About Moviola

Earthbound. Interstellar overdriving or rooted in terra firma? Both, both. On their 11th album, 30 years down the line, Columbus, Ohio collective Moviola step on with a world-weary stride, holding two thoughts at the same time, containing multitudes, making the most personal, direct, and urgent music of their lives.

In between the cracks of the musical Rust Belt, Columbus, Ohio’s Moviola has quietly—FOR 30 YEARS—produced an expansive catalog, with (now) 11 records and countless 7” inch singles, a radio show, and a concert film to their name, spanning everything from 4-track fuzz-pop to hi-fi country soul. With five equal singers and songwriters—the whole is greater than the parts, democratic ideals, fucking Gestalt theory in action. Recording themselves, in studios that they built themselves. Writing and performing fully fleshed concert films. As much prankster art collective as…band. Some parallel universe Midwestern EGOT stuff, right there. A small cadre of supportive labels, writers and fans have followed along for the ride. This August, they return with record #11, Earthbound, their first on Kingston, New York-based Dromedary Records.

Started by Jake Housh in 1993 in a duplex near Ohio State, the band, on early 45s and 1994’s Frantic sounded less like their Columbus punk contemporaries, and more like “Neil Young’s noisy nephews” (LA Weekly). Throughout their early career, the group played live shows with kindred bands like Fruitbats, Flaming Lips, Calexico, Califone, Guided By Voices, and many others, yet it was the pursuit of collective learning-by-doing, happy accidents, experimentation and recording in various basement, warehouse, and attic studios that became their primary raison d'être. In quick succession, The Year You Were Born (1997), Glen Echo Autoharp (1998), and The Durable Dream (1999) saw the group cover wide sonic turf, traversing buzzing lo-fi rock, Space Echo® folk, pure pop arrangements, and nooks in between. Split singles were fast and frequent as well, sharing sides with like-minded friends like the Handsome Family, Cobra Verde, Tobin Sprout, Hiss Golden Messenger and Eric’s Trip. Rumors of the Faithful (2001), East of Eager (2004) and Dead Knowledge (2007) came next, and found the band growing in sound and scope. A singles compilation Broken Horses (2008), Scrape and Cuss (2019), Broken Rainbows (2022) bring us up to the release of Earthbound.

Moviola Catalog

Albums
Earthbound – (Dromedary) 2025
Broken Rainbows – (Anyway) 2022
Scrape and Cuss – (No Heroics) 2019
Broken Horses – (Spirit of Orr) 2008
Dead Knowledge – (Catbird Records) 2007
East of Eager – (Anyway) 2004
Rumors of the Faithful – (Spirit of Orr) 2001
The Durable Dream – (Spirit of Orr) 1999
Glen Echo Autoharp - (Spirit of Orr) 1998
The Year You Were Born – (Anyway) 1997
Frantic – (Anyway/Spirit of Orr) 1994

Singles
“Waste”/”Gin and Tonic” (Anyway/Eardrop/Mindwalk)
“Lookin’ In” (Anyway)
“Cowtown IV” (Anyway w/Thomas Jefferson Slave Apts. + more)
“Convenient Store” (Ratfish)
“Empty Ford” split w/ Cobra Verde (Wabana)
“Catastrophe” Opscene Magazine CD compilation (Netherlands)
“Rock Bottom Falls” (Walt Records)
“Payday” split w/Eric’s Trip (Me, Too Records)
“She’s Like That” – Whiskey, You’re the Devil compilation (Australia)
“Factory Girl” Athens Music Project compilation
“Propane Brainhole” EP (Wabana)
“Next Door” EP (At-a-Glance)
“Right Brain” (Homebase Music, Netherlands)
“Kitchen Waltz Preamble” – (Kim Will Kill Me)
“End of the Bar” Matter vs. Spirit, a Tribute to V3’s Jim Shepard (Meta Records)
“St. Vincent” split w/Handsome Family (Spirit of Orr)
“Spark” split w/Tobin Sprout (Spirit of Orr)
“Green Wood” Cringe.com compilation
“Muscle Car” (THESE ARE MY JEWELS (abl-018) comp on Aquabear Legion)
“Zero Sum” (No Heroics – Bandcamp and Streaming)

Full concert film
Moviola: Broken Rainbows - Deadpan Charms and Dubious Yarns (Live at the Wex) 2021 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksg6Z6Y7OjQ