15-60-75 – Jimmy Bell’s Still in Town Water Brothers (1976)
Ohio’s 10-60-75 (AKA The Numbers Band) deliver a nice little album here, one that locates itself in an interesting position somewhere between the psychedelic West Coast music of the 1960s (Grateful Dead et al.) and the burgeoning late-70s punk movement of the East Coast (Ramones et al.). Fellow Ohioans in Pere Ubu likewise channeled some of that same energy (the Grateful Dead influence on Pere Ubu is sometimes overlooked, but it’s there). What made this group unusual was their use of a horn section, setting the stage for its deployment in bands like 1/2 Japanese in years to come. It would have been great to hear this band on the same bill as the Patti Smith Group…