Amidst the pending long haul up to Ithaca for Big Day In and their forthcoming new album, Young Widows guitarist Evan Patterson spares a few moments to share a few answers with IU's Bubba Crumrine.


IU: I heard you guys spent much of the summer laying down new tracks.  Can you give us the lowdown on the new material and upcoming release?

Evan: You heard correct.  We have recorded our new album and it's the most pleased I have ever been.  Our old friend Kevin Ratterman worked with us on the recording here in Louisville. The studio experience was extremely relaxed, yet focused.  It really allowed us to do more experimenting and get the best takes possible.  A total of 17 songs were recorded in the session, but 9 will be on the album.  I'm waiting to announce the title and release date, but there will be a single coming out before the album that I am personally going to screen print here at my shop. 

IU: How will the new album differ sonically that Old Wounds and Settle Down City?

Evan: The new album is more focused on mood and less on just being a rock band.  Vocally it is a huge accomplishment for me and the songs have dipped more into untouched territory.  It's definitely the darkest and heaviest album I have written.  


IU: You and Nick have been involved with the DIY scene in Louisville for quite some time. Most folks are familiar with your work in Breather Resist but it goes back much farther than that, correct?

Evan: The National Acrobat was a band I did ages 16 -18 and we did some really enjoyable tours will I was in High School, played a ton of local and regional shows, got to play CBGB's when I was 17 and it flat out altered my life.  Breather Resist toured the DIY circuit to it's fullest and still some of my favorite memories are shows in garages and basements in the middle of america.  We started Young Widows after touring ourselves to death and being frustrated about our differences with artistic direction. 

A couple years ago my brother, a couple friends, and I were setting up local shows at a VFW style hall on a regular basis.  Eventually we decide to start putting on a monthly event called Last Saturday Show Series.  We had the honor to have events with Shellac, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Envy, A Minor Forest, Shipping News, Municipal Waste, and many more.  Eventually turn outs went sour.  I still set up shows for time to time for friends, but nothing with high risk of me losing money/sleep over.  

I don't think about ourselves as being involved in a DIY scene.  It's just what you do as a musician to survive.  Setting around waiting for someone to notice you or take you on tour or book your local shows or whatever lazy self absorbed non-action it might be... you have to work your ass off and then some and then expect nothing in return.  This isn't a career or a job, this is a piece of mind.  Without art we are animals. 

IU: Any final words for those coming out to Big Day In?

Evan: Looking forward to it.

Big Day In is fast approaching which brings NYC's Bridge & Tunnel back to Ithaca! Pat (drums) takes part in some rapid fire Q&A with IU's Bubba Crumrine about their latest No Idea release, Tia & Al, new material, Ron Artest's house and more.
 
IU: How did your fall tour and Fest 9 go this year?

Pat: Well we actually flew down this year. Honestly i feel like it took a little bit of the fest experience away for me. I think because it was such a quick trip, we were just there and back so soon.

IU:  Cool. Any good stories from this latest batch of road dates?

Pat: On our last tour we actually stayed at Ron Artest's house. He had an NBA compound in Indiana where his family lived. He was in California i think, but we hung out with his mother-in-law and shot hoops at 2am.

IU:  Whoa! That's pretty great. I heard Rachel broke her hand recently... is all that on the mend and OK?

Pat: Umm yeah, hopefully it should be good to go pretty soon. I know she is super stoked to play guitar again!

IU:  Good to hear! This is your first time back in Ithaca since playing No Radio Records back in Summer '08 with Attica! Attica!, correct?

Pat: Yup, that was a fun time. Me and Jeff played a couple songs with Aaron on that tour. Jeff wore a bandana. It ruled.

IU:  Looking in the rear-view for a bit, what year did you guys start playing together and what brought you together?
Pat: We started playing in 2006. Me and Jeff had played in a few other bands together since we were about 18 years old and my old band had just broken up so we decided to get a new one going. We knew Rachel from the music scene on Long Island and I have known Tia since 3rd grade so it all kinda fell together.

IU:   Give us the skinny on the new 10" "Indoor Voices"!

Bridge Nine boys Soul Control are ready and willing for their first appearance in Ithaca, NY at this winter's Big Day In on Dec. 4th, 2010 with Young Widows, Bridge & Tunnel, and 9 other bands from around NYS. You may recognize some familiar faces from bands like Achillies, Verse, and What Feeds the Fire but the band has been setting themselves apart from their former/sibling projects over the last few years with their slew of EP's and last year's kicker, "Cycles".  Bubba Crumrine chats with them regarding the past, present, and future of the band...sort of, but not really.

IU: To start things off, lets get a little history on the band. You guys each spent (spend) time in quality bands like Verse, What Feeds the Fire, etc - how did you meet and what brought you to birth a band like Soul Control?

SC: We met at the top of the empire state building after Eric's son called into a talk radio show and said he wanted his dad to find a new band.

IU: How did Rory come to be in the band later on?

SC: Well, we'd just parted ways with our singer and begun the process of auditioning new ones. Meanwhile, Rory had been working a shitty day job and at night singing in a Soul Control cover band called "Dance of Shadows." I guess some SC fans heard we needed a singer and they sent us a tape of Rory performing with his band. We were impressed and got in touch. He came down and belted out "On Survival" in the booth and blew us away.  That was that.

IU:  How did you get hooked up with the folks at Bridge Nine?

Band Name:
Yeah…well, we’re cattle drums. But if that doesn’t suite your liking I don’t see any problem you fiddling with it. I don’t know much about London but I hear in the east end there’s some form of colloquial speech… cockney rhyming slang…here you take a word, “cattle” in this case, then another that rhymes, “saddle” for instance, and then shorten the derivative word…so here you’re left with “sad.” This word replaces the initial word completely. So, no more cattle drums…just sad. I don’t think I like this anymore. Well, anyways, cattle drums, no association with kettle drums…but, if it comes to pass that cattle drums is drafted into war and thrown into their own battalion, you can bet your ass we will use kettle drums and forty pound sheep head mallets as a means of threatening strategy, and that we will all die.

