Ithaca Underground Fall Shows Preview:

Hey kids, it's fall preview time! That time where we let you in on all the secrets we've been working for the last several months - bands from across the country (Brooklyn to L.A. and Oakland), across the world (German, UK, Australia), and covering a broad spectrum of genres from punk to jazz, sludge metal to indie hip-hop, and everything in between. We have a hell of a season of diverse shows queued up, so let's start right in. (Lots more after the jump)

Tuesday, September 19th: 
Why?, doesone, Serengeti, DJ Thanksgiving Brown 
@ The Haunt, 702 Willow Ave, Ithaca - 6PM Doors $12 ADV (Tickets)

We couldn't really be more stoked to kick the fall season off in such glorious fashion. We're incredibly please to have partnered up with Dan Smalls Presents to bring you an indie hip-hop / Anticon. Records takeover featuring Why?, doseone, and Serengeti plus DJ Thanksgiving Brown spinning to kick things off.

This stacked bill features two of arguably the best lyracists/MC's in indie hip-hop - Jonathan "Yoni" Wolf of WHY? and Adam Drucker a.k.a. doseone. The two have been clollaborating for decades and co-founded the lauded Anticon. imprint.

Where "Yoni" paints pictures with words of the lush backdrops of indie-pop and folk licks and hip-hop beats, doseone has been delivering a high-pitched lyrical assault of rapid-fire and polyrhythmic tongues twisting tales of the future and tearing down the rules of hip-hop across a multitude of projects. His solo material continues to show his prowess as a musician, expanding his pallet ever more in the psych-pop direction.

Why? have built themselves a massive cult and indie following since their breakout "Alopecia" and doseone, in addition to his solo work, has been ever prolific with such projects as Subtle, cLOUDDEAD, Themselves, 13&God and many others.

Enough talk. Heads better be at this one. Check these:







Let's have a listen to one of my personal favorites from doseone's Themselves too..


Ah... still fresh. Moving on!
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Sunday, September 16th: 
Vacation, Hunted Down, Batista, We Are Whaleshark 
@ The Space at GreenStar, 700 W Buffalo St., Ithaca - 8PM $5
Nothing like a good ol' hardcore/punk show... with an IU twist of course. 


Headliners VACATION hail from Cincinnati and churn out a blasting wall of noisy, poppy punk. They have two new 7"s and a cassette on this tour in addition to the full length streaming above which hit just a year ago.

HUNTED DOWN rep the Syracuse hardcore scene, with a whirlwind of blown & fuzzed out jams. Completely furious and always on the brink of collapsing in on itself. They have a split with Herpes coming later this fall. In the meantime check out these tracks from their "Life's Womb" EP:


Rounding out the show are two new Ithaca bands with familiar faces. Phil Price (known for his killer DIY show booking a few years back in Binghamton & Ithaca), Derek Manoco (ex-A Satellite Crash), and John Barrington are kicking it in a new punk band called BATISTA and Mike Amadeo (Mike A!, Dweeb, etc) rounded up some local musicians, including his pal Tyler Rodkey, to push out some short & sweet, dissonant & trippy punk under the moniker of WE ARE WHALESHARK. Lucky for us, they just dropped a "shitty demo" for our waiting ears.



(more...)
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Friday, September 21st: 
The Dan Drake Ensemble, Cameron Wisch, All of them Witches, 
Grady Stiles, Phorke 
@ The Carl Becker House, Cornell University 
West Campus, 699 Stewart Ave, Ithaca - 8PM - FREE!

You read that correctly!  IU and Cornell's FanClub have partnered up for their fall kick off show and its a mathy bunch of goodness. One more band TBA on this one, but in the meantime, let's meet our guests.

DAN DRAKE ENSEMBLE: ex-Monster Machismo guitarist/vocalist has crafted together some exquisite, compositional math-pop for our ear happiness.



