Social Service's largest annual fundraising event, Band-Aid, is almost here again.  Five bands will play at the event on March 4 to raise money for Social Service, and students will vote on who is the winning band by the end of the night.

It is New Trier's version of Battle-of-the-Bands, and this year there is an awesome linup.

One of the great bands chosen for Band-Aid this year is a group that goes by the name Yes Face.  However the full name is Yes Face Hits Drive-thru McFuneral.  Yes Face consists of Ashwin Ravikumar on keyboard, Dan Wolf on guitar, Casey Swoyer on guitar, Dan Erikson on clarinet and tenor saxophone, Matt Dale on the bassoon, Jon Lanznar on tenor saxophone, Paul Nelson on bass, and Chris Nelson on drums.

The band members had lots of creative ideas for what to call themselves, such as the Dale Matthews Band, McFuneral or McWhopper.  Yes Face Hits originated from Ravikumar.

"A friend of mine told me she wanted to fight, but said no face hits were allowed.  I kept saying to her 'yes face hits!  Yes face hits!" recalls Ravikumar.

The group finally decided to combine all of their ideas into one grandiose title, Yes Face Hits Drive-thru McFuneral.

Yes Face Hits Drive-thru McFuneral is an unusual name, but ordinary is not quite what this band strives for.  Yes Face describes their type of sound as "science fiction," which includes everything from blues to funk, to dance rock and love ballads.

We are musically liberal, but politically conservative," said band mates Ravikumar and Chris Nelson.

Ravikumar, the Nelson brother, and Wolf, began playing together about two years ago, and started Yes Face as a joke band that planned to experiment with different sounds and instruments.

They soon added Erikson, Dale, and Swoyer, even though the band was still about writing and playing goofy songs.  They booked their first show in 2002, and shortly after Lanznar joined the band.

As Yes Face progressively gained members and a variety of instruments, they developed their own unique style of playing and writing music.  They would still not describe themselves as a "serious" group of musicians.  However, they have become more dedicated to their sound and have written some great songs.

"I think it's really funny that what started out as a joke band became one of New Trier's best science-fiction dance rock bands," said Swoyer.

The only money the band has ever made from playing a show was spent on the band treasurer's girlfriend.  However, there were no hard feelings, since the object of Yes Face is not to make money.

"We feel as a band it is our duty to make people get up and dance," said Ravikumar and Chris Nelson.   "there is no other message to Yes Face."

Apart from Band-Aid, Yes Face will also be playing at the Callipe Benefit on March 2 at the WYO, and at the Winter Carnival on February 27 in the 2nd floor rotunda.

Considering that Band-Aid is New Trier's largest student band exposition, Yes Face was extremely excited to have been chosen as one of the five bands to play at the event and help the student organization raise money.

"In my 53 years with Yes Face this is by far the greatest and the least important honor we have received," joked an enthusiastic Jon Lanznar on the band's recent accomplishments.

Yes Face has recorded 12 original songs total such as "Miami Funk Fusion," "Pis-and-Chraul," "Dance for Plants," "EAC," and others.  They have 5 recorded songs on the internet available at http://rattkane.transmogrified.net/yesface.

Yes Face has achieved a lot in their two years of being together, and have developed a great sound of their own.  Make sure to go to Band-Aid this year and check out this awesome science fiction band.