With Spring Quarter winding down and the inevitable finals squeeze no longer just a murmur, four Ohio bands will converge at Baker Theatre to give students a much-needed respite from dusty textbooks.
Playing a heavy, ethereal mash, Bluf is a band that wants people to view
things differently, said Ian Mellencamp, the band's vocalist/guitarist.
We want people to branch out and look beyond what they think they know
he said.
Formed as a high school band in Cincinnati in 2002, Bluf has quietly ' so to speak ' risen to local prominence and cultivated a devoted following. The band consists of Ben Rubin on drums, Evan Rubin on bass, Elliott Rubin on guitar/vocals and Mellencamp, the only non-sibling.
I guess my job is to make sure we're not Hanson Mellencamp said.
Bluf is striving not just for authenticity, but for longevity, Mellencamp said.
In the mainstream music business it's all about what sells and what looks good he said. It's very material driven
lacking important
lasting things.
Joining the atmospheric rock of Bluf are emo rockers Shineout Libretto of Columbus, Athens' own Red Dahlia and Return of Simple, a piano-driven, Cleveland-based combo.
Relying on pop sensibility and a knack for lush compositions, Return of Simple is a band formed at music school that can't extinguish the academic influence ' not that they would want to.
I think it's really something to embrace rather than shun
said bassist Gary Thobaben. A lot of times in rock bands there seems to be an anti-establishment
anti-academic approach to music. We just want to play music as best we can and understand it as best we can.
Pianist/vocalist Rob Kovacs and guitarist Tim Fisher formed the band at Baldwin-Wallace College originally as a Radiohead cover band. After they grew tired of mirroring rock demigods and Fisher departed for graduate school, Joe Scale signed on to play drums and Thobaben jumped aboard.
Falling somewhere in the latest upsurge of baroque pop stunners such as Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens, Return of Simple's sound can be simplified to a mathematical equation.
We sound like Radiohead minus guitars and electronics plus Ben Folds minus musical theater influence because he (Folds) writes some stuff that's fun
kind of campy
and we don't really do that
Thobaben said.
