Record label Homestead Records | ||
Years active 1981 (1981)–1989 (1989) Labels Homestead Records, Old 3C Records Associated acts Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments Past members Ron House (vocals/guitar/songwriting), Matt Wyatt (guitar), Mark Wyatt (keyboards), Paul Nini (bass) Origin Columbus, Ohio, United States Genres Folk rock, New wave, Garage rock | ||
Great Plains was a band from Columbus, Ohio active during the 1980s. Its vocalist and songwriter, Ron House, went on to found Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, which became much more successful than Great Plains.
Contents
History
Great Plains was founded in 1981. Its first release was 1982's "The Mark, Don & Mel" EP, which contained eight tracks. In 1984, they released their full-length debut, Born in a Barn, on Homestead Records. They released another full-length, Naked At The Buy Sell & Trade, in 1986, followed by their third such album, Sum Things Up, in 1987. In 1989, the band released a compilation album, Colorized!, on Demon Records. In 2000, a compilation album of 50 of the band's songs from their entire career, entitled Length of Growth, 1981-1989, was released on the Old 3C label.
Reception
Robert Christgau awarded two of Great Plains' studio albums B+ grades, and the other (Sum Things Up) an A-. Len Righi described Sum Things Up as "an oddball combination of punk, pop, psychedelia, folk and garage rock" and said that the band's records had improved consistently in quality over their history.