This weekend marked the eighth anniversary of the SubZERO Festival. Featuring music from local and national musicians, food, drinks and plenty of local artists, it was only the second time the festival spanned two days. Check out our video by Metro interns Linh Nguyen and Raechel Price and view photos by Metro photographer Greg Ramar.

Band: Rin Tin Tiger.

View the entire gallery here.

This year’s SubZERO Festival boasts a lineup of top local and national talent.  From veteran punk rockers, Talky Tina, to acoustic warrior and hometown hero Brother Grand. The festival’s organizers even snagged the avant-punk duo and Sub Pop Records artist No Age. Here is our list of can’t-miss music at this year’s festival.

Eyes On The Shore: 7:15pm | Anno Domini Stage (Fri)
Just before their performance at Live 105’s sold-out BFD, Eyes On The Shore will be playing the Anno Domini stage on friday night. This four-piece indie rock outfit is local to San Francisco, formed from members of the band Ambiance Antrom Kury and Kayhan Golkar, who have been writing together for more than a decade. Joined by vocalist Cory Tauber and drummer Kyle Albery last year, the band put out their debut album A Golden Blue, which features dramatic drum and bass lines accompanied by melodic surf guitar rhythms to create a sound that reflects the band’s variety of influences, from ‘60s surf rock to blues to post-modern bands like Radiohead and Sigur Ros.

Rin Tin Tiger: 8:30pm | Anno Domini Stage (Fri)
Rin Tin Tiger, an alternative folk rock trio from San Francisco (with some members originally hailing from San Jose). This group carries the high-energy, lyric-heavy, acoustic guitar-lead sounds of modern folk music, while still aiming to retain a contemporary feel. Rin Tin Tiger pulls influences from a plethora of genres—anything from Bob Dylan to Morrisey to Tupac. Their new single, “Small Cuts That Bleed A Lot,” is full of introspective lyrics and a killer harmonica hook.

Picture Atlantic: 10:30pm | The People’s Park Stage (Fri)
Another pre-BFD performance by San Jose based Picture Atlantic will be headlining the People’s Park Stage Friday. Hailed by The Owl Mag as “an exquisite mix of thrilling, boppy synth highs, and dark, heavy bass lows,” the band’s 2012 album strives to push musical boundaries and create sounds that have both ingenuity and longevity. They have developed a bit of a cult following in the South Bay and have played alongside the likes of Coldplay, The English Beat, STYX, Say Anything, Eisley, and Dan Black.

Brother Grand: 9:30pm | The Secret Garden Stage
Psychedelic-folk rock duo Brother Grand will grab audiences with an engaging live performance Friday at the Secret Garden Stage. Each song, be it stripped down to a banjo and upright bass or screaming into a wall of electric sound, highlights the band’s passion and dynamic stage presence. Combining live loopings, chaotic string melodies, thunderous drums, and yes, even a rhodes piano, Brother Grand is mixing the best of folk, psychedelic, and “film-score soul,” proving they can push boundaries without completely breaking ties with their musical roots.

Scissors for Lefty: 7:15pm | Anno Domini Stage
Heading off Saturday’s set at the Anno Domini stage is SF-based Scissors for Lefty. Brothers James and Peter Krimmel started the band with Bryan Garza while attending college in San Luis Obispo. Garza’s energetic vocals lend an air of Brit-pop pretension to the band’s dance-punk vibe, standing tall among contemporaries like Arctic Monkeys and Panic! at the Disco. With their debut album Bruno turning 10 this year, Scissors for Lefty is an indie art pop band that still retains a high-energy dance pop feel and a sense of humor.

No Age: 9:45pm | Anno Domini Stage
Performing at 9:45pm Saturday at the Anno Domini stage is the LA-based punk duo No Age. No Age has the experimental qualities of more avant-garde noise pop while still remaining fundamentally punk rock. On their 2013 album An Object, produced by Sub Pop records, guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Spunt turn their carefully cultivated dream-punk sound on its head with melodies that are more emotional than they are technically perfect and drums that combine traditional lumber and steel with experimental sounds of contact mics and electric bass. Cut, packaged, and labeled by Spunt and Randall themselves, An Object is protest music to the core.

