Regardless of the in-fighting, the Cleveland rock scene, springing forth from the ‘70s, is generally regarded in much higher esteem than anything out of Columbus. The highest profile groups – the Dead Boys, the Pagans, et all – are unquestionably internationally famous in a way that not too many underground bands of any era will be able to match. That being said, with the torrent of recent re-issue campaigns being waged, Columbus and its ignored rock scene are beginning to get a bit of notice. It is, though, just a bit.
Within the last few years Mike Rep and his assorted cohort have had copious amounts of ink spilled over its ingenuity. And while the Quotas are going to forever be relegated to relative anonymity, bands like Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horsehit are doing their damndest to spread the gospel. For whatever reason, though, there hasn’t been too much discussion of Jim Shepard and I don’t know why.
Even if the man’s music didn’t warrant comment, the fact that he offed himself during the late ‘90s, subsequent to contributing a bit of work to the Guided by Voices catalog and its affiliated song writers, should have made him a latter day martyr. Again, there’s no explanation as to why.
Shepard might be best known for his two long players released as the front man of V-3. As noisome and entertaining as those discs were, his foundational recordings as the lone constant in Vertical Slit need to see a bit of coverage.
Being recorded around the same time as Mike Rep and his Quotas were confusing crowds, Vertical Slit would have done well to make a few trips to New York in order to find like minded players in and around the then thriving No Wave thing. The Columbus group wasn’t as bizarre as DNA exactly, but what Vertical Slit did was to move from oddball rock tracks that should recall early Sonic Youth (apart from the fact that SY wasn’t a group when this was being recorded), but also electronic experiments in minimalism.
There’s no way that Shepard would have ever couched his work in those terms, but that doesn’t make it untrue. Collected on Vertical Slit and Beyond, a 1990 compilation, are a variety of recordings spanning just about fifteen years. The recording quality varies, but for this kind of work, it kinda doesn’t matter. “Please Take Hold,” recorded in 1980, wouldn’t benefit from higher production values. The point to all of this, anyway, is to wallow in the mire. And Shepard does exactly that.