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State of Ohio is a neighborhood Sparta, sounding more like garage-dwelling house-party-rockers than complacent studio veterans. The band’s website is more primitive than the ridiculous Geocities porn-page my friend Eric maintained during high school -- though both follow the same HTML template: basic text; bland fonts; a simple image; and centered formatting. The cover art for the band’s self-titled release is inexcusable; a mishmash of geometric figures and obnoxious colors only a third grader could appreciate or interpret. The album’s recording budget was probably exhausted on a few used mics –- all the mixing and mastering software probably illegally downloaded, because the band needed sleeping bags and food to survive. Neighborhood moms dote on the boys and their “rock ‘n’ roll hobby”; friends of the band claim State of Ohio as favorites, and are rabid show-attendees.
While control and restraint are characteristic of Sparta’s most recent releases, State of Ohio’s messier, more experimental style – initially offputting but ultimately charming, a transition that takes several listens to cement -- simply rocks harder, faster, and better. Conversely, State of Ohio’s self-titled, self-released debut is a more conventional take on the Dismemberment Plan’s ! -- tempering ! ‘s dementia and dissonance with a heaping doses of Dinosaur Jr. and The National.
With three members lending vocals variety spans spoken-word to singing to shouting, harmonies and dual-exploits (“No Smiling Bastards”) to Bouncing Soul’s style gang-vocals (“Safety”). Basslines are prominent and groovy, the drums are solid and punchy, and the guitars buzz, hum and seesaw with rough but practiced precision. Blissfully free of pressure to pinpoint a style, State of Ohio manipulates and melds stale notes into something invigorating. As a lifelong University of Michigan diehard, you can’t pay me
to utter the phrases “State of Ohio” and “Midwestern jewel” in the same sentence, and yet I’m compelled. Add a recording budget and State of Ohio becomes impossible to ignore.
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