Sounds

I’m guessing most folks’ familiarity with Jesus and Mary Chain boils down to one of three places. “Just Like Honey” at the ending of Lost in Translation, “Snakedriver” in the 1994 film The Crow, or “Sometimes Always”, a duet with Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval off of 1994’s Stoned & Dethroned.

Well for me, the Jesus and Mary Chain was a band that I gradually drifted toward in high school as I began to venture outside the boundaries of jean jackets, camaros, and classic rock. Looking back, it seems a logical progression as I was listening to my parents’ Beach Boys records at the same time as I was checking out David Bowie and the Velvet Underground.

Ashland and Sabina, Ohio are separated by about 135 miles of Interstate 71. Almost equidistant from Columbus, the two towns are both penturban communities whose musicians are producing surprisingly urbane sounds. If you are from Central Ohio and you want to form a band, there seems to be an unwritten rule that you use the word “Bel” somewhere in your name. Case in point, the Sabina-born Gran Bel Fisher and the Ashland-based Bel Auburn.