Hundreds gathered on Feb. 5 at SF State’s Malcolm X Plaza as the band Audible Mainframe, a hip-hop band that fuses rhyme and rock, opened the festivities marking the first day of Gator Homecoming.

Since the band’s first appearance on campus a year ago, they have been busy working on their music, said lead vocalist Victor Pontes-Macedo, also known as “MC Exposition.”

“We’ve been writing music and playing as many shows as possible,” Pontes-Macedo said.

Formed in Boston in 2003, the band recently moved to California. Five of the seven band members currently share a house in Long Beach, with an attached garage that serves as a practice space.

“Because we did the soundproofing [of the garage] ourselves, we sometimes annoy the neighbors,” Pontes-Macedo said.

The sounds that come out of the garage range in influence from Rage Against The Machine and Radiohead to The Fugees and Miles Davis.

To produce their beats and sound, the band uses a combination of trumpet, sax, guitar, keyboards, turntables, drums, synthesizer, which are not typical hip-hop instruments.

Drummer Johnny George, known as “Johnny 5,” said, “We were all brought up on different styles of music … soul, reggae, rock. They all came together and produced the sound that the band has, and which makes it very unique.”

Director of the Performing Arts and Lectures program, Muata Kenyatta, said he booked the band again this year because of popular demand.

“Everybody seems to like their style. They’re very diverse in their offering. They don’t sound like everybody else,” Kenyatta said.

Cinema major Scott Knopf, 23, said he remembers the first time he heard them perform.

“I was walking to work, and I heard the DJ scratching,” he said of their performance last year in Malcolm X Plaza. “I didn’t make it to work!”

In 2006, Audible Mainframe received the distinction of “Best Live Act” at the Mass Industry Committee Hip Hop Awards in Boston, while lead singer Pontes-Macedo, who has already two solo albums under his belt, was declared “Best Underground Artist.”

For him one of the advantages of being part of an underground band is that they are accessible.
“People can come talk to us [after a show],” Pontes-Macedo said.

Dancing along with the music on the plaza, theatre arts major Joey Ingram, 23, discovered the band last year on campus, did approach the band after buying the band’s second album, “Framework,” to have it autographed.

With all of the band members in their mid to late twenties, Pontes-Macedo said the music tends to be very honest.

“A lot of [the music] is about being a twenty-something. You see a lot of things happening,” he said of things witnessed in his twenties. “Writing a song makes you feel empowered to change things.”

Some things people see happening and want to change include competing against one another, Pontes-Macedo said.
“Having a bunch of money, buying a bunch of things and dying isn’t what life is all about,” he said. “It’s about unity. People are here to help each other, not compete against each other.”

Having performed at the Café Du Nord in downtown San Francisco on Feb. 2, Pontes-Macedo said that playing on a university campus is different than a music venue, as the audience on a campus may not have planned on specifically watching Audible Mainframe perform.

“[People on campus] are looking for something to blink at in the monotony of the day,” he said.

Dave Miller, also known as “Highlife,” the band’s trumpet and keyboards player, said the San Francisco music scene is different southern California. He said sometimes people in southern California won’t even show up to an indoor concert because of the rain.

“There’s a good scene for music up here,” Miller said of the Bay Area, even during its rainy season.
The Bay Area does hold a very special place in the heart of Audible Mainframe, according to the band.
“Everybody in San Francisco is a dreamer,” Pontes-Macedo said. “The city has amazing possibilities. We’ll come back whenever we have a chance.”

More information about Audible Mainframe is available on their official Web site or on their MySpace page.