Featuring members who ended up in Kilkenny Cats, Hindu Love Gods, and Time Toy, Athens band Is/Ought Gap were sort of part of a legendary scene though little known outside it. The band didn't record anything back then, though you'll see their names on old concert posters for sure. Bryon Cook and Tom Cheek are bringing the group back around and I'm happy to be premiereing a track today ahead of the band's new album in April.
Bryan Cook provides some background on "Meaningless Irregular":
"I think this one is a very early song written while we were still living at Meyers Hall. It seems like Tom and I collaborated on the words, if I remember right. Then we went to the Funeral home and bashed it out all together. I remember Haynes singing the word 'customer' with me in a leering, snarling voice and us just having a blast singing and playing it together. Once we broke up the first time, this song kinda fell by the wayside. Then it reappeared and we remembered how much fun we had playing it so it was resurrected and we went ahead and recorded it a few years ago in Jason's studio. I had to dig through a couple of old live tapes and a few old Village Voices to pull the words back from the ether.The song just really reminds me of Barnett's Newsstand in downtown Athens. I used to go there and buy clove cigarettes and various magazines, including the Village Voice. The words in one of the verses are a recitation of headlines of an issue of the Voice: 'Village Voice says there is no left, Ralph Nader talks to two. On the back Gerbo's Room, hitch-hiking naked two.'
(NOTES: Meyers Hall was a dorm on the UGA Campus. Barnett's Newsstand was a hub of information in Athens until 2009 when it closed its doors sadly as print media was on the decline.)"
[Photo: Crashing Through Publicity]