Utter Trash--CD Truth

Follow Me to Akron

An interview with Jeff of CD Truth

By Bob Ignizio

CD Truth l to r: John, Scott, and Jeff

“Akron is kind of like Cleveland’s bitch,” says CD Truth guitarist/vocalist Jeff. “If you’re from Cleveland and you want a show in Akron the clubs are like, “that’s great, come on down.” If you’re from Akron trying to play Cleveland, though, they don’t really give you any respect.” That’s a shame, because CD Truth (Jeff – vocals and guitar, John – bass, and Scott – drums) is a band that deserves some respect. They’ve been playing the NE Ohio music scene since 1990, in that time forging a unique and highly listenable version of punk rock that’s as good as anything Cleveland (or any town for that matter) has to offer. Maybe part of the problem is that CD Truth doesn’t fit neatly into any of the current punk subgenres. Jeff says, “We’ve been calling ourselves weirdo rock for awhile. It depends on who you’re talking to. If we say we’re influenced by Pere Ubu but they don’t even know who you’re talking about it’s hard to describe your own sound. I also like a lot of SST bands. I always thought those bands were punk bands but they didn’t all sound hardcore or pigeonholed into one style.” There are also elements of such musical oddballs as Hawkwind and Devo in CD Truth’s sound, but the end result is ultimately something all their own.

CD Truth recently released their latest CD ‘Chemically Dependent’, and hopefully it will help get the band some of the respect they deserve. Full of powerful riffs, catchy hooks, and eccentric lyrics it’s easily one of the best albums I’ve heard all year. Since its release the album has received good reviews not just on Utter Trash but in other publications like Rock ‘n’ Roll Purgatory and Scene as well. The album was recorded at Mars Studios with Bill Korecky engineering and Jeff says, “We recorded 18 songs in the sessions for ‘Chemically Dependent’ and that was a lot of work. We’d been in a few studios before but usually just for 2 to 4 songs, we never bit off a chunk that big. We pretty much jam it out live and then add backing vocals, other guitars and whatnot, so that means I’ve got a lot of work to do at the end. Bill works you when you’re there but that’s good because you’re not just sitting around listening to it over and over again and paying money for the engineer to go, “what do you think?” It was by far the best recording experience I’ve ever had. He never really got too tough with us because we were well rehearsed when we went in there. It was pretty much good vibes all around.”

Despite the stigma of being from Akron, the band doesn’t shy away from associating themselves with the Rubber City. In fact both their current album and it’s predecessor (1999’s ‘Seedy’) include two songs each which make specific reference to the band’s stomping grounds. “It’s kind of our way to dignify our home town,” says Jeff. ““Follow Me to Akron” and “King of the Highland Square Losers” are a lot easier to play at the Lime Spider than maybe in Cincinnati, but if we play “We’ve got the Blimp” out of town that works. “Follow me to Akron” always works because wherever we are we can say its follow us home.” Since non-Akronites may not have any idea what a song like “King of the Highland Square Losers” is about, I asked Jeff to explain. He says, “I used to live on the square for a while and in the eighties I worked at Doty’s from midnight to 6am on the weekends. I got to see a lot of kings of the Highland Square losers spilling out of the bars and restaurants. So maybe it’s a little bit of me and a little bit of everyone else. I had a friend who went to the Bucket Shop one night. He just got a brand new pick up truck and went into the bar and got to talking to some girl and said, “Hey I’ve got a new truck”. So they went out and looked at it and he ended up getting laid in the new truck. That’s some of the magic of Highland Square.”

As for the Akron music scene, Jeff sees things improving somewhat. “People are going out to see shows more. I think there’s a little more interest in live music. There are things happening at least. Bands have some places to play, but it’s still Akron and we’re a couple steps behind the east and west coasts. Heavy metal is always going to rule in NE Ohio. But on the other hand a lot of people have grown up with punk or alternative and that kind of music is a little more accepted now. When we started playing there weren’t that many options in Akron. We couldn’t even play at Annabells because they mostly just had cover bands then. We weren’t heavy metal so we didn’t play north hill, and we were banned from the Daily Double because we played at Cavanaughs. It’s nice to have some options now. We’ve been a band for 13 years and we’ve lasted longer than most of the clubs, so that kind of makes me feel good.”

CD Truth almost didn’t last, though. “When our first bass player (Mike Skidmore) quit in 1995 we almost broke up, but Scott and I were pretty good friends so we just kept playing. Then a friend of ours hooked us up with John. He showed up and learned all the songs we were doing at that time in one practice.” Another close call was just prior to recording the ‘Seedy’ album. “We recorded that at The Grooveyard in Akron. Things were kind of tentative at that time. We were thinking let’s do this CD and if the band doesn’t keep going then at least we did one full length release. But basically I got dumped and didn’t get married and move away so the band kept going.” So what does keep CD Truth going? Jeff says, “We’ve just been good friends. We never got the big record deal, but I know some people who did and they don’t have a band anymore. Sometimes the big record deal isn’t always the best for friendship. It’s nice to look at the calendar and see we’re playing in Cincinnati on the 19^th and Columbus on the 20^th, and I just got home from being a cook all day and that’s something I get to do that other people don’t. It gets you through the week. It’s just been our take on rock ‘n’ roll this whole time. It would be nice to have some help some day, though.”

Regardless of whether anyone steps in to help the band or not, CD Truth continues to plug away. In addition to regular shows in Akron and Cleveland the band hits the road to play in Cincinnati, Youngstown, Columbus, and various towns in Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Summing it all up Jeff says, “I think the reason we’ve survived so long is because we’re all different but we all agree when it comes to the band. We’re very reactionary. If everything is all hardcore we’re going to write a slow song. We’re influenced by a lot of music, but not necessarily to be like that music. We’re influenced more to do something different.” In a world infested with cookie cutter clone bands, that’s something worth paying attention to.