Drummer, composer, and performer CAMERON WISCH of Zona Mexicana, Porches., HANDS, and Ape Up! is set for his first solo Ithaca act since 2010. Beyond tight live kit work, vocals, and triggered laptop guitars doing all sorts of awesome things.



Every time I write about ALL OF THEM WITCHES, I feel like it needs to be in a big, booming ringmaster voice. These two guys are truly incredible. Two guitars played by one guy, all tap-happy and mathy with sick percussion holding it all together.





GRADY STILES: Completely unhinged punk/emo/hardcore from Albany.





PHORKE: Half of Mouth To Mouth To Mouth and half of Graupel making your Ithaca math-rock dreams come true.

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Friday, September 28th:
why+the+wires "All These Dead Astronauts" LP release show w/
Swearin', Red Sled Choir, Modern Hut
@ Waffle Frolic, 146 E State St (The Commons) - 8PM $5 



The one we've been waiting for.  Ithaca's why+the+wires are back with LP #3, this time on Rorschach Records, who stated: "[WTW] is one of those bands who sent their music to me and I immediately fell in love with it. Their second LP Telegraph Flats, reminded me of early Cursive and my personal favorite band Archers of Loaf. It was a no brainer to want to work with these folks!"

Thanks to our friends in Odyssey Booking for picking up Swearin' and for the full collaborative effort. Come celebrate.



SWEARIN' are based out of Brooklyn & Philly, are on Salinas Records, and are a hot new act featuring ex-PS Elliot members. Hot pop punk. HOT! (As in neat-o and spicy, not... whatever)

RED SLED CHOIR are a swank new-to-Ithaca band that recently arrive via New Paltz. Guitar, accordion, vocals, and a fantastic drum kit for now. Lots of solo work before the Ithaca move up on bandcamp. Here's what they look like now.



MODERN HUT (ex-For Science) is simply Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni Records. Melancholy yet inspirational acoustic jams.

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Friday, October 5th:
Jealousy Mountain Duo, BRIAN!, Toxic Parents, Graupel
@ The Space, 700 W Buffalo St., Ithaca - 8PM $5

The US (and Ithaca) return of two of our favorite German pals - JEALOUSY MOUNTAIN DUO. Angular guitar loops push and pull with skittery 60's jazz inspired and phenomenal drum kit work. Like some heralded love child between vintage free-jazz and modern math-rock, JMD are a must-see. Technical with plenty of natural ebb and flo. Give a look and listen.





Ithaca's own BRIAN! return to The Space, continuing to debut new material, expanding on their mix of dark prog, math-rock, and avant-garde. Bassoon, guitar, drums, and metallic percussion and the occasional vocals & electronics mix clangs, melody, drone, and sheer noise in to something brand new.






TOXIC PARENTS are a relatively new creation, spawned from the Syracuse underground, and features Ray McAndrew of SSWAMPZZ and his brother Tyler, among others. Dry, rubbery post-punk with stabbs of guitars, keys, and vocals.




GRAUPEL return with their mathy, jazzy, punky tunes. Now featuring Mouth To Mouth To Mouth guitarist Peter Pillardy on drums.


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Wednesday, October 10th: 
NO BABIES, Temuchin, Problematic, Dr. Burtrum
@ The Space, 700 W Buffalo St., Ithaca - 8PM $5

NO BABIES are a superb, female-fronted, sax-driven, shronk-hardcore troop based out of Oakland, CA.  We've been working on getting these fine folks out for over a year, so be sure to check 'em out.



Ithaca's own instrumental, heavy-prog quartet TEMUCHIN will be bring the low-end, time-shifting support.



Local improv electronics duo PROBLEMATIC make their sophomore IU appearance, armed with some new toys (just ran into one of the members trying out a new, homemade synth with plenty of switches, knobs, and a big ol' joystick).



Problematic's pal DR. BURTRUM will kick things off with his Black-Dice-esq electronics and beats.

