In case you missed our fundraiser show back in February, here's some fantastic, multi-angle footage courtesy of Lanny Huang (who also recently did the Ithaca Is Underground documentary). Footage from The Gunpoets set will be released soon!









 Footage by Lanny Huang and Chris Knight

Band Name: Cloud Rat. Madison's father once told her that seagulls were rats in the clouds. So that's where that came from, not the actual cloud rat native to the Philippines.

Location: We are all natives from the Mount Pleasant area of Michigan, but Madison now lives in Detroit.

Formed: December 2009

Members: Adrian - Drums. Madison - Vocals. Rorik - Guitar

Releases: So far - Self Titled LP (June 2010), Split Cassette w/ Xtra Vomit (October 2010, soon to be on LP in April '12), 3-Way Split LP w/ The Oily Menace and Wolbachia (September 2011), Split 7" w/ Autarkeia (December 2011), as well as two digital/mp3 releases on Grindcore Karaoke (Self Titled LP and Fever Dreams, which collects all of the other currently released material).


Tell us about yourselves!
Cloud Rat formed in the cold winter of 2009. Adrian and I had been friends for a long time, and have played in bands together years before. Adrian and Madison have known each other for years as well, and were living together when we formed as a band. I went to a show at their house, and I could hear Madison screaming over the band! So that night we all talked about starting a band so that we could contribute a track to our friend Kevin's Michigan Grindcore compilation he was putting together (which never happened). After forming, we wrote and recorded our Self Titled LP within a month, and then it was put out 5 months later by our friends at IFB Records in Florida. We are forever grateful to them for everything they have done for us.

I would describe our sound as grindcore rooted in punk, with a lot of hardcore punk, black metal, screamo, and grunge influences creeping in. We do our best to promote veganism, radical feminism, anti racism/sexism/homophobia/classism/bullshit. The purpose of this band is a mixture of personal catharsis, promoting kindness and equality, and to have fun as well.

We have toured most of the USA and have plans to do a lot more within the next couple years. Currently we are recording for three different records and are looking to head overseas soon-ish.
We look forward to coming to Ithaca!!!!!!

-Rorik / Cloud Rat
cloudrat.blogspot.com

Don't miss Cloud Rat live, this Thursday at Silent City Distro - located on The Commons, above Autumn Leaves Books at 115 MLK Jr / State St, Ithaca, NY 14850.  8PM $5 ALL AGES with locals Hiroshima Vacation and King Sized Pegasus. 

That’s right! Ithaca, Syracuse, and Binghamton are combining forces for this righteous (wrongteous?) mini-tour.   Bubba from BRIAN!, Kevin from Dance-A-Tron, and Greg from Blunt Guts have been working to strengthen the ties between the CNY cities for some time now and what better way to take the next step than to do a big ol’ weekend together?



For the uninitiated, BRIAN! takes an their unconventional instrumentation of bassoon, guitar/bass, electronics, voice, drum kit, and metallic percussion, fuses with influences of prog, Rock-in-Opposition, math-rock, classical, and noise to spin dark, complex compositions.



Blut Guts from Syracuse take the fast and furious approach fusing white-hot grind, hardcore, and powerviolence into 50-60 second seconds of pure scathing intensity.



Dance-A-Tron are no stranger to Ithaca, having performed in our fair city with the likes of Fuck The Facts, Kylesa, Intronaut, the inaugural May BIG DAY IN, and more. Thunderous power-trio of hardcore from Binghamton.

Check below for dates, times, locations, and additional acts.

Band Name: Blunt Guts

Location: Syracuse

Formed: Fall 2010

Members: Greg, Bill, Tyler, Armando

Releases: 
- Hug Machine demo cassette, limited to 100, recorded at More Sound in Syracuse, released June 2011.
- Split with Fukk Bar Culture (Indonesia) TBA release date, on CDR and possibly 7”, recorded by our buddy Trevor.  Our side is up for streaming/download.
- Track on “Prime Eggsampler Vol. 1” released by online label Prime Eggsample Records.
            *Download the Prime Eggsampler for free here:
            Part 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?3dz49fzvytbvdtk
            Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?klx9b3vkveuprbq

Blunt Guts and a wide variety of punk, noise, sludge, grindcore releases on Prime Eggsample Records’ Bandcamp. Check it out here: http://primeeggsamplerecords.bandcamp.com/

Both of our releases are on our bandcamp for free download: http://bluntguts315.bandcamp.com/

Future releases:
- Track on comp released by DIY NOISE, set to be released early-mid Spring 2012.

