So there’s this laundromat in Cincinnati called Sudsy’s that has a bar and rock bands rockin’ nightly. The very notion is as all-American as you can get: clean face, icky innards, and cheap beer. Needless to say, it was the second place the Long Gones ever played. The first was a pool party, but we’ll assume that there was enough beer there – and probably free too – to qualify as a righteous premiere. One can only imagine the bruised, stained bikini-ed she-things that might’ve slunk up from Kentucky for a dip… But it was in the All Tempa-Cheer-less confines of Sudsy’s where this gang of greaseballs cut their teeth, and hands, and elbows, and probably a few teeth not their own. But it ain’t so much that the Long Gones were out to hurt anyone. It’s just that when they sprouted, ‘round February 1996, Cincinnati crowds thought the Afghan Whigs were the height of R’n’R, seemingly having forgotten that James Brown cut his earliest best sides down Queen City-way, and the Customs (Cinci’s main contribution to the obscuro-punk pantheon) cut up hooch-room rugs nearly two decades earlier.
Okay, admittedly it had been awhile; and coming from one who follows crap-rock shit as if it mattered, Reds-ville has never exactly been a R’n’R hotbed. But the original four lads in the Long Gones had the vision to peer towards the state capital (look it up) and even to Detroit and NYC where a fuming fusion of Stooges riffs, Stones swish, Ramones ritual, and Dwarves crack was becoming the best bawdy thing going…and going fast. Once the Devil Dogs released Saturday Night Fever, it was all kinda downhill after that, and the Long Gones won that race, while they lasted. They played dream gutter-rock gigs with the Candy Snatchers, the Oblivians, the Dirtys, Murder City Devils, Revelators, Problematics, Loudmouths, and more…A single, a great LP, Prepare to Burn on Shake It!, and another guitarist making them a fearsome fivesome all led to one of the brightest blips in the underground punk timeline of late ‘90s garage garrrumph. By the end of ’98, they were done. Purt much everything they taped – including the remastered album, singles, and unearthed live and demo blasts – can be had and heaved into your earhole via the fine, recently released compilation, Highway Sound: 1996-1998 (Shake It!).
But like the jeans you throw in the wash again with vague hopes the stink will come out this time, the Long Gones returned in the fall of 2002. Sadly, two days before the first official reunion gig, guitarist Tom Kohne lost his battle with lymphoma cancer. Obviously down, the band let it go.
The spin cycle kicked in again though in 2008. The Customs (whose ol' song “Long Gone” gave this here band its name), were kicking around a reunion idea themselves, and got the Long Gones to do the same. Now, the new streamlined four-piece is back looking to record, booking to gig, and once again hanging most garage punk bands out to dry.
Eric Davidson, 8/08
|
|
Online Now!
