New Day Here New Music to Here

In the past few years, Bloomington-Normal has had a thriving music scene. While this may not have been apparent to the average Illinois Wesleyan student for those looking for off campus musical entertainment, a well connected DIY house show scene existed. Houses like Simple Days, The Kitchen, and Das Fun Haus put on shows nearly every weekend during the school year. Shows were actually in houses; the Kitchen gets its name because bands literally perform in the kitchen of the house. Each house had a specialty as well. Das Fun Haus would mainly have hardcore punk shows, Simple Days would host post-rock and post-hardcore groups, and The Kitchen would occasionally put together a hip hop show together.

The bands that performed were a combination of local groups along with bands from around the Midwest that toured around playing similar DIY venues. To an extent Bloomington-Normal had become part of a large Midwestern underground DIY subculture. By the end of Spring Semester 2009 many things changed: the operators of Das Fun Haus graduated from Illinois State, the guys at Simple Days moved to Chicago, and The Kitchen had already become mostly defunct after IWU student Jason Prechtel graduated early in winter 2008.

In order to regain this community spirit, local musician Teaadora Nikolova has been putting on a series of monthly concerts called New Month Here New Music to Hear. The first took place in January at Maison Fausse where eight acts performed. Many of these same artists also performed again at the second installment which took place February 1st. This show was a little different taking place during Big Jim’s Jams, a radio show on WESN 88.1 FM, regular ten to midnight show.

The newest of these concerts took place last Friday at The Kitchen, which still puts on shows to a limited degree. In order to exhibit as many local talents as possible each performer is limited to only one or two songs. Teaadora tried to change up the format for this latest show, “Unlike the last Blo-No community event, we are asking everyone to play new songs, on top of this we are attempting to bring in as many new faces as possible to play, this time things really will be new,” she said.

Teaadora Nikolova performing at The Kitchen

With the recent breakup of local indie folk act Ohtis, Teaadora Nikolova seems to be the new defacto leader of the Bloomington-Normal music scene. As she has for the last two events, Teaadora began the show playing two new songs by herself on electric guitar. Teaador’s music is of the psychedelic folk variety combining beautifully direct melodies with very droning ambient music. Though with some exceptions, acoustic folk punk duo The Night Brigade, most of the evening’s bands consisted of more noisy, ambient acts compared to the singer-songwriters of the two previous shows.

From the more ambient side was Kyle Brewer performing under the name Tents. With his guitar and an array of effects pedals, Brewer densely layered his guitar and voice to create ambient pop songs. Later Brewer, collaborated with Kyle Riley under the names Hastas and created more loop based music though incorporating some samples a la Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black emperor. Illinois State sophomore Kyle Riley has played at the last two events, using similar instrumentation as the other Kyle though his more direct, emotive melodies are helping him to become a rising figure in the local music scene.

Kyle Riley playing in Hastas

The more noisy spectrum was fully realized by Chicago based The Kremlin. The group features members of Pommel, Death Factory, and William Sides Atari Party. The trio created terrifying noise soundscapes using a wide variety of equipment. Playing around the living room table the group employed the use of keyboards, numerous effects pedals and turned mysterious knobs on even more mysterious metal boxes. The most interesting box they used was an Altoids tin with two knobs.

Michael Krause of The Kremlin

As evidenced by the large turnout at last Friday’s event the biggest issue now facing the music series is the lack of a proper venue. The Kitchen is very small and difficult to fit many people in its performing space. Teaadora tried to rectify this by setting up bands in the living room and in a bedroom. For the next event, to be held sometime in March, Teaadora will need to find a venue that will help to maintain the DIY spirit while allowing a growing number to enjoy the sounds of Bloomington-Normal

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