NEWS FLASHES

New links added ...

The Newsgroup Has Been Created!

The control message was posted June 5, 1996 to create alt.music.oroboros -- give it a couple of weeks to reach your system; if it isn't there by the end of June, contact your news administrator to see about having the group added to your local newsfeed.

Oroboros' new album, Shine, was released on March 15 at a party at their home base, the Euclid Tavern in Cleveland. I took a copy to CD101 here in Columbus; their request line is 445-1011. If you live in Columbus, call 'em up and tell 'em you want to hear it!

Do you have a link to this page? Drop me line and let me know; I'd like to reciprocate!

Know a place Oroboros could (or maybe should) play? Call the Hotline (216/291-4512) and pass the info along to them!

Oroboros is:

• Will Douglas: Drums
• Jim Miller: Vocals, Composition, Guitar (welcome to the net, Jim!)
• Michael Rotman: Vocals, Percussion, Keyboards, Guitar (welcome back to the 'Net, Mike!)
• Scott Swanson: Bass
• Mike Verbick: Guitar, Vocals

A picture of the band is available; it's about 112K, but it's a nice shot ...

Note: Tour Information and Tape Trading have been updated to TABLES and may look really screwy on a Lynx display ...

Click here for general ordering info on CDs and t-shirts.

It all started in northwestern Ohio. Back then, they billed their shows as "one-third original music", and toured mostly Kent, Cleveland, Akron and Wooster.

Today, four albums and fifteen years later, it's a regularly-touring event throughout the Great Lakes region, with forays into Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina. The original music is now the vast majority of each show, probably about three-quarters or so, and if you can sit still while listening, then you're either deaf or dead.

I first encountered Oroboros when I was in college; they were playing Bacchanalia (an immense outdoor party that if you can remember it, you probably weren't there). And they were playing a mix of their own stuff, plus some Grateful Dead, Little Feat, It's A Beautiful Day, and anything else they felt like.

And it was good -- not only did they have their cover songs nailed down hard, but instead of trying to make them sound exactly like the originals, they went out and stamped their sound on them. And the original music was as hot as the covers, at least. Sing It To Your Children made an immediate impact on me, one that stuck from the first time I heard it in '81 or '82 through today. It's still one of my favorite songs.

I lost track of them after I graduated in 1985 ... I was aware that they'd released their first studio tape (A Different Feeling), but I could never track it down, and since I was no longer living in northeast Ohio, I kind of thought I'd have to relegate Oroboros to being one of those pleasant and slightly blurry college memories.

I moved to Columbus in 1993 -- and to my great surprise, saw that summer an advertisement for an Oroboros show at a local frat house.

I had to go, needless to say.

The lineup had changed some in the intervening eight years, but the sound was as fresh and original and infectious as ever. From that point onward, I made it a point to get to as many of the Columbus shows as I could -- Chelsie's and Ludlow's, and acoustic shows at Max and Erma's, wherever and whenever I could.

It's really worth the effort.

This project here, the Oroboros Home Page, came out of an off-handed comment I'd made to lead guitarist/lead vocalist Jim Miller at a Max and Erma's acoustic show earlier this year -- that I'd seen a tour schedule for them on the rec.music.gdead newsgroup. Next thing I knew, I was agreeing to set up a Web site for them.

What you'll find here is a collection of all the relevant information there is on Oroboros -- tour information, discography, ordering information, adding your name to the mailing list, and anything else that strikes us as interesting. Eventually, we'll be adding sound and perhaps some video, too. And a suggestion box, in case there's something you think needs to be added. And tape trading, and ... well, it's going to be busy here.

This page was designed by Dan Sikorski of Missing Lynx Web Services, a division of Super-Port Computer Services.

Web Counter says you're visitor number ... who am I to argue?

... but Internet Audit Bureau has counted 1054 of you as of 9/8/1996. Go fig.