ALBUM REVIEW: No Depression Magazine

Jeff German's One-Two Punch

Jeff German - 12 Day Weeks and 12 Fret Nights

BY RACHEL CHOLST 
AUGUST 18, 2017

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Jeff German presents us with a choose-your-own adventure of sorts. While the above would make for a rad album title on its own, German actually produced two different EPs this year. The first, 12 Fret Nights, is the finished project and it's a pastiche illustration of heartland rock. However, Slothrop Records decided it could be good to release the demos that would create the EP -- hence 12 Day Weeks was born. There's an overlap of 4 out of 5 songs, with "Someday" being the only song that has an electric version.

I've found that I don't have a preference. "Death Row" nails it as a pedal-to-the-metal rocker a la John Moreland's Everything the Hard Way, but the acoustic version's forlorn steel guitar makes the song less defiant and more hopeless. While "It Don't Matter" works as a bluesy meditation on depression, the acoustic version has a little more depth emotionally.
 

 

"Inside My Dreams" is a story song about an old man remembering his wife (I think?) and there's an obvious pathos to the acoustic version, of course, though the electric version feels more like a breakup song if that's your thing. "House on the Sand" feels a bit like a prequel to the previous song, as a it relates a shaky relationship. "Someday" rounds out the original EP with a down-home takedown of a frustrating partner.

Introducing Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks

 

Music Jeff German

By Katie Cooper

 

Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks could be called the working man’s band.  Hailing from Columbus, OH, German balances a full time job, roles as dad, grandfather, and hockey coach with traveling musician hitting the road at least twice a month with his band the Blankety Blanks.  This self-described Blue Collar, Classic Rock, singer songwriter and “old man troubadour with a big kicking rock and roll band behind me” is returning to Hampton Roads hitting the Norfolk Taphouse June 27 with the Shifty South and Jeremy Harrell.

When asked to describe his band’s sound, German struggles to define the band’s genre.  Country?  Americana?  Classic Rock?  German resorts to quoting a review the band received saying “his songs were best served cold after a long hard day’s work” i.e. beer drinking music.  And with one listen to his new single “Woodshed” on Slothtrop Records hitting radio June 16th, this couldn’t be clearer with lyrics such as “Sitting out in the woodshed with my old friends and me, 12 packs and 8 tracks, and black and white TV.  Writing songs and telling lies the way it ought to be.”  German says the idea behind the song is to never to take yourself too seriously.

Though the subject of the music may not always be too serious, the band takes performing very seriously.  German says “I’m too old to act young  and be like a  sloppy drunk punk rock band” and adds that they set out to play every show as if playing a theater no matter the size of the venue or the crowd.  Expect a variety with hard rocking songs, intimate ballads, acoustic solos and covers.  “We are surprisingly hard rocking for a bunch of old men,” adds German.

Although Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks just released their sophomore recording in April with the maxi single Woodshed, they are seasoned musicians.  German has toured with musicians such as Lydia Loveless and was a member of The Cur Dogs before striking out on his own forming Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks.  The band’s debut album 12 Rounds was released March 18 of last year, and the band is working on their newest album due out September 16.  German said to expect songs from this new album at the Norfolk show June 27.  And even though these songs and his music may be new to the Hampton Roads audience, the subject matter is one most can relate to – failure.  “Those songs are inspired by how many ways I’ve failed in life,” says German, “and maybe people can relate to it whether it’s failure as a father, son or failure as a husband.  You know character flaws.”  It also features songs about growing up and his dad.

The Blankety Blanks are described by German as a revolving door of members (the same guys but not always same group of guys) based on who is available and who can take a break from everyday life of work and family to hit the road.  The one standing member other then German is Graig Barnett who plays guitar.  Other members are Bradley Williams on bass, Mike Nelson on drums, Brian Mincks on drums, Matt Wilson on peddle steel, and on the album backup vocals from Todd May.  Unfortunately Norfolk will miss out on the band’s peddle steel player but love what you hear?  Check out their music online to hear the full effect.