Plans:
Since all of our shows are in Syracuse, we can’t wait to leave for a mini-tour with BRIAN! and Dance-a-tron.  The Syracuse scene is small but intact, we’d probably love for your band to come out and play a show at Badlands.

Purpose of the band:
To deceive you as a bunch of stoners yet mindfuck you with the seemingly contradictory hyper-speed riffage and non-weed-relative subject matter.


Catch Blunt Guts on the road with BRIAN! and Dance-A-Tron at the following locations
- Feb 24:  The Space at GreenStar, 700 W Buffalo St, Ithaca, NY  with Xerxes (No Sleep Records : Louisville, KY)
- Feb 25:  Beagle Pub, 85 CFJ Blvd., Johnson City, NY 13790 with Revoked
- Feb 26:  Badlands, 1007 East Fayette Street, Syracuse, NY with Globsters and Dirty Humans

THESE MACHINES return to Ithaca for their official CD release of "Pharmakon" and to kick of the IU 2012 year!  These Binghamton pals have created some seriously menacing tech-metal with influences all over the grind, death, and hardcore spectrum while creating a hell of a lot of noise for just a trio.  Dual vocal attack from guitarist Tom Doud (also of Sepsis, Dirty Slits, formerly Cancerface) and bassist Paul Ghilardi who get their shred on without any hint of wankness and rounded out with sick kit work via Mike Emm.  Check out footage below from their gig at CSMA with Hiroshima Vacation, et al. from the fall.



Also on the bill are Rochester’s BURN EVERYTHING who, we’ve been itching to play Ithaca as far back as ’09 if memory serves.  This band is crafting some eye-opening, relentlessly scathing melding of metal in hardcore that's all twisted and mangled.  Recently, BE have been getting some national attention from a variety of online hotspots including Metal Sucks:

" Progressive post-hardcore? Dillinger / Burnt By the Sun-esque mathcore? Some other ultimately meaningless label? Beats me… how about just “good”? Burn Everything even introduce elements like elephants marching riffs, Morbid Angel pick scrapes and relentless double-bass pounding you don’t normally hear from bands that fall on the more hardcore side of the spectrum. A true melding of hardcore and metal that isn’t — gasp — “metalcore.” These guys get my vote for sure."



Local metallic hardcore quintet Among Dead Men will kick things off. 





Come by The Space @ GreenStar, 700 W Buffalo, Ithaca, NY 14850 on Friday, Jan 13th at 8PM and check it out. Just $5.  

Greetings from the underground! So, as many of you have seen, FREE! evolved out of the interviews/articles we used to issue through the print version of the zine from late '08 to early '10.  Since then, we covered relatively the same format, just online instead of print. Within the last few months, we've been posting videos from the IU YouTube Channel here. We're thinking about posting brief passages with news relevant to Ithaca & regional music we support. Sound cool? Feel free to give us your feedback.

Drumroll please...

Go check out the latest edition of IU.com - v3.0 right here! Sing up for our eNews, updated forums, calendar, booking request form, and more. Lots more to come too! We wanted to get the basics out of the gate as soon as possible but we're looking to take this above and beyond the last one.

Band Name: These Machines

Location: Binghamton NY

Formed: December 2008

Sound: Heavy and chaotic tech/death metal meets Neurosis and Today is the Day

Members: 
Tom Doud::Guitar/Vocals (2010-present)
Paul Ghilardi: Bass/Vocals (2008-present)
Mike Emm Drums/Vocals (2009-present)

Past members: Derek Lindow, Rick Barto, Brandon O'neal, Dustin Schoelier

Releases: Month (Jan 2009), Pharmakon (September 2011)

About The Band: We basicly take the chaos and brutality of technical death metal, combine it with super heavy sludge metal riffs, and then add some Melvins/Today is the Day influenced weirdness to keep it interesting for ourselves.

