Ice Cream is a local band with a deliciously sweet name and a curiously exciting sound. But sadly, the five-guy psychedelic rock crew is skipping town for good.
After tearing up eardrums across South Florida for the past two years, Ice Cream's Thomas Kennedy, Justin Anthony Rivers, Roy Neil Hunter, Joel Gutman, and Alex Lashley are done with all of us. The band's splitting for New York City. But not without putting together one last massive Miami-style bash.
The farewell party at EVE this Friday will be a weepy affair. But it's also gonna be a celebration of Ice Cream's debut LP, Good, which is actually really good.
The band will be playing its own party, of course, alongside Animal Tropical, This Heart Electric, and ten other bands. Guitarist Tomas Kennedy claims they'll still have the energy to party the next night, New Year's Eve.
Why exactly is Ice Cream heading north? "It's a mixture of boredom and trying something new," Kennedy says. "It's not our main priority, but we do hope to make money on our music because we invest money into it." There's also the lure of new venues in need of some Ice Cream. Plus, as Kennedy points out, it's geographically easier to tour out of NYC.
"Sometimes we may come off as arrogant assholes to certain people. But we do appreciate and love everyone in Miami. And we're going to miss everyone a lot," Kennedy says. (By the way, he totally doesn't come off as an asshole, not even an arrogant one.)
What makes Good different from Ice Cream's earlier EPs is the improved sound quality. "It's a collection of our better songs. The time we took to record it and making everything sound nice," Kennedy explains. His favorite song on the album is "Eat Zebra Meat," a cut "about cannibalism as a way to solve world hunger."
Even though they just released Good, Kennedy and crew are already working on a 20-song LP. The plan: As soon as 2012 hits, his bandmates -- Rivers, Hunter, Gutman - will be making the trip to New York while Kennedy and Lashley plan to flock north a few months later. Then the record will be mixed in NYC and released in March.
Of the other bands playing Thursday night's affair at EVE, Kennedy is excited to play again with This Heart Electric's Ricardo Guerrero, who recently returned from a national tour. About Something That'll Make Your Mama Smile, he's flattering, "These two girls from New World School and they have lovely voices. They're very talented. It's like poppy jazz, it's very good." Golden Totem is Benjamin Shahoulian's poetry project, which he says is "something else entirely."
The saddest thing, Kennedy says, about moving to NYC is leaving behind family and friends. "We want to thank everyone who supported us from the beginning, especially those who are still supporting us."
Aww ... Come out, give the guys a goodbye hug, and grab a copy of Good before Ice Cream becomes a bunch of superfamous, sometimes arrogant New York not-at-all assholes.
Ice Cream's Good Record Release and Farewell Party with Animal Tropical, This Heart Electric, Something That'll Make Your Mama Smile, Golden Totem, Raffa and Reiner, Dusthead, Krisp, Y-Diz, Dyslexic Postcards, Organicarma, No Emotion, and a guest DJ set by Moonfoo DJ E. Friday, December 30. EVE, 1306 N. Miami Ave., Miami. The party starts at 10 p.m. and admission costs $7. Call 305-995-5050 or visit miamieve.com.
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