As the leader and stable member of the band, German writes the lyrics and basic arrangements for all the songs.  “The song is completely done in my head,” says German.  “Once I get a song out and the guys know the song, then I get input from the band and then it becomes the band’s song.” The final collaboration is what you’ll find on the album and at the show.  German also discusses what he considers a blessing and a curse, “With me if a song isn’t done when it comes to me, it probably isn’t going to get done.  Very rarely do I find that I rework a song.”  The plight of the busy working man or more like natural talent.

Like many, German was influenced by listening to his brother’s records as a kid – The Rolling Stones, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols.  “British punk bands from the ‘70s probably had more to do with shaping me as a song writer,” says German.  “And as I started to grow and listening to Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt, that shaped me who I am… this whatever Blue Collar Rocker or whatever they call me.”  German reflects that “whatever evokes that particular song, that’s what you get.”

On Woodshed, the band covers The Replacements’ “Achin’ To Be” – one of German’s favorite bands.  And although German did not make changes to the song, he does sing and play it with true authentic emotion.  “I did my best to stay true to the song and still put my own emotion and feel the song as either I would’ve written it or how I would’ve interpreted it artistically,” says German.  The addition of the song to the maxi single came by request of the record label’s president after hearing the band play the song at a label party.   German stated the band had been playing the song live for years but never considered recording it.  He said the song seemed like a good fit even though his brother couldn’t disagree more.  His brother told him “you should’ve call me” and “let’s hope Paul Westerberg doesn’t hear that song.”

Woodshed and 12 Rounds can be purchased on www.jgblanketyblanks.com , Amazon, iTunes, Slothtrop Records website – www.slothtrop.com, and can be streamed on Spotify and soon on Pandora.

WANT TO GO?

Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks

June 27

Norfolk Taphouse

 
 

The Outlaw Country Road Show

Shooter Jennings and Waymore's Outlaws at Music Box Supper Club on June 17, 2015

It was an evening of quality entertainment Wednesday evening as Music Box Supper Club hosted over three hours of music featuring Shooter Jennings with the Waymore’s Outlaws.  Normally out touring with his own backing band, Shooter has once again teamed up with some of the fellas that played with his legendary Father on several tour dates through October. 

Opening the show was Jeff German & the Blankety Blanks from the Columbus, Ohio area who played a stellar seven song set of upbeat, catchy rock ‘n roll with a pedal steel twist from Matt Wilson.  Guitarist German shared vocals with bass player Bradley Williams and was backed by Graig Barnett on guitar along with Mike Nelson on drums.  The boys offered up some selections from their latest record Twelve R.O.U.N.D.S  and their upcoming new release in September.  Highlights included “1,000 Times”, “Spark in the Dark”, and “Sit and Think”.  Little did German know that his call out for journalist from the stage actually included one sitting in the back of the house.

 
 
 
Jeff German band

JEFF GERMAN AT NATALIES. On Saturday, April 15, I went to Natalie’s Pizza for Jeff German’s half-CD release party. Jeff is due to release his second record on Slothtrop Records later this year, and his label was releasing an early five-song “maxi-single.”

  I had a chance to listen to the single itself, a song called “Woodshed,” and a few of its supporting pieces on the drive up. Woodshed conjures a time warp between present and past, a place that has still has eight tracks, black and white TVs, and affordable vintage guitars. It might be 2015, it might be 1972, which fits right in with German’s history of writing to a mythic past, where long roads still lead to nowhere and strangers still ride into town and take an inconspicuous seat at the back of the bar.

  I had never been to Natalie’s before, and unfortunately I had eaten before I arrived. My boss (who knows about these things) had assured me that it was real deal New York Pizza, and while the pies coming out of the kitchen were a little bit more ornate than, say, John’s Pizza in Greenwich Village, they still looked quite tasty. I also arrived early and without my phone, which led to me being subjected to a tedious drunk at the bar who introduced himself four times. Such is the way of things.

  Singer-songwriter Keith Larsen opened. Although the sentimentality got to me after a couple of songs, I was impressed with Larson’s gentle vocals -- a really good singer -- and tasteful guitar playing. I think that I would have appreciated him more if I were less of a cynical troll.

