Dara Littig, member of newly formed band Snorkel Party talks to the Sun about her music, the band and their upcoming show at The Shop.

It’s always a pleasant surprise to find a student band that doesn’t, well, suck, and it’s even rarer to find one that truly has its sound together. Enter Upstate Escape, a trio comprised of John Norwood grad on vocals and guitar, Chris Bentley ’10 (who also writes for the Daily Sun’s science Section) on bass and Ryan Silvernail, whom his bandmates describe simply as a townie, on drums. Their new album, The Balls Tight LP, features fast-paced, punk-inflected tunes a la Arctic Monkeys and Jet, with a nice dose of Ivy League irony mixed in. On Monday, the Sun sat down for a chat with John and Chris and explored everything from iTunes censorship to fat girls on bikes.

Upstate Escape

He make beats, he raps ... he apparently even freestyles on the harmonica, a fun fact which I learned this afternoon during an impromptu performance while I prepared to learn all about the man behind the music. From where I’m sitting (in his studio, where all the magic happens) it seems as though there isn’t much that Cornell’s own Brody Ehrlich ’10, also known as “Brodyman,” can’t do...

Sun: So Brodyman, tell me about what you do.

Brody Ehrlich: Basically, what I do is music production, I make a lot of hip hop and R&B beats for a few different artists, the main one being my friend Mitch Raw from home who I grew up with.

Sun: How does that work?

The concerts that college students go to these days aren’t in classical music halls. Kanye West and Coldplay never perform with music stands, a conductor in black tie or formal seating; concerts take place in big outdoor stadiums and small bar venues. College kids assume that concerts involve a thumping bass, crowd surfing, intoxicated people — you know the story. On Monday, however, a group of Cornell’s undergraduate composers presented Contrapunkt! — a “counterpoint” to the usual collegiate concert.

The concert defied two concert traditions. It wasn’t your parent’s classical performance of romantic Debussy or soundtrack-worthy Tchaikovsky concertos; Cornell’s undergraduate composers were more interested in breaking the historic grammar of western music.