I had the pleasure of writing a feature for Cincinnati’s CityBeat on my experience recording a cover of Tom Petty’s “Walls” with my band Plastic Ants. The session happened to coincide with the final days of Ultrasuede, the studio space in which we’ve recorded all of our albums to date, so the story turned into a dual tribute of sorts. Hope you enjoy. And don’t miss the amazing video for the song directed by our friend Mike Sweeney.
The debut EP from Skinny Mirrors is a compelling paradox—a collection of sugar-in-the-raw pop songs, short in the making yet long in the finishing.
The group, a collaboration between singer-songwriter Robert Cherry and producer/multi-instrumentalist Craig Ramsey, took shape one winter in the basement studio Ramsey had set up in Cherry’s Mid-Century modern ranch home, mere blocks from a slate-and-olive Lake Erie, then ringed with wave-shattered sheets of dirty ice. Read the rest of this entry »
Flouting the long-simmering tensions between the United States and Canada, Plastic Ants have tunneled through, crossed over, and crawled out—and now threaten to take over the world, albeit with tiny strides. Their first communiqué? The hard-jangle pragmatism of “Tough Girls (Got To Tough It Out),” out now on The All Night Party. Read the rest of this entry »