In a world obsessed with instant virality and overnight fame, Moviola have been playing the long game. The Columbus, Ohio collective—equal parts band, art project, and Midwestern institution—have quietly amassed a body of work that feels more like a living organism than a discography. On August 29, they’ll release their 11th album Earthbound on Dromedary Records (pre-order now), and today they’ve offered up its first taste: the lead single “Slage Wave” and a delightfully surreal music video that asks the eternal question: which side are you on?
Debuting today via Magnet, “Slage Wave” is everything Moviola does best: bruised guitars, weary wit, and the kind of melody you find yourself humming hours later. In typical Moviola fashion, the track balances raw urgency and wry humor—what Greg Bonnell calls “fight the power with guitars.” Speaking about the single, Bonnell adds:
“The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell. Birth, school, work, death—not necessarily in that order.”
The accompanying video—shot and edited by founding member Jake Housh—is a darkly comic slice of working-class absurdism, set at a hot dog stand run by a tyrannical boss with “management by iPad.” There are union organizers, the ghost of Johnny Paycheck, a few heartbreaks, and a lot of hot dogs. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s uncanny—exactly what you’d expect from a band who’ve never quite belonged to this timeline.
Moviola have been bending the rules of indie rock since 1993, when Housh started the band in a duplex near Ohio State. While their Columbus punk peers leaned fast and loud, Moviola felt more like “Neil Young’s noisy nephews” (LA Weekly). Over the next three decades, they became something rarer: a democratic band in an ego-driven industry. Five songwriters, five singers, all pulling the cart together. They built their own studios. They made a concert film. They hosted a radio show. They released records with kindred spirits like The Handsome Family, Tobin Sprout, and Hiss Golden Messenger.
Across albums like The Year You Were Born (1997), Glen Echo Autoharp (1998), Rumors of the Faithful (2001), and more recently Broken Rainbows (2022), they’ve explored lo-fi fuzz, country-soul, folk experiments, and pure pop, with the kind of restless creativity that only happens when no one’s calling the shots but the band themselves.
And now, after three decades, Earthbound might be their most focused work yet. Written and recorded between Columbus, Brooklyn, and Brattleboro, Vermont, it distills everything Moviola have been building toward—lush when it needs to be, raw when it needs to be, and always unmistakably their own. Five voices, one sound.
Can a band hit its stride after 30 years? Moviola make a compelling case. Earthbound is the sound of a group who’ve earned their scars and figured out how to turn them into songs. Listen in.
“Slage Wave” is out now on all streaming platforms. Watch the video, pick your side, and maybe even join the union while you’re at it.
After 30 years, 11 albums, countless singles, and a concert film, you’ve called Earthbound your “most personal, urgent, and cohesive” record yet. What finally brought all the pieces together at this moment?
Jerry: We’ve been friends for so many years, we know each other’s instincts, we allow ideas to blossom, or die, and there is no denying that we all have a much better disposition toward life in general. We’ve all seen some shit. All those ingredients make for a good environment to make music.
The video for “Slage Wave” is darkly hilarious, surreal, and a little heartbreaking — hot dogs, union organizing, and the ghost of Johnny Paycheck. Where did that idea come from, and what did you want to say with it?
Greg: The song began while musing about crappy jobs I’d had in my life, but the video blossomed into more of a Grapes of Wrath epic, don’t you think?
Jake: I am living in that camper and thought it was such a good prop and location that we made up a story around it. And we wanted to see if we could tackle some topical stuff with humor. And I like the idea of approaching music videos as a Buster Keaton one-reeler.
Greg said: “The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.” Has that ethos been the secret to Moviola’s longevity — or your curse?
Jerry: Ha, I don’t know how superior we are, to be honest. But I do know that we’ve always just done what we’ve wanted to do, and not much else. We’ve honestly done all this a bit backward. We’ve never played a lot of shows (which is really how you get people to know you). After 30 years, we’re going to play some places where we’ve never played, and play our music out in the world for some people. What a concept! Drop us a line.
Moviola has always been impossible to pin down — lo-fi pop, country soul, fuzz rock, and now this sharp, world-weary stride. Does resisting genre feel intentional, or is it just who you are?
Jerry: I’d say we were just as world-weary when we were much younger, it’s just the duration of the weariness, man. It wears on you. How that all ends up sounding should change over 30 years, shouldn’t it? Are you the same person you were 30 years ago? If so, good for you. The amp farts and feedback which were exciting to us then! Now we get excited about writing and recording songs that can convey a feeling other than squalor and pedal noise (which can still be fun).
With five equal singers and songwriters, how do you keep the democratic ideal alive? Do you still bicker over songs in the basement, or have you developed some unspoken ESP after three decades?
Ted: Having five songwriters in a band is a great asset. We can pick and choose what to work on and leave things that aren’t working for another time… or never. We don’t really bicker over songs. Instead I think we’ve developed a way for the principal songwriter to decide when to bring an idea forward and when to step back and rework something that’s not gelling. It’s a lighter touch. What’s really exciting is when the entire group gets behind an idea and pushes it to the finish line.
Your early days were very rooted in DIY: basements, 4-tracks, happy accidents. Even now, you build your own studios and shoot your own films. What keeps you so fiercely independent?
Jake: I think we have been inspired over the years by a variety of DIY artists and friends like GBV, V3, and Califone. We’ve never had much of a budget, but we’ve kept cranking away at it and are just compelled to make music.
Ted: Doing this record was another lesson in how we can work together at our own pace and within our own boundaries. We recorded most of the basic tracks in Columbus, but Jake was living in Brooklyn during most of it, and Scotty has lived in Vermont for many years now. Working remotely really solidified the band around the fact that we can do this no matter what our situations require. I think it’s less about being fiercely independent and more around giving each other space and time to be creative and contribute to the overall project in whatever way makes sense.
Columbus has always been an underdog music town — part punk, part Rust Belt resilience. How has that shaped the way you see yourselves as a band?
Ted: To me the Columbus music scene has always been pretty accepting of bands in different genres existing in the same spaces, and that has always been a good thing for Moviola. There are some great bands that have come from here – Scrawl, Bassholes, New Bomb Turks, and Times New Viking, to Villagerrr, Golomb, and Married FM. Underdogs.. maybe. But the ability to not be pigeon holed, to be on a Friday night bill with folkies, punk rockers, experimental musicians is, for me, what is unique to Columbus. FWIW Jerry David DeCicca used to open for bands like Gaunt, Clay, and TJSA and only the assholes in the crowd had an issue with it.
You’ve called yourselves “Neil Young’s noisy nephews,” but Earthbound feels like it’s channeling something even deeper — elegiac, but still playful. Who or what inspired the mood of this record?
Scotty: I’m not sure what Theo, Jerry, Greg and Jake think, but Uncle Neil has always played an important role for me. I have always worked to write songs with vivid and original imagery that are about a mysterious something. On Earthbound, we kind of let the cat out of the bag. In 2025, we are all mourning together. In a way, that can feel good.
After 30 years together, is there still something you haven’t tried yet that you’re dying to do? Another concert film? A full-on concept record? A Broadway musical?
Ted: The next thing for Moviola to accomplish is conquering other midwestern towns. We’re coming for you Pittsburgh.
Finally — what does being “earthbound” mean to Moviola? Is it a grounding, a limitation, or just a reminder of where you come from?
Jerry: Holding two thoughts in your head at the same time. Is it direction of travel or current status? You decide.
Scotty: We are all earthbound. And we’re getting there.
