Play Magazine Interview 6-15-05

Styrocultural Antidote

"Styroculture," according to the website of guitarist Ronnie Neuhauser's No Cheez Records, is a term referring to "manufacturing the false dogma of cheap, meaningless, mindless things."

Cheap, meaningless, and mindless - sorta like way too much mainstream music. Neuhauser's "Antidote" to all that mediocrity is an electric instrumental trio featuring himself, Fred Melillo on bass, and Jim Townsend on drums. He describes their sound as "experimental fusion" with both written and improvised elements.

"It's kind of very eclectic rock/funk/Latin/avant-garde," says Neuhauser of the trio. "We do a mix of some very orchestrated ideas but we also have a lot of improvisation - it's about half and half, and we'll often go into wide open improvs... a lot of our compositions are even written that way, where one section is orchestrated and the rest is open, so you get a good blend. I have some of my own musical theories I've been working on and we're kind of incorporating those sound textures into the stuff we're doing."

In addition to Styrocultural Antidote, the prolific Neuhauser also heads up a five-piece band with vocals, performs spoken word pieces, and is putting together an groove-rock/spoken word opera called Gangr'ear - and for an artist as multifaceted as he is, Ideat Village is an unbeatable performance venue.

"I love the fact that Ideat Village leans more toward avant-garde and progressive ideas - that's the kind of thing we're into," he says. "All of the art will be great to see, and all the other bands... I'm open to everything, I'm very open to eclectic things and I think that's what's so awesome about the festival.

"I don't think there's enough of that out there, I think too many events are very commercial and they shut people out - and a fest like this really opens things up for people."