of years in the making.” A Better Place is a maximal testament to a revitalized Wolvertons, incorporating instrumental, electronically-fueled jams into the usual mix. It helped set the stage for The Wolverton Brothers’ subsequent releases on Ionik: Old, Ugly and Loud from 2008 and the band’s recent effort, Crooked. Handing me a stack of Wolverton Brothers CDs, Schwallie says, “That’s actually a body of work you’re looking at. All of those CDs did come out and all have been reviewed.” Witt adds, “Recording is almost like, to me, like playing live in a certain way. That’s the level of satisfaction you get.” As to where they might be headed as they enter their 26th year, Schwallie is upbeat.
“The Wolverton Brothers is a sonically all over the place, pretty 'out there' kind of music,” he says. “ We do get airplay, and it’s because we have been around 25 years that we can get it — (someone’s) older brother had the first record or somebody recognizes the name. We’ve had periods where it was on the up and periods where nobody came, just like any other local band. Over the years, we’re kind of getting rediscovered.” - Cincinnati CityBeat

"Cincinnati Ohio’s Wolverton Brothers make music that flies below the radar. Unfortunately they should not! The music made by this Cincy group flies against what is happening with music nowadays with all its BS that arrives before so many albums prove to be any good, with fancy press releases, flashy videos and nonsense. With the Wolverton Brothers, you just get good music. You know the music you want to play in your mother’s basement while sitting back and telling your friends, ‘told you so!’ Ionik Records recently put up their EP, ” Crooked” and it deserves to be played. A simple, almost minimal feel to their rock, progressive sounds requires that more people know about these fellows! The power quartet is Tim Schwallie, Billy Wol, Jay Stacey McCubbin, T. Lothar Witt." - Loudvine

"This is real underground music...not the phony kind pawned off on the public by major labels looking to cash in on dumb underground hipsters. The folks in Wolverton Brothers are doing just about everything right. These folks aren't creating music with the motivation being (a) to see how many downloads they can get or (b) to see how many television shows might use their music. Instead, the songs on this 35+ minute CD-R seem to be driven mainly by the desire to create. This limited edition CD-R (only 250 were created) features nice, solid, underground pop with an edgy kind of sound. Cool guitars, intriguing vocals, and an overall unique vibe are what make Crooked a good solid spin. Cool tracks include "Spooky Magic Costume Shoppe" and "Memory Thieves." - Babysue

"Another epic track from The Wolverton Brothers, who already won my Gr8 Song Title award for “Cops Nab Drunken Legless Burglar.” Proudly declaring themselves OLD, UGLY, and LOUD on their site, this band is a cre8ive force to be reckoned with, conjuring a massive, distinctive sound. In “Memory Thieves” they sound like a an old school power trio interpreting goth punk, to produce a sort of psychedelic surf prog that exceeds expectations as the piece unfolds. Brilliant, minimal lyrics, and a fully realized performance from this Cincinnati Ohio institution." - Music2ten.com

"Like a demented Gang Of Four engaged in bathroom sex with Joy Division on quaaludes, Cincinnati Ohio’s Wolverton Brothers lurch forth, their hapless instruments wailing in protest along beside them. Actually, once you get into it, “Cops Nab Drunken, Legless Burglar,” is a surprisingly fine piece. I find myself not only entertained but impressed. Clearly I need help. This is music your parents hope you don’t like. Enjoy." - Superfan2010

Old, Ugly, & Loud (2008)

"La formazione di Cincinnati composta da Tim Schwallie (voce, chitarra, flauto, synth, organo, sassofono, tromba), Billy Wol (chitarra, organo, piano, synth, samples), Jay McCubbin (basso) e T. Lothar (batteria) giunge al sesto album, a vent’anni di distanza da debutto di “Wols”. Gli anni passano per tutti – non è una novità – ma da un punto di vista artistico i Wolverton Brothers dimostrano di saperci ancora fare. “Old, Ugly And Loud” è un buon album - magari non del tutto ‘elastico’ – suonato con passione e piglio ‘dropout’, fattori indispensabili che aiutano a non rimanere ingabbiati nel circolo vizioso dello sterile autocompiacimento. Così i quattro rockers tra sussulti avant-rock, esplorazioni sonore fantasiose, echi garage, ambientazioni post-punk e accecanti luminescenze psych, ci rammentano che si può essere anche vecchi, brutti e ‘in carne’ senza necessariamente risultare patetici o sgradevoli. (4/5)" - Miuzik Reviews