  German then came on, looking natty in a plaid sport coat and the first of an ever changing variety of to-die-for guitars. He did songs from the new album, songs from the new maxi-single and a few tunes I had never heard before, like the darker “1,000 times” and the text message inspired “Somewhere Between Now and Not Quite Yet.”

  The supporting band was terrific, with Graig Barnett tearing it up on lead Telecaster. My favorite part of the night was when Barnett and German did a harmonized guitar lead on “12 Rounds,” a tune from German’s 2014 release of the same name. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday.

  It was a great and loud set, and I walked away with a new appreciation for German’s sincerity. After watching him physically throw himself into songs like “12 Rounds” or “Black and Blue,” you realize just how personally he takes this.

 
Local LImelight: Jeff German & the Blankety Blanks

Thursday October 23, 2014 4:15 AM
BRIAN SMART
Jeff German: “I don’t feel like I’m tied to a genre.”

On tour as a session player with buzzy young Columbus songwriter Lydia Loveless, a restless Jeff German wrote his latest songs in cramped vans and dingy clubs.

“I just was going to make a record, have my friends on it and be proud of it,” said German, 50, a Granville resident who by day works in business development.

The 2013 independent effort 12 Rounds did more than that. It caught the attention of the Wisconsin label Slothtrop Records, which rereleased the album in March.

It marked a pleasant surprise and exposure boost for German — whose latest bunch, the Blankety Blanks, was named after its relative spontaneity.

“Anybody who answered the phone would be in the band,” he said with a laugh.

His younger years spent playing guitar in California and Ohio groups, German spoke about age and experience in advance of a Friday show in the Rumba Cafe.

Q: What did it feel like to release a solo debut at age 50?

A: In some ways, it’s completely unnerving to the point where you wonder what the hell you’re doing. In other ways, it’s sort of freeing, you know?

Maybe if this would have come when I was looking for it at the age of 20, I wouldn’t have appreciated it. To be at the point in my life where I have some maturity, it’s not wasted on me.

Q: Compared to earlier efforts, how would you describe your latest work?

A: I don’t feel like I’m tied to a genre. I think I’m old enough to let the song dictate. It lets you know how it wants to come out. They’re very organic songs; they have a heartbeat, a pulse.

Everybody has to have some sort of solid nomenclature — a “blue-collar rocker” or Americana. I’m getting some small notoriety as a songwriter, which I really appreciate.

Q: What drives your lyrics?

A: I write stories about characters that I have in my head, . . . really decent people stuck doing horrible things that they can’t get out of.

That was the theme of 12 Rounds. I feel like I could be that guy with any bad stroke of luck.

On the new record we’ll be recording, I have a couple of songs about my dad who passed away — retrospective stuff and some straight, really good story-songs.

Q: Between your day job and coaching your son’s hockey team, how does playing music factor into the schedule?

A: We do what we call “business” tours every six weeks. The first show is Thursday night somewhere nearby. We pick a direction and go there. I use my vacation in small spends.

My kids are in high school; they don’t want you around anyway. I’m just “Dad” to them.

@kevjoy

CD Review – Jeff German’s 12 R.O.U.N.D.S.

 

A couple of months back, I mentioned that longtime central Ohio music veteran Jeff German had signed a three record deal with Slothtrop Records. Last Tuesday, Slothtrop released German’s debut album, “12 R.O.U.N.D.S.”  
 
   The impressive thing about German’s record deal is not that it happened, but when it happened – the album is being released just after German’s 50th birthday. A fixture on the Columbus music scene in the 90’s with the Flying Saucers, German shut down his music career, moved with his wife to Granville, raised a family and coached hockey. When his children were old enough, German returned to playing with the Cur Dogs, who self-released the album “Chasing Tales” in 2010. He also put in some time as a side-man, playing lead guitar with several acts, including Lydia Loveless. In 2013 German formed his current band, the Blankety Blanks, and made some recordings which found their way to Slothtrop Records, who contacted German in the fall of 2013.  
 
