One of 2012's most awe-inspiring events returns to CSMA with the ever-growing NAKED NOISE improv drone ensemble on Friday, April 4th at 9PM.




Join us once again as we transform the CSMA Auditorium into an ethereal sound garden, with a massive 22 musician, amplified ensemble of ritual drone with visuals.

This is far more than just a show - more of a total transcendental sound experience. The performers will be set up in a ring, where the audience is encouraged to wander around the circle of musicians and experience the performance from a variety of angles. The sound will stretch and mutate based on which performers you're closest to.

The performance will be entirely improvised with each musician dedicated to the ebb and flow of chaos and restraint.

NAKED NOISE will once again be curated by Sun Spells (Jeff, Heather, Judd, Aydin, and Owen) and include members of TZAR (Brian Wilson, Michael Stark), LOFTS (Bruce Hyde), Time/Being (John & Mario), Soft Healer (Will & Marie), Hiroshima Vacation (VII Caso), BRIAN! (Bubba), The Invisible Hand (Devin Conathan), You, Me, and the Radio (Katie McShane, Damien Scalise, Luara Karlson-Carp), The Sutras (AJ Strauss), Electric Golem (Trevor Pinch), plus Matthew Saccuccimorano (Black Castle, Sound Awake, etc.), and Michael Troutman, with visuals by Nils Hoover (Newman Brothers).

Friday, April 5th
Community School of Music & Art
3rd Floor Auditorium, 330 E State / MLK Jr St., Ithaca, NY 14850
9PM | All AGES | $5

Who's doing what? View below...

Thanks to the huge turnout at CSMA on Friday, November 30th. Glad to see such a broad cross section of Ithaca in support of this special event. More to come in 2012.

Credit & thanks to Lanny Huang & Peter Korolov for the footage and CG Photography for the images.

YES! Hello there, we are still alive here at "FREE!".  As some of you may have heard, I (Bubba) was in the UK visiting my first nephew for most of May, then returned home in time for Ithaca Festival and Mouth To Mouth To Mouth's EP release show and subsequent weekend on the road. It's been a busy last two months, but we'll get you all caught up right now.

We'll start off with some high quality footage from Weedeater at The Haunt from Chris Knight and Time/Being at Cornell University from the first IU/Risley collaboration via Lanny Haung.

Then it's on to the brand new Ithaca-based band Temuchin featuring ex-Iwo Jima Medkit members and touring members of Tombs.

Lots more from Young Widows, Pygmy Lush, Femme Tops, Underground River and more after the page break...


Weedeater


Time/Being


Temuchin


Young Widows

We're a bit backed up with all the amazing live footage our pal Lanny has been taking, but here's the first three hot out of the oven!  Mylets doing a sick Battles cover, Bangladeafy! ripping it, and Math The Band going wild as always. Check it.



Mylets


Bangladeafy!


Math The Band

Lots more to come...

Band Name: Contradictator

Location: Cornell, Ithaca

Formed: March, 2011

Members: 
Lanny Huang-Lead Vox, guitar
William Blessing-Backing Vox, Bass, Keys
Kyle Walsh - Drums

Releases: Not much to speak of

Tell us about yourselves!
Contradictator formed after Lanny completed the February album writing month challenge in 2011. Inundated with new material, he got together William and Kyle to start playing shows.

Fun fact, none of us like the same music. Kyle's a Phish-head, William has an affinity for some classic rock and Frank Zappa, and Lanny likes all iterations of indie-pop, and Jack White

We do however all like internet sensations Pomplamoose as well as Radiohead.

The band is exactly half asian and half white. Kyle always forgets to bring some piece of his drum set to gigs. Lanny once played a show 2 days after having an appendectomy high on pain killers. William has competed in state-level chorus competitions and sings a wicked falsetto, he cannot, however, do punk rock yelling which Lanny does almost exclusively, hearing them sing together is pretty odd.

We're all incredibly excited to be playing our first IU show with Math the Band! They're really awesome. After that we'll be taking a break for a little while as summer tends to disrupt college bands, and Lanny won't be returning to Cornell next semester. But we do look forward to releasing an EP of sorts for the record.

Thanks to everyone who came out! Long night with lots of great sets - 3 of which from bands who this was their first show aligned w/ IU (These Machines especially blew our minds) - PLUS new material from Hiroshima Vacation. Check 'em all.


Hiroshima Vacation

Footage from one of the best shows we've ever done! Thanks for the huge turnout, support, and patients getting started a bit late. Hope you were there!


Defiance, Ohio - 'The List'


Nana Grizol - "Voices Echo Down Thee Halls"


Nana Grizol - "Cynicism"


Toby Foster


Toby Foster


Defiance, Ohio - "Oh, Susquehanna!"


Nana Grizol


Your Heart Breaks


Your Heart Breaks

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

 
Providence, Rhode Island's Tinsel Teeth are one of the few bands whose live performance has been tuned to match the intensity of their music - bludgeoning you with thick noise-rock and bizarre female vocals while throwing themselves into the crowd, soaking themselves in fake blood, props, skin, mayhem... all in the hope of entertaining YOU the fuck out. Bubba Crumrine catches up with Will for the story.  Their new official video for 'Stock Footage of Stuntmen' is at the bottom!

IU: Hey Will, you and Brandon were the founding members of the band, correct? How did Dave come into the picture and where the hell did you find such an amazing front woman like Stephanie?

W: Brandon and I met at work and started playing music together.  He and Dave had been in a band together called "Spheres" that broke up.  Dave was also Brandon's roommate at the time, so when he heard us playing in the basement and was into it, he just came down the stairs.  That part was pretty easy.  As for Steph... the first time we met her she was easily and instantly drawn into our web of spells and magic.  She has never been the same since.

IU: Did any of the blood, props, and nudity come first or did your live shows start out of the gate at the extreme level they're known and loved for now?

W: We did talk a lot at an early point in the band about what we wanted to see in a live show.  We were all bored with going to shows and not being entertained.  Not seeing the package of killer music and rocking the fuck out.  So it definitely became a focus for a Tinsel Teeth show to be a party.  Once we started playing out, the actual progression show to show to what you see now came pretty naturally.  I can say that one of the first 2-3 shows we ever played was at "summercamp" in Providence.  After we set up our gear we ran downstairs, took off all our clothes and covered each other in shaving cream.  That was a shocked crowd when we came back up and one hell of a show.  It's what I believe set the tone for Tinsel Teeth.    

IU: How much fake blood do you go through in an average year?

W: Too much, someone sponsor us.  I dare you. 

IU: Have members of the band (or gear) ever been subject to injury at the hand of the live show?

Band Name: HotChaCha....Not Hot Cha Cha, or Hot ChaCha

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Formed: On a sunny Tuesday afternoon in April, 4 years ago. Just about the time Jovana came back from Bosnia all depressed.

Members: Mandy Aramouni (guitar), Jovana Batkovic (spazz and vocals), Greg Gebhard (bass and booty), Roseanna Safos (drummmmzzzz)

Releases: 
Rifle, I knew you when you were just a pistol EP
The Worlds Hardest Working Telescope and The Violent Birth of Stars LP
Fantastic Static EP

Tell us about yourselves! 
HotChaCha was formed 4 years ago by Mandy and Jovana who remain the only original members of Hotchacha because they ate the other two. Than they got a new drummer and a new bass player who actually have time and desire to give up everything else and be in a band and make no money. HotChaCha sounds like this: AWESOME. Every release so far has been quite different. 'Rifle' was a reverbed grrl riot number, while 'telescope' is dancy. 'Fantastic Static' is definitely heavier and was getting closer to what could be referred to as the final HCC sound. HotChaCha is recording another full length in July, and will be performing these songs for the upcoming tours. We have 3 shorter tours coming up, one of which is with Summer People. Than we have a really long one coming up end of august till beginning of October. We will either kill each other by the end of this year, OR all carry Gregs babies. The purpose of this band is to make you laugh and cry and mastrubate at the same time.