Mike Emm is an absolute beast of a drummer, an experienced Marijuana Connoisseur and blast machine. I don't even know how he comes up with half the drum parts he does. He keeps the tradition of tough dude Binghamton extreme metal drummers alive and well, with his large biceps and a devestating right hook.

Paul Ghilardi is simply one of the smartest dudes I know. He's super creative and listens to a huge variety of music. He writes a lot of the songs and riffs. Totally inspiring musician to play with. He also has a sexy beard. Something that I can not grow even at the age of 28. So, Paul is also more of a man than I am.

As for me, I rip off Steve Austin of Today is The Day pretty badly.

The New Record: Pharmakon is completely finished and is currently being mastered. It was recorded by Kyle Serlington (Bass player for The Dirty Slits) so it obviously has a huge meaty sound. It's a loose concept record but we won't bore you with explaining it. We're just happy with it as a band and hope that some of you enjoy it as much as we do.

Band Influences: We love all kinds of different genres of music and listen to tons of bands, but as far as our sound I hear a lot of: Ed Gein, Today is The Day, death metal (Malavolent Creation, Nile), Mastodon, Converge, Cephalic Carnage.

Lastly, I want to thank all you excellent people in Ithaca for being beyond awesome as usual. We can't wait to make our Ithaca debut Sept 16th!!!

Another great IU show at The Space! Thanks to everyone who came out to this one. Solid footage from NYC's Meek is Murder and Tiger Flowers, more clips of Crime Pays including a new song, and one of CNY's newest metal acts, the uniquely ambient instrumental metal Paralysis at Dawn. Get on... Q&A with three of the four posted elsewhere on FREE!.


Meek Is Murder - (null)


Meek is Murder


Meek is Murder - foo/Garbage Collector


Tiger Flowers


Tiger Flowers


Crime Pays (incl new song)


Crime Pays


Paralysis at Dawn


Paralysis at Dawn

Band Name:
Hi, how are you? We're meek is murder.  

Location:
We're from Brooklyn, NY. Right now we're in a gross van tarnishing the picturesque quality of Burlington, VT. Someone tagged "El Barto" backwards on the rear doors of our van the day before we left. I think it was Sean. Fuck you, Sean.

Formed:
Meek was my (Keller's) solo project which I started in late 2005. We didn't become a band with real life human members until early 2008 or so. Our first show was in 2009 and our first record came out this year in 2011. I guess we're kinda slow.

Members:
Keller- vocals and guitar
Sam- bass
Frank- drums

Andrea- my girlfriend and our unofficial manager/caffeine level monitor.

Releases:
We just release an album called "Algorithms" which was recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge). It's about Computer Science.

I also put out an EP in 2007 called "Mosquito Eater" when meek was still a solo project. I recorded it in my bedroom with one microphone. Some people say it sounds kind of cool. I think it sounds like it was recorded in my bedroom with one microphone.

Tell us about yourselves!
I used to be in a band called The Red Chord and before that I was in a band called NAME, neither of which which sound like really. Sam has a band called Sunwoman who we don't sound like at all. Frank is in a band called Empyreon which we REALLY don't sound anything like.

The purpose of this band is to have lots of "vantime" which we're doing pretty well at this year. We went to Texas for SXSW. Right now we're on tour with Fuck The Facts. Next week we're going out with Tiger Flowers. In case you were wondering "vantime" is in fact one word because the van no longer exists as a separate or tangible entity but a seamless extension of the collective dude consciousness. Also, the laws governing the space-time continuum cease to apply within this complex bouquet of aromas. Additionally we are quite fond of Waffle House. There aren't any WH in Brooklyn so in order to quell an insatiable hunger we obviously had to start a punk band.