Location:
If cattle drums were a dog, we’d be pure bred mutt...as well as blind, tumor ridden, back legs replaced by wheels. We all connected at SUNY Oneonta. Upstate NY in general is home to all of us but Pat Moore. He claims Long Island his birthplace and current place of residence but…we all know he’s from outer space and makes frequent trips there.

Formed:
We formed sometime last year…fall ’09. It was cold and smog blocked out the sun. I had never sung a word…stuttered a note…still haven’t really as far as I’m concerned. The dudes had a few songs and needed someone to do vocals and I worked as a dish washer at the time and thought it was something I could get into if I just kept the mic real low and found someone else to do the recordings. We’re still together for the most part…like…a geo missing its bumpers with dirty oil…it still drives…maybe a little rough…its visit to the crushers..the bone yard…it’s not all that far away, and if it gets into an accident it’s going to blow up. But we’ve still got gas in the tank so we’re not going to stop until that runs out.

Members:
Darin on bass, Pat Moore on guitar, Gulab…also known as Jarusha, Jarad Needham did the drumming on The Boykisser Sessions EP and our two song demo we have yet to put out.. co-founder of collapsed records, and is ultimately cattle drums himself. He moved to Brooklyn upon graduating and now….now cattle drums is kind of like a grilled cheese without buttering the bread first…so now you just got toasted...probably burnt bread with melted cheese in it. What a shitty sandwich. Barely worth eating… I mean if you’re starving…on the verge of keeling over… it’ll do the trick but…damn. Well, Jarad is missed terribly but we had the beautiful Sean Scully (listen to his band classic tribe!) fill the void for a while. He’s a great sport, nasty drummer, all around good dude, but now he’s got an internship to look after and we have landed Matt Hambone Payton who will help pick up the back, boost morale, be the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and since our anatomy…well speaking for myself, maybe darin… is closest to dogs, Payton, being a vet’s assistant, can fix our broken bones.

Releases:
So far just The Boykisser Sessions, recorded at dickbutt studios. CHECK THEM OUT if you want your music to sound like paradise. We’d be lost without them. Mike Natoli and Jon FatMan Hernandez of Timeshares, who rule the earth (please listen to this band unless you’re an enemy of our country) run this studio and make magic happen. We will be releasing a two song demo in a couple weeks or so. Full length out in spring we’re hoping. Stay tuned for good and miserable things. PIG OUT.

>>>Don't miss Cattle Drums live this Saturday at Big Day In with Young Widows, Bridge & Tunnel, Soul Control, Zona Mexicana, Beach Parade, Why The Wires, and more! Only $5 12/4/10 noon til 10PM.

Band Name: Zona Mexicana

Location: Purchase, NY

Formed: Late 2008

Members:
hart seely - guitar + vocals
cameron wisch - drums + vocals
zephyr prusinski - bass + vocals

Releases:
3 song CDEP demo thing from January 2009
2 songs on a split 7" with Elemeno for summer 2010
both were self-released 

Tell us about yourselves!
Zona Mexicana was "come forth"-ed in october of 2008 by Cameron and I when we met at SUNY purchase. we started writing songs pretty quickly, and when we got a few "down pat" i asked Zephyr to come play bass with us sometime. he did, and then he joined the band. Don't tell anyone but we're named after a shitty mexican fast-food chain. We went on a short tour that winter after we'd recorded 3 songs and put together our first release. we toured that summer as well from NY to Minnesota and back with our friends in Monster Machismo. I believe we toured for a bit the winter after that, not sure about that though...but we
definitely toured this past summer for 40 days and 40 nights after releasing a split 7" with our friends in Elemeno - we worked our way over to the west coast and played a show in Mexico and went back up
through the south. as for what's next...we've been recording some new stuff, our best material thus far i think, and pretty characteristic of how we actually sound live. Some of it's a lot darker, slightly more vocally oriented, a little heavier. we're hoping to be able to release this new stuff ASAP, and we'll be looking around in the next few weeks for a small DIY label who'd be into helping us do so. If we can get that squared away then we'll be booking a long tour for next fall. anyways...that's basically it, I also play bass in Sirs, Cameron's got some of solo stuff that he's working on, and Zephyr's a l33t h4x0r. We're down for show trades at our school, talk to us! zonamexicana@gmail.com


Catch Zona Mexicana at Big Day In this Saturday with Young Widows, Bridge & Tunnel, Soul Control, Beach Parade, Like Wolves, Cattle Drums, Why The Wires, Ailments, Speak Daggers, and more! 12 bands, 10 hours, $5 all ages. Starts up at noon at The Haunt, 702 Willow Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850.

When we last spoke with Oscar, it was 2009. FREE! was still in print edition, Oscar's storied band, Nakatomi Plaza was coming to a close with their last tour, and he was looking forward to fresh start with some new projects. Fast forward to present day where we're heading to close out 2010 and his two new projects Ludlow Lions and Ghost Robot Ninja Bear have already begun to make their mark on the underground music community. In this interview we'll focus on the later of his two newest loves and discuss how the project came about, their new material, Red Bull's poor choice in marking campaign, and more. Bubba Crumrine interviews. 


IU: When did you first know you wanted to form a band like GRNB?

Oscar: For a couple years now I knew I wanted to do a solo project.  I had worked with many songwriters on their own projects and just thought it might be nice to do a something where I could play solo if I wanted to, or have a band, or half a band, or cowrite sometimes, and have a revolving door where my friends (who all happen to be amazing musicians) could walk in and do their thing.  It's been great so far. 

IU: Was the foundation for GRNB underway while you were still in Nakatomi Plaza or formed afterwards?

Oscar: Yes, I started recording demos for GRNB while NP was figuring out how to release our final album, "Ghosts".  We actually played our first show ever at Piano's on July 20, 2009, a few months before NP's The Coda Tour.  That lineup included me, Geoff Kraly on bass, Rachel Rubino from Bridge and Tunnel on guitar, Christopher Enriquez from On The Might Of Princes on drums, and Brendan Coon of Ludlow Lions on vocals and percussion. 

IU: How did the lot of players come to be performing together?

Welcome to another addition of "Meet The Band" here on FREE!, where bands give us the essentials in their own words.

Band Name:
We are BRIGHT SHINY OBJECTS. Matt and I often like to play on words, we chose a title that represents what everyone seems to be looking for nowadays in our material world. As a band we write tunes to address and express our radically generated outlook in spit of this reality. In this spirit, Matt and I chose to write and perform with minimal means - that means NO guitar or vocal FX!!!

Location: 
Christian's a Jersey Boy from Ocean County.
Matt is from Long Island.
We have both lived in and around Ithaca for sometime.

Members:
Matthew Kelly Vox/Drums
Christian deBrigard Guitar/Vox

We first met and began performing together in 2009, in THE SYNDROME. Matt had always sang and fronted bands but never played drums in one. We've always had an explosive chemistry both on an off stage, and to us Bright Shiny Objects was a natural development that began for us as we became increasingly involved in the Ithaca Underground scene. In the angst of the of the youth movement - pertaining to what is "indie' and what is "not", we found another way to push ourselves, always in an honest effort to shatter the "status quo" and punking it up.

Releases:
The first song that we wrote together is "Wake up and Die". Bright Shiny Objects is scheduled to record their debut album locally at Moving Box in late November, and hope to have some bootlegs and merch available for the BIG DAY IN on December 4th. Right now we're busting down hard and booking shows in cities throughout New England for early 2011.

So, you're a DIY metal band trying to create music that challenges you and is an expression of yourself, while trying to put your art in front of those who will actually enjoy it, on top of trying to fund releasing said material and keep the band on the road.  Suddenly, after a bit of a whim, your being flown out to record your follow-up EP, surrounded by PR reps, engineers, and producers and suddenly positive attention is being thrust upon the art you love on a national level, virtually overnight. Sound like a band's day dreams?  This is basically what happened to Minnesota metalers, Iron Thrones who, after pushing their we'll received and self released "Visions of Light" CD, worthily won Scion's "No Label Needed" contest. The band recently released their latest EP "The Wretched Sun" as part of winning the contest. Now, they're on tour with recent Relapse Records signees, Hero Destroyed.  The two will appear Sunday, Nov 14th at The Haunt with Engineer and Thirteen South. Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine syncs up with Steve to get the skinny on what winning the contest meant, the new album, and the ashes the band rose from.

IU: What was the process of you guys winning the "No Label Needed" contest from Scion?

Steve: We originally heard about the contest through metalsucks.net, although we didn’t really look into it too hard until a few of our industry-savvy friends mentioned it to us and said it was pretty legit.  I went ahead and uploaded our longest song, “Cover of Smoke” from our first album "Visions of Light", because we all really dug that song and figured if we were going to submit our music for a contest like this, we wanted to win because of a song we really liked, regardless of length or supposed marketability.  Apparently it was a good choice!  From what we heard, the majority of the people involved in the contest really dug the tune, and were happy we won.  Obviously, we were as well!

IU: Was it a strange transition moving from doing everything yourselves to a full PR campaign, radio promo, new web layouts, merch, etc.?

Steve: It certainly took some getting used to.  We like to keep complete control over everything we do so, having teams of people working on PR, promotions, design, and everything else was really strange.  We didn’t really know what to do with ourselves.  It definitely opened up a lot of doors for us, and confirmed what so many have often said about the music business: it’s all about who you know.

IU: What do you feel was the beneficial aspect of winning the contest for the long term?

Hailing from Syracuse, NY; Engineer (Blackmarket Activities) are preparing their latest onslaught of sludgy, noisy hardcore. Despite the band residing around the bend from Ithaca, the band has never performed in our fair city. We figured it's long over due. These CNY titans will be headling The Haunt on Sunday, November 14th with recent Relapse Records signee, Hero Destroyed, Iron Thrones from MN plus Thirteen South. Engineer guitarist, Ryan chats with Ithaca Undergound's Bubba Crumrine about their in-process LP, "Crooked Voices" and doing it their damn selves.

IU: How is the new album coming together?

Ryan: It's recorded and mastered, but it's been the slowest artwork process for us EVER. We usually have a hand in either the artwork itself, or at least the design and layout. This time we opted to let someone else do all the work. We thought we were taking the easy road because it can be stressful doing the layout yourself (I've done a couple of our layouts in the past: "Suffocation of the Artisan", "The Dregs" CD and rework of the vinyl release), but it turned out to be more stressful having to wait so long. Matt Loomis did the cover and Mike Wholberg is finishing up the layout for the rest right now. We're all really happy with the recording and the layout so far, we're just dying to get it released!

IU: Where and with whom did you record?

Ryan: We recorded "Crooked Voices" at More Sound Studios here in Syracuse, NY with Jocko (Jason Randall). Our split with Achilles and "The Dregs" were also recorded at More Sound, but each record, including "Crooked Voices", is much different than the rest.

IU: Any timeframe we might see it released in?

