Ithaca Festival 2011

A couple of weekends ago I drove out to Ithaca, NY with the lovely author of Rosemud.  We were both in dire need of a vacation and the city of Ithaca was holding it's annual summer festival.  This year the Ithaca Festival seemed non-stop, and perhaps a bit overwhelming.  At nearly all times there were at least two bands playing somewhere in the commons, along with belly dancing, story tellers, and theatrical performances.  There was a fantastic selection of international food from many local restaurants and vendors, though the craft fair left me feeling disappointed.

The Ithaca Commons contains several "stages" built in to its center walkway: the Cayuga St Stage, the Amphitheater, the Bernie Milton Pavilion, and the Aurora St Stage.  In addition to these there was also a stage set up in a vacant lot right next to Medusa Tattoo.  With an aggressive schedule there were somewhere around 30 or more performances and events each day.  So how do you know what to attend?  This was my problem, and thus I ended up wandering around and experiencing small, short pieces of random performances throughout my trip.

On Friday night, Rosie and I opted out of the masquarade ball, on account that we weren't fully prepared with costumes, and we also happened upon a flyer for show at Delilah's (where the Lost Dog Cafe used to be).  It turned out that Plastic Nebraska was playing with Boy With A Fish (their brother band, of sorts).  We had no idea they were playing that weekend, so it was a nice surprise.  I've been a Plastic Nebraska fan for a number of years now, and was very happy to finally get the opportunity to see them in a nice, very small venue.  Plastic Nebraska are quite a cool band...their twangy, inventively layered guitar tracks and polka-meets-reggae backbone make a unique and magnetic impression.  Oscillating between melodic, moody rock jams, and bumping, upbeat rhythmic barn grooves, Plastic Nebraska is a great band to see perform.  Their livelier songs nearly force you to get up and dance.  Unfortunately I cannot find anything of theirs on Youtube or Soundcloud - the best I can do is link to a free mp3 download of Helicopter from their website.  Keep in mind that this song only represents one part of Plastic Nebraska, and is not the song I would've chosen to share.  I highly recommend checking out their latest full length Stories of Happiness.

Boy with a Fish, probably the more active of the two bands at the moment, does share some similarities in sound and songwriting to their brethren band.  BWAF are in ways a bit poppier and more rock-oriented.  They incorporate synthesizers and organ sounds to fill out the mix, as prevalent as- and in place of - the standby accordion typically found in Plastic Nebraska's work.  Here's a couple of tracks to get an idea...
Water On Mars by Boy with a Fish
 
Where's The Butter by Boy with a Fish 

Saturday night, I bounced in and out of an Ithaca Underground show at the CMSA (Community School of Music and Arts).  Ithaca Underground is something that I wish was around when I went to school at Ithaca College.  While there has always been reasonable singer/songwriter, blues, jam, and punk scenes in Ithaca, IU offers an outlet for the DIY, less conventional talent in the area - hosting shows for cross-over, metal, post-this-and-that, and today's indie rock crowd.  Very nice indeed to see some new life sprouting in Ithaca.  My hat goes off to the organizers of IU...my only complaint about the show would be the sound.  One cannot be too picky at these type of shows, but there there was quite a bit of mud in the mix here.  To be clear the fault was not resting solely on the mixing engineer, but in fact mostly on the large reverberating hall in which the show was held.  Free, the Ithaca Underground zine/blog already has a great post from the show with many videos, that can be found here.  I'll just repost a few highlights...

 

Live metal is not something you used to really hear in Ithaca.

Here's a non-live track from Mouth To Mouth To Mouth, a self-proclaimed "math rock" band, whom I found to be one of the more interesting listens.  M2M2M fit right in with many latter day instrumental post-rock bands, but less atmospheric, with vocals, and a jittery peppiness.

Before leaving I ended up snagging a couple of records at Angry Mom Records, a vinyl shop in the basement of Autumn Leaves bookstore.  What I brought home was Armored Saint's Raising Fear, and Cream's Wheels Of Fire...an interesting combination, I know.

Rosie and I also found time to hit the gorge trail in one side of Buttermilk Park.  It was a great mini vacation...looking forward to the full length real deal at the end of the summer.

Buttermilk Park Photo By Rosemary Wojtas