Check out meek is murder's new video "Recursions" over at Metal Sucks and don't miss them live at The Space @ GreenStar, 700 W Buffalo St, Ithaca, NY 14850 with pals Tiger Army and locals Crime Pays and Paralysis at Dawn. 8PM $5 ALL AGES. 

Band Name: TIGER FLOWERS. We named the band after the first black Middleweight Champion of the world. We're also known as The Tiger Lillies. Will wanted to name the band Cement Condom. We kicked the everloving shit out of him for even uttering those words.

Location: Harlem, Bronx, Upstate New York and Long Island.  True story.

Formed: 2008ish. Jesse came from My Bitter End and Will and Dean came from Johnny Cage is a Fake, They formed TF and Dan who was in a band with Jesse came on to play drums and to fellate and massage Jesse when he's feeling tense.

Members: William Gomez, Daniel Miccio, Jesse James Madre And Dean Chooch Landry. Will Gomez is actually a superhero named "DOC Gomez" He saves lives.. lot's of em with his own two magic hands. Jesse is a writer and a Master piercer, Dan is part owner of A sick T-shirt company called Bile Hendenson and Dean is an artist/photographer.

Releases: coming very soon. (it's complicated)

Tell us about yourselves! Our sound is a bit of a mix of mathy, passionate, desperate and destructive emotive hot mess. We play music together because we love traveling, sharing music with other people and making friends. And most of all we like going to Waffle House together.

We have an awesome summer tour coming up with our NYC buds Meek Is Murder! Check our Facebook band page for all tour dates. 

Don't miss Tiger Flowers live with meek is murder, Crime Pays, and Paralysis at Dawn at The Space @ GreenStar, 700 W Buffalo St, Ithaca, NY 14850 - 8PM | $5 | ALL AGES

WOW - I hope you made it out to this one!


TINSEL TEETH


TINSEL TEETH - footage get's a little less chaotic around 2:14



DAADs


DAADs


DAADs


Hiroshima Vacation


Hiroshima Vacation


The Invisible Hand

After their first appearance back in early April, the Buffalo powerviolence/grind quartet INERDS are back in Ithaca. Armed with dual female vocals, crushing bass, and utter destruction behind the kit, the band is becoming a serious force to be reckoned with, even garnering the attention of J. Randall for his Grindcore Karaoke release. Vii Caso gets the lowdown on where they started and what's next.

IU: Can you give us a brief (of not so brief) history of how Inerds came to be?

Moezes: I was in a pop punk band when I first met Matt, and at one point we were both homeless, so we became friends pretty quickly. We were at a party and Matt isn't much a drinker, but I got him fucking whiskey drunk that night. At some point, I dragged him to the practice space, and we (drunkenly) wrote "She Beast". Later that week I knew we need female vocals for the shit we were writing. I'm a huge fan of lady vocals, so bands like Robot has Werewolf Hand, Despise you, Hatred Surge, Salome, Punch, etc...were a huge influence on what we were going for. Corey came first on vocals and then we later asked Jessika if she would join the force up front.

IU: Bass and drum grindcore/powerviolence bands don't come around that often, where did the idea to have no guitar come from?

Moezes: When we first started, we had talked about just keeping it a duo. Just to keep things easier, But i really thought the girls would bring some serious energy live that a 2 piece just couldn't. But in regards to not having any guitar, Matt and I just both thought it sounded plenty thick with just bass. It kind of just gives us this down tune effect, but every INERDS song is written in E standard. Also add to the fact Matt and I are both bassists (him much more than I), with a fierce love for bass and drum PV. Bands like Lana Dagales, Vennt, MITB, and the Agoraphobic Nosebleed "Domestic Power Violence" split with Apartment 213 were HUGE influences on the musical portion.

IU: How did you guys get connected with Grindcore Karaoke?

Moezes: J. Randall sent INERDS a message through myspace saying he was doing GK and wanted the demo on it. I informed him about Mutant League, which is a label I had started doing with John from Bestower, and he wanted everything Matt and I have done.  To those who don't know, Mutant League is: Inerds, Hoglust, Bestower, Human Touch, Canadian Tuxedo and Water Torture with demos coming soon for two last two.

