If you’ve been keeping up with underground music, you’ll notice there’s been a recent resurgence of ‘twang.’ Over the past few years, country music has expanded. Artists like Sturgill Simpson and Lil Nas X are making us rethink the antiquated tropes of the genre. Maybe we’re remembering that we love the sound of Telecasters. Or, we’re finally acknowledging that a lot of us were raised on 90s country.
Cutler Station, named after a convenience store in their hometown of Vincent, OH, is a band that defies categorization. You’ll hear Hank Williams-infused melodies side by side with Devo-esque synth leads. But, one thing’s for sure – their songs sound like they’re from the Midwest. There’s a homegrown, PBR soaked flavor to their songs. In a world where everyone is trying to glam up their feed, Cutler Station is offering us something that feels unabashedly authentic. And that’s something worth celebrating!
Cutler Station’s forthcoming LP is titled Meat, No Sides (tentatively due out in mid-July), referencing the band’s embodiment of the quintessential “meat, no sides” variety of rock ‘n’ roll – all porterhouse and no gristle; all sustenance and no fluff. Think Andy Partridge of XTC if he grew up amid the rolling hills of southeast Ohio instead of the industrial landscape of Swindon and that might approximate the warm, accessible eclecticism of the new record.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the band’s newest single, “Wither Away,” which is equal parts Clouds Taste Metallic-era Flaming Lips and Alan Jackson. There’s an ethereal quality that is not usual present alongside twangy riffs like these. Lyrically, it’s a look at the fatigue of the working class in America. Singer Steve Lipscomb says, “Breaking my back and bloody my hands / Killing myself just to pay the man / Try to rest my back and my headache / Been working too hard gonna wither away hey hey.” It’s an anthem for the 99%, and how we can’t escape the cyle of working, resting, and doing it all again.
by David Haynes
Listen to the song and read out quick conversation with the band below…
“Wither Away” is the lead off track on your new album “Meat, No Sides”. What goes into an album name, why an album about deli meat? Introduce us to your world.
“Meat, No Sides” is more a state of mind than a reference to literal meat. It’s kind of an inside joke amongst our friends. It really derives from cookouts we would have together, specifically at Steve’s house, where he would only serve meat with more meat. Then the joke started carrying over to our set list discussions. We always come up with our setlists on the way to the show. We have approximately 2 hours of original material we can sling out for a show, but we really started aiming to have that “epic setlist” where there wasn’t a questionable song in the set. We aimed at trimming the fat in our sets. All steak. No gristle. No fluff. Just the best we can produce at the moment.
Y’all are from rural Ohio. As we are figuring out this post-pandemic world, there’s a great possibility that people will be leaving bigger cities and rural communities will very well have music and cultural resurgences. What’s the scene like in southeast Ohio, make a case for the area being the next scene.
The scene in southeast Ohio is actually fairly diverse considering we live in an area that gains little to no exposure. The closest thing we have to a folk hero is Tyler Childers and he really isn’t from the area but is close enough for all of us to feel like he is, if that makes any sense. He cut his teeth in the somewhat close-ish city of Huntington WV, so that is sort of like a local scene but not really. We have a handful bands that are making some noise nationally: there’s CAAMP from Athens Ohio(about 20 minutes from our hometown), Horseburner from Parkersburg WV(about 20 minutes from our hometown) , and Ona from Huntington WV(about 90 minutes from our hometown). So I guess you could say the scene is fairly diverse but very spread out. It is certainly not a condensed scene where big shows are happening 2-3 nights a week. But there are so many great people in the area that genuinely love a variety of music, I think the area would be welcoming of artists from all over the country.
2020 seems a little bit shot, but what do your fans have to look forward to for the rest of the year, and how will you work out this album cycle with all the obstacles in the way?
We are approaching 2020 the same way we approach every year. Keep writing. Keep playing and performing(even if it’s just a live stream every Wednesday during our weekly practice). Keep practicing. Keep making. It is the only control we have. For years, we dwelled in obscurity, making music for ourselves in our little barn studio, never wondering if someone would hear this song or that lyric. It really took an act of Steve tricking John to even get him on stage to perform a live show. But we shouldn’t pretend everything is business as usual either. We lost 2 of our largest paying shows due to COVID-19 and it is such a bummer. We operate on a shoestring budget and every dollar earned goes directly to the band fund so we can keep making albums and merchandise. So with a likelihood of no shows coming up in the near future, it looks like we will be starting the follow up to “Meat, No Sides” soon. Working title: “I Wanna Build A New Machine”. We are constantly writing and trying out new material. We always have a good laugh when it’s time to start promoting the latest album, because we’ve usually moved on to new songs and are more excited about those than the ones we are promoting. Not to say we don’t love what we have created in the past, we just tend to keep our heads and hearts moving forward.
For more music and info visit cutlerstation.com.