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Tuesday, October 16th:
PHOBIA, Destroyed in Seconds, Strong Intention,
Sepsis, and Hiroshima Vacation
@ The Space, 700 W Buffalo St., Ithaca - 8PM - $8 ADV / $10 DOS (Tickets)

Grindcore legends PHOBIA make their first appearance in Ithaca, ever. Formed in 1990, Phobia has been punishing ears with their murderous sociopolitical grinding noise assault for over two decades. Their latest, "Remnants of Filth" - a collaborative release between Willowtip and Deep Six - offers up 18 pile-driving, socio-political grind hymns in 19 minutes which were produced and mixed by Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed) at Visceral Sound Studios.



On tour with the mighty PHOBIA are the D-beat, punk thrash of DESTROYED IN SECONDS and the extreme speed thrash-grind of STRONG INTENTION. Info and tracks from each may be found here and here.

Regional face-shredding will be properly represented by the raw, violent, and unrelenting grind of Binghamton's SEPSIS and Ithaca grind/powerviolence/sludge duo, HIROSHIMA VACATION.






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Friday, October 26th:
TOMBS, -16-, The Process (UK),
Temuchin, Sun Spells
@ J.A.M. (Just About Music), Cornell University
North Campus, Sisson Place Ext, Ithaca - 8PM $5

Two Relapse Records heavyweights - Brooklyn's TOMBS and Los Angeles based 16 - weigh-in, each with their own unique blend of heavy, dark, extreme metal.

Tombs's "Path of Totality" crashed most top-10 and end of year lists in 2011 for their mix of bleak, post-rock minimalism with the ferocious attack of sludge and classic black metal.


The latter, -16- are the godfathers of heavy, bum-out destruction. Formed in 1992 and returning in 2007 after a four year hiatus, What has always set 16 apart from their doom and sludge contemporaries has been their ability to set the utter bleakness of singer Cris Jerue’s lyrics to undeniably catchy and heavy riffs and grooves, and ‘Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds’ (their sixth long-player) finds the band absolutely perfecting this already addictive combo. Never has despair sounded so good!


On their last tour, TOMBS met the raw, powerviolence force that is THE PROCESS, whom set them up with a string of great overseas shows. We aim to return that favor. This UK troop have a couple LPs under their belts, so far, along with splits with Iron Lung, Rot In Hell, plus an upcoming collab with the aforementioned Tombs. Tracks can be found here.

TEMUCHIN feature occasional touring members of TOMBS (Dan & Hunter) who have been churning out, thick slaps of heavy prog right in our own backyard. Check out the video above in the NO BABIES preview.

Ithaca gorge-drone lords, SUN SPELLS (aka ßün ßpëlls aka §uπ §pells..) are back for another year. Deafening combination of guitars, baritone guitar, modular synth, drums, and effects - so many pedals... Head on down to Angry Mom Records for their latest cassette.





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Friday, November 9th:
Water Torture, thegoingdown (Australia), Murderedman,
Hiroshima Vacation, Temuchin.
@ The Space, 700 W Buffalo St., Ithaca - 8PM $5

5 bands across noise, grind, and prog.

WATER TORTURE: Grind / violence duo hailing from Buffalo featuring Inerds' Matt Goodrich on bass/noise/vox and Thomas Leyh on drums and vocals. Sub-minute long bursts of blistering grind, tectonic sludge, and destroyed synth noise, which could end up as a cluttered clatter in less powerful hands, but these two craft choice cuts of extreme sounds every time.



thegoingdown: Hailing from Australia, these two create relentless noisegrind, armed with mangled strings, blastbeats, and desimating samples. Truly punishing extreme, scathing rage right here...



Launched earlier this year by members of Clan of the Cave Bear and Self Destruct Button, MURDEREDMAN push pummeling freakouts of dissonant tones and croons. This is some fine new mutant music right here.



Locals Hiroshima Vacation and Temuchin will kick things off. Music and links for them may be found above.

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Whew! That's a hell of a list. More to come too, including Red vs. Black, Summer People, Porches., Cerce, and much more. In the meantime, keep tabs on all things IU via our website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel.