Hide Article Text (OCR)
SdllXJi. , UJJUj ucpai UilClIl. f wrvuwt V1VUM*Local Rock Bands Provide EntertainmentBy JERALD R. SILVERIn the Ithaca area—especially on big weekends—there is a large demand for rock and rollbands.Cornell, no less party-loving, mixer-oriented, or weekend-minded than anywhere else, supplies about a dozen of the bands playing locally.Student rock and roll bands usually can make from about $150 to $400 for a night’s performance. Top groups sometimes receive up to $100 an hour which is more per hour than most Cornell graduates will receive.To form a student band, a group of musicians must first supply about $5,000 worth of equipment. It is then necessary to practice once or twice a week (of course assuming a place to practice can be found) in addition to one or two performances a week. Also, band members must give up their weekends to play. Once established, the life of an average rock band is about two years.One group playing locally iscalled “The Rancid Yaks.” Their name allegedly comes from Rancid Yak Dairy Products which was heard by one of the members of the band over the radio.They play rhythm and blues in a style similar to that of “The Blues Project” or the PauU Butterfield Band,” and are also working with some original material. John Sabin ’67 said that their music is like “taking folk music and putting it through 50 watts.”“The Ratchets,” probably the only group to use an old Dairy Queen truck to get to and from jobs, consists of three female vocalists and four backup men. At present they play mostly motown rock and roll but were a “gross” band when they acquired their name.Steve N e w h o u se, now a Queens College student who commutes to Ithaca to play with the Ratchets, is their lead guitarist. Newhouse was a member of “The Mojos” before theydisbanded (pun intended) because of members leaving school for various reasons.“The Gross National Product” is not a gross band as its name might suggest. They are more of what might be called “ethnic rock and roll.”The band, according to David Mitchell ’66, plays songs from the flip sides of records and tries to play songs which aren’t the kind which can be heard over and over again on the radio. Mitchell said that often on jobs the members of the band want to play “good soul blues” while their audience wants to hear “I want to do it with you.”“Oz and the Ends,” a well-known band on campus are more of a rhythm and blues band than pure rock band. They wear mod clothes as do members of “The Masque.” The latter recently made a recording of “Black is Black” which, one of the band members said, is popular in Buffalo and other places.
Newspaper Details
Ithaca Cornell Daily Sun
Ithaca, New York, US
Tue, Oct 25, 1966
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Feb 2019
Other Publications Near Ithaca, New York
Ithaca Daily Journal
Ithaca Ithacan
Ithaca American Journal
Ithaca Cornell Daily Sun