IU: You guys played Ithaca a few weeks ago along Coworkers, Womyn Boyz and Pharaohs. Was that your first time playing Ithaca?

Moezes: Yeah, first time for me in Ithaca in a long time and it was radical. The space we played was righteous, the locals were great, and Bubba is a solid homie. It seems like he's doing a lot of work for that area, which is fucking awesome.

IU: Are there any future Inerds releases planned?

Moezes: Yeah, actually were doing a split 7" with this band from over seas called Terror of the Dynamite Attack. That will be out on Mutant League by the fall. We're really excited to get that piece out.

IU: Any final words?

Moezes: Go download everything from www.grindcorekaraoke.com, J Randall is making shit happen for a lot of bands who never would get any notice. And smoke weed till you die from it. Word me dude.

The upcoming Big Day In will see the Ithaca return of the Binghamton grind crew Sepsis! Last seen totally demolishing the CSMA alongside Fuck the Facts, Lux Carentes, and Genital Holograms, Sepsis are stoked to be back and once again bring the grind to Ithaca. Vii Caso caught up with vocalist Dennis Michael Lamp via email to find out what's been going on in the world of Sepsis.


IU: It's been a while since since Sepsis has played Ithaca, are you guys stoked to be back as a part of Big Day In?

Dennis Michael Lamp: We are always very psyched to be playing Ithaca. The scene up there is so diverse and always so positive. You all have shown us a lot of love from the get-go and we are very appreciative. As always, Bubba has a stacked line-up. Very honored to play amongst such heavyweights as Tombs, Woe, Sulaco and our pals in Inerds and Hiroshima Vacation.

IU: What's been going on in the Sepsis camp these days? I heard you guys recruited the drummer for Circle of Dead Children for a while?

Dennis: We have had a bit of a turbulent year, there was some inner band b33f which caused our founding drummer Dom to leave us for awhile. We picked up Mike Emm (from Binghamton grind band These Machines) to fill in for us for some time. He did a great job and is a really good dude. As of late all bullshit was cleared and Dom returned harder, faster and more ready to play then ever. We are very psyched to have the original line-up back. As far as our long time friend Matt Francis (current drummer of CODC/Hank Williams III) , he was going to be our hired gun to fill in for us if any touring/recording possibilities arose.

IU: I also heard that Grindcore Karaoke was going to release something from Sepsis. Truth? Or is there another lucky band called Sepsis out there?

Dennis: Haha that's actually a funny story. One day I saw that J.Randall twittered (or tweeted I don't know what the fuck it is) that he would be releasing Holglust, Inerds, Sepsis and a few other bands on his internet label Grindcore Karaoke. I was taken back for a moment, because we had never spoke to him whatsoever so, to clarify I emailed him. He told me he was in fact talking about another group of the same name, but was very into what he was hearing by our band and he was very interested in doing a release with us. Long story short after several emails between him and I, we concluded that a name change was in order. So as it stands we are in the process of changing our name, which I feel is necessary anyway at this point being one of many bands sharing a name. So be on the lookout, ideally our next release under a new name will be on Grindcore Karaoke.

IU: Does Sepsis have any new releases planned?

Dennis: We have a slew of new songs that were written before Doms hiatus. We have jumped right back into practicing them and it feels so good. Hopefully there will be a new name/record out this summer. We've been throwing around a few ideas for a split with local band/great dudes/providers of a practice spot Your Hero. Be on the lookout for them, think The Locust/Charles Bronson/Punx.

IU: Will you be performing any new material at Big Day In?

Dennis: We will absolutely be playing some new songs. I think roughly 2-3 from a year ago that were put on the back burner, and one totally brand new one that doesn't even have lyrics at the moment. Jason Kruger is a fucking riff machine.

IU: Any final words?