Band Name: Thirteen South

Location: Ithaca area

Formed: 2008

Members: 
Jesse Scott-guitar
Matty Woo-bass
Jon Freund drums
Doogie-vocals
Bryan Wood-guitar

Releases: Remnants of You EP, released june 2010

Tell us about yourselves!
Thirteen south formed in 2008 by three mutual friends (Doogie vocals,Matt Kelly guitar, Teja Buczuski bass) just looking to start a heavy band and have some fun. After some line-up changes, the current line up (with the exception of Bryan who's been filling in on guitar for a few shows - HUGE thank you to him), has been rocking out the last two and a half years all over the New York and PA, quickly gaining momentum as a solid band with a awesome stage presence with explosive riffs mixed up with neck jarring breakdowns.Thirteen South's whole purpose is just 5 guys doing what we do - making awesome music, drinking some beer and having a great time doing it. In 2010, the band spent a month recording with sound engineer, Mike Caporizzo to produce what would be so far, our only release "Remnants of You", which of the first 100 CDs sold within a four month span, but is available on iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, Amazonmp3 and more. With Ithaca Festival possibly being Thirteen Souths last show, expect nothing less then the best performance possible from us. If were going out, were going to do it proudly and with a big bang. Were all excited to play IFest, being possibly the first metal band doing so. We've all being looking very much forward to it and are proud to be among the many performers that grace Ithaca every year for it. After IFest, we're not really sure whats going to happen. The members who are leaving (or already have left) are irreplaceable as musicians and friends. Although a permanant second guitarist has been found, were still looking for a bassist and a vocalist after this performance. Hopefully we can get things back on track and be moshing out before to long. If anyone is interested in trying out, we'd be more then happy to hear from them.

In preparation for the upcoming Ithaca Underground/CSMA stage at Ithaca Festival on June 4th, we're bringing you the skinny on a few of the bands. First up - Bridge Under Fire!

Band Name: Bridge Under Fire

Location: Syracuse, NY

Formed: Bridge Under Fire was formed by myself (Mark) and Matt from The Andrea Doria and Brendan from Vapor Aevum. We got together in the fall of 2010 after our previous bands broke up. We began writing songs and auditioning drummers. Through the magic of craigslist we got in touch with Clayton from the band Purple Grip, and he joined the band in November 2010.

Members:
Mark Turley- Vocals/guitar
Brndan Hilyard- Guitar/Backup Vocals
Matt Proietta- Bass
Clayton Stetz- Drums

Releases: The Night Court Sessions (self-released Feb. 2010)

Tell us about yourselves!
Once we got Clayton, and all the members were in place, we hit the ground running. We played our first show in December 2010, recorded our first EP The Night Court Sessions at The Hollow Recording Studio in Syracuse with Jim Goldsworthy (Fierce Little Records) and Josh Coy (Long Since Forgotten, Red and Black, Stay Six) in January, released it and had our first tour in February 2011. Since being released, we have toured through NY, PA, CT, and NJ and played with thrash/hardcore bands to pop-punk bands.

The easiest way to describe Bridge Under Fire’s sound is that it is most similar to Hot Water Music. The melodies are catchy, the vocals are aggressive, but the lyrics are very sing along-able. Currently we are planning some shows, as well as writing new tunes for a possible full length for the end of the year or early next year. Bridge Under Fire is still a very young band and things are moving at a very fast pace. Currently the next stop on our traveling circus is Ithaca Festival and we are insanely excited to play.

Here's video from the latest IU show including new, as yet unreleased material from Ga'an! To check the clips out in HD along with hundreds of other videos, check out our IU YouTube channel.


Ga'an


Ga'an


Sun Spells


Underground River


Underground River


Brian!


Brian!


Brian!


Brian!

Thanks to everyone who came out to this event and made it such a success! Big props to Angry Mom Records and McNeil Music of Ithaca for supporting local music by releasing the LP and to CSMA for the on-going use of their space. Here's some footage!
