The core of Hero Destroyed came together in 1998 when Zach Moore and AJ Falcione formed a local Pittsburgh metal band. By 2005, after playing the local circuit for several years, the band reemerged as Hero Destroyed. New material, shows, and recording their debut followed.  In winter 2007, members of Don Caballero tipped Relapse to the band and forwarded along the self-titled CD, urging for a listen. Fast forward and its 2010 where their official Relapse debut "Thrones" (a metallic mechanistic, low-end crunch with plenty of head) and the steel city reps are hitting the road with Minnesota's Iron Thrones.  Zach More throws down the Q&A with Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine

IU: How has the response been to the new album since it was released back in August?

ZM: The response to the album has been really great.  You never know how people are going to look at it, or even get what you are doing, but it seems people are digging it.  Most of the reviews have been very good, so that's pretty reassuring.

IU: What are your personal thoughts on the record?

ZM: I wish we would have had just a little more time to iron out a few things, but what musician doesn't say that?  We're very happy with the album and the work we put into it. 

IU: Any favorite tracks or riffs?

Favorite track?  That's like picking your favorite child (if you had kids, I sure don't!)  One of my favorite songs is one we don't play very often, 'Dom Wampus.'  It's about 2 minutes long, but it just doesn't let up.

IU: Any special techniques that were used during the recording or stories from the whole process you'd like to share?

ZM: Well one of the reasons we had a time crunch was due to that huge snow storm.  As many areas did, Pittsburgh got hit with almost 4 feet of snow in 2 days.  Dusty, our bass player, was stuck at his house for 4 days until the plows came.  We lost about 6 recording sessions due to the snow, so it was sometimes hard to pick up the continuity.  And there were definitely some sketchy drives home after recording sessions.

IU: Your bio mentioned members of the band first started collaborating in 1998 but took until 2005 until the band became Hero Destroyed. What was involved in the transition process and how did the band evolve?

Band Name: BEES///. Gimme had a dream about four deaf kids who made music, calling themselves The Bees, and we try to embody that essence through the power of ELECTRIC GUITAR.
We used to be called The Touch Yourselves/The Bees/Suicide Death Cult. Now those are just slashes.
But names are important to forget about. The best thing would be a band called every sound that they ever make as together and then people don't get any unhealthy dose of persona before the thing itself.

Members: Gimme D. Brown, Devin B. Brown, Brian H. Ma, + a chorus of ghosts and vapors + everybody.

Location: Binghamton, NY. It's sort of like a giant Civil War jacket full of mice, beached between the stinking sheen of two rivers. I wish I could say that I was born there, but we came to the place as intruders.

Formed: December 10, 1986 at Westchester Hospital + November 30, 1988 at Danbury Hospital. The Brown brothers have been in bands since they learned that it was cool to do in Pre-school. The first effort, Krippy Krappy and the Krippy Krappy show, survives only on a single challenging cassette, "Krap".
But this particular thing stands out as having more of our blood and hope in it than anything we've yet made together. It's changing rapidly, too rapidly to keep up with, but there's a joy in that constant de/rematerialization that's a large part of how we feel and want people to feel.
A lot of the rest of it has something to do with words like technoshamanism, ritual, catharsis. It's maybe not the most intellectually involved music we could be making, I don't think it's about that. I wouldn't want people to be listening for our technique, I'd rather people rolled around on the floor and shouted and sang and laughed and growled.

Releases: We try our best to release ourselves upon others.


>>>Ithaca Underground presents Marnie Stern, Summer People, The Dan Drake Ensemble, and BEES/// this coming Monday, October 4th at The Haunt.  6PM Doors, $10 adv/$12 dos, all ages!

Anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, and anti-fascist. A great code of ethics for any punk band to be founded on, but add a well-balanced amalgamation of punk, crust, metal, and ska plus male and female vocals, razor sharp lyrics depicting said leftist ideals, and have ex/current members of Choking Victim, The Degenerics, Leftover Crack, the Slackers, Nanuchka and Casa de Chihuahua with honorary members from bands like the Bouncing Souls, World/Inferno Friendship Society and the Hold Steady in your ranks... then you'd have to be STAR FUCKING HIPSTERS. With two solid LP's on Fat Wreck and Alternative Tentacles under their belt and a third in the works, SFH are heading out on a two month tour, including their first stop in Ithaca, NY on Thursday, Sept 30th at The Haunt. Founding member Stza (also of LoC and Choking Victim) takes a few moments from the road to speak with Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine.

IU: What do you feel differs about SFH that sets it apart from your other previous bands?

Stza: I am not necessarily the focal point of the band, which has damaged my mental well-being in other bands, although, when I started, I definitely craved attention. But ten one day it becomes too much & there's a lot of pressure when you don't know any healthy ways to escape.

IU: What have you all been up to since "Never Rest In Peace" was released last year?

Stza: We've been touring and touring. And now we're finally working on material for a 3rd record due out next year...

IU: How far along in the writing process are you?

Well, summer is official over but fear not! You can relive some of the amazing IU shows that went down over the last days of summer right here...























Huge thanks to Christian DeBrigard for the fantastic video.

Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine caught up with guitarist/vocalist Andrew Fidler of Savanah, Georgia's Black Tusk the day of their thunderous performance at The Haunt last Sunday.

IU: How did the rest of the Black Cobra/Black Tusk tour go last year after the Ithaca show?

Andrew: That was an amazing tour! Being on the road with Black Cobra was easy and the shows were great.  Those are some of our best friends.

IU: You guys have been pretty busy since we saw you last November - signing to relapse, new album, sick tours - tell us about what you've been up to an how it all came together? 

Andrew: That's pretty much it.  We dropped that record in May, toured with Pentagram and Zoroaster.  Just been incredibly busy.  I think we were actually at home for a month this summer.  We have a booking agent, so that is very helpful to keep us on the road.  Hopefully we get some downtime this winter to write a new album and we hope to solidify a European tour for the beginning of next year.