Talky Tina: 8:15pm | The Secret Garden Stage
Coming to the Secret Garden Stage on saturday is Talky Tina, a local band that boasts a Metro alum as one of its own. Started by former members of another San Jose band Odd Numbers in 2009, Talky Tina modernizes classic elements of punk and power pop. Talky Tina’s sophomore album Just a Little Broken has made them a staple of the reemerging San Jose punk scene.

There will also be a multitude of great art and crafts on display at SubZERO. Here are just a few that we’re excited about:

Black & Brown
SubZERO wouldn’t be complete without fashion. Come to the Black & Brown booth—one of the best vintage clothing shops in the South Bay—and check out their expertly cultivated collection of vintage wear.

SLG Publishing + APE-POP
This locally based comic books shop is about much more than super heroes. At SLG, you can find plenty of gritty, punchy and humorous 2D characters as well. Since 1986, Slave Labor Graphics Publishing has been at the cutting edge of independent comic book and graphic novel publishing. It is perhaps most notable for its dark and strange sense of humor. SLG will bring back the Alternative Press Expo, a showcase of non-mainstream artworks. Come and pick up some original comics from the Bay underground artists.

Spectrum Glass Art & Works/San Jose
The Glass Art Society’s 44th annual International Glass Conference is overlapping with this year’s SubZERO Festival. Check out SPECTRUM at Anno Domini and Enlightened Glass at Works/San Jose. Both exhibits aim to change the way you think about glass artwork. Much more than just decor, the pieces in these exhibits tell stories, express emotions and contemplate philosophy.

Current Tattooing
Current Tattooing will be displaying some of the best work they’ve done on that most precious of all canvases—the human body. Whether you’re completely inked, are considering taking the plunge, or just appreciate the artwork, stop by the Current Tattooing booth.

For more information on SubZERO, click here.

SubZero festival was back in the SoFA District over the weekend with its first two-day lineup highlighting the best of San Jose’s arts subculture.

We asked a few attendees what they like most about the festival. Share your thoughts in our comments section.

SEE MORE: Photos from SubZero Festival

“I love the vibe. I love the weather. I love folk artists and the local artists. It has been fantastic; I especially love the reclaimed clothing,” ~ Justin de Cinu | Toronto

Rachel Di Gregorio (left) and Andrea Marinez

“What I like about the SubZero festival is that there are note many festivals like this around the area. In brings a lot of different kinds of people together for a really good cause—beautiful art. I like about it has lot of local stuff and it’s neighborhood friendly.” ~ Andrea Martinez | San Jose

“For one thing, it is local in San Jose and it is walkable and accessible. Mostly the culture that is here is unique. Its fresh, fun,and there is a lot to see. Seeing upcoming brands and everyone trying to get their brand out is always great and to find out what is new.” ~ Robert Toledo | San Jose

“It’s my first year here and I really enjoy the arts and seeing the artists. I liked the exhibit with the models posing and seeing all the people dressed up—it is very unique.” ~ Carol Bautista

“What I’m saying is we get ‘Super Freak’ in there and get the audience clapping,” says Dominic “Goldenchyld” Cueto as he cues up the familiar bass line at a rehearsal. It loops as members of San Jose Taiko nod their heads and rearrange themselves, heaving their big drums into the next configuration.

Cueto and Aaron “Squareweezy” Aquino of the Bangerz DJ collective sit behind laptops, turntables and tangles of wires in San Jose Taiko’s warehouse practice space, facing the drummers. Taiko’s artistic director, Franco Imperial, directs the performers and at times jumps in himself as the two groups iron out the wrinkles for their upcoming collaborative show at the Montgomery Theater on June 15.

Anyone who caught their first show together at the 2010 SubZERO festival knows what to expect. Even the YouTube video communicates the intense energy the two groups bring to the stage: the six members of the Bangerz rocking to the beat as they twist knobs and tap pads, San Jose Taiko in front of them thudding their drums in precise choreography. Everything stops. Then the beat drops, and the crowd goes nuts.

“In 2010, that was the big surprise because we didn’t know how audiences would react to it,” Imperial says. “I knew it was going to be awesome, but the audience reaction was just overwhelming. We were supposed to be kind of stoic [and] straight-faced, but then just this wave of energy came from the audience. It just touches something on a very primal level.”

Cueto follows up: “A DJ is solely playing music through speakers, and when you hear that you become very used to it. And now, when you add taiko and that live element, you’re listening in 3D almost. There’s an element of power that goes beyond what’s coming out of the speakers.”

