<< Front page Arts April 23, 2004

ilyAIMY comes to Beltane Festival

This Saturday in Tappan, during the myriad of festivities taking place at the Beltane Festival/Renaissance Fair, Obies will have the chance to discover ilyAIMY, a Baltimore-based duet that boasts strong vocals, quick rhythms, and day jobs. The Review got a chance to listen to ilyAIMY’s soulful new album, on luck on fumes on spit on love, and talk with its members, Rob Hinkle and Heather Lloyd, before they play Saturday.

ilyAIMY as it is today began in 2001, when Rob’s then musical partner decided to quit.

“You’re supposed to run off with the rock-star, but unfortunately, Audrey ran way from the band with her husband, leaving me hunting for a new partner,” Hinkle said.

Rob frequented acoustic open-mic nights at coffee shops for a while before finding Heather, who was finishing her Journalism degree at the University of Maryland at the time. He was blown away by her unique voice, which he thought would blend fantastically with his own.

“It left me the question of how to ‘pick her up’ musically without looking like I was hitting on her... thank goodness she liked my playing,” Hinkle said.

The duo then formed ilyAIMY, a genre-defying acoustic guitar group who bring to mind everyone from Cypress Hill to Metallica, while often grouped under the blanket label “folk.”

“We’re ‘neo-folk’. We’re ‘acoustic grunge’...Rock-folk, though never folk-rock... and we’re possibly ‘percussive acoustic rock,’” Hinkle explained. “We get compared to Jethro Tull crossed with Tool with Ani DiFranco’s guitar stylings, the rhymes of rap and the rhythms of Rusted Root.”

The Washington Area Music Association tried to classify ilyAIMY in a 2001 nomination for Best Alternate Rock Recording, and again in 2002 with a nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Group or Duo.

“If all else fails, it’s tight male/female harmonies, percussive,
acoustic-central guitar work and personal songwriting,” Lloyd concluded.

ilyAIMY was invited to play at the Beltane festival by Aaron Pendergrass, college junior and member of the Pagan Awareness Network. Aaron is from Baltimore and has been a fan of ilyAIMY since before he came to Oberlin. The territory isn’t new to ilyAIMY.

“Now that we’re in a position to travel, we have a bunch of friends who are trying to drag us off to their colleges. We’re only too happy to oblige,” Hinkle said.

This will be ilyAIMY’s first time performing at Oberlin, and they’re eager to come. During the festival, they can be found performing at the bandstand between 4 and 5 p.m., as well as possibly wandering with their instruments.


 
 
   

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