12 Rods Got Todd Rundgren—So Why Didn’t Anyone Listen?
A Dig Me Out listener from Oxford knows the story—now it’s your turn to decide if Lost Time deserves rescue
Thanks to a pick by Board member Jeremy A., we’re digging into 12 Rods’ 2002 album Lost Time—an indie rock gem that almost nobody heard the first time around.
And Jeremy has some thoughts.
Having spent nine years living in Oxford, Ohio—where this band originated—he knows the territory well. You know, that little college town. Home of Miami University. Home of 97X (“The future of rock and roll”). And home a little band that somehow got lucky enough to have Todd Rundgren produce their album.
A Band That Almost Was
12 Rods started the way a lot of great bands do: scrambling to play a party. The year was 1992. Ryan Olcott was a drummer about to head off to music school when friends asked him to throw a band together for a graduation bash in Oxford, Ohio. Two weeks later, “Ryan’z Bihg Hed” took the stage. KFC was served. Someone recorded the set on a boom box. Classic origin story.
By 1995, Olcott had relocated to Minneapolis, dropped the goofy name, and 12 Rods quickly became darlings of the scene—angular, noisy, melodically inventive rock that sounded like nothing else. Pitchfork gave them a perfect 10.0. The Village Voice called them “America’s Radiohead.” Richard Branson’s V2 Records signed them around the same time they picked up the White Stripes and Moby.
And then? The industry never quite figured out what to do with them. V2 dumped them. The Rundgren-produced album didn’t break through. By 2002, Ryan Olcott was done playing the game.
Enter Lost Time
“I was so jaded and so disgruntled about the whole industry,” Olcott told City Pages. So they put out Lost Time on their own terms—free of label pressure, with Dave King (The Bad Plus) on drums and Jake Hanson on guitar.
The result? Eleven tracks of kinetic indie rock that earns every Radiohead comparison while sounding entirely its own. Songs like “Fake Magic 8-Ball” and “Telephone Holiday” hit with emotional punch that leaves you wondering why this didn’t change the world.
It didn’t break through in 2002. But it never went away. Justin Vernon became an outspoken fan, eventually rereleasing the album on his own label. “I had this notion that Ryan was on some pop shit that no one had ever done before,” Vernon said. “The chordal structure and movement was so fresh.”
After breaking up in 2004, 12 Rods reunited for a 10-year anniversary show at First Avenue in 2015, and in 2023, they dropped their first new music in over two decades.
The story isn’t over. But this chapter—Lost Time—deserves to be heard.
1. Listen to the album.
Spin Lost Time before the episode drops. Let the songs marinate—video game noises and all.
2. Cast your vote.
3. Leave a comment.
Your take could be featured on the episode. First impressions? Standout tracks? Does it deserve its “America’s Radiohead” reputation—or is it Smosh frisbee material?
Let’s dig this one out together.