IU: Have the crowds been different since you signed to Relapse?

Andrew: Sure.  As more people find out about us, more people are going to show up for the shows.  

IU: How do you feel about your new album "Taste The Sin" being able to look back at it after a few months?

Band Name: Acipenser

Location:
Parishville, NY

Formed: 2007

Members:
Justin- Guitar/Vocals
Jimmy- Drums/Vocals
Ed- Bass/Vocals

Band History:
We started the band in 2007 with Mike Mcpherson, but more or less due to all of our lives going in different directions, we had to put the band on hold for about a year. Once we had everything back in place, we regrouped and Mike had decided to stay in Martha's Vineyard. We played together as a 3 piece for about a solid year and then added a 2nd guitar player by the name of Mike Murphy, he was in the band for roughly 3 months and we wrote the song "The Black Queen" with him, he decided to leave the band after the cd was recorded, our original plan was to have Mike Murphy helping with the bulk of the vocals.

Band Name: Oak & Bone

Location: Syracuse, NY

Formed: late 2007

Members: Drew, Ted, Sorbet, Weston

Releases: s/t 7" EP on Hex Records, split 7" EP w/ Like Wolves on Barbarossa Records

Tell us about yourselves!
By nature, we're a hardcore band blended with the many genres we take influence from; something from everything. We are designed to shred as much as possible. We have almost no restrictions, limitations, or inhibitions. However, our current goals are among the typical: continue writing, playing, touring and recording as much as we can. The stars are currently aligning so that we may venture forth on an East Coast/Midwest tour this fall. Upon our return we will spend further time writing and planning for a full length record to be released by Hex sometime next year. Stay tuned.

Check out Oak & Bone with Black Tusk (Relapse Records), Iwo Jima Medkit, and Acipenser at The Haunt, Sunday, Sept 5th. Doors at 5 - show starts at 6PM. $10 at the door. 

Extreme noise-metal legends and recent Black Market Activities signees, Today Is The Day are set to tour this August with Keelhaul and poised for their ninth release in 2011. Founder, vocalist/guitarist, and head mad-man Steve Austin discusses how the band is as vicious and inspired as ever. Catch them and Keelhaul at The Haunt on Saturday, August 21st with local black metal and gridncore favorites, Lux Carentes and Hiroshima Vacation starting at 6PM. Tickets are $10 adv/$15 dos available at The Haunt, Angry Mom Records and IthacaUnderground.com.

IU: Congrats on signing to Black Market Activities. How did you hook up with those fine folks?

Steve Austin: Thanks! Black Market Activities is one of the coolest and cutting edge labels goin'. I have known Guy (Owner and Vocalist for The Red Chord) for a long time and always considered him to be a creative thinking artist in everything he does. We are very proud to be a part of the BMA family. 

IU: What made you decide to release the album on BMA rather than your own SuperNova Records?

Steve: Too much to do in running SuperNova Records and releasing our own records. We like the way BMA does things and SuperNova is primarily going to release our existing catalog of records and DVD's. It's nice to be able to focus only on making the rock, and leave the business side of things to good friends who are awesome at putting out records.

IU: Do you know who will be involved with the line-up for your ninth release?

Steve: Yes, my friends Curran Reynolds and Ryan Jones from the band, Wetnurse will be on Drums and Bass. Long-Time family friend and colleague Kurt Ballou from Converge will be recording and producing the new Today Is The Day album at God City in Boston.

IU: How did Curran come to join the band and what other projects has he been involved in?

Ithaca Underground’s Bubba Crumrine chats with Joseph Andreoli (gutiars/loops) and Kenneth Topham (drums/percussion) of Massachusetts math-rock/improv duo GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! on the eve of their northeast tour to discuss “The Champaigne of Boners Tour”, the new album, recording, comic books, fan appreciation and some super-secret facts about G?G! so get reading! See them live with Brian! and Tzar this Thursday, August 19th at The Shop.

IU: What are you two up to this fine evening?

Joe: Right now we’re in Williamstown, VT in a cabin, on the deck. We’re just hanging out. We’re on our way out from western Massachusetts and decided to come out here the day before the tour, chill out, and cut our drive to Montreal in half. So, we figured we’d take a bunch of acid…

IU: Yeah?

Joe: Nah. (laughs) But yeah, we’re playing Montreal tomorrow. We’ve never played in Canada before so, we really hope there are no problems with the boarder to do the shows. We’re really excited about it.

IU: How many Canadian dates are you doing?

Ken: We’re doing six in Canada, then to Ithaca, with Burlington after that. We’re playing Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Waterloo, Windsor, and St. Catherine’s. The one in Waterloo might get moved. 

IU: Excellent! Good luck in Canada. I read that you’re working on new material?

So picture this: a band featuring a DIY punker playing bass guitar, electric guitar, creating various electronic noises and vocals, paired with a classically trained bassoon player. Together they create avant-guard, complex compositions with effects heavy guitar riffs, no percussion, and a bassoon rhythm section. Sounds like a confusing mess right? In actuality, BRIAN! (which consists of Ithaca Underground main man Bubba Crumrine on guitar, bass, electronics, vocals and David Resig on bassoon) create some of the most original and interesting music I've heard in some time, while still being incredibly listenable and colorful. BRAIN! released their debut (EEE)EP on Bubba's own Pirate House records and will be performing their unique, almost unclassifiable music opening for Giraffes? Giraffes! with local act Tzar August 19th at The Shop.

VII: First off, I just have to congratulate you guys on forming one of the most original sounding bands I've heard. It's not everyday that you find a bassoon player in a band these days.

Bubba Crumrine +David Resig: Thanks! That really means a lot for us. We definitely strive to create something unique, to blend our influences and experience, without sounding like we're aping any one artist, group, or composer in particular.

