Yale bands are a medley of musical delights

COURTESY STICKY DUNKEL This band is Arcaro. It's killin' yo ass with sound.

The sweetly scintillating band scene is one of the best things about Yale. Every weekend, locations as diverse as a college courtyard, Rudy's bar, and the Calhoun Cabaret burst with the sounds of Yale musicians and their devoted/drunken audiences. When you get down to it, there are two kinds of bands at Yale: the party bands who make you feel real good, and the indie-rock bands, who impinge upon your musical taste buds in attempts to titillate them with their tintinnabulations. Either way, you can't lose.

The Sextones, a choice example of the first category, consist of six improv jazz/funk fiends whose tight jams will leave you bright-eyed and wanting more. Then there's also the popular Six Pack Annie, which chooses a fearsome, Rage Against the Machine-styled throw-down as its modus operandi. The band is always an agreeable soundtrack for courtyard carousings fueled by multiple beers. Indira, a rhythm and funk band hip to the sound of Dave Matthews, is a newcomer to the turf. Another new band this year is The Y-Bomb. The Bomb offers rocked-up hip-hop bolstered by an electric violin, irrepressible enthusiasm, and good-natured self-aggrandizement. Rather removed from these light-hearted party crews is the precise and highly-skilled quartet Jazz Dialects. They combine jazz standards with more experimental material and hip-hop based originals that are tremendously satisfying to the ear and impressive even to the experienced jazz critic.

If the bands deconstructed above don't seem tasty, you've got a handful of indie-rock delights (most of whom work together under the aegis of the Performing Musicians' Cooperative) to sample and return to over and over again. If you're looking for flavorful pop icons, look no further than The Pinups. Poster boy Andrew Chan, SY '01, will rot your teeth
with British bubble-yum sweetness, while darkly sulky bassist Dan Silk, SY '01, will evoke memories of Blur and leave you gap-toothedly smiling, clamoring for more.

For getting over that toothache, I recommend the kitschy yet oh-so-sincere piano sex rock of Pear-ly Sweets and the Platonics. Abraham Levitan's, TD '00, off-kilter lyrics, keyboard-laden Elvis Costello-style tunes, and bedazzling sequined pants rival only his sparkling between-sets repartee, and they are all guaranteed to make you forget your woes.

The founder of Yale's Garbage Czar label, David Slade, TC '01, is also a member of the Trumbull City Heartbreakers. Although most of the band learned to play their instruments after joining, their progress has been remarkable. A fun, diverse, and well-put-together sound, plus bewitchingly earnest musicians, add to the indie-élan of this group.

Garbage Czar also recorded veteran glamour boy Hrishikesh Hirway's, MC '00, band Pinstripe. Next year however, Hirway will also continue his popular solo routine as the one a.m. radio. He drums, sings, feeds tapes through complicated electronic circuits, and does all manner of fantastical things.

One of the brashest bands aroun thi year was Cassius. Look for them next year under the name Arcaro. Musically complex, aggressively indie-punk, this group doesn't just wear its influences (like June of 44 and Slint) on its sleeve--it adds its own savagely exquisite melodies replete with odd time signatures, enigmatic whispered or shouted vocals, and gorgeously interlocking guitar parts. Come see this band, if only to witness the high-octane pleasure with which the sexy, contortionist bassist and the two hunky, guitar-brandishing vocalists attack their instruments, then fall writhing amongst the towering tongues of flame summoned by their incredibly rocking sets.

Although the bands mentioned above contain mostly Yale students, many of them play shows with notable area bands. Jerome's Dream plays intensely, excruciatingly beautiful grindcore. Its 15-minute performances and shyly intense charisma are legendary. Also of interest is The Weighdown, a rhythmically tight, tautly energetic musical lozenge. 33.3 (Aesthetics Records) is a thoroughly amazing affiliation of Yale grad students who make chamber music that transports you to thrilling synaesthetic and sonic soundscapes; think Rachel's, the Dirty Three, and the Kronos Quartet. They are New Haven's most out-standing band.

In conclusion, I urge you to remember four facts: there was only one freshman band this year; there were no girl bands; there are many more bands like Esov, Rocinante, and Boring White Fascist Empire, that I will leave you to discover on your own; and, most importantly, almost all of these bands play for free. Go, check them out, rate the rock, and come back and tell me that there isn't something to satisfy everyone's musical palate at Yale.

Back to After Hours...