Footage by Bubba Crumrine (except Mouth To Mouth To Mouth footage by Mel Casano)

More vids up now from the Ithaca Underground YouTube page! We have over 230 uploads now so come visit. Footage from Pygmy Lush, Des Ark, Zevious, The Invisible Hand, Makeshift, Plasma 36, Rye n' Clover, and Kaboosh! below:


Pygmy Lush live at The Space @ GreenStar


Pygmy Lush live at The Space @ GreenStar


DES ARK live at The Space @ GreenStar


Zevious live at CSMA


Zevious live at CSMA


The Invisible Hand live at CSMA

We've got a nice batch of live videos from earlier this spring for you! Footage is all from Kyle Rothman of DAADs (sans the Matta Gawa clip).




















Footage by Bubba Crumrine

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

Matta Gawa is a duo from Washington, D.C. that features Edward Ricart on guitar and Sam Lohman on drums. They play a unique blend of improvisational, pyschedelic avant-rock and free jazz. I caught up with Ed for an interview this week.

Keir Neuringer: Your upcoming show is your second visit to Ithaca, correct? How often does MG play out as a duo? How often do you tour?

Edward Ricart: Our gig in September 2010 was our first time in Ithaca, but Sam Lohman (drummer) has played in town a number of times over the years. Matta Gawa has been a primary focus for both of us--it's so easy to tour and operate as a duo, that we are really able to get out and move without a huge van--and it's easier to coordinate two schedules than four or five. We have done a number of shorter tours--generally 10 days or so, through the mid-Atlantic, and spent almost two months on the road last year. We play out as often as we can, mostly in DC, Philly, and NYC. It is great to be on the road, meeting people, hearing new music, and checking out new places (and places to eat).

KN: You are both a performer and an organizer back home. Tell us about your local scene. What makes you proud? What exasperates you?

ER: Washington DC has such a rich history of creative music--from Duke Ellington and Go Go music through to Fugazi--and it has been a destination for avant jazz artists for many years, thanks to the efforts of a number of local presenters. I grew up listening to punk rock, and the music from labels like SST, Dischord Records, and Touch and Go, before I started digging into free jazz, new music, and bebop. Dischord is a Washington DC based label, and is the quintessential American DIY indie label. The same do-it-yourself ethos and spirit can be identified in the creative jazz scene as well...for example, Sun Ra self-released his own music as far back as the 1950s. So the spirit of the two musics is really quite similar, even though there are huge sonic differences. This spirit has been a huge influence on how I operate. I've been running a concert series in DC for the past two years, and the music has been outstanding. 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales are paid to the artists, and I try to keep the shows fairly early, and the tickets affordable to ensure the music is available to everyone in the community. It is a pleasure to help out touring creative musicians, and I've made some great friends through the series. Nevertheless, it is difficult to get recognition from the more indie rock oriented websites in town, and while Michael West at the DC City Paper has been supportive, and the series was voted 'best in DC' last year, the Washington Post doesn't really cover the series.

KN: What works at home for reaching audiences?

ER: Recently, the DC scene has moved out of the clubs and into non-traditional spaces like houses, galleries, and lofts. These have become the best spots in town, since people go to these places totally open to hearing whatever is being presented, even if they aren't really sure what type of musical experience to expect, and they actively listen to the music and get off on it, even if its outside of their comfort zone. There's definitely pluses and minuses to our scene, but they're probably the same pluses and minuses that people face everywhere else. DC is unique in that despite the great museums in town, unless you're lucky, the city is prohibitively expensive for most artists to entertain the idea of living there. So it really can be a grind making ends meet, which is probably less of an issue in many other cities. As a result, the community of creative musicians and artists is smaller than it should be. Nevetheless, we're very close to NYC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond, and it seems like there's a lot of interaction and exchange between all of these places.

KN: Particularly rewarding interactions on the road? At home? Tour horror stories?