We're less than two weeks away from Ithaca Underground's biannual day-fest celebration of DIY music - BIG DAY IN.  This will be #8 and the fourth occurrence of the May edition.

On Saturday, January 19th, McNeil Music of Ithaca and Angry Mom Records present the first Finger Lakes Girl Bands Battle of the Bands.

What's the scoop? They're looking to catalyze a network for female musicians - all ages, styles, and personalities welcomed. Want to learn more? Check out the about page: http://fingerlakesgirlbands.org/about/

Oh, I should probably mention that the grand prize is recording time and a 7" out on Angry Mom Records. Whoa!!


Where does Ithaca Underground come in?  We too wish to foster a diverse music scene and now call on all female musicians of Ithaca to form bands and support this event.

We would love nothing more to see a female majority Ithaca-based noiserock band going ape-shit on the stage at The Haunt, or some riot grrl spit and sneers, or female cult drone duo, or get heavy with black metal, sludge, or grind.  I know you're out there, so pick up the sticks, axes, electronics and mic and let's show Ithaca what the women of our city can really do.

Ithaca Underground has always supported bringing touring female musicians and bands who support empowered women (see Marnie Stern, Kylesa, Fuck The Facts, I Object, Tinsel Teeth, Bridge & Tunnel, Shellshag, and tons of others).  We would love to put some prime Ithaca-based female DIY acts on to support these lovely bands in the future, so get into it!!!



(Bubba)

Big thanks to Lanny Huang for his this documentary short on Ithaca Underground!



Official info:


Filmed over the course of February 2012, 'Ithaca is Underground' covers the goals and ethics of Ithaca Underground, a DIY music promoter that focuses on bringing unique and independent acts to the stage. Run for several years by Bubba Crumrine, Ithaca Underground has recently applied to be come a 501c3 non-profit organization, giving it the opportunity to expand as an organization and be sustainable for the future.

Find out more at:
http://www.ithacaunderground.com/

Shot and Edited by Lanny Huang.
Thanks to all who participated
Thanks to all who mentored
Thanks to all who patiently watched as I forced them to give me feedback. This is my first movie and your input really helped guide me not just for this production, but for the ones that are soon to follow.

http://Lannyhuang.com

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?

Band Name: Throughout the years they have experimented with numerous band names, including Stoner Crows, DS-1 Distortion Owners Manual, Zebra Feces, I Can't Believe It's not Jimmy Page, The Meow Meow Express, 1Pac, 3Pac, and Rump Thumpin' Prison Fish, but in end they decided to go with Makeshift.

History: Makeshift started as a guitar duet between Gabe Milman (2005-present) and Corey Mahaney (2005-2008). They then had the idea to start an actual band with Gabe on drums, Corey on guitar, and Ben Roach (2005-2009) on bass. They played their first show in 2006, shortly after asking Peter Pillardy (2006-present) to play guitar for band. In the next few years Makeshift's sound changed drastically from a classic rock to metal sound. Within this time period, James Easglesham (2008-present) joined on bass, while Ben switched to Vocals. In February of 2009, Makeshift played their first Ithaca Underground show at No Radio Records, which is now the Shop. Since then, Ben has left the band and Makeshift has become a three-piece metal trio playing all styles from experimental to progressive metal. Makeshift plays roughly 10 shows per year. Go check 'em out at http://makeshiftny.bandcamp.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/makeshiftithacany

Location: Straight Outta I-Town

Members: 
James Eaglesham - Bass, Cello, Vocals
Gabe Millman - Drums, Guitar, Bass
Peter Pillardy - Guitar, Drums

Releases:
Self Titled Debut - June 2007
"Insanity" (EP) - March 2008
"Thwap!...?" - November 2009
"Forget The Obligatory" - November 2010

Our Sound: \m/ We play groove metal. Technical metal you can tap your foot to.

Upcoming Shows:
-March 11th at the CSMA with Fuck the Facts, Dance-a-Tron, and Hiroshima Vacation
-April 14th at the CSMA with Zevious

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