Last weekend, Calumet saw the return of the fourth annual YOOP! Fest, a music festival dedicated to small bands, both local and throughout the Midwest. “It’s a celebration of DIY music… which is, you know, just playing music and creating something,” said creator of the event Chris Joutras.
Joutras, along with his wife Anna Greenwood, owns Calumet’s Kitschy Spirit Records. The pair started the event in 2021 when they moved to Calumet from Madison, WI, but began to miss the Wisconsin bands they loved.
“I wanted to kind of combine the music scene in the Keweenaw and the UP with some of the other like connections and friendships and relationships that I’ve grown over the years,” Joutras elaborated. While the focus has always been on DIY bands, previous years had been dedicated to punk bands from the wider Midwest. “[This year] there’s more local, UP bands. There’s also a little more experimental and electronic music going on.”
One such experimental act was MTU alumni Lena Maude, whose solo act used tape loops to layer ukulele, trumpet, and vocals. Maude explained that she was a math major at Tech, but she used her free elective credits to take audio production classes. She became interested in tape loops after her mom bought her a tape pedal in her last year. When asked to describe her style of music, Maude said she makes “experimental pop”, a term she learned from MTU math professor Dr. Robert Schneider.
Schneider, known for being part of the indie pop band “The Apples in Stereo” before becoming a professor, also played at the festival alongside MTU Audio Lab leader Mike Maxwell. They performed in a project called “Dronologue”, which featured Maxwell playing a synth specially tuned to a Tibetan bowl that Schneider played while he read a text adventure from ChatGPT aloud. Schneider explained that this text adventure was the second part in a three-part series that started last year and will conclude next year. Last year’s performance can be seen on Schneider’s Facebook page, and Schenider also plans on performing as “Dronologue” on a future show at WMTU radio.
One surprising part of the festival was the wedding that happened nearly unannounced on Saturday. After local luchador-masked surf rock band “Mr. Cesar & The Lucha Tones” had finished playing, attendees were asked to stay seated for the wedding. “Our first date was YOOP! Fest one, in 2021,” Mat “Duck” Glassel, the groom, explained when asked about the choice of venue. Glassel was part of the first YOOP! Fest. “It’s all coming together and celebrating rock and roll where it theoretically shouldn’t happen. But it does though, and that’s the beauty.”