The easy hook to reach for is the traditional Japanese drumming contrasted with the high-tech electronic production, the simplicity of the big drums and sticks juxtaposed with the bird’s nest of wires and electronics, but the story is more complicated than that and the contrast not as pronounced as it might first appear.

While taiko has been around in Japan in one form or another for thousands of years, the familiar ensemble style of taiko, called kumi daiko, actually originated relatively recently. In 1951, a Japanese jazz drummer named Daihachi Oguchi began to bring groups of drummers together to play, rather than the usual single drummer.

The new style was imported to the United States, and in 1968 the first organized group made its debut in San Francisco. By 1973, San Jose Taiko was founded in Japantown, making it the third-oldest American taiko group.

When San Jose Taiko first hinted at another collaboration with the Bangerz, Imperial says the idea received varied reactions. “The younger generation said we’re totally gonna be there,” he says, but some of the older audience members were skeptical and more attracted to the “classics” of San Jose Taiko.

Pigeonholing the group as staid, though, can be misleading. When the ensemble was founded by Roy Hirabayashi, he never intended to remain exclusively traditional without pushing the art forward, Imperial says.

“They were looking for a way to use taiko to express themselves as Asian Americans,” Imperial says. “That’s why the early music for us has influences of swing, jazz and R&B.”

Imperial says he still has older audience members who ask for “pure taiko,” but that is something that must be defined. “This is more San Jose Taiko than anything,” he says.

The Bangerz experience a similar struggle with categorization. With six DJs and producers all bringing different influences to the table, their songs easily become a eclectic mix of hip-hop and various electronic-music genres. But with this difficulty of categorization comes a certain freedom and the ability to try projects like the new one they are working on with San Jose Taiko.

Aquino likes to describe the two groups’ mix of styles as “chocolate and peanut butter” and, watching them perform, the comparison makes sense. Each group has a distinct sound and style—the swagger of the DJs, the controlled seriousness of the drummers—but they complement each other perfectly.

For one song in the new show, the taiko drummers start out with a row of bells, weaving quick rhythms between the high and low tones over cymbals and thumping drums. They fade it down, bring it back up, then the Bangerz drop a snare on the backbeat, and it all clicks naturally.
“[San Jose Taiko listens] to our tracks, and sometimes they hear things that we didn’t even realize were in them,” Cueto says. “They hear certain things in the music that we didn’t, but we understand how they could come up with that.”

Although the performance on June 15 is sold out, San Jose Taiko and the Bangerz say a tour of California could be in the works.

An annual highlight in the SoFA District, the SubZERO Festival drew thousands of people out for a night of art, music and entertainment in San Jose.

Photos by Metro photographer Geoffrey Smith II.

Now in its sixth year, SubZERO’s reputation for being San Jose’s coolest event hasn’t diminished. In fact, it’s become the day of the year that many San Jose residents invite their San Francisco friends to come down and see that amazing things really do happen here.

It isn’t any one thing that makes the festival so special. There is a sense that anything at SubZERO is possible. Art and music aren’t just happening on stages, they can be seen and heard on the streets, in booths and hidden in any and all obscure corners of the SoFA District, waiting to be discovered
What also makes SubZERO, arriving June 7, somewhat of an anomaly is that the festival connects the different art and music scenes in the area in a way no other event has managed to do in San Jose.

The city always seems to struggle to link up the fragmented segments of the arts scenes.
Organizers Brian Eder and Cherry Lakey, of Anno Domini Gallery, somehow bring artists out from their obscure nooks of the city and get them to share the small three-block space of South First Street.

“It’s meant to be a snapshot of our local culture, which is also an echo of something larger we all feel connected to,” Eder says. “We’re really out to be inspired ourselves. I think it helps us to communicate with the culture that we love because we’re not just on the outside looking in. For us it’s an annual celebration.”

