The latest from Pat McClimans
Now available in our shop
and on your favorite music services
Pat McClimans returned to the studio with the goal of allowing expression to come freely and honestly.
“There is no preconception guiding any musical theme,” he said. “In fact, every attempt was made to not force anything to be anything, and I dare say you could listen to these songs wearing anything, or nothing at all.”
That’s not to say that no care or effort was utilized to produce this recording. These four songs are the result of great sessions of forehead furling and computer clicking. Mild discussions were held on an array of modern technological devices.
Pat is backed up with Todd Pidcock on bass, Brian Sussman on drums, Dan Bolton on piano and mellotron, and Raymond Richards on pedal steel.
Rhythm Method is the twentieth release on our label, I Can’t Believe It’s a Record Company. You can download it today from our shop.
Also don’t miss Pat’s wide-ranging interview with No Echo. He talked with Jeremy Holehan about how he got into music, learned to play, and he shared memories of his time with Falling Forward, Tramlaw, Scab and lots of other bands he has been a part of.
The latest from Scott Ritcher
How We Got This Way from Scott Ritcher
is now in our shop and on your favorite music services.
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Available for purchase here and on Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud, et cetera.
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The Metroschifter’s Favorite Albums
Pat McClimans, Chris Reinstatler and Scott Ritcher sat down to reveal and discuss their top 15 favorite albums of all time.
Recorded in Long Beach, California, all the fun has been put together in a 2 1/2-hour special episode of Scott’s podcast Here’s the Tower.
This is a direct link to the episode and you can find it in Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to people talk.
All about the Metroschifter
The Metroschifter released five full-length albums and several EPs between 1994 and 2000, and added a sixth record in 2009.
In its early years, the band included a succession of members from indie rock and hardcore heavyweights such as Rodan, Endpoint, 411, Sunspring, the Rachel’s, Falling Forward, Shipping News, Transcend, Eleven Eleven and Chamberlain.
Approach
The Metroschifter has operated in innovative ways starting with their very first record. The band is from Louisville, Kentucky, but their members originally lived in different cities across the United States.
Because of this, they learned their first set of songs from demo tapes that singer/songwriter Scott Ritcher mailed out to the other members. Their first tour in 1994 was booked before they had even played together, but a few intensive practice sessions before the trip solidified their sound and their debut album was recorded the following week.
In a similar fashion, that album, The Metroschifter Capsule, went on sale before it was even finished. The band members and Ritcher’s label, Slamdek, ran advertisements announcing the new group was releasing a record that could be ordered in advance.
Fans purchased the album before it was completed, then each copy was personalized with the buyer’s name on the cover and home delivered.
Music
The Metroschifter’s sound is loud, distorted, thunderous and blazing, yet sometimes stops on impossible points to become complete silence, before diving headlong back into a mathematical, emotional storm.
Reviewing the Fort Saint Metroschifter album, Toledo Entertainment magazine said the Metroschifter put “more curveball dynamics in a third of an hour than most of their contemporaries would put in a friggin’ box set.”
Impact Press described a sound that can “fly from rage to softness to downright discordant… both spacious and gracious.” Mega Music said “they almost never look or sound the same way twice” and Over The Shoulder called them “so damn inventive.”
A reviewer at Ignition chimed, “like nothing I’ve heard before,” and Outback Magazine echoed, “One of the most unique and interesting bands.”
Maybe Punk Planet made Metroschifter proudest: “There are very few bands that are putting out such challenging albums. It’s incredible. Three cheers for the Metroschifter!”
Early on, the band decided to stretch their sound, to never make the same record twice, and to make a conscious effort to test their audience.
In 1996, they briefly departed from their ultra-distorted, full-throttle sound and released an even more demanding record, the all-acoustic, country album Generation Rx. Teleport City observed, “I’ve always admired Metroschifter’s willingness to fuck with people,” but Second Nature wasn’t as smitten and barked, “After this record, Metroschifter should rename their band to something more suiting, like for instance, Crap!”
Metroschifter released Encapsulated in 2000 which pushed the band deeper into uncharted territory. On this unique record, they assembled a cast of some of their favorite bands who each learned and recorded a new, unreleased Metroschifter song.
The result was an album of new Metroschifter songs on which each song was performed by a different artist. Participants included Elliott, The Get Up Kids, Ink & Dagger, The Promise Ring, Refused, Burning Airlines, and Rye Coalition. Manatee Bound announced, “this has never been done before,” while Pitchfork comically wondered if the aging members of Metroschifter were too lazy to play their own songs.
Extracurricular
All three members of Metroschifter have collaborated with each other on a variety of other projects in the time since the band was regularly active. Chris Reinstatler has performed in Shooting Gallery and Brett Ralph’s Kentucky Chrome Revue; Scott Ritcher has done several solo records and tours, and recorded with the groups Best Actress and Jazzbrunch; Pat McClimans has recorded solo records and has performed with Lafayette, Indiana’s Root Hog and the Pat McClimans Group.
Ritcher ran in the 1998 election for Louisville mayor and was a 2008 candidate for Kentucky’s state senate.
The Metroschifter launched their own label in 1998. I Can’t Believe It’s A Record Company has released recordings by the band, its members’ solo and side projects, and recordings by their friends.
Return
After taking about six years off between 1999 and 2005, they returned to the stage for a series of exciting sold-out shows in Louisville. Always trying to keep it interesting, the opening act for the first return performance was a spelling bee in which audience members competed against bassist Pat McClimans. He lost.
When returning, they picked tiny, ridiculous ticket prices ranging from $1.79 to $2.44 in their hometown to dispel rumors they were reuniting to make money. Around this same time, they tried to start a new band, but it didn’t feel right, so they decided to just be the Metroschifter.
The Metroschifter has played over 200 shows, across 14 countries, including six tours of Europe and five tours in the United States. Scott Ritcher has also recorded and toured as a solo artist in the US and Europe, playing more than 100 shows in 6 countries. A complete list of the band’s performances can be found here.
The bulk of Metroschifter’s music was issued on Doghouse Records and is available from all the major streaming services and from this website.
The band’s sixth full-length recording, Carbonistas, was released in July 2009, on the Louisville label Noise Pollution. To coincide with the new record, Metroschifter embarked on their sixth tour of Europe in November 2009.
The band members remain friends and continue to meet up to travel together a couple times each year.
In the summer of 2021, rehearsals were underway for the Metroschifter’s first tour in 12 years, when the uncertainty of the global pandemic proved to be to great. Special events were scheduled for five countries in Europe but the tour had to be canceled.And that’s about where the story wraps up for now.
