Gaunt

During their seven-year existence as a recording unit, the Columbus, Ohio quartet Gaunt built a devoted audience both locally and internationally. Jerry Wick, the wisecracking frontman who handled vocals and guitar, led the group through releases on Thrill Jockey and Amphetamine Reptile before the band moved to Warner Brothers and later disbanded. Born in 1967 in Parma, Ohio, to Sharon and Jerry Wick, the singer enrolled at Kent State University in the early nineties to study violin yet quickly soured on the setting. Only two weeks into classes he relocated to Columbus, took a position at Used Kids Records, and played briefly with the psychedelic outfit Black Ju Ju while assembling his own project. He enlisted guitarist Jovan Karcic, bassist Eric Barth, and drummer Jeff Regensburger; the four musicians formed Gaunt in 1991 and cut a split 7-inch with the New Bomb Turks right away.

Their introduction to the Columbus circuit arrived as a lo-fi single captured by Wick on a Yamaha four-track and a Tascam Porta05. Before the record appeared, Barth departed and was succeeded on bass by New Bomb Turks guitarist Jim Weber, also known as Jim Motherfucker; although Barth had performed on the tracks, his likeness was left out of the sleeve photograph. New arrival Craig Regala, formerly of New York, launched the Datapanik label and offered Gaunt its first release. In 1992 the local scene drew wider notice through acts such as Scrawl and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, prompting Gaunt to issue two further singles: Fielder’s Choice on Datapanik and Jim Motherfucker on Anyway Stuff. Weber stepped away to concentrate on the New Bomb Turks, allowing Barth to return. By year’s end the band contributed to an Anyway Stuff compilation, completed a 10-inch album, and appeared on Datapanik’s Bumped By Karaoke collection alongside Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Appalachian Death Ride, Mike Rep and the Quotas, and the New Bomb Turks.

The 10-inch project stemmed from a trip to New York arranged by Matador Records president Gerard Cosloy. Thrill Jockey founder Tina Richards attended the performance, contacted Wick three weeks afterward, and signed the band; Whitey the Man became both Gaunt’s debut full-length and the label’s second release overall, showcasing Wick’s loose punk-pop style. Throughout 1993 the group recorded a split 7-inch with the Beavers for Demolition Derby, delivered another single to Thrill Jockey, and placed four tracks on Datapanik’s Shave the Baby anthology drawn from early singles plus an unreleased cut. They also shared a 7-inch with Dayton’s Guided By Voices on Bag of Hammers. No album materialized that year, yet the band made up for the absence in 1994.

In January the musicians traveled to Chicago to work with producer Steve Albini of Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac on their next Thrill Jockey LP, completing the sessions across May and July with vocal and keyboard assistance from Scissor Girl Azita Youssefi. Sob Story surfaced later in the year, accompanied by a track on an Anyway Stuff singles compilation and a 7-inch for Potential Ashtray. Early in 1995, unused material from the Chicago dates supplied the third album, I Can See Your Mom From Here, issued in February on Thrill Jockey. While touring, the band spent a night in Minneapolis at the home of Amphetamine Reptile head Tom Hazelmeyer, wrote ten new songs on the spot, and accepted his offer to record them. Working with house producer and Halo of Flies bassist Tim Mac, they fashioned the more overtly pop-oriented Yeah, Me Too, released that November on Amphetamine Reptile as a one-time arrangement while still contractually tied to Thrill Jockey.

Impressed by Mac’s results, Gaunt retained him for the follow-up, Kryptonite, which appeared on Thrill Jockey in April 1996 and featured a noticeably polished sound that drew attention from critics and major-label A&R. That same year the track “Ohio” from I Can See Your Mom From Here surfaced on a Nitro! Records compilation. Personnel shifted when Barth and Regensburger departed, replaced by bassist Brett Falcon and drummer Sam Brown; the new lineup immediately cut a single for Super 08 Records. Additional exposure arrived when the band was commissioned to compose the theme for MTV’s Buzzkill program, which Mac produced during an April visit to Columbus. Wick also tracked solo material that year under the alias Cocaine Sniffing Triumph.

In 1997, Datapanik’s Regala recruited Gaunt for a multi-artist tribute to Pere Ubu; the group contributed a version of “Solution” alongside Scrawl, Cleveland’s Cobra Verde, Dayton’s Brainiac, and Cincinnati’s Ass Ponys. Wick produced the Ego Summit album featuring members of Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and the Gibson Brothers, and Gaunt appeared on an Amphetamine Reptile compilation. During another Minneapolis stop, Warner Brothers representative Bruce McGuire witnessed the performance. Having already toured the United States and Europe, the band signed with the label. Once again enlisting Mac along with Brian Paulson, known for his work on Slint’s Spiderland, Gaunt tracked Bricks and Blackouts at Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studios. The album, issued by Warner Brothers in March 1998, mixed ballads, power pop, and melancholic love songs. Subsequent touring took the group across the West Coast, the South—including a slot at Austin’s South by Southwest festival—and onward to the East Coast and Canada. Disappointing sales prompted the label to drop Gaunt late in the year, after which the band dissolved. Brown joined Weber in the New Bomb Turks while the remaining members entered full-time employment outside music.

By 2001 Wick was employed at Columbus restaurant Dagwood’s and continued attending local shows. His life ended in the early hours of January 10 when, cycling home from Larry’s bar at 2:30 a.m., he failed to stop at a flashing red light at North Fourth Street and East Hudson Avenue and was struck by an eastbound vehicle. He succumbed twenty minutes later to massive head injuries and a fractured neck at the age of thirty-three. Over seven years with Gaunt he had written lyrics addressing literature, friendships, and relationships.