Aurora del Sole wants to be heard — and seen

July 12, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

The notion of the side project is nothing new in music.

For decades, musicians have digressed from their main bands to noodle around with friends in self-indulgent adventures. No harm, no foul. However, where this dynamic hasn’t caught on is within the local music scene.

That is until now with Youngstown’s Aurora del Sole, which is comprised of local cats with ties to other groups making grandiose neo-psychedelic/experimental music.

The seven-piece act features bassist Bill Wharry (Pomona, Sonny Daze, The Starlight Darlings), singer-keyboardist Matt Wolfe (Pomona, Sonny Daze), guitarist Matt Likens (Pomona), guitarist Matt Meehan (Sonny Daze), guitarist Frank Nolasco (Finding Mike Vagas, The Starlight Darlings), trombonist Eric Madsen (The Copasetics, Carlo Possi) and drummer-keyboardist Ray Carlson (Pomona).

“Music has been written for about three years, but we never really had any intention of playing out,” said Youngstown resident Nolasco, a 1996 Ursuline High School graduate. “It was going to be more of a studio band, then friends and people started asking us to play.”

That’s right, Aurora del Sole initially was intended to be a studio-only group, which, again, is the anomaly for a local band. What gives?

“Usually when we’re recording this stuff, there’s a lot of times so many tracks are involved that it’s pretty much impossible to play it live,” Nolasco said. “Unless we have an orchestra or like 50 guys, it’s pretty much impossible to duplicate it. It’s kind of complex and complicated, but it also makes it fun.”

If you’re looking for the band’s main influence, look no further than the title of the group’s debut effort, “Dreams Ignited By Brief Relapses Composing Sounds of Her Pink Lemonade Vol. 1.” Yeah, seems a bit Flaming Lips-esque, right? Also, the fact the group recorded an album it never intended to play live is similar to The Beatles’ approach to “Sgt. Pepper.” Yep, the Fab Four also are listed as influences, as are The Beach Boys and contemporary act Elephant 6.

“We try to combine the pop sensibility with some really strange noises,” Nolasco said.

The large outfit made its stage debut earlier this year and returns for a Friday show at Cedars. Current band favorites from the debut effort include the epic “Black Seasons” and garage-rock “Pink Lemonade Pt. 2.” There’s also new material that is going to appear on the group’s sophomore record, which is due out later this year. Those tracks are the Beach Boys’-esque “Halloween in Hawaii” and the pop-ish “And Or Was Yesterday.”

Something else you should know about Aurora del Sole’s live show is the group often performs a continuous 50-minute set, which can make it difficult for audiences to know when to applaud.

“I don’t even know if I should clap, but clapping is absolutely fine,” Nolasco said, laughing. “And even strange stares work better. I think the rest of the guys would probably take that as more of a compliment than clapping. Like Bill gets more excited when more people listen and say they don’t like it or it’s too weird or too strange. He takes that as a compliment.”