Cold

Bait-Oven | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 17, 2010)
• Original Release Date: July 15, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: API Records
• ASIN: B0000ALQC8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Bait-Oven was formed during the summer of 1987 by Joe Gutsick, (vocals, drums), Patrick Bamburak (vocals, guitar), and Robert Medvedz (vocals, keyboards). All three were part of an eclectic group of artist and musician friends at St. Joseph’s High School, a private college prep school in Metuchen, New Jersey. That a band would emerge from this diverse group of creative people was inevitable, and within a year’s time, was recording music on their own four-track machine.

It was the late summer of 1989 when the band recorded their first formal collection of original songs. The best of these recordings emerged on the self-produced cassette Cold, released winter of 1989. From the anger and energy of "Twenty-Fifth" to the experimental "Ugly Song," the band brought their songwriting to a new level and began to form the basis for what would become their signature " " sound.

In the early nineties, different colleges separated the three bandmates, with Joe attending Virginia Tech, Patrick attending Montclair State, in New Jersey, and Robert attending The Rhode Island School of Design. During their college years, the band gathered over breaks and summer vacations to rehearse and write new material. 1992 saw the release of another self-produced collection of music, two cassettes: Naked Singularity and World Is Gone. Naked and World drew upon the best of the song catalog. The sessions also marked the first personnel change in the history of the band. While recording was still in progress, Robert Medvedz left the band to pursue his art studies full-time. It was an amicable departure, with Joe and Patrick completing the sessions as a duo, and including Robert’s finished contributions on both albums.

In 1993, began a year-long collaboration with the singer/songwriter Rebekah Zelman. During this intense, creative time, the band freely experimented and pushed the bait-oven sound in entirely new directions. Reinvented and recharged from the experience, Joe and Patrick emerged from this dynamic period with a collection of songs that resulted in ’s most ambitious recording project yet.

Officially released in June of 1994, September has come to be regarded by many as the masterpiece album from ’s 4-track recording era. From its innovative book-form packaging design to its dark acoustic sound, September was the album that pushed the band to a new level of existence. After a successful performance at Montclair University in May of 1994 previewing the new material, the summer saw steady sales of the album and increased interest from record labels on the East Coast.

On the heels of the success of September, the band went on an almost five-year hiatus, while Joe and Patrick pursued careers both inside and outside of music. It was the summer of 1999 that saw the duo reconvene to continue their work as .

The year 2000 has been a milestone year in the history of .The year was also marked by the bookend releases of two CD’s. January 2000 saw the release of the specially enhanced CD version of the classic September, while December 2000 saw the release of the Ugly Songs compilation CD. In addition to the launch of the new CD catalog, the original album Cold, was released on baitoven.com as a free MP3 download and has quickly emerged in fan circles the band’s first "authorized" Internet bootleg.

And so ’s story continues to be written, and if the band’s past history is any indication, then anything is possible for the future. With a new CD soon to be recorded, continued updates to baitoven.com, and a wide variety of multimedia projects in the works, ’s fans can continue to expect the unexpected from a band that has always sought to push the limits of its identity. It’s time to turn the page and see what’s next...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Garage-punk debut with attitude, September 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Cold (Audio CD)

Recorded way back in 1989, the six songs on bait-oven's debut album Cold seem like the source material for many of the punk bands of today with its foretellings of both screamo and pop-punk. Performed by the original line-up, which featured Patrick Bamburak on guitar, Joe Gutsick on drums, and Robert Medvedz on lead vocals, bait-oven's sound on Cold falls somewhere in the realm of The Cure meets The Velvet Underground meets Van Halen.

The opening track "Cold" is built around Joe Gutsick's tribal drumming against guitar and vocals. The fact that there is no bass guitar on the song sets the stage for the rest of Cold not being your typical 1980's rock album. "Bloodbath" is probably the most accessible song on the album. It's an uptempo number set against dark, horror-movie lyrics. "Thousand Languages" is a quiet, brooding journey into folk. "The Ugly Song" is bait-oven's most famous song from the original line-up. With it's witty lyrics and timed breaks that make the song stop and start like a game of musical chairs, "The Ugly Song" is the closest the band ever came to recording a party song. "Twenty-fith" erupts next with a wall of guitars by Patrick Bamburak and thunderous drums. Robert Medvedz's vocal performance on this track is a classic moment in his work with the band. Finally "74 Words" closes the album with an experimental, almost psychedelic trip.

This new CD reissue of Cold is digitally remastered to present the original recordings with the best clarity possible. But despite the technological enhancements, Cold is at its best as the low-tech, straightforward punk rock album that it is. Even after all of these years, the songs still sound fresh and relevant. Cold is an impressive debut from a band that would ultimately travel far and wide across musical genres.