Monday, June 22, 2009

15th Annual Olympia Experimental Music Fest



So, this weekend marked the 15th year of the Olympia Experimental Music Fest, a weirdness I can't help but be proud of. Despite my pride, this is actually the first year I've attended a good percentage of the haps. While i didn't catch it all by any means, here are my favs, in no particular order...
KnotPineBox (pictured)(Oly): I booked a show for Diane Cluck a while back and she had her old friend from the New York anti-folk scene, KnotPineBox, open the show. While her show was good that night, she really blew me away closing out saturday night of the fest. She just took the noise end of her guitar/vocal/toy loop mayhem to the next level and, with a vocal deliver that is Joni-esque to me, it was the perfect mix of pretty and noise.
The Lickets (SF): String trio with occasional laptop and pump organ. They carried some weight. Were the perfect festival closer.
Dead Air Fresheners (I-5): More performance art than band, 8 people with masks, a variety of instruments, and live installation art. Real cool to watch. They were joined by Portland author Jennifer Robin, who did some really cool spoken word/performance art stuff- I was thoroughly impressed and totally want to check out her writing now.
Foxdye (Oly): Underslept from playing a huge 200-person dance party/rave in portland the night before, she got out of her ride's car just in time to set up and play to 30 people sitting on fold-out chairs. While I'd never seen Foxdye play such a setting before, and I could tell she felt a little uncomfortable about the lack of crowd participation, I loved it. I spazzed in the back of the room to her expert breakcore/glitchcore/happy hard-popradio-demolition core.
Foxdye- Foxdyecheckcollision (off Nothing to Lose But My Stomach)

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