Mixtape: Ramble

Toots Barger: world-renowned bowler or hardcore band? It's the former, but now I want a bowling-themed, beatdown hardcore band.
Since last fall, I've been taking my kid to White Oak Bowling in Silver Spring, Md. It's an old-school vibe: nothing's automated, so you pencil in your score on paper and push a button to clear the pins; there are buckets of Bud and the food's no-fuss (pizza, fries and chicken tenders); the dull-orange furniture and decor is likely unchanged since it first opened. A "regular place" as my buddy Ron would call it: relatively cheap, chill, the people behind the counter know your name by the third visit. It's my vibe.
It's also duckpin bowling, an extremely regional sport native to Maryland. (In short, the ball is smaller and its pins are lighter; the lane is 60 feet long; you get three shots per frame instead of two, plus a few other different rules.)
During my kid's belated birthday party at White Oak — her choice! — I came across a bulletin board and display case, which looks to have been untouched since the early 2000s. There were trophies and photos of stocky dude bowlers, plus a brief history of duckpin bowling. ("According to Baltimore legend," reports New York Times, "it was invented in 1900 in an upstairs bowling alley at a tavern owned by two of Baltimore's premier sports heroes, the baseball figures John J. McGraw and Wilbert Robinson.") But there was also a reference to Toots Barger, which is just too incredible a name not to google.
Elizabeth "Toots" Barger "was the top-ranked woman in her sport 13 times between 1947 and 1958," explains the National Museum of American History, which displays one of her bowling balls. The Baltimore Sun called her "duckpin bowling's equivalent of Babe Ruth." (There are photos of the Great Bambino himself duckpin bowling in Baltimore, though I couldn't find any evidence the two had ever met. However, Baltimore's Babe Ruth Museum also appears to display one of Toots' balls.) "During the years Mrs. Barger was virtually invincible," the NYT wrote in her 1998 obit, going onto say that she "became such an acclaimed figure that she was regarded as the city's premiere athlete until Johnny Unitas came to town." She tried to make duckpin bowling the state sport, but it was just too weird to stick.
Everything about this screams Maryland, a state I cannot rightfully claim even though I live walking distance from the D.C./Maryland border: a tough broad kicking ass at a hyper-regional sport, but nevertheless warranting ink from the paper of record. Yeah, I need a bowling-themed, beatdown hardcore band from Baltimore right away. —Lars Gotrich
Stream the Viking's Choice mixtape via BNDCMPR. Follow my Bandcamp collection. Tracklist below:
Kim Gordon, "BYE BYE"
Thee Alcoholics, "Baby I'm Your Man"
R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura (feat. Hprizm), "begonias"
Jahari Massamba Unit, "Stomping Gamay"
Frances Chang, "Ya A Mirage"
Waxahatchee, "Right Back to It"
Alejandro Escovedo, "Bury Me"
Mali Obomsawin & Magdalena Abrego, "Masterpieces"
Linda Smith, "Salad Days (Young Marble Giants cover)"
Danielle Boutet, "P. 216"
Waterer, "Void Step Absolute"
СОЮЗ, "Верокай"
Pernice Brothers, "December in Her Eyes"
Cukor Bila Smert’, "Summer Will Not Come"
TAMTAM, "虹の彷徨 / Ramble in the Rainbow"
Rosali, "Rewind"
Quintelium + Lalén Ríos Luna, "Corpsucle"
Alison Cotton, "The Letter Burning"
Charlie Parr, "Boombox"
Good Luck, "Novel Figure"
Gouge Away, "Stuck in a Dream"
Jlin (feat. Philip Glass), "The Precision of Infinity"
J. Robbins, "Exquisite Corpse"
Armbruster, "Playground"
Shabason, Krgovich, Sage, "Gloria"
Magic Tuber Stringband, "Days of Longing"
Hulder, "Hearken the End"
Thou, "Lonely Vigil (Demo)"
Xmal Deutschland, "Allein"
Kim Myhr & Kitchen Orchestra, "VI"
Lysistrata, "Horns"
Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, “Return of The Lost Tribe”