VII: How did this group form?

David: Well, I started playing again after 10 years off.

Bubba: ...and I said, "Whadda ya mean you play bassoon and didn't tell me?!" (Laughs) We've known each other for about 5 years or so and we both have a classical training background. Dave much more than me though.

David: On top of that, I've really enjoyed listening to Bubba's music library and the bands he brings in. Oddly enough, we started off thinking it was going to be a bassoon & percussion duo.

Bubba: But then I remembered I really have no percussive skills whatsoever.


VII: How would you describe Brian!'s sound? I imagine that it would be kinda hard to pin down into a few adjectives.

Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine catches up with the Austin, TX experimental duo Zorch on their way through the northeast.  The band will stop in Ithaca this Sunday, August 15th at The Haunt with Afghanistan, Why The Wires, Cameron Wisch, and The Invisible Hand.  Doors at 5PM, shows starts at 6PM and is all ages. (Photo by Ian Hunt to the best of my knowledge)


Let's have Zac & Sam give us some background on the band and what we get to look forward to, hmmm?!

IU: How did the two of you meet?

Noise music: a chaotic, unpredictable, destructive, wall of sound with limitless possibilities. Ithaca's own dynamic duo of noise Genital Holograms, featuring Ithaca Underground main man Bubba Crumrine (also of BRIAN!) and Cory Mahaney (ex-The Rolemodels, Ballistic Shit Circus, Speak Daggers, Fight a Scary Dog) create vast, loud, droning pieces of noise, filled with effect driven bass, guitars, vocals and the occasional home made instruments. They have already released a 2CD demo, a CD EP, and have an upcoming split 7" with hardcore band Ailments, all on Pirate House Records.



VII: How did the band form?

GH: To be completely honest, we didn’t set out to be a band at all. We kept seeing each other at shows and really grew to hate one another. Unbeknownst to the other, we each command the superpower of noise and one day, Bubba invited Corey over to the Pirate House. The invitation was accepted, each of us under the pretense that the other was walking into the other's trap, where we would easily crush our opponent with our crushing power of noise. The battle produced a sonic nightmare that deafened anyone within light-year of the blast. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on who and when you’re asking) we discovered our powers were equally matched and lazily decided to start a band instead of killing people. It’s interesting how over time love came from all that hate which is funny because for most couples it’s the other way around.

VII: Was the idea of being a noise band their from the beginning?

GH: Definitely. Once we put our differences aside, noise was the only option.

VII: Where did the band name come from?

Hey all! Here's a small sample of what you can now find on the Ithaca Underground YouTube channel.  Thanks to Christian deBrigard for the tons of vids from the last few months shows right here: http://www.youtube.com/user/IthacaUnderground

Band Name: INSUBORDINATES

Location: ROCHESTER, NY

Formed: 2007

Members: Brett - Vocals/Guitar; Richie - Bass/Vocals; Milo - Percussion; Trevor - Guitar/Vocals

Releases: "'07 Demo" (2007) cass.
               "1968" b/w "Rendezvous" (Feral Kid/Crotch Rot records; 2009)
               v/a - "Rotcore" (Reel Time; 2010)
               "Insubordinates" LP (Cowabunga; 2010)

Tell us about yourselves!

After starting life as a new instrumental project for ex-Postman Syndrome members, East of the Wall now finds itself a few years and a few line-up changes later as the same line-up as Biclops.  In 2009 the bands were merged, choosing to stay under the EotW moniker, and familiar aspects of each band boiled to the surface of this particular brew.  The band made their Translation Loss debut through a three way split with Rosetta and Year of No Light promptly followed up by the bands latest, "Ressentiment" which drops on July 20th.  The band checks in mid-tour with NAME (LifeForce Records - San Francisco, CA) to discuss the transition, the new album, and more.  Check them out at The Shop in Ithaca, NY on Wednesday, July 28th. Show starts at 8PM.


IU: How is the tour with NAME going so far?

Kevin: So far so good. The majority of the shows have been great so far. We've definitely met some great people and had some great times. I think we've played in front of audiences that for the most part haven't heard us before and we managed to make a good impression.

IU:  any best/worst of stories of the tour so far?

Kevin: San Francisco was definitely a highlight. Due to a last minute cancellation, we ended up having 2 days off out there. It's all kind of a blur, but as far as I can remember we had a lot of fun. There haven't been any major low points, with the exception of the relentless heat all throughout the south. It was pretty much 100 degrees or so every day for the first week of the tour, and we were sleeping in the van just about every night. As you can imagine, that wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but that's just the price you pay to get to do all of this cool stuff.

IU: How has the the band changed since the line up change?

IU: What have you all be up to since we last saw you last July?

SFTNL: Wow, I don't even know where to begin...Well, we're all a year older, considerably poorer and continuously amassing new debt. We've been playing as much as possible in as many places as possible, writing a lot of new material and working on having a full length out for early next year.

IU: How did the mini-tour with Hey Predator! go?

SFTNL: It was a lot of fun, the Hey Predator! boys are our most-bestest-band-like-buddies, so to do a string of shows with them was awesome. We did one show in an auto shop and played facing each other, trading song-for-song... which was a ton of fun! That show culminated in a drunken 10-piece jam of Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" complete with each of us taking the biggest jerk solos we could muster. Originally we had planned to do a lot more shows together this summer but ended up deciding to break up the dates into two sections, so we're hoping to visit them in the fall and do some more shows together.

IU: I believe you mentioned you’re on a new label when we spoke in the spring. How did that come to be?

SFTNL: Sure, We've recently struck up a relationship with Easy Tiger Entertainment, a Toronto indie label that's on the verge of doing some big things. They're going to be taking care of us in Canada and helping us get a full-length off the ground, hopefully by the second quarter of 2011. They're absolute sweethearts and have already welcomed us into the family with open arms. How this will affect the USA, I don't know- for now we're just focusing on promoting our current EP "Human People", visiting with all of the wonderful people that we met last year and making as many new friends as possible.

