Schoolhouse rock in a cityscape

By Ariana Falk

We live in a city bursting at the seams with musical talent, but the occasional Saturday night excursion to Toad's is the most that many Yalies ever hear of it. The four Yale musicians that formed Turn it Up think it's time that students have a chance to appreciate the legion of talented bands that surround us, both on and off campus.

The new organization seeks to bring Yale bands closer to the vibrant New Haven scene by planning concerts that involve musicians from both entities; their first show will take place at 9 p.m. this Friday at the Women's Center. The inaugural event features two Yale bands, Skin the Goat and General Tso and the Tenderbites, as well as the Fairfield electronic band Shallow Breathing.

COURTESY CABEZA DE VACA All hands on frets! Yale student bands chart their courses through New Haven.

The three members of Skin the Goat first conceived of a Yale-New Haven music alliance as they tried in vain to find opportunities to perform as a fledgling band. "It was really frustrating to start out," Turn it Up Co-president Simeon Papacostas, BK '02, said. "We bounced around the idea of a group to help organize shows on campus, and hopefully to bring in a lot of local New Haven bands, too." If showcases for poetry and art were so common and so successful, they thought, why not create a musical organization in the same vein?

How did they come up with the name? "Skin the Goat was playing at a Six Feet Under show," Skin the Goat guitarist Garrett Schneider, TC '02, explained. "Right in the middle of my solo, some organizer girl stands up in front of the band and asks if we could turn it down. Well, Simeon was so angry! `Don't turn it down, turn it up!' he said. And that's what we want to do with our group—never turn it down, turn it up."

One of the goals of Turn it Up is to foster appreciation of what Skin the Goat drummer Hart Squires, SY '03, called an "incredible and incredibly under-appreciated" music scene in the New Haven area. "Everyone knows about Toad's, but hardly anyone knows that there are three or four amazing clubs within walking distance," he said. "In fact, there are probably eight or nine shows every night of the week that nobody ever hears of."

Turn It Up member Mary Bennett, PC '02, is native of Clinton, Conn., and grew up experiencing the richness of the shoreline coffeehouse music scene. "There's a whole other world out there," she said, "and it's not that people are afraid of it—they just don't know about it." She can quote a laundry list of clubs in the area: the Tune Inn in New Haven, the Warehouse in Branford, the El & Gee Club in New London, the Arts Barn in Madison. Turn It Up would like to encourage students to take advantage of those shows, and eventually hopes to help Yale bands find gigs at off-campus venues.

COURTESY SKIN THE GOAT

In order to get the word out about local music events, the organization plans to create an e-mail database of concert announcements and a forum to advertise extra tickets. In addition, the Turn It Up founders said that they regularly go to local shows in hopes of recruiting local bands to participate in joint concerts with campus musicians.

The Skin the Goat members said that Bennett's connections to the local music scene have been invaluable. Bennett, who created a coffeehouse program in high school that continues to this day, said that she feels that Turn It Up is an idea that's always been brewing for her. "It's part of my roots—I've never lost those ties, never lost those friendships," she said. "That's why I feel it can do so much for the Yale and New Haven communities."

It was music, of course, that first drew the members of Turn It Up together. Schneider and Papacostas met during their freshman year, when they were fellow residents of Bingham. "Sepultura was playing at Toad's, and I wanted to go, but I was scared to go alone," Schneider explained. "And I knew there was this kid who was always blasting Limp Bizkit out of his window, so one day I asked him if he wanted to go. Well, that turned out to be Simeon, and we've been playing together since."

The two spotted Squires wearing a Zildjian shirt at last year's freshman bazaar, and grabbed him as their drummer straightaway. "Music is such a big part of my life that I gravitate toward people who love it as much as I do," Squires said. The Skin the Goat members met Bennett at Toad's, during last year's "Battle of the Bands" at Spring Fling. They found that they'd all been thinking about starting such an alliance, and decided that it was time to turn their dream into reality.

COURTESY ARCARO

Despite enthusiastic responses from the student community, the incipient organization has already faced administrative problems. Schneider says that their main obstacle has been finding a venue for their shows. "College masters hear `rock & roll,' and they immediately think `loud, noisy, don't want it in my college,'" Schneider said. Friday's show, originally booked in the Cabaret, was asked to relocate because the LSATs take place Saturday morning.

Turn It Up expects to face even more difficulty finding performance space if it eventually invites New Haven community members to the joint shows. "It takes a lot of special permission to allow New Haven locals to campus shows, and I understand that," Papacostas said. "Problem is, a lot of Yalies wouldn't pay $5 to get into Toad's, even if we were able to play shows there." The founders said they would be excited to use the new performance space that is slated to open on Broadway. Eventually, Papacostas said he envisions putting together a big outdoor show, involving perhaps four bands, and opening it to the whole community.

Eventually, the members of Turn It Up hope that the scope of their project goes beyond the local music scene. Bennett talks about creating "chill sessions" with bands, perhaps at teen-oriented sessions in which a band might play a set and then give high school students the chance to talk with the musicians. "Our ultimate goal is to strengthen Yale-New Haven relations," she said. "We could give people a chance to get to know kids from New Haven." Squires said he'd like to see bands play at local community centers.

The founders of Turn it Up say that they have no doubt that music is a powerful tool with which to reach the public. "I've always been about trying to reach people through music," Squires said. "It's as good a way to connect with people as any."

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