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Entertainment Today, Burbank CA
September 29, 1994

by Greg Siegal

OVER THE RHINE - The Cincinnati Quartet Cranks It Up

In 1993, IRS Records released an album by an unknown band called Over the Rhine--unknown, that is, to those outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, the band's hometown.

The album, Patience, was picked up by the label as a finished product; the band had made it entirely on their own. "It took a quite a number of Visa cards to make," says bassist/keyboard player Linford Detweiler. "Patience was incredibly low budget; it's technically impossible to make a record for what we spent."

"Even our new record [Eve] didn't cost a fortune to make," he continues. "It's not like I believe in a super-primitive approach, but I just think spending a couple hundred-thousand dollars to make a record is ridiculous."

Although the new record may share the same economy of means, Eve is markedly different than its predecessor: where Patience was moody, atmospheric and somewhat amorphous, Eve is lean, direct and structured. "Both records pretty accurately represent where we were when we recorded them," states lead singer/guitarist Karin Bergquist. "Between Patience and Eve we toured a lot; we got road-worthy, a little rougher around the edges. Eve [reflects] the growth we've gone through in our live show."

"When we recorded Patience, I used to think abut a couple of people sitting around in a low-lit room at one in the morning," says Detweiler, picking up where Bergquist left off. "For Eve, I wanted a record that could get you in a car with a friend--a record that would make you want to put the top down, crank up the stereo and drive till dawn. You would hopefully find yourself bathed in images and sounds--laughing and talking over the music, or just staring out the windows for stretches of daydreaming. Hopefully, your imagination would occasionally take an abrupt left turn into uncharted territories."

Summing up, he says: "I wanted it to be a record that you listened to loud." The band insists that the choice to make a wholly other kind of record was not motivated by change for change's sake. "It was a conscious decision, but it wasn't the type of thing where we said, 'We need to change our sound,'" says drummer Brian Kelley. "It was more like, our sound has changed in the last two years; let's try to represent that."

In characteristic Over the Rhine fashion, the first song on Eve, "Happy With Myself?," is enigmatic. "I think what sparked the idea for that song was a talk I had with a friend of mine," muses Bergquist. "It was one of those conversations where I felt like I just had a shot of adrenaline put in me. I was sick of not measuring up to the expectations of a certain curmudgeon in my life. I took a deep breath, smiled to myself and learned how to say, cheerfully, Fuck you."

As in the past, the band produced the record themselves. This time, however, they brought in an engineer whose name has graced the liner notes of many an impressive artist: Trina Shoemaker, protégé of Daniel Lanois and Malcolm Burn, who has worked with Chris Whitley, Throwing Muses and Iggy Pop, among others. "Basically, it was the first project where she was supposed to come in, get the sounds and make it happen largely by herself," says Detweiler. "Whenever possible, we like to find people early on [in their careers] so we can grow together."

Indeed, the release of Eve shows a band that has grown considerably. The time for "patience" is over: Over the Rhine is on the "eve" of discovery.