THE LEAGUE BOWLERS SHOW 'SOME BALLS'
By Chad Painter
The Other Paper, November 20-26,2003

Columbus' latest supergroup formed in a bowling alley. Well, at least that's how their name - The League Bowlers - makes them sound.

The Bowlers - Colin Gawel of Watershed, Mike Parks of the Godz, Jim Johnson of the True Soul Rockers and Dan Cochran of Big Back 40 - are a slick but rocking combination of their other bands on their first CD, Some Balls.

The album's cover is a great parody of the Rolling Stones' Some Girls, with the girls' faces replaces by bowling bags. It's priceless.

The best song is "Kids Down South," a slow, country-rock anthem where Gawel sings, "The kids down south/ They like to have fun." Actually, the song sounds a lot like something Cochran would've played with Big Back 40.

"Been Thinkin'" is a lo-fi rocker about falling off the wagon ("I've been thinkin' 'bout some drinkin'/ I haven't had a sip in 15 months").

Other highlights are Watershed-esque "Pretty in a Slutty Way," the alt-country "Half of Me" and the Gawel/Marcy Mays duet on "Here I Am."

The only complaint is that Some Balls ends on a bummer. "Essence," while a good song itself, is the first slow song on what otherwise is a party album. The result is the record ends on a down note, which seems out of place.

But that's a minor quibble. Overall, the League Bowlers roll a strike with Some Balls.

THE LEAGUE BOWLERS
SKULLY'S MUSIC DINER
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26
by Stephen Slaybaugh
The Columbus Alive, November 20, 2003

Following in a long Columbus tradition, the League Bowlers have concocted enough tall-tales (connections to Axl Rose, stories about hitchhiking, fake Rolling Stone articles, etc.) surrounding the band that it's hard to distinguish the bull from the shit. Be that as it may, some things are known: The band is comprised of Colin Gawel, also of Watershed, on guitar and vocals; Jim Johnson, of Willie Phoenix's band, on drums; Mike Parks, of Godz fame, on guitars; and Dan Cochran, formerly of Big Back 40 and Feversmile, among others, on bass; and will be releasing its first CD, which this show celebrates.

The album, Some Balls (B Minus), following in another Columbus tradition, relates tales of drinkin' ("Been Thinkin'"), girls ("Pretty in a Slutty Way," "The New Girl") and, well, more drinkin' ("Saturday Night There's a Party"). The Bowlers match such timeless themes with a particularly impressive deluge of Midwestern-soiled rock that's at once casual and off-the-cuff as well as well-played, and it's worthy of the bandmates' lineages.

Things start early so everyone will have plenty of time to sleep off their hangovers before heading out for the holiday the next day.

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