IU: So you mentioned you have new material in the works?

A revolving cast of deviants and delinquents, Cryptorchid Chipmunk (Morgantown, WV) make their first appearance in Ithaca, NY at The Haunt on Saturday, July 17th with Summer People, 4 Point 0 and more.  Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine spends some time with Chris and Ruckas to discuss the bands antics, injuries, The Emotron, and their upcoming full length.


IU: For those unfamiliar with the band, what do you each do in the band?

Ruckus: I play keyboards and I throw up!

Chris: He also arranges and writes a lot of our music.

Ruckus: Yeah, we've been playing without a drummer so I've been arranging all of our back tracks and synthesizers. And because I do that, I don't have to play keyboards as much and I can just puke all over myself. 

Chris: It also means I can play keyboards less to. But I have to push the buttons on the computer. He just does nothing! Oh, I still have to play guitar though. 

Ruckus: I put a lot more work into the music before hand so I can take a break when we're performing (laughs).

Chris: I also book most of our tours and screen print our merch.  I feel like I don't have to go crazy. I just have to play the songs right.

IU: So no drummer this tour?

Tell us about yourselves!
IceBeardShowDown is the louder, faster remnants of Funk Apteryx, a band that went through many iterations and played many Cornell basement parties. We are now an instrumental trio influenced by the Minutemen, Black Flag, Miles Davis, Steve Reich, free music, Belgian beer, Louie's Lunch, Gordon Sander, Gimme! coffee, music in general.

Features members of:
Funk Apteryx, The Invisible Hand

Live clips from the first Ithaca Underground show at Giving Tree Cafe this past Sunday, June 27th! More to come soon...

Band Name:
Our band Is called "ANIMAL PANTS". There really isn't a very good reason for this name other than we just really liked it when I thought of it.

The first incarnation of our band was titled "TING TANG TRICKSTERS (FUN TIME FOR RADIO)," properly pronounced in an Asian accent. We only used this name for a one-off basement performance where we played very early versions of current songs.

After recording our first demo we settled on "BORN AGAIN BEEF EATERS," thinking that it was the most cleaver, funny, and subtly rebellious name that we could come up with. We ultimately found out that it was actually one of the worst name we could come up with and decided to change it.

Band name: Elsa and the awesomeAWESOMES

Location: The idea came in Ithaca, NY, but we grew up in Aberdeen, SD. Our current bass drum is from a street corner in Bozeman, MT, which is also where most of the songs were written. And we spent a semester in Cape Town, South Africa.

Formed: Spring/summer of 2008, first show October 4th, 2008. I had been doing a bunch of acoustic guitar stuff, but I got bored with that and came up with EaA as a high-energy solo artistic/musical project. A friend lent me a demo of Ableton Live, and I threw my drumkit skills over the electric sounds I composed to make loud dancy music.

Here are some pictures of recent shows for your viewing pleasure!

Ithaca Underground's Pete Ives presents our latest interview, this time with Angleworm's Ryan (bass, vocals) and Chris (guitar, vocals):


IU: You guys are from CT, right?

Ryan: Yeah, New Haven, CT

Chris: New Haven, CT.. the city that sleeps

IU: How many are in Angleworm?

Ryan: We are a three piece.

IU: Your latest drop, 'Humdinger', that's quite recent?

Ryan: It came out two weeks ago, actually.

IU: I've been really digging that 'In Motion' track

Ryan: That's actually off of our last album that we dropped in 2008 called 'Post Rock'.

IU: How many other albums have you released?

Ryan: We've done quite a few, but there aren't many that we're super stoked on. (laughs)

Several weeks into their latest tour, Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine catches up with The Emotron about his new stage show, the new album, his third trip to Ithaca on June 18th at The Shop while getting side tracked talking about flea market finds, road stories, Cryptorchid Chipmunk, Math The Band, candy, and the retirement of dick fires.

IU: Hey Kyle, how are things going on the road?

Emotron: Pretty Good! (To someone else in the distance) Hey, check out these California Rasins!

IU: Huh?

Emotron: I’m talking about my California Raisins! Dude, we’re playing at a flea market tonight and I bought a whole box of California Raisins.  (More chatter about comic books and VHS tapes in the background).  Sorry about that, Bubba.  We have a traveling thrift store now and since we’re playing a flea market tonight, we got into town early to get all the good deals to resell them.  We’re talking about our finds for the first time right now.

As Burning Streets head off on their summer tour and prepare for their first show in Ithaca ever, Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine gets the background on the band, the tour, and their Sailors Grave Records debut "Is It In Black & White".

IU: How have the first few days of the tour gone so far?

Jewlz: The first few days have been good so far. Down in the Carolina's right now, got some beautiful weather going on. Perfect place to start off a summer tour. We had our bass head break on us last night but we got that fixed this morning and hopefully that'll last the whole trip now. We've also been able to hang out with Lenny Lashley from Darkbuster for these first few days as well which has been a hilarious time. He's on the road now doing an acoustic act so it's been awesome to hook up with him for the first three days of the trip.

IU: You're on tour for close to two months solid - is one of the longer tours you've done?

Jewlz: Yeah, this is the longest one we've done so far. We were out for a month last winter and a month and a half last summer so we're getting used to it. We're all definitely looking forward to the whole trip though. Spending close to the whole summer playing shows is basically the best way we can spend our time.

Location: Ithaca, Ny

Formed: Fall 2009

Members:
Brandon Kane - Bass
Jason Dengler - Guitar
Adam Morris - Drums
Brian Burke - Guitar
Brian Dayhart - Vocals
Releases: None to date. Currently working on a four track demo.