"Psych/post-punk from Cincinnati with a little dash of twang and quite a bit of surf rock. Vocals are generally low. Really more indie than old or loud. Hints of Pavement, Joy Division, Public Image Ltd. FCC - 8 1. Psych, upbeat Joy Division. (2:56) *2. Laid-back groove with surf guitar, higher Pavement-like vocals (and silly lyrics to match) (7:53) 3. Hints of Public Image Ltd, mid to uptempo (3:31) 4. Foreboding spoken German, then a slightly underwhelming surf track. (no vocals) (3:55) *5. Some more surfiness with vocals like Johnny Cash + Stephin Merritt. Guitar interludes sound great (3:56) 6. This instrumental has quite a Bush (7:31) 7. Pavement-like with heavy tremolo on the solo guitar (3:42) 8. Some FuckCCs, but nothing to see here anyway (4:09) 9. Decent instrumental post-punk (3:11) 10. Mid tempo with karaoke bar chorus (5:00) - KZSU Radio

"With two decades and six albums under their plunging beltlines, The Wolverton Brothers really may be Old, Ugly, and Loud – as well as awesome as ever. Similarities to Ween surface throughout the spin of the creative and quirky alt country, which glides from a groovy and droning Edie Sedgwick mod-elbow-snap on “Cheese” to a smokin’ dirty old Billy Gibbons riff containing the maximum number of mind diversions in “Iceman’s Curse”. Not only has time brought the gift of groove to the Cincinnati quartet, but wisdom of simple messages such as “Let’s take a shower / we’ll smell better” and “Lets brush our teeth / we’ll have a brighter smile” on a “Better Place”, makes this a must listen for the entire family before heading to the strip mall for greasy Chinese food. Time may be making The Wolverton Brother’s skin a little saggy, but there’s nothing listless about the form fitting, timeless guitar ride of “Chaos and Order”. These guys are still superheroes, even if the tops of their costumes need to have bell bottoms. – WonkaVision Magazine

"Cincinnati's Wolverton Brothers have long stood at the crossroads of where backwoods country, last-century indie rock and under-nourished experimentation meet. For more than two decades, they've dished out a handful of records to anyone willing to listen. Theirs is a particularly prickly sound, the sort of unintentionally idiosyncratic stuff that seems distinctly Midwestern. Old, Ugly, and Loud, an aptly self-defacing title, is their sixth record and, perhaps more than any of their albums heretofore, indulges in its insularity to great effect. On cuts like "A Better Place" and "Cheese" the band plays it loose, coming off like a bunch of curmudgeons letting loose. The album probably won't win any new listeners, but if the Wolvertons worried about such things, they would have quit a long time ago. Thank goodness they don't." - The Big Takeover Magazine

"Let's brush our teeth cause we'll have a brighter smile” sings the Wolverton's apathetic voice of doom, Tim Schwallie on the track, A Better Place. And yes, a better place it is. Years ago, my initiation to The Wolverton Brothers came when I spotted an odd looking album on the wall of the local record store. It was a little countryesque looking and sounded kinda likewise. A type of alt country from way before Americana had became a genre and had a sound like they had bought all of the original Pere Ubu and The Fall singles on their original release dates. But this time, they've gone all German on us. That's German as in Krautrock. Think about the best parts of Faust, Can, or even Second Edition era Public Image Limited. The tracks all have loud guitars, driving bass lines, and seem to rely on repetition to drive home the musical themes. And over top of all this are a wide bevy of eclectic instruments and noises. Mr. Armageddon, A Better Place, and Cheese are among the best tracks that these guys have ever laid down. Even the lengthy instrumentals cause your ears sit up and smile in pure enjoyment. And I'm happy to see that the Wolvertons have now taken the studio recording responsibilities upon themselves. This is definitely their best sounding and most rocking release of their decades long career. The guys are true motherfucking artists! On the new great new Ionik Recordings label. Check Ionik's other shit out too!" - The Neus Subjex