   When he was first approached by the label, German thought that he was the victim of a music industry con. As anyone who has tried promotion knows, the wolves are out there: pay for play internet radio, fake song-shopping, Facebook placement and god knows how many “networking” sites that wage war against e-mail inboxes. When Slothtrop president Eric Hester called, “I actually hung up on him” remembers German.  “He called me right back and said ‘hey, I lost you.’ I started telling him that I did not have any money to give him -- I was actually being pretty rude about it. Finally, he said that he was just going to call me back in a few days.”
 
   This time around it was legit. Hester called German back the following Monday, and finally convinced him that they were a real record label who wanted to sign him. Slothtrop’s offer coincided with another development  – with children nearly grown, for the first time in nearly two decades German had the ability to extensively tour to promote an album. 
 
German’s new CD, 12 R.O.U.N.D.S., is absolutely freeway music, made for the car stereo.  The arrangements are generally simple; guitars through tube combo amps, bass, drums, high harmonies on the choruses and a Hammond B-3 Organ whirring through a Leslie overhead. This set up, give or take a piano player, has been around since Bob Dylan put together a band for the “Like a Rolling Stone” sessions. It’s a classic sound; it has survived five decades for a reason.  
 
   “Sit and Think,” the first track on the album, rolls in with a “head full of guilt and pockets full of cash.” With a nod to Ohio Rt. 41 to Aberdeen, beloved by motorcyclists, it slips the line “this town needs a bar, ‘cause I need a drink” straight into the subconscious.  
 
   “Kro-Bide,” celebrates the carbide tipped Black and Decker circular saw blade which used to be ubiquitous on construction sites: “[n]othing calms the spirit, like sawdust through the pine.” To me, the title brings back memories of hauling 4’x8’ OSB sheathing onto roofs, college summers, and the taste of Copenhagen. This is something different though -- a craftsman, a trade, a way of life which is ending.  
 
   “Fifteen Minutes,” starts with a creepy/goofy acoustic guitar and then warps into a glorious celebration of the Hammond B3 organ, played by Tim McLaughlin. The vocals are far more self-aware than elsewhere on the album, dark but good humored. The track is a needed bit of contrast – I would have liked a few more in this style.   
 
   My favorite song on the album is “Before its Gone.” According to German, it’s a song about a conversation he had with his wife several years ago about how long he was going to keep playing music. I hear it more as unstated certainty that he will keep going as long as he can hold a guitar.
 
   On the subject of a record deal at the age of 50, German is still taking it all in: “I honestly feel like my luck has changed -- I don’t know if I deserve it or not, but I really feel like it has.” Indeed, the human concept of luck is a running theme throughout the album. What the Greeks called tyche, the Romans fortuna, karma to fools who think that they can control it. The Kro-Bide carpenter recognizes that his luck has run out, but seems ready to catch it when it invariably returns. Here’s hoping that German’s newfound luck holds.
 
  Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks will be appearing in Columbus in support of the new CD on April 18th at the Tree Bar, and at Broken Records and Beehives on April 19th.  

12 Rounds with Jeff German
By Gabriel O'Brian

 

There’s something honest about the way Jeff German talks about his music. It’s the same way some guys talk about cars, or fishing, or rifles. It’s the honesty of a man who has a wife and kids and “two hours a day to bash out these songs. So here they are, take ‘em or leave ‘em.” 

Everything about the new Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks record 12 Rounds feels organic, honest and unpretentious. All the good things that a smash and bang rock ’n roll record used to be are in here. Big mashy drums, loud guitars and a total absence of apologies for being exactly what it is: your favorite band banging out well-written tunes that are as comfortable on the first listen as your favorite jeans or a pair of well-worn leather boots.

Jeff is the consummate sideman having performed with great bands like the Cur Dogs, Flying Saucers, and Diablo 44. Diablo 44 and Flying Saucers both had record deals, but life got in the way and Jeff put music aside when he met his current wife while living in California.

Jeff and his family moved back to Columbus in 2007 and he started getting calls to play as a sideman again, eventually finding himself as a guitarist in the local famous Cur Dogs, along with frontman Tal Lohr, and touring with alt country darling Lydia Loveless as her lead guitarist.