Sound and Texture:
Sans illumination, barren of the fire within. detached Self drifting into a myriad of half formed possibilities.

The darkened scarlet brings Self back to Self, aware and stained by the flight, unable to retain form.

A waxen glare reflects the pallor of flesh as a sound of despair heralds a release of from this torment.

And in the desperate beauty of this exalted conjunction, darkness fades and the dead begin to march.

So when you think about it, its kinda like a metal soundtrack to Weekend at Bernie's II. Best part is our first album is totally gonna sync up with it to.

Band Name: CRIME PAYS

Location: Ithaca, NY

Formed:  2010

Members:
Caleb- guitar
Jesse- skins
Pete- sing

Releases: 'Get to Steppin' EP (2010)

Tell us about yourselves!
3 amigos holdin it down w the fam not givin a fuck makin moves sipn brews getn loud getn bruised

Features members of:
Beach Parade
Summer People
El Stun Gun

Online links:
http://crimepays.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/crimepays187

Band name: Ailments

Location: From Olean and Ithaca, New York.

Formed: December of 2008 as a guitar and drums two piece. Justin Tarr was added on bass in the fall of 2009.

Members:
Tyler Rodkey-guitar, vocals, songwriting
Noah Kenyon-drums, vocals, songwriting
Justin Tarr-bass, vocals, driving

Releases:
150 copies of our self released 13 song demo cd (copies still available),
125 copies of our self released 12 song cd ep "Tom Jonesin'" (2 re-recorded tracks from the demo and 10 new tracks, still available),
100 copies of "Tom Jonesin'" were also released on cassette tape by the Rochester, NY DIY label Delinquent Records (different artwork, still available)
Split 7" with Ithaca's Genital Holograms coming this summer.

You can check myspace.com/ailmentslive for updates on Olean and Ithaca release shows. This will be the the first Ailments’ release containing our new bass playing Justin Tarr.

Tell us about yourselves!
Ailments was started as a meditation on suffering and the conflict with the human's basic mental and physical capacity to overcome that suffering. Whether personal, political, or spiritual, most of our songs are about our current status and emotional view on the possibilities to overcome this suffering and also the possibilities of pure failure.

Our sound is quite hard to describe because it always tends to shift wherever our energy takes it while clinging like a vice to the raw power violence

Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine catches up with Brandon Sedlak (guitar) and John Delzoppo (drums) of Cleveland shred fest, Clan of the Cave Bear on their way to NYC. Look out this Saturday, May 29th for their return to CSMA, this time up in the 3rd Floor Auditorium.

IU: How has the first week and a half of tour gone?

Brandon:  The tour is going really well! All the shows have happened. We spent a day in the Smokey Mountains, rented a cabin there, and got real romantic (laughs).

IU: Glad all is well so far! This is one of your longer recent tours, correct?

Brandon: The longest tour we ever did was when we went out to the west coast. That tour was a little over a month. This one is a little longer than normal though.

IU: It’s been almost  a year since we last had you two out here with Upsilon Acrux, what have you been up to?

Brandon: We’ve been spending a lot of time writing new material. We did a final tour of ’09 in the winter and didn’t play another show, even locally, until May.  We’ve been working on writing, we’ve done a few recording projects with other

Ithaca  Underground's Pete Ives gets the skinny from Mikey, bassist for heavy-wonders, Megachurch! Catch them with Clan of the Cave Bear, Crime Pays, Hiroshima Vacation, Ailments, and Dweeb this Saturday, at CSMA 3rd Floor.

IU: Where are you guys from?

Mikey: Cleveland, OH

IU: How long have you been together?

Thundehole return to Ithaca after much popular demand continues to reverberate from their great performance in support of Shonen Knife last fall.  Find out what's shaking from these three Bostonians as Ithaca Underground's Bubba Crumrine interviews.

IU: What have you all been up to since we last saw you in Oct?

Thunderhole: Since last October Thunderhole has been very busy. We had a southern tour in January that took us through cities like Hot Springs, New Orleans, and Miami, to name a few. It was great, even though it was during a freakish southern cold spell that lasted the entire tour. Every city was apologetic for the weather, which is comical to a band from Boston. Most recently we finish a series of weekends in April that took us all around Northeast, including a four day tour with our pals Ho-Ag. We've also been writing new songs.

IU: How did the Thunderhole come to be initially and come to the current line up:

Thunderhole: Thunderhole officially started around 2007 after Eric's old band's

Ithaca Underground's Pete Ives gets a short abstract from the guys in When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. Catch their noisy heaviness this Thursday, May 20th at The Shop with Donna (members of Smith Hill), Reformat, and Thoth.

Fuck The Facts founder Topon Das pauses from preparing for the band’s next US tour - including their first Ithaca performance since 2003 – to discuss where they’ve been and where they’re going: new tour, their first DVD, a new 7” EP, and a new LP in the works.  Ithaca Underground’s Bubba Crumrine interviews. 

IU: Hey, congrats on releasing your first DVD!

Topon: Thanks! We’re excited for it. It’s a DVD for our last full length, “Disgorge Mexico” which came out in August of 2008. We filmed a live concert where we played the entire album from start to finish in our hometown.  A friend of ours, Dave Hall made a really cracked out movie to accompany the whole album as well.  Those two things have been in the works for a while, we finally got it done, and it was just released. We’re pretty stoked about it!

IU: Wow, I can only imagine the amount of time and effort that would have to go into pulling that off, especially in such a DIY manner.

Topon: Yeah, our friend Dave I mentioned runs a DIY film company.  He’s done work for us before, the Today Is the Day movie, and the Maryland Death Fest

Recorded live by TFD at Ithaca Underground's Big Day In, Spring 2010



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