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Born Without a Face – Michigan Hardcore Given the Deluxe Treatment

Ever see a box set so amazing, and for a band you might have never heard of, that you need to know how it happened?

That’s the case with Born Without A Face – the complete sound recordings box set: 1984-1986.

To call this set obsessive and complete is kind of an understatement because big labels don’t treat major bands this well.

The set features an artfully handmade box with a magnetic clasp. The band’s name is silk screened across the front. Inside there are three posters, a sticker, 1-12” 33 1/3rpm record featuring the “Freakshow” album, 1-12” 45rpm featuring “The Unbecoming” & “Worship” eps and a CD collecting all the tracks from the vinyl. The inside of a box includes another art piece, some notes and is part of a hand numbered edition of 300.

From a re-issue standard, the vinyl is beyond 180 gram (so called “audiophile editions”). These records are 210 gram. They are thick like dinner plates or, probably more accurately, 78rpms which the label design seems to invoke.

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Artist Frederick E. Fochtman’s Columbus Skyline Painting

I spotted and met Fred Fochtman in the empty field by my place in Columbus painting the downtown city skyline.

Columbus Artist Frederick Fochtman

The field was originally supposed to be filled with new homes a few years ago but after the housing bust, the construction was abandoned.  Now all that’s left are razed neighborhood blocks with semi-finished sidewalks, broken piles of concrete slabs and orange construction barrels.  Our building sits far off in the back of an open field that’s often filled with groundhogs, foxes, and coyotes all of which have made the concrete piles their homes.

You can check out more of Fred’s art at the Sharon Weiss Gallery online or probably at any Short North art walk.