The Cur Dogs cut an album and gigged when they weren’t playing as sidemen for other people. One night after what German describes as a “great gig” he received a text that said, “That’s the way to go out.” And with that the Cur Dogs were done.

Jeff had already penned two songs for the new Cur Dogs record and after much encouragement from Akron singer-songwriter Matt Hoover and recent Liner Notes-featured Todd May, German decided to make a whole album of his own material.

This album is not the most dynamic album I’ve heard this year. It doesn’t have much in the way of wispy ballads and wanderlust. This is rock that gets in your face and stays there, with plenty of old school Jerry Donahue telecaster twang cranked through Jeff’s Matchless-like Goodsell Solo 33 112, which was built on the same rig as John Fogerty’s. 12 Rounds has plenty of evidence of the years Jeff has spent as a country sideman, but the vintage vibe of a record recorded at Muscle Shoals in 1975. 

German smartly doesn’t apologize for it’s nature.

“This record is loud,” he says, “I made it that way on purpose. It was mastered at plus 3db, so it’s supposed to be played loud.”

He’s telling to truth. 

“Todd (May) told me to get these songs out there because they’re good songs,” says German. When a singer-songwriter as good as Todd May, who is coming off his own great record Rickenbacker Girls, tells you songs are good you should probably take his word for it.

So German and his trusted bandmates put down the tracks at Rome Recording Studio, then mixed the record at Sonic Lounge Studios under the watchful production of Joe Viers.  12 Rounds features former Cur Dogs bandmate Graig Barret on guitar, along with Oolong Guru bassist Bradley Williams, who also played mandolin and sang background vocals.

19 year-old drummer Brian Mincks helps bring a strong roots rock foundation to the album. The drums were recorded live with the whole band in separate rooms, than various parts were overdubbed later, including the notable organ parts which German says Tim McLaughlin “killed” on the Hammond B3. Also notable is that McLaughlin hadn’t heard any of the songs until he came to the studio and learned them on the fly. His playing has that fly by the seat of your pants feel that made Al Kooper’s organ playing so great.

Cur Dogs frontman Tahl Lohr even came to lend his talents on acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies.

Other album guests included Scott Geyer on drums, Brian Henderson on bass, and Joe Viers on tambourine.

I’ve been listening to 12 Rounds since Jeff gave me a copy a few months ago.

12 Rounds opener “Sit And Think” is the story of late night wandering in a small town in the midst of a life full of nights just the same as the one the narrator is recounting. It’s the repetitive life of a long-suffering sideman dealing with the ins and outs of life as a professional musician. 

Musically it’s a great beginning to the album and sets the tone with its up tempo in your face style. That killer organ playing Jeff talked about glues together the bombastic sound the band hits you with after the deceptive acoustic guitar and vocals only opening. But once the chorus kicks in you know you’re home. I can’t help but think T-Bone Burnett would work so well with these guys.

“Kro-Bide” is the tale of a man and his tools and gives you a strong taste of the country background of this band. While not my favorite song on the album overall, I could listen to the chorus on this song by itself on repeat. It’s a hardworking man’s country standard, and is both endearing and better than anything they’re currently playing on country radio.

“Apology With Every Song” kicks your ass from the first chord, telling you exactly what kind of apology this song is going to be. It’s part satire, part sincere, all attitude. This is big thick brash bar rock at its best. “Minor mistakes in a Major key/I start out in A and I end up in G” is a fun line, and shows the playful side Jeff German brings to his lyrics. Also particularly pleasing to me is this band’s use of breaks, which, as an touring band knows, are the hardest thing to pull off well.

“Before It’s Gone” is another of my favorites. I wish the acoustic guitar had been recorded with a little more body, but the rest of the song more than makes up for it. The drums are mashy and live sounding, and the amps are cranked up to that sweet spot where they just start to break up. 

Jeff not only used his telecaster on this album, he also worked in a vintage Fender Coranado and a 1964 ES-330. Graig Barret plays Reverend guitars, so the tonal palette is really nice - nothing sounds the same and it all goes together really well. Again in this song are the breaks that you never hear on records anymore. Musicianship isn’t always about showing off your best licks, sometimes it’s just about not playing at all. Breaks are the toughest incarnation of that, but they really bring some attitude when you can pull them off.

