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Church of the Red Museum sound unlike anything you’ve heard before

By Mollie Wells

If the newest Columbus dark-wave darlings Church of the Red Museum seem as if they’ve been together for years, it’s because most of them have – in some respect. Singer and principle songwriter Brian Travis spans time with Tom Butler and Bil Jankowski in Go Evol Shiki!, who have in turn shared the stage with Leslie Jankowski’s former group Frostiva and current project the Flotation Walls. Donnie Roberts and Robbie Coleman hold up the rhythm section in The Gospel, and, of course, Donnie lives with Brian, and Bil and Leslie are married, so the whole thing wafts of a sort of musical incest that not only tends to typify the best Columbus bands, but also lends the group an air of both live and recorded comfort.

“We’ve been playing together a long time now,” said Coleman. “It definitely helps to have familiarity with one another.”

But, he continues, that doesn’t mean the songs sound anything like the members’ previous projects. Certain elements may stay intact, but it’s the experience, not the sound, that feels most familiar.

“If the rhythm section sounds like The Gospel’s, there’s a good reason for that,” he said. “But I don’t necessarily think that we’re influenced by our past groups.”

Tom Butler agreed. “COTRM was a chance to do something different from the other bands we were in. Brian’s songs are much more organic than anything we did in Go Evol Shiki!.”

They’re both completely dead-on; COTRM, for all its veteran Columbus underpinnings, sounds like nothing you’ve heard before, at least not from these musicians. Their self-titled debut (released on Manup Records, the local label run by Carabar owner Ron Barker) is moody and dark, a funeral dirge that calls up the Slaves or Nick Cave far more easily than Go Evol Shiki! or Frostiva. And maybe their poetic cries – and upsurging popularity – are in some way a product of time spent navigating the most unforgiving business in the world. This time, however, they’re taking a different tack.

“I think because our other bands had such trouble releasing a record, COTRM really pushed to get something out.” Leslie Jankowski explained. “Our record was recorded in three days, and it wasn’t too long before we got it pressed. It’s not a perfect record, but we’re proud of it, and I think it captures more of what we sound like live rather than an overproduced, unrealistic ideal.”

“We’re not spring chickens here,” Coleman added. “Hopefully, we kind of know what to do this time because of a lot of previous trial and error.”

It’s definitely working. For a band that started humbly in a basement a year ago, just another in the host of the members’ many projects – “Isn’t everybody in at least four bands?” Coleman mused – they’ve been privy to a lot of accomplishment. Supportive label? Check. Enthusiastic local following? Check. Well-received debut? Total check. And they’ve been busy planning a tour for spring of 2007 and maybe even grabbing a slot at next year’s South by Southwest. COTRM is truly poised to take the country, maybe even the world, by storm.

“Our response in Columbus has been really good and we appreciate it,” Leslie continued, “and we hope that when we start playing out of town more, that will continue. Someone in Sweden bought our CD off the Manup Web site, so who knows – maybe we’ll even get out there someday, too.”

“Ron has my parents tied up in the basement of Carabar,” Butler added. “He tells me that if we don’t rock, they get it.”

Church of the Red Museum will perform at Little Brother’s on Nov. 16; doors open at 8 p.m. The Midnighter, Guardrail Angel, the Wells and Lost State of Franklin support. For more information, please call Little Brother’s at 421-2025 or visit littlebrothers.com. For more information on Church of the Red Museum, please visit myspace.com/churchoftheredmusem online.

Originally Published: November 15, 2006

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