I-L-L!
I-A-C?
Wait a second, that’s not how that goes. What gives?
Well, there’s a new festival coming to downtown Urbana called the ILLIAC Spring Festival, that’s what. The fest is taking place on May 10th, and will be making some noise in a rapidly changing (for the better) portion of C-U.
You can check out all the information and description of the event over at the site (linked above), and check out the details for this free festival. Yes, you read that correctly — FREE. Here’s the lineup:
Four piece skuzz/garage rock outfit Those Darlins will be heading up the inaugural installment of ILLIAC, and they’re riding off of their newest release Blur The Line from the end of last year. They pretty much brought the house down with wild style of rock ‘n roll at Pygmalion 2010 at the IMC, and they are heading back through for this performance.
A trio with quite the track record of solid projects, Their / They’re / There is the newest endeavor of these three fellows. You most likely have heard of ’em, Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It), Mike Kinsella (Owen, American Football, Cap’n Jazz, Owls), and Matthew Frank (Loose Lips Sink Ships). Math-rock/emo/indie rock is what you could call them, but check out their EPs from last year to get an idea of what you’re in for with this.
LOCALS
SUN STEREO :: Kelly McMorris and his crew Sun Stereo have been performing plenty in recent months, and they’re truly one of the best live bands in town. Hell, they’re even lined up to perform at Summercamp this year.
SWORDS :: Coming off of an excellent 2013 with the release of Depth, Swords terrific LP was one of the best from last year, hands down. Hip hop emcee with a live band has everything good going on.
JACK ANTHONY & THE DESPERADOES :: This outfit came out with a split release with An Evening With Your Mother Last year, that garnered some good attention, and for good reason.
BONES JUGS N HARMONY :: Their self-given description of “Bones, Jug, Xylophone, kazoos, steel pan resonator guitar, banjo, double bass, drums, all sorts of noise makers” pretty much hits the nail on the head with this one.
EMILY OTNES :: Local singer-songwriter Emily Otnes performs solo from time to time, as well as sharing time with her backing band the Weekdays. You can check out some of her material at her Bandcamp for a taste of her sound.
BARROWE :: This trio is a solid pairing with T / T / T, as emo/math-rock collides. They released some material with The Stars, They Beckon last year that is definitely worth checking out.
And three DJs that will be spinning throughout the day are DJ BELLY, DJ KOSMO and DJ MERTZ. Boom.