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
guitarist left for NYC. Mya, Thunderhole's original drummer and drummer for the old band, and Eric recruited Joanne and started Thunderhole. After about three years went by Thunderhole was starting to plan tours that lasted at least a week, and Mya was unable to do these due to medical issues. So, a new drummer, Sean, was brought on. After weeks before Thunderhole's October 2009 tour Sean flaked out and moved to Oakland, CA without much notice. Eric and Joanne, already knowing Ryan, asked him to fill in for the tour, and luckily he was all in. We went through all of our growing pains of never playing together while on the road. It was really a sink or swim sort of situation, and thankfully we're swimming.

IU: Where did the moniker come from:

Thunderhole: Simple. Eric was looking to combine a word with Thunder. Hole was the best he could think of.

IU: What was your best show and the story behind it:

Thunderhole: This really is hard to answer. We've played such a range of venues/shows, from basements to clubs to drag bars to colleges to warehouses. There is a best show from every environment. Seems like a cop out answer, but it's the truth.

IU: Any particularly crazy stories from the road?

Thunderhole: We have plenty, but the one that first comes to mind takes place in Miami. We stayed at a friend's loft space while there. After getting in around 3:00 in the morning we were all doing our best to be quiet while getting ready for bed, so as not to wake the roommate. After all of us were asleep on the floor for about an hour, the roommate comes home with another guy. It turns out he was out the whole time. The gist of the story is that it ends up being two guys at 5:00am talking about nazi's and rubbing shea butter on body parts all while ignoring the fact that only a paper thin make-shift wall, that doesn't even reach the ceiling, separates two of us from them. The third, Ryan, was actually trying to sleep while in the same room. Ear plugs did their best to help Ryan. This ended after about three hours and more stories than we wish we had never learned.

IU: With your debut, "Animals, Monsters, & Fat People" under your belt for a year and a half now, how does the album sit with you in retrospect?

Thunderhole: Still love it. Sure there's little things here and there that we would like to change, but overall we are still very proud of it.

IU: You mentioned new material. What's in the works?

Thunderhole: Yes, to new material! In fact, we'll most likely be playing a couple new ones at the show on May 22nd. We have about 5 new songs, and others in bits and pieces. We're aiming for a new album by the end of the year.

IU: What do you find the most rewarding of setting up your own tours?

Thunderhole: Setting up our own tours allows us to have total control over the type of show we'll play. Also, we get to meet some great bands and people, such as you all at IU. The networking really is half the fun for us. You meet great people on the road, they make brunch for you the next morning, and once we had a delicious chorizo hash with glass. We still ate it, it was that good. Booking agents tend to get you the show, but the bands you play with never make sense, and it always ends up at a 21+ club or bar. Through an agent we'd never have been able to book an all ages tour like the one we're on currently.