“Doghouse Roses” starts off with the great line “Disappointment I know you well/you fit me like worn out jeans/and cover me up like a second skin/ as familiar as an old routine.” After getting over how much I wish I wrote that line, I looked “doghouse roses” up on urban dictionary. You should too, it’s a fun term. This song talks about how easily things can fade, but not the song itself is so catchy that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. Good luck getting it out of your head, I can’t.

“Long Road From Nowhere” is the singalong standout on this album, just begging you to crank it up in your old jeep and drive the backroads. It’s the sound of life getting heavy and getting the hell out of town, of empty bottles and open roads, of a life wide open. 

“I’m out of gas/out of fight/one more chance to get it right” seems almost prophetic considering that soon to be 50 Jeff German was just signed to Wisconsin-based Slothrop records. Jeff has been in this game long enough to know how easily things come and go, but after listening to this album almost exclusively for the last couple months I get the feeling his road is going somewhere for sure.

“Spark In the Dark” has a nice build at the beginning, drawing you in with the its opening chords and driving snare. The lead guitar at the beginning of the song is also particularly nice. It’s in “Spark” that Jeff’s 90’s college rock side comes out, except this is a lot better than most of what we listened to in the 90’s. Maybe Jeff doesn’t really have a 90’s college rock side, but the song does. This is also probably the song that’s farthest away from being traditional southern rock or country, which makes it feel like a nice spot of relief in the album, a palette cleanser.

“Something To Keep In Mind” is my favorite song on the album, with its nice mid tempo sparseness relying more heavily on German’s singing and lyrics than any guitar virtuosity. The organ is still there, but it hangs out in the background giving some nice texture to the track. The subtlety of this song is its strongest point, as well as a really well-anchored bass line. If you listen closely, you’ll hear everything that’s great about this band and this style of recording: it’s imperfect, loose, and sounds like all the old analog goodness that people used to gather around record players to share with each other.

“Fifteen Minutes” sounds like old time Elvis gospel as it opens, then gives you a little Jazz Bass and organ Motown moment, then brings it all together. I swear there’s a pompadour in there somewhere. It’s a lot of fun and really stands out on the album because it doesn’t sound even a little bit like anything else. And wait for the “preacher moment” in the middle, begging you to convert to the church of vintage rock ’n roll.

“12 Rounds” is full on southern rock - but better. It’s a little Skynard at the end, a lot of Allman brothers in the middle, and oozes with swampy charm. It’s a great song and a great album closer, especially since Jeff says it’s the “best slide I’ve ever played.” It’s a fun romp with a “leave it all on the stage” attitude. 

Authentic American music has long been taken over by the pop machine, but if you look for it real rock ’n roll is still alive. If this album is any indication, it lives in bars and clubs all over and is just waiting for you to come find it. 

The great thing about guys like Jeff German and his Blankety Blanks is that you feel like you already know them and this music. They’re hiding out in towns all over the place, scraping up a living as sidemen in bars and writing great songs on the side. 

Go out and see Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks live, as I’m sure that’s the only way these songs could get any better. 

You can find Jeff German and the Blankety Blanks on Facebook, Reverbnation, or visit their website at jgblanketyblanks.com

12 Rounds will be released on Slothrop Records this year and is available on Itunes now. I’m personally hoping for a vinyl release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Jeff German delivers knockout with "12 Rounds"
 
March 18, 2014 (Madison WI) – Ohio based singer/songwriter Jeff German releases his debut effort, “12 Rounds” March 18th on Madison, WI-based Slothtrop Records. The LP takes an eclectic mix of musical styles - country, punk, arena rock, bluegrass, gospel - and pummels them into a blue collar brand of Americana all his own.
 
