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.”
Photo Credit: Amy Rathbone
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