Moviola

Indie rockers Moviola formed in Columbus where core members Ted Hatterner, Jake Housh, Jeffery Dannemiller, and Scotty Tabachnick were all students at Ohio State University. The band released their first album in 1992 and quickly became mainstays on the local scene. They continued to live and work in Ohio, releasing more albums and becoming a true local band. Moviola's lo-fi recording techniques are reminiscent of other Ohio bands, such as Guided By Voices and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, but their music is distinguished by its strong melodies and superior songwriting. In addition, all four members switch off instruments and vocal duties giving Moviola a variety of different sounds and moods. A mixture of ragged intensity and smart, well-crafted pop — at times an uneasy mixture — pervaded Moviola's debut EP, Frantic, which was released in 1992. The band's full-length debut, The Year You Were Born, emerged three years later, featuring a much tighter sound, and generated a small buzz. Moviola responded by changing labels and releasing the ambitious, sprawling GlenEchoAutoHarp in 1997. Increasingly difficult to pigeonhole, the band's Durable Dream came out in 1999, featuring a much more spare, abstracted sound. The constant evolution of Moviola's can be traced clearly to the band's abundance of creative voices. On the band's first recordings, Hatterner handled the bulk of the songwriting. With each time out, though, Moviola's other members were contributing more and more. The release of Rumors of the Faithful in 2001 shows the culmination of this process. The group shared songwriting duties equally — in addition they added Greg Bonnell on drums — with the end result being their most complete, durable album to date.