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City Beat, Cincinnati OH
June 1996

by Mike Breen

OTR FREE AGENTS

Over the Rhine, one of Cincinnati's favorite bands has parted ways with IRS Records. It all started when the band was to begin recording its fourth record with esteemed producer Pat Moran - their first attempt to work with an outside force in the studio.

Once the details were ironed out, the group approached IRS about the details only to find that the label was putting them off. Finally, bassist/keyboardist Linford Detweiler sat down with the label execs and eventually convinced them to let them out of their multi-record contract.

The problems, according to the group, came as a result of their label being sold last year. The subsequent staff shake-up resulted in most of the people OtR knew leaving the label. The decision was eventually made to try to leave IRS since the group was afraid of releasing a record with no support.

So what's in the cards now for the "unsigned, local band," as Detweiler called OtR in a recent press release? Basically, it's business as usual.

Besides consistent regional touring, the group is going ahead with the release of their record, a stripped down self-produced version of the originally intended release, consisting of demos. To celebrate the "independent" record, the group will be performing June 30 at the P&G Pavilion at Sawyer Point, and records will be available at that time.

In business news, OtR and Peter Asher Management have been talking with a few unnamed major labels. So it looks like this "unsigned, local band," might not stay that way for long.