“I never set out to write a certain type of song. The songs usually strangle me until I get them right,” says German. If that's true, then12 Rounds, is evidence that German has had many close calls at the hands of his own songs. While German may be new to many as a solo act, he is a veteran musician. He was a member of quintessential Ohio band The Cur Dogs and works often as a studio musician in the Midwest and as a supporting musician for numerous acts such as Bloodshot Record’s Lydia Loveless.
Though the album is straight-up “blue collar rock,” it is built on a variety of influences. This diversity is in part thanks to German’s older brother, whose collection inspired the musician throughout his formative years. Jeff German grew up listening to his older brother’s record collection: Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Stones, Faces eventually morphed into The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and then into Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. In addition to drawing on a wide berth of musical influences, German has been enriched by a wealth of life experience. With his trademark humility, German says, “I am the son of a strong union electrician. I am a husband, a father and a grandfather. I am a 50- year-old man who, after taxiing teenagers around and coaching high school hockey, has a few hours left in a day to cobble together some songs and some tunes.”
 
Ten of these tunes comprise 12 Rounds. “12 Rounds was nothing like I thought it would be. I was going for a ‘five guys in a room playing’ type of feel and wound up with a full on Midwest Rocker. No complaints but that’s the truth,” says German of the new record. And rock it does, from the album opener and lead single “Sit and Think” on. That track’s chorus finds German singing “This town needs a bar ‘cause I need a drink,” over a building drumbeat. “This is a song that was inspired by characters in books I read that just come at me and won’t leave me alone. Good guys stuck doing wrong things and not knowing how to stop the cycle,” German says of the single, which will be available in a special 200 piece vinyl limited edition with original artwork. Other standout tracks include “Kro-Bide,” a triumphant working-class anthem with a winning guitar solo. On “Long Road to Nowhere,” German intones a tribute to radio with impeccably timed delivery.
 
The imagery that dapples German’s lyrics—bars, sweat, and radio stations on long drives—might be familiar in Americana music, but it’s exciting and new to hear someone pull off music, vocals, and lyrics all with equal, outstanding panache.
 
12 Rounds will be released March 18, 2014 with the first pressing receiving a special 200 piece Limited Edition vinyl edition featuring hand numbered original artwork. More info about 12 Rounds and Jeff German is available at the band’s website, http://www.jgblanketyblanks.com/ or via their record label, http://www.slothtroprecords.com
 
###
Slothtrop Music Signs Ohio based Jeff German to 3 album deal
January 7th, 2014
For Immediate Release
 
Madison, WI, January 7, 2014- Slothtrop Music is proud to announce their recent signing of Ohio based Blue-Collar Rocker Jeff German. Mr. German was introduced to Slothtrop through the Sonicbids website.
 
“We are excited to have a songwriter of Jeff German’s caliber on our label”, said Slothtrop Music president Eric Hester, “he represents everything we love about music- great songwriting, exceptional musicianship, and a solid work ethic.”
 
Jeff German grew up listening to his older brother’s record collection: Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Stones, Faces eventually morphed into The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and then into Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. His entire musical pursuit strongly tied to that collection and his southern Michigan roots. “I am the son of a strong union electrician.” says German, “I am a husband, a father and a grandfather. I am a 50- year-old man who, after taxiing teenagers around and coaching High-School Hockey, has a few hours left in a day to cobble together some songs and some tunes.” These influences shine in his amazing musicianship and add depth and sincerity to his songwriting…..all three are qualities much overlooked in todays music scene.
 
Mr German is the latest artist signed to Slothtrop through their Sonicbids submission system. This system allows Slothtrop to find bands interested in being on their roster with a Sonicbids electronic press kit (EPK). The system is hosted at Sonicbids.com.
 
“Sonicbids has saved us from storing a ton of paper press kits and CD’s,” says Hester, “it has also allowed us to find some truly great artists we are excited to know and work with.”
 
Jeff German will re-release his debut album “12 Rounds” for Slothtrop on March 18, 2014 with the first single “Sit and Think” receiving a special Limited Edition vinyl pressing featuring hand numbered original artwork.
 
For more information on Jeff German, visit:
reverbnation.com/jeffgerman
sonicbids.com/band/jeff-german-the-blankety-blanks
jgblanketyblanks.com