Dennis: Thanks so much Sev and everyone in Ithaca who has ever watched my band or given a shit. Bubba and everyone who make Ithaca Underground the powerhouse that it is. It's really great to see such a diverse and flourishing scene in upstate New York. Also just off the top of my head everyone should support Inerds, Revoked, Colony, Crime Pays and Hiroshima Vacation!

Photo by Kyle Edwards Balles

Sepsis will perform at BIG DAY IN on May 7th, 2011 at The Haunt with Tombs, Woe, Ehnahre, Sulaco, Oak & Bone, Night Owls, Lux Carentes, INERDS, Mouth To Mouth To Mouth, Hiroshima Vacation, and Sun Spells. 

Here's some footage from Sunday's show!  Apologies that it's a bit grainy. We had to lighten it quite a bit because of how back-lit the space is. Enojoy!









- Apologies that this one had to cut out partway through. There was a technical issue but the first half of the footage is good.









We've got one more Womyn Boiz clip coming soon, so check back!

Great footage by Chris Knight from Friday's show!

Fuck The Facts have been a cornerstone in the DIY grind community for 10 years now, unapologetically assaulting listeners with an ever mutating technical blend of grind, metal, and non-metal elements. Vii Caso catches up with Topon Das in preparation for their Ithaca return this Friday at CSMA.

IU: This tour celebrates the 10th year as a full band. Did you ever think Fuck the Facts would ever go beyond DIY noise/grind tape releases created in your bedroom?

TD: Since day one it’s always been about actually doing shit and getting out of the bedroom. One of the main reasons I start Fuck The Facts was because all the bands I played in at the time were stuck in the basement. I wanted to play shows, tour and release music; not just talk about doing it. I wasn’t gonna let this get stuck in my bedroom. That being said, I’m still sometimes in awe of all the amazing shit we’ve gotten to do over the years in this band.

IU: For this anniversary tour, you've stated FTF will perform songs from album released since 2001 on this tour. Do you guys have a set list already practiced and ready or will it change every night? Since you have quite a back-catalog, I imagine some planning was involved. Will you be playing "Dear Shit Book? Will we get to hear any songs from your new album "Die Miserable"?

TD: We have a set rehearsed that we’ve been playing since we started doing these shows in February. We cut it down a bit when we did the Scion Rock Fest, but besides that it’s been the same each night. Half our band lives 6 hours away from the other half, so with that and jobs, etc… our actual full band rehearsal time is pretty limited. The set that we’re playing touches on a bit of everything from over the past 10 years and we’re doing it all in chronological order from oldest to newest. When we started planning it, there was a shit load of songs we were looking at. I would have liked to do a few other songs as well, but with the time we had to get it all together we had to make some tough choices. ‘Dear Shit Book’ is in there and we’re playing a couple of song from the new album. We might be doing a different song or 2 this coming weekend but we’ll see.

IU: You mentioned your involvement with the 2011 Scion Rock Fest. What are your thoughts on Scions recent involvement with extreme music? It seems like they're doing some pretty awesome things; sponsoring tours, releasing albums, setting up free festivals, etc.

TD: We just got back from that and it was awesome. I know there’s been some debate on what their place in is the music scene and their motives, etc… but for my band and me we having nothing but good things to say about what they’ve done for us. They fly us out, treat us well and it’s always just to play a show. They never try and tell us what we can or can’t do. All they want is for us to go out there and do our thing.

IU: Regarding the new album "Die Miserable", what can you tell us about that? It was recorded in your home studio, right? How was that recording experience?

TD: It was insane. We put an extreme amount of pressure on ourselves to make it as good as possible, and when the tracking was all done we just needed to step back and really take a break from it. Since then we’ve recorded there again and I’ve also been recording other bands there as well, so we’ve been getting better and learning more with time and practice. I don’t know if we’ll try and do the next album after ‘Die Miserable’ there, I think we might like to try something different, but we’ll keep recording and I can see us definitely doing more releases this way.

IU: The vinyl version of "Die Miserable" will include a bonus 7" EP with 4 songs that aren't included on the actual album. Why did you decide to include these songs on a separate release and not on the full length? Will the vinyl release be available at the Ithaca show on Friday?

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