By the time the nineties showed up and House was growing tired with Great Plains, which we’ll get to in a moment, the songwriter continued to spread out. But instead of working in exactly the same made – a few efforts from each of his previous groups could have easily been snuck onto a single disc and passed off as a unified effort – he decided to regress, to a certain extent, and explore some of his punkier leanings. Of course, the cohort joining House on any given project had a bit to do with the resultant effect. But regardless of that, the nineties, even with American Recordings eventually ditching House’s highest profile act, was a time of pretty fertile creativity.

Great Plains: There’s no way to simply figure this ensemble as radio ready detritus, but Great Plains were, unconsciously or not, House’s closest brush with straight pop music. It’d be difficult to guess at the reasons why the project swung in the direction it did – and certainly, it wasn’t the financial viability of the group seeing as there’s still a good bit of odd guitar work here and there. But even beyond that, the willfully antiquated keyboards accompanying some of this stuff made the music endearing while still setting it outside of any kind of mainstream viability.

That being said, Robert Christgau liked it. And maybe it was due to the band’s ability to push up against the folksier side of things just before heading back to the punk hinterlands.

Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments: Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments have retained a decent profile since the group’s dissolution. And it really couldn’t have had anything to do with the group’s association with Rick Rubin. That name, obviously, sticks in one’s mind pretty easily. It’s music does as well.

The interesting thing is that the most aggressive moments in Great Plains’ discography almost reach the fever pitch TJSA persistently truck in. Even beyond that, this is the group the most adequately distills the straight punk stuff that House unquestionably enjoyed from the Cleveland groups.

Ego Summit: Jim Shepard, another figure in Columbus music who deserved better than what he received, along with a Basshole and the Reps turn in music that might have been included on any of the aforementioned Ron House collections. Shepard and House, though, shared the most similar aesthetic out of all these folks. It’s easy to hear the difference between the Reps going at their guitars and the Shepard/House faction. Of course, there was a startling persistence of vision in this tiny scene. And it’s really a damnable shame that most folks haven’t gotten the chance to hear more of it. With times new viking  spreading the gospel, maybe everyone’ll get their fifteen minute.