From suburban garage to Calhoun's basement

Finding a place to plug in

COURTESY SIX PACK ANNIE Ryan Hickox's, SY '00, band, Six Pack Annie, was picked to play at this year's Spring Fling.

When it comes to rock, Yale's Administration is a throwback to the late '50s, when the responsible adults of America squared off against rebellious youths and their devil music. David Slade TC '01, singer/guitarist for indie band The Trumbull City Heartbreakers and co-founder of student-run record label Garbage Czar, calls the Administration "antagonistic." "For some reason," he says, "you can hold a classical music recital at 11 p.m. on the night before finals start, but getting a good space for a rock show and making it a community event is next to impossible." Residential college Deans and Masters are reluctant to let rock bands play shows in the spacious dining halls because of the noise that would reverberate throughout the college.

Nonetheless, a few Yale rock groups are able to coerce their way into a dining hall or are selected by the Yale College Council (YCC) to play on an outdoor stage during Spring Fling. The only space consistently available to bands is the Women's Center, which lacks a stage and is not much larger than an average classroom. The venue does have a certain garage-atmosphere charm, and Slade is grateful to the Center for providing a "place where people can come very peacefully and present a show." He notes, however, that "things get very hot and cramped" in the low-ceilinged, semi-subterranean room, especially when in the throes of the good, high-energy rock concerts.

Bands who are willing to play shorter sets can also perform at Six Feet Under, a poetry and music event held every three weeks in the Calhoun Cabaret. Solo acts get 15-minute sets at Six Feet Under, and full-fledged bands get a half-hour to play. The show is especially popular with newcomers to the Yale rock scene because it provides previously unknown bands with an audience that's already there to see the surrounding acts. Sometimes this works to a band's disadvantage, however. Sam Grossman, DC '03, guitarist for Brit-poppers the Pinups, doesn't like the "tenuous mixture of music and poetry" at Six Feet Under. When the Pinups played there last fall, Grossman felt that it was distracting to be "a rock band competing with poets, who draw very different crowds."

Despite the show's problems, Pearly Sweets finds Six Feet Under to be a "good resource for meeting other musicians." This is important for many aspiring rockers who have a hard time filling out spots in their would-be bands. Singer/guitarist Dan Sobo, SM '03, came to Yale hoping to form a standard bass-drums-guitar group but had a hard time tearing people away from other extracurricular activities. "People don't seem to think [playing music] is important enough...There are so many who think being in a band simply means telling people at parties, `Hey, I'm in a band.'" Some musicians point to Yale's strong theater community as a good resource for making connections: Pearly Sweets met his bandmates through their mutual involvement in a stage tribute to David Bowie. A few years ago, students also formed the Performing Musicians' Cooperative (PMC), a loose-knit group that was designed to promote concerts, help introduce musicians to one another, and generally unite the scattered Yale rock community. Unfortunately, the PMC has not been very active during the past year, but the e-mail list remains a useful tool. No groupies here

Once bands get underway, they can take advantage of Garbage Czar, Yale's student-run record label. This year Garbage Czar released albums by Pearly Sweets and the Platonics and The 1 a.m. Radio, Hrishikesh Hirway's, MC '00, solo project. "Garbage Czar is the best thing that's happened to the Yale rock community," Pearly Sweets says enthusiastically. "It turns each record release into a community event." Co-founder Slade is a bit more humble about his label, emphasizing its historical value: "We're just trying to make sure that bands don't dissolve and leave Yale's consciousness once they end their four-year tenure here." Garbage Czar isn't the only option for student bands looking to distribute their albums—rap-rockers Six Pack Annie released an EP independently.

Unfortunately, producing an album isn't very rewarding if the community isn't open to hearing it. "I wish the album would have sold better," Pearly Sweets sighs. Even if a band is successful, Yalies don't always have their ear to the ground when it comes to rock. Grossman finds the Yale audience to be "lukewarm," and Slade agrees that "there's an atmosphere of mixed receptiveness." Still, Slade says that "a lot of kids are favorable to live music," and bands just need to advertise heavily in order to spread the word. Sobo has taken a different track, playing several small impromptu shows in friends' suites to build support. Pearly Sweets, on the other hand, thinks that Yalies are "more receptive to subtlety," and took a reverse approach to achieving popularity by filming a mockumentary entitled Pearly Sweets: A Decade in Music that helped him build a fictional cult of stardom.

Other obstacles on the path to building a strong rock community at Yale are the rifts between various bands. In particular, Slade perceives a divide between indie-rock acts like The Trumbull City Heartbreakers and Arcaro and rap-based groups like Six Pack Annie and Nuts in Your Mouth (NIYM). According to Slade, "Everybody's coming in with this attitude that only what they're doing is legit and pure." Although each band "claims that their mission is the same," Slade doesn't see many groups supporting each other by attending concerts or even through positive comments to one another.

Although Yale's music scene may currently seem a bit languid, it's important to keep in mind that the University has always rocked in fits and starts. During the early '80s and mid-'90s, Yale sustained a vibrant rock community that was full of creative bands and frequent concerts. It seems that it's only a matter of time before some fresh group of musicians kicks off the next Golden Age of rock.

The artists interviewed are full of advice for those willing to try. Most agree that initiative and flexibility are crucial. Sobo encourages prospective rockers to "start finding people to play with early in the year," and Grossman adds, "try to be as open-minded as you can, because everybody has different opinions on music." Slade remains optimistic that things will eventually fall into place, advising incoming musicians simply to "throw on those shirts with band names on them...eventually someone's going to come up to you and start a conversation."

Graphic by Shawn Cheng.

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