June 1, 2007

Remember Kerith Ravine?

Remember… is paying tribute and/or making fun of bands from a decade ago or just last week. Bands comes and go, but a lot of them hold a place in our hearts for the rest of our lives. Enjoy. This week feature is written by my buddy Matt DeBenedictis.

Whenever I gain a slight acquaintance with someone who has a decent perception of musical taste I like to set up an exchanging of CDs full of music files. For a lot of people this is the chance to get all those records you’ve avoided paying for but not for me. I want to hear the bands people heard and saw yet that never made it. They were great bands, probably only people saw them locally but for some reason they never got the credit and fan base they deserved. Maybe it was due to being ahead of their time, not being able to tour, or they booked their own tours that left them in the mounds of debt and hating each other. Whenever I make these CDs for an exchange the first band I put on it is Kerith Ravine.

Remembering Kerith Ravine for me is like dwelling on a great make-out you had with the girl that nobody knew of back in high school. You wish everybody knew how great it was but you would rather have it be your best-kept secret. Kerith Ravine never made it, I heard labels say they were not marketable enough, that songs were too long and didn’t have enough of those catchy hooks that are going around these days. In Eastern Ohio in the early 2000’s Kerith Ravine became known as the band that people in bands loved. There were a few bands that had sounds like Kerith, but unlike other bands of this time such as Appleseed Cast and Slowdrive their soft parts didn’t seem to be broken from the song but a part of the grand scheme.

Kerith Ravine always understood when opening for poppy emo bands and the occasional hardcore band at the time that most would not get their full sound within lengthy songs. They had fun with it, too. One show they had a big chalkboard behind the drummer (Brian Yoder) with all their songs written on it. They played a song that might have felt like the longest one in history, and upon the last note Brian got up from his kit and crossed off the first song title on the board. “One down”, was said by someone on stage. Many didn’t get the joke. I miss those jokes on stage.

Kerith Ravine eventually played their last show at the Purple Door Festival one year (don’t ask me to recall the exact year – attending any event consecutively never gives the mind a chance to break apart memories). The crowd was mixed with fellow Ohioans and musicians. In the crowd at this final appearance was the amazing drummer Matt Putnam. After the band broke up Matt ended up playing drums with Michael and Adam and they formed Lovedrug.

Download: A Glimpse Through The Green Window

26 Responses to “Remember Kerith Ravine?”

  1. On 06/1/07 4:33 PM, alex said:

    anyone want to put this album up to download?

  3. On 06/1/07 4:35 PM, Alex said:

    Oh you Ohio kids and your Ohio bands…

  5. On 06/1/07 5:18 PM, alex said:

    man, he did sound a lot like enigk back then.

  7. On 06/1/07 9:15 PM, liam said:

    i spent so much buying this disc on ebay in 2005, ridiculous, but so worth it

  9. On 06/1/07 10:28 PM, Matt said:

    Alex…e-mail me and I’ll get you the disc. throwingroses@earthlink.net

  11. On 06/1/07 11:15 PM, The Theory said:

    I still listen to this album a lot.
    Does this go for a lot of money on ebay now? I have several copies and wouldn’t mind making some cash…

  13. On 06/1/07 11:47 PM, liam said:

    i haven’t seen anything kerith ravine on ebay in a long long time. i forget what i spent, but i remember thinking at the time it was far too much, how wrong i was.

  15. On 06/2/07 12:14 AM, matthew said:

    the final three song e.p. they released was even better. definitely the best work they did. i still listen to it.

  17. On 06/2/07 1:44 AM, The Theory said:

    Was that the Drafting Sessions? Or is that something else?

  19. On 06/2/07 2:12 AM, Matt said:

    the final three song ep is called “lined up in pairs we wait for what is next. The song above is from that ep. I found it to be their best work.

  21. On 06/2/07 2:25 AM, jeffffffff said:

    see, i remember hearing about them, but i thought it was like someone’s name…so i stayed away from it and held close to deep elm unwavering embrace.

  23. On 06/2/07 2:27 PM, The Theory said:

    I had no idea they released another EP. I’ll bet it’ll be hella tough to dig up… though I’m going to try my darn’d-est.

  25. On 06/2/07 6:38 PM, belinda said:

    it’s the amazing matthew putMan.

  27. On 06/2/07 11:57 PM, brandon said:

    I was so enthralled with them that I purchased two copies of the EP so that I could have both sides of the artwork. I still have them. They were really good.

  29. On 06/3/07 3:14 AM, Matthew C. Jenkins said:

    I saw this cd the other day on a website on clearance for 79 cents.

  31. On 06/3/07 5:15 PM, The Theory said:

    i hope you bought it??

  33. On 06/3/07 10:13 PM, Goody said:

    kerith was amazing, just amazing…. I feel as though I liked them better with james, though I love patrick just the same… check patrick’s new band the Delta Legion http://www.myspace.com/deltalegionmusic

  35. On 06/4/07 10:56 AM, Matthew C. Jenkins said:

    For some reason it won’t let me post the link the cd, but it is at http://www.christiandiscs.com

  37. On 06/5/07 9:36 PM, alex said:

    does anyone agree about the enigk-esque vocals?

  39. On 06/6/07 12:13 AM, The Theory said:

    The HM review of the album (which I still remember after all these years) definitely mentioned the Enigk-worship in the vocal area.

    I wouldn’t know… having never listened to an Enigk project.

  41. On 06/6/07 1:24 AM, brandon said:

    So you never listened to even once to SDRE or Poor Old Lu’s Straight Six album.

  43. On 06/7/07 1:17 PM, matthew said:

    i have their entire discography if anybody is interested and knows an effecient way to send it that doesnt involve burning copies and using the post office. i dont know computer-ey things.

  45. On 07/5/10 8:44 PM, Kelli said:

    I love them!!!! So glad they are appreciated!

  47. On 07/5/10 11:38 PM, wesley said:

    matt, try dropbox.com. you can upload it as a zip and get a public link to share.

  49. On 07/6/10 11:29 AM, sammy said:

    Now, if only Matt Putman will take the time to check this 3 year old thread.

  51. On 07/9/10 2:28 PM, Derek said:

    I remember seeing Kerith Ravine live, several times. They were great live, and honestly a bit disappointing on disc – the production quality, as I recall, was pretty bad.

    I might have a CD that I can make digitally available – I’ll check this weekend. But, I’m pretty damn sure I’ve got a 7″ vinyl that they put out (perhaps it’s a split) – I’ll hafta make a record-player video so folks can check it out.

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