While a lot of unexpected gems will be the best parts of SubZERO, there are a lot of high-profile musical acts booked on the different stages. Even on these designated stages, bands feel a heightened obligation to bring an extra layer of creativity to their performance. This is SubZERO, after all. Some highlights this year:

Corpus Callosum
No band better epitomizes the spirit of SubZERO than Corpus Callosum; the band has played the festival every year except the first. With their blend of indie-folk songs, puppetry and full-scale theatrical numbers, Corpus Callosum always brings something different to SubZERO.
One year, Corpus Callosum took up a large portion of the street for an interactive puppet show. At another performance, they showed off their new touring bus by playing a set inside it with the audience also crouched inside. This year, they will be playing the Secret Garden Stage. Singer Dax Tran-Caffee will also be putting on a puppet show with his side project Villainette.

Mad Noise
New to SubZERO comes the East Bay’s Mad Noise, an eclectic indie-folk troupe with elements of jazz and blues (band members play guitars, drums, upright bass, cello, harmonica and trumpet). They got their start as buskers, but now play any and every type of show—though they still busk once a week on Saturdays at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market. Typically, their sets include mostly covers, which are completely reimagined. At SubZERO, they’ll be doing an electric set on the Anno Domini stage, playing mostly originals off their forthcoming LP.

Haptic Synapses
Another SubZERO favorite, these three local electronic producers break ground by essentially doing live electronic improvisation and jamming with each other with machines, making fresh beats and songs on the spot. It’s all live, so sometimes something goes wrong. Some of the equipment they use, they fashioned themselves, like the Beatseqr, which Steve Cooley built from the ground up. They’ll be playing the Gore Park Stage. This year for the first time, they are incorporating a light show and projected images while they play.

Brother Grand
Ben Henderson has been a part of SubZERO in one form or another for several years. In 2009, his band Good Hustle collaborated with San Jose Taiko and marched down First Street in a big parade before getting onstage. This year, he performs on the Anno Domini Stage with his new group, Brother Grand, with him on vocals and acoustic guitar and Endika (Panthelion) on upright bass. The duo plays stripped-down versions of Henderson’s heartfelt solo material, with some new material they’ve written. Their dueling guitar work is gorgeous. They’ll even be selling CDs made especially for SubZERO.

Halo Between
Lakey and Eder met Rick Maciel, the principal member of Halo Between, at his recent residency at the Montalvo Arts Center. Though he lives in Mexico, he travels around the world playing with anyone who will join him. His act is a strange take on electronic music. He samples, mics and electronically manipulates children’s musical instruments. It’s dazzling to watch, but the final product is also quite spectacular. He sings over it, too, so there is somewhat of an accessible pop element, making it that much more amazing. He plays the Gore Park Stage.

More Info.

After first debuting a collaboration with San Jose Taiko at Subzero Festival in 2010, the Bangerz is working with the traditional Asian drumming performance group again for a joint performance in San Jose.

For the show schedule June 15 at the Montgomery Theater, the two groups want to expand on the original idea introduced at the Subzero Festival.

“I think a lot of people came out of curiosity, but it was kind of like the chocolate and peanut butter effect. It was an epic night,” says Bangerz DJ Aaron “Squareweezy” Aquino.

As of now, the show is mostly finished and will run approximately an hour and twenty minutes with new material.

“We thought it would be cool to merge forces one more time and extend on what we did,” Aquino says. “It will touch on San Jose Taiko’s 40th anniversary and It’s also going to the Bangerz’ 15 year anniversary.”

The plan is to do one show and potentially expand, depending on interest.

“A lot of our music is electronic, 808 drums and hard-hitting synths,” Aquino says. “I think it hits a different note in people when you hear those loud Taiko drums [and see] their choreography combined with the drums, both visually and sonically.”

A Kickstarter campaign, running through May 27, was launched to help offset production costs.

Anyone who was disappointed when the Minibosses didn’t play their version of the Legend of Zelda theme at Subzero—hey, there are more of us than you think—can take some comfort in the knowledge that an entire show will be devoted to the themes from various games in the series when the “Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses” tour comes to the San Jose Civic on September 7.

A bit of explanation for the unitiatiated: Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda games have featured some of the best video game music of all time. Many of us can remember the spooky theme of the original echoing in our heads all day after being up all night trying to help Link fix that damn Triforce of Wisdom and hook up with the princess.

There are long, drawn out and sometimes heated debates across the Internet about which Zelda games have the best music, but here is the line-up of games touched on for this new four-movement symphony to be performed by a full orchestra: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 15 at 10am, through Ticketmaster.

