(The Ridges at MPMF 2011, photo from City Beat Cincy)

Have you fully recovered from Midpoint yet? Good. Dust off your ear plugs again because Clifton Heights Music Festival is back for round five. The festival returns with another solid lineup over two days across six venues in the Clifton Heights area – Rohs Street Cafe, Baba Budan’s, Mac’s Pizza Pub, Christy’s Biergarten, Murphy’s Pub and Roxx Electrocafe.

It’s easy to dismiss the Clifton Heights Music Fest as a drunken college festival. Granted, it is definitely drunken – it’s a pub crawl after all – and its target audience is largely students since the festival takes place right outside UC’s campus. Still, the Clifton Heights Music Fest (CHMF) always proves to be one of my favorite music festivals of the year. While Midpoint Music Fest is my go-to for national headliners and a highly curated roster of touring bands that may not visit Cincinnati otherwise, CHMF encourages festival goers to look to their own backyard for great music. And it’s true, the bi-annual music festival proves again and again to be a solid festival for discovering new local bands.

Tickets for CHMF 5 are $8 for one-night passes or $12 for a two-night pass. Tickets may be purchased the night of the festival at each venue for $12/$15. All venues are 21 and up, except Rohs St. Café and Roxx ElectroCafé, which are 18 and up.

Check out my top picks below and follow coverage via Twitter @cutelin

Friday, October 7

8:00 – For Algernon (Christy’s) vs. Agape Alive with DJ Ghost, Puck, MC Till, Trademark Aaron, Camp David, Fenix 6 (Mac’s Pizza Pub)
CHMF is one of the city’s only local festivals to showcase hip-hop, so I’d definitely check out the lineup at Mac’s if you’re beat and bass-deprived. For those who prefer a more laid back start to the festival, see For Algernon.

9:30 – The Ridges (Roxx Electrocafe)
I recently caught The Ridges at a house show during their stint at MPMF and I was blown away. The Athens, Ohio-based orchestral folk rock group played a beautiful acoustic set, but their cover of Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago” is what finally cemented my love for the band.
Listen: The Ridges totally recorded their album in an abandoned asylum

10:15 The Plastic Inevitables (Rohs Street Cafe) vs. The Happy Maladies (Roxx Electrocafe) vs. Valley of The Sun (Christy’s) vs. Abiyah (Mac’s)
Tough choice between the three – The Plastic Inevitables tackle 60s garage pop (in matching suits no less); conversely, the Happy Maladies offer beautifully crafted chamber folk. Still, CHMF is about discovering new music so I’ll either check out the face-melting rock of Valley of the Sun or the genre-bending hip-hop beats of Abiyah.
Listen: Abiyah brings back beatbox

11:00 The Yugos (Rohs Street Cafe) vs The Prohibitionists (Murphy’s Pub) vs. Frankl Project (Christy’s)
Another trifecta of great bands – The Yugos are one of my favorite local discoveries of the year, producing catchy lo-fi pop punk, while The Prohibionists have been my standby for solid blues-tinged garage rock. For CHMF 5, though, I’m seeing The Frankl Project, a staple of the Cincinnati punk scene.
Listen: The Yugos Wonder What’s The Deal

11:45 – Skeleton Hands (Mac’s Pizza Pub) vs. Rays Music Exchange (Christy’s)
Skeleton Hands is pretty straightforward post-punk that doesn’t stray far from the genre, but hey, no one will argue with sticking to a formula that works. Did I mention the band is made up of two dudes named Lazer Bat and Astro Wolf? Great, it’s settled – see you at Mac’s!
Listen: Skeleton Cure…no, I mean, Siouxsie and the Skeletons. No, wait.

12:30 – The Cincy Brass (Christy’s) vs. The Harlequins (Murphy’s Pub) vs. Pop Empire (Mac’s Pizza Pub)
The Cincy Brass is a must-see if you haven’t checked them out yet – the self described “N’awlins Soul Meets Cincinnati Funk” 9-piece covers everything from Lady Gaga and Beyonce to Deerhoof and Gnarls Barkley. The band even invited Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier onstage during their MPMF showcase to play their arrangement of “Believe ESP.” And The Harlequins can seriously tear up a stage with their surf-tinged psych; their vitaminwater Uncapped show at MOTR Pub still ranks as one of my favorite shows of the year. Still, I have yet to see Pop Empire with their new drummer, Ben Sloan (formerly of No No Knots) so I’ll most likely end my night at Mac’s.

Watch: The Harlequins turn the Mockbee roof into a beach party

SATURDAY – October 8th, 2011

8:00 – Honest Abe (Rohs Street Cafe)
Honest Abe overlaps the sounds of a chamber string ensemble with an open, modern interpretation of improvisation. The band combines the talents of three talented former CCM students, Eddy Kwon on violin (The Happy Maladies), Adam Petersen on percussion (Fractal Fractal) and Brodie Johnson (Boyfriend) on cello.
Listen: Elephant by Honest Abe

8:45 – Milano (Rohs Street Cafe) vs. Andy Cook & The Wanderloons (Baba Budan’s)
Chicago’s Milano brings to mind a gypsy carnival led by Rufus Wainwright. Or maybe Andrew Bird. Either way, the band certainly puts the Show in Showmanship – the band’s face paint, tutus and sequins only lend to their spastic folk pop sound.
Watch:

Milano – Come On, Come On : Audiotree Live from Audiotree Live on Vimeo.

9:30 – Sun Country (Baba Budan’s) vs. Indigo Wild (Roxx Electrocafe)
I’ve already sung my praises about Indigo Wild on ENS so this time around, I’m focusing on Sun Country. The 5-piece combines jangly guitars with the twang of mandolin and pedal steel that faintly echoes Modest Mouse’s Lonesome Crowded West. I’m really excited to see what lies ahead for this band.
Listen: Sun Country tagged themselves as pterodactyl rock?

11:45 – The Dukes are Dead (Christy’s)
Watch: The Dukes Are Dead Freak Out on Fountain Square

The Dukes are Dead (formerly The Dukes until Warner Brothers got all upset about sharing their name with a band from the late 70s) is NOT TO BE MISSED. TDAD is already a raucous, whiskey-fueled rock spectacle, but when you place them in CHMF, they. go. nuts.

12:30 – SHADOWRAPTR (Baba Budan’s) vs. Banderas (Christy’s)
I’m probably one of SHADOWRAPTR’s biggest fans and I’ll promote It’s Always Winter on the Moon until I’m blue in the face, so if you haven’t seen them, I strongly encourage you to watch their set at Baba’s. But after catching two songs by Banderas at MPMF, I can’t miss their set at Christy’s. I mean, the lead singer ended the set by asking a guy in the audience to hold something, and then placed the guy’s hand on his crotch. And held it there. Now that’s a rock star.

For more info on CHMF, visit their website
See the full schedule here.

Purchase advance tickets via CincyTicket

Guide compiled by Caitlin Behle @cutelin