14th Annual Olympia Experimental Music Festival 6/26-29!

Thursday, June 26th through Sunday June 29th

the Olympia Strange Music Society is proud to present
it's annual DIY gathering of eclectic & fringe audio performers to the capital city of Washington State:

THE 14TH ANNUAL OLYMPIA EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

What began in 1995 as an almost spontaneous gathering initiated by emails between like-minded musicians pushing the boundaries of their art has exploded into a festival of international renown and rare every year dependability.

A big part of that dependability is that while the festival grows, it knows how to keep things in perspective. While 2008's line-up features some bigger names than previous years, there are just as many artists who have not played this big of a show before. The event organizers, staff, sound-people, and poster artists continue to donate their services entirely for free to keep the costs to the public low, and the proceeds entirely in the hands of the musicians traveling from out of town to play. This is a rare event where you are likely to see the artists from one night in the audience at the next, listening and watching with rapt attention.

Some of the highlights include:

A reunion of internationally acclaimed audio-collagist, recording engineer, and Sub Pop Records artist Steve Fisk with Evergreen State College Head of Electronic Media Peter Randlette. Steve and Peter, both TESC alums themselves, have literally not played live together in decades, making this a NW and Olympia music event simply not to be missed!

Two of the most legendary female experimental musicians on the west coast, each on a different night, Seattle based global multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio and L.A., California's incomparable guitarist/vocalist Carla Bozulich (leading her newest band Evangelista!)

Coming all the way across the country from Portland, Maine is everybody's favorite self-destructive fish-impersonator Crank Sturgeon! This gent freely treads the line between performance art, noise-music, and high comedy with frantic renderings of creativity that have to be experienced to be believed.

Here is the full line-up for all four days!:

Thursday 6/26/08 (at the Eagles Hall Basement, 805 4th AVE)

Midwife (Everett, WA)
Arachnid Arcade (San Francisco, CA)
Mangled Bohemians (Portland, OR)
Dead White (Olympia, WA)
Your Drugs My Money (Portland, Los Angeles, Fiji)
Darwinsbitch (Seattle, WA)
Hobby Hobby (Olympia, WA)

Friday 6/27/08 (at the Midnight Sun, 113 N Columbia ST)

Amy Denio (Seattle, WA)
Make Believe Bombs to Blow Up Make Believe Worlds (Iowa City, IA)
Bill Horist (Seattle, WA)
Red Squirrels (Seattle, WA)
Ben L. Robertson and Gabe Will (Seattle/Olympia, WA)
Cactus/Hydrogen Pellets (San Francisco, CA)
Hobby Knife (Eugene, OR)

Saturday 6/28/08 (at the Eagles Hall Basement, 805 4th AVE)

Steve Fisk & Peter Randlette (Seattle/Olympia WA)
Evangelista (Los Angeles, CA)
Crank Sturgeon (Portland, ME)
Dead Air Fresheners (Portland, OR/Olympia/Seattle/Tacoma, WA)
Dendrites (Portland, OR)
L.A. Lungs (Tacoma, WA)
Big Tom the Lithuanian (Olympia, WA)
action painting to the music by Aaron H.H. Trotter (Tacoma, WA)

Sunday 6/29/08 1 PM (at the historic Capitol Theater, 206 5th AVE SE)

An Afternoon Matinee of Experimental Film and Music curated by Eric Ostrowski from Seattle!

Sunday 6/29/08 (at the Eagles Hall Basement, 805 4th AVE)

Paintings for Animals (Seattle, WA)
Goatgirl/Queen Shmooquan (Seattle, WA)
Ô Paon/Geneviève Castrée (Quebec, Canada)
Soup Purse (Portland, OR)
Beat Box Fred (Olympia, WA)
Zdrastvootie (Portland, OR)
Forrest Friends (Seattle, WA)

Full Festival Passes are $20, Individual Day Passes are $7, except for Sunday 6/29/08 which is $8 (two shows!)

This year's festival is once again curated by KAOS FM dj Domenica Clark who wowed the NW with her presentation of the phenomenal 13th fest. Domenica says with enthusiasm about this year's proceedings:

"I am especially excited about this year because there is a great variety of different experimental music, mostly from regional artists, with an emphasis on artists from Olympia, Seattle, Portland and beyond. I picked the artists I thought that are making the most interesting, out-there, abstract sounds of the highest quality. Also, just like last year, we have a high percentage of female musicians, which is always delightful to have in a music festival of this kind."

Domenica is once again assisted by the festival's founder L. Jim McAdams who booked all of the artists for the Saturday night show and will be making his 14th consecutive appearance as a musician at the fest as well (though he won't say in what group!) Jim had this to say of this newest incarnation of his haphazard creation from 1995:

"Whoa - what a line-up this year! What I love about this festival the most is that it works on two levels. It's a celebration for fans of the adventurous and avant garde music forms, but it's also there for those who want to check out experimental music for the first time. We welcome the curious and provide a comfortable environment to be set free from the boxes that mainstream music as product tries so hard to shove us all into."

This year's festival is dedicated to the memory of Michael Griffen of Noggin, one of the very greatest performers of our history, who passed on January 7th, 2008.
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