2008 hasn't been very kind to The Townedgers, whose lastest album Pawnshops For Olivia flopped despite getting hyped up in My Space. The album which was offered in two different packages, CD and a collection of MP3 free for the asking. Despite word of mouth, the album didn't sell 10 copies and nobody took up on the offer of getting the MP3 free from the source.
In fact, Neil Delanie, who oversees their label Maier Records was perplexed himself about the lack of interest. "I can't figure it out either" he said. "It is one of the best albums that they have ever done in their history".
This year also marked the 25th Anniversity of Town's Edge Rock, the classic low-fi recording that gave songwriter Rodney Smith the creative spark that he needed to break away from the hard rock bar band he played in Paraphernalia (known as Open Highway and Tyrus in the area). It was supposed to be a landmark year of forthcoming albums and a tour to honour the songs of long ago and promote a new album in the process. Hooking up with Jack Orbit, they started as Route 66 and then changed the name after a couple Iowa bands had the same name and confused the fans of that music to the more original Townedgers moniker.
In the past couple years Orbit retired from the stage and Geoff Redding left leaving Smith with only himself and sound recorder Martin Daniels to continue the band. Mostly it was Smith himself only. Then the year started out with one of the worst winters ever, and led to one of the wettest springs ever. Pawnshops For Olivia, originally called Fitting Finales took a different life of its own while Smith was battling heavy rains and water in the basement he got a letter from a old girlfriend that became Pawnshops.
"It started out as a rock album", Smith says "but the floods of this year and reconnecting with somebody from the past changed the mood to a more moodier album. Didn't intented to be that way but things took a helluva toll on me. The Floods, the high gas prices, old age....all of a sudden it wasn't a Townedger album sotospeak but rather a solo album and a very personal one at that."
Perhaps too personal as the reviews came in. And even Smith knew it to the point that in May he went back to write new songs and added a drum solo to "add a bit more sunshine" to the moody songs that were done. He asked for and got help writing songs from fans of the band. Jack Orbit returned to co write a couple new songs. But even with that, it wasn't the best of times of being in the studio with Smith. He was at war with himself going through tirades when the music got bogged down. Long time engineer/producer Richard Dennanbaugh got the wrath of Smith when he erased a finished track for a song and was relieved of production duties, although he did oversee some of the mixing later on. When Ken Miller, orginal bass player called up to ask about writing credits to a song, he was told to "mind his own F'n business". Even the usually docile Geoff Redding complained that he wanted to play some guitar rather than just add backing vocals on some of the finished music. Smith replied that Redding wasn't availble at one AM, and his guitar work didn't need a counterpart. It was supposed to be a solo record remember?
But when the album finally was done, it wasn't a solo record but a record credited to The Townedgers even though Smith played most of the music himself sans the two electric numbers I Wonder and Uptown Chevy Girl the latter written for a friend of the band. Smith recalled that though the friend thought it was a nice gesture, she really don't like it all that much. To promote the album, they did add new cuts to the Townedgers My Space Site. In two months, only 48 total plays were recorded. Discouraged both Smith and Maier Records decided not to add any more songs to the player due to lackluster plays. "It just seemed nobody really cared about the new songs", Smith replied.
In the music world today, Independent rock and roll is released one day and forgotten the next. Even Jack Orbit was even shocked of the way Pawnshops For Olivia fell off the map as soon as it was made availble. "Like Rodney, I thought that Pawnshops was the best album they have done in years" he said. "It may have been a bit too eccentric or too simple for the buying public. Plus there weren't any songs that would make a good ringtone".
Delanie has this to say...."My Space isn't a very good place anymore to get your music heard if you're pushing middle age and I think that's the dilemma that Rodney and The Townedgers have to deal with now. They're now the dinosaurs of today unlike 25 years ago that they were new to the scene. Unless you got a pretty face and is a teenager, chances are you'll be one of millions of bands out there and nobody will give a shit about you, even if you have one of the best albums out there. What it comes down to is to promoting and getting the world out and performing live".
Which isn't one of Smith's better suits. The Townedgers have always been a very iffy band when playing live. If Rodney is playing drums and backing up a band he's more worthwhile but if he gets behind a mic with a guitar in his hand, you simply don't know what you're going to end up with. He's always been eccentric but he's also have had a past of being very erratic.
"Maybe so", said Orbit "but I also know that when Rodney gets it together, there's not one band out there that can match his intensity when he rocks out. You cannot count him out, he's the closest thing to rock and roll around this area."
For now Pawnshops For Olivia has now ran its course and and now falling by the wayside and the question remains "what's next?". Smith has mentioned that he's working on a new album and Orbit has mentioned that he would like to produce it. There's also a reunion of Smith and former Parahernalia bassist Russ Swearingen that might become a full time band. Regardless, a album of songs that didn't make it to Pawnshops For Olivia will be released on their own called simply Country.
Twenty five years later, Pawnshops For Olivia remains a great album that would hold up to anything The Flaming Lips or The Hold Steady has put out recently. But it also getting to be known that twenty five years onward The Townedgers are seeing time passing them by. And judging by their lack of interest from the My Space generation and like the CD sales, their time may have gone.
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