Ugly Stick’s Absinthe returns in 2025 with a long overdue vinyl reissue, more than thirty years after its first appearance on CD in 1993. Formed in Delaware, Ohio in 1989, the four-piece carved out a sound that was equal parts Los Angeles punk and Midwestern heartland rock, drawing on the grit of X and the melodic punch of Tom Petty to create what critics would later hail as “genre-crossing” and “seminal.” Hovercraft Records has remastered the album and added bonus material from contemporaneous live shows and unreleased studio sessions, marking the record’s first-ever release on LP and digital platforms.
Steeped in the small towns and shrinking industrial landscapes of Middle America, Ugly Stick were uniquely positioned to capture the tension of that moment in time. Their cow-punk attack carried
both the edge of beer-soaked garage nihilism and the expressiveness of roots rock filtered through a landscape of carnival posters, endless farm fields, and collapsing barns. As Columbus Alive
once wrote, Absinthe was “the bedrock of the Cowtown sound,” establishing Ugly Stick as central figures in a movement that defined the Columbus scene of the early ’90s.
The record’s remastered release only underscores how prescient the band was. “Their mix of punk, college rock and alt-country was years ahead of its time,” noted Daggerzine. Exclaim! observed
that “straddling the line between genres is never an easy task but with Ugly Stick’s talent and experience the results have rarely been so rewarding.” From the ragged twang to the jangly guitars,
the band’s ability to transform punk and rockabilly into something original drew international praise, with Belgium’s Rootstime calling them “pioneers of a genre and a sound which was baptized as
the Columbus sound.”
What sets Absinthe apart is the breadth of its ambition. “Here, the grit of American roots mingles satisfyingly with Midwestern classic rock guitars, eighties jangle-pop, and frantic rhythmic
contortion,” wrote Skyscraper. That restless mix—punk energy, alt-country storytelling, garage swagger—feels just as alive today as it did in the early ’90s. As Jersey Beat put it, “originality
is abundant.”
Ugly Stick’s legacy may be tied to a specific place and time, but the music has outlived its era. The Riverfront Timescaptured it best: Ugly Stick “capture the beer-soaked nihilism of the worst
dive bar.” For others, it was the melodies that stood out—Germany’s Home of Rock called them “a mixture of punk, country, hillbilly-Gedudel and—yes, really good at melodies.” That balance of
rawness and tunefulness helped the band secure a lasting influence, with the Bloomington Herald Times noting that “countless bands have followed in their footsteps.”
With Absinthe back in circulation, Ugly Stick’s pioneering blend of cow-punk, garage grit, and Midwestern storytelling is ready to be discovered by a new generation of listeners. It’s more than a
reissue—it’s an invitation to revisit a defining moment in the American underground, when the Columbus sound was born and bands like Ugly Stick were at its forefront.