"The Wolverton Brothers are something of an underground legend in their home base of Cincinnati, Ohio. The fellows in this band have been together for about two decades...and yet Old, Ugly, and Loud is only their sixth full-length album. The press release that accompanied this disc compared the band's sound to Sonic Youth and The Butthole Surfers...which gives a good general idea of where these guys are coming from. The title of this album is apparently a reference to the age of the band members...these fellows are obviously a bit older than most folks in twenty-first century rock bands. But they certainly don't play and sound like old farts. Loud presents ten tracks of adventurous underground guitar pop/rock. These tracks that don't follow standard formulas and plenty of spontaneous improvisation occurs. The vocals sound somewhat accidental and slightly unrehearsed...and the peculiar guitar playing is reminiscent of some of the more adventurous underground bands from the 1990s. Old, Ugly, and Loud is slightly peculiar...strangely moody and just a tad psychedelic. Interesting stuff. " - Babysue Reviews

"Cincinnati alt rockers The Wolverton Brothers (who as far as I know are not related in anyway let along siblings) have been together for long enough to have been fellow travellers of The Afghan Whigs and released a 7" early on in the original Sub Pop singles club (Max Gomez Love / Assasin - SP181 for the completists out there). So by no stretch of the imagination could they be called new but they are new to me . This is both a disappointment, because it's taken so long to discover them and a pleasure, because there's a such a lot to discover. So a big thank you to IONIK Records for alerting me to the delights of The Wolverton Brothers." - The Devil Has The Best Tuna

"In their early years they were a traditional rootsy rock band but as the years have passed they have morphed into an experimental post-punk rock troupe with more angles than a heptagon. Their latest album (and 6th!), the semi biographical 'Old Ugly & Loud' (only kidding guys!), cements their reputation as a band that take the road less travelled and, as Frost would say that has made all the difference." - "Some words that describe legendary underground Cincinnati band The Wolverton Brothers include enduring, eccentric, inventive, singular, influential. The band adds three more words to that canon with their sixth album, Old, Ugly and Loud, which is being released by Ionik Recordings this Saturday at the Northside Tavern. Local newcomers Starhustler open the show.
Old, Ugly and Loud comes 20 years after the Wols' first album. The band has become one of the most important groups in Cincinnati during that time, inspiring many local musicians, not necessarily sonically, but from the standpoint that the Wols have never come close to caving to "trends," always following their own muse, no matter what dark recess she may lead them. The results of their collaborations have been consistently fascinating and fantastically imaginative. They are one of the few groups that have genuinely developed an original sound all their own. Not that they stay in any one place for too long.
The band's last album, 2004's A Better Place, was their best yet, showing an evolution, though in no way showing any kind of "maturity" nonsense. The band members' collective experiences in other bands and in the art world seem to come together perfectly, resulting in Art Rock for the ages, slanted, enchanted and the kind of album you can come back to a thousand times and still not wholly expect what's coming next.
Old, Ugly and Loud follows that course. The guitars alternate between a big, almost frighteningly engulfing wash (this is definitely a more rockin' album than the past couple of Wols releases) to sideways, atmospheric noise to those angular Post Punk riffs they are perhaps best known for. The melodic bass lines and adventure-leading drums create the groundwork, adding to the hypnotic sway of several of the more wandering tracks and the sideways swagger of the others. A fair dose of effected sounds, impulsive skronk and electronic idiosyncrasies swoop in and out of tracks like seagulls diving for fish in a contaminated swamp, while Tim Schwallie's low vocal murmur adds another gruff layer to the band's distinctive aural personality.
Among the highlights are "A Better Place" (yes, the Wols put the "title track" of their last album on this one instead), a driving, slinking rumbler with a huge, lacerating guitar slash in the chorus that gives way to an almost Surf Rock glide. "Informer" features a dark croon from Schwallie (perhaps his best vocal turn on the album) and stumbles into a nightmarish freak-out of squeals and screams, a fitting end to an album that serves as an aural mind-fuck for the undersexed.
The Wolverton Brothers are Cincinnati's Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers. They don't really sound like them (or any other band), but like those unclassifiable veterans, the Wols impress and inspire by their sheer lack of filter and their dedication to marching exclusively to their own demented drum corps." - Cincinnati CityBeat