And Now for Something Completely Different
Going out with any regularity can leave one a bit burned out, letting even wonderful music be cast aside as boring. The usual remedy for this malaise is a show so wonderful that it completely redeems the show-going experience, recharging the concert reserves if you will. This weekend's inaugural Wooden Octopus Skull Experimental Musick Festival will be a different kind of sonic palate cleanser, producing music from the underground so challenging that you can't help but to approach music with fresh ears.
Experimental music is not so much a genre as an approach, with artists manhandling traditional production techniques. Some of this weekend's music will come from a rock perspective, others more electronic, and some can only accurately be described as noise. Following in the tradition of the now-defunct Seattle Noise Festival, the Wooden Octopus Festival is the first to attempt to bring all of these micro-niches to the fore.
The Wooden Octopus Festival is the brainchild of the owners of Electric Heavyland, the newish music/toy/art space in Wallingford, who used to do a similar event in the San Francisco area before moving here. The acts coming to town are from all over the world, and while they aren't household names (at least to most), there are many worthy of attention.
The kickoff show features the Portland Bike Ensemble, who make music utilizing only bike parts and contact mics, and blackhumour, whose compositions of found-object speech create an aural poetry. Friday has the Haters, who after 26 years of sonic assualt are some of the American noise scene's elder statesmen (along with Smegma, playing Saturday). Saturday brings out the costumes, with Rubber(o)Cement and Caroliner Rainbow Scratched Soaproot and Candle Dinner adding their stage antics to further overwhelm the senses. Sunday closes out the festival with the collage sounds of Irr.App.(ext.) and a highly anticipated DJ set from Steven Stapleton (of Nurse with Wound fame).
Seattlest is making no claim of expertise on these artists, but that's hardly the point with a festival like this one (or a club night like festival co-sponsor No Tomorrow). The avant-garde introduces ideas that may later translate to a wider audience, but the goal is just to push their art forward, which is commendable. It is likely that you will have never heard or seen anything like what you'll see and hear this weekend at the Wooden Octopus Skull Festival, and that alone is reason to attend a show or two.
Bring your earplugs.
Wooden Octopus Skull Experimental Musick Festival
September 8 - 11, 2005
Various Venues - Sunset Tavern, Rebar, Funhouse, the Baltic Room
$8-$12 per show, 21+ for all shows
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