After a decade together, local indie-folk-band-meets-theater-art-troupe, Corpus Callosum, decided they wanted to take their show on the road. Between all the instruments, props and band members, touring would be no small affair. So they made a kickstarter with a minimum of $5,500 to help buy a bus. In the end they raised $7,443 and were able to buy a vehicle with as much character to it as they have.

“The bus is an old North Carolina school district vehicle that a couple of park rangers converted into an RV and drove out to California with their kids,” says singer Dax Tran-Caffee. “We bought it off of them down in Pinnacles National Monument. Two days later we brought it to SubZERO as a bit of a test run.”

It was perfect timing too since Corpus Callosum are known for always bringing unexpected performances to SubZERO. This time around they put on an intimate show inside the bus. A handful of people, as many as 12 at a time, crammed inside the bus and watch a few songs, then a new batch would rotate out. Corpus Callosum don’t have plans to play inside the bus on tour, but there are other ways to use their vehicle for live shows in the future. “It wouldn’t be out of the question to have a functional stage on the roof by this time next year,” Tran-Caffee says.

The tour dates are still being finalized, but they are for sure starting in Austin on July 12th and concluding at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on August 16th. Thoughts of their first tour are exciting and scary.

“Heading out on tour is really nerve racking. We’re doing everything we can to prepare, but we’re also stepping out into the unknown. We won’t know if anyone will actually show up to the shows until we hit each stage, so we don’t really know if we’ll be making as much money in each town to keep going as planned. We don’t yet know where we’re sleeping each night, or if we can actually handle being in each other’s company for those 14-hour drives, although having such a spacious bus is quite a blessing in that regard,” says Tran-Caffee.

For More information, check out Corpus Callosum’s website.

The artsy chaos on South First Street at Subzero makes for great spectacle. At the 2012 edition on Friday, there was once again plenty to see, starting with the return of Art Alive Gallery. This body-painting collective debuted at the 2011 festival, but they really upped their game this year. Semi-nude women decked out head to toe in body paint as everything from mythological creatures to art masterpieces inspired by Botticelli and Dali would be enough to stop traffic in any city, but on this night in SoFA they were just one of many unbelievable things to see and hear.

So yes, Subzero continues to be the South Bay’s coolest street festival, and the sensory overload is its most obvious appeal. But to me, Subzero is really about discovery. The reason people look forward to it so much is that it’s become the place for artists from across a wide range of subcultures to show off what they’re working on the rest of the year. There is eye-opening stuff happening around us every day in the South Bay, but it’s hidden inside San Jose’s industrial warehouses or behind the shiny gleam of tech offices.

A perfect example this year was Dru, the masked headliner on the William Street Stage. Here’s a guy who was making music and games in his South Bay bedroom, releasing albums mostly in Internet obscurity, and suddenly he’s headlining the biggest street festival of the year? He even had three of the Art Alive painted ladies dancing on stage through his set—which was, by the way, the craziest electro barrage I’ve heard in quite some time. His unique take on the Star Wars cantina band theme was particularly inspired.

That’s the genius of festival organizers (and Anno Domini owners) Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder. They pay attention to all of the subcultures around us, and have an irrepressible drive to connect them to each other, and to themselves, and to us. I didn’t get to see nearly as many of the bands as I’d planned to, just because there was so much art to look at, plus excellent randomness like the Oversocial Mofo Revue. But I did get to hear a few of the weirder stage offerings, like the Minibosses ripping through some of my favorite Nintendo themes. Unlike almost all the chip bands that have made arcade retro cool in the last couple of years, these guys play with a straight rock band set up, and their sound is a lot heavier and more powerful in person. I loved how people were yelling out video game names the way “Freebird” would get yelled at other concerts: “Contra! Connnnnnntttttaaa! Mega Man 2!” The band delivered both, by the way.

My favorite discovery of the night wasn’t even from the South Bay, but L.A. (granted, this is probably because I had seen most of the local acts before): the indie-folk outfit Monsters Calling Home. They floated ornate arrangements with intriguing lyrics across the eastern end of the festival, while cryptic messages like “Once I was a dolphin and you, you were a manatee” flashed several stories up on one of the buildings behind them. Apparently it was quite an experience for the band, too, as lead singer Alex Hwang explained that in their hometown, most crowds tend to watch them for a minute before looking down to their iPhones. “We really like you,” he told the crowd. “You guys are a lot more clappy than Los Angeles is.”