Yeast by Sweet Beast 2009 Highlights Experimental Music

Yeast by Sweet Beast 2009, presented by Crunchy Food Enterprises and Church of the Friendly Ghost is a three-day experimental improvisation and outsider music festival (now in its 9th year) to be held Saturday March 14th at Salvage Vanguard Theatre (2803 Manor Rd., Austin, 512-786-2015), Sunday March 15th and Monday March 16 at Plush (617 Red River, Austin, 512-478-0099), during the SXSW Film and Interactive festival. Poet, musician and filmmaker Anne Heller (of the experimental improv band Aurora Plastics Company) began the fest in the year 2000 to celebrate still being alive and to return a bit of happiness to the community by creating a manifestation of “flying the freak flag.” She organizes and funds the fest herself, paying the performing bands equally from the profits, if any. Inspired by Andy Warhol’s legendary “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” happenings, this showcase of up-and-coming tonal artists is accompanied by the film installations of video artist Paul Baker and others, creating a hypnotic ambiance throughout.

The music is the reason for the Yeast by Sweet Beast experimental music fest. Experimental music is a viable genre and should be performed live for people to see and hear. It has a history which dates back to the turn of the last century and is rooted in the jazz tradition which in turn stemmed from the music performed in voodoo rituals brought to Americaby African slaves. These vibrations and tones may seem unsettling or evil to the uninitiated, but in truth they are healing and cathartic. They can take one to a beautiful inner/outer space where one can be free to float beyond this drab, spastic world and its physical and spatial limitations.

Experimental improvisational music is “art for art’s sake,” creation as a means of intense personal expression. The bands featured in Yeast by Sweet Beast are all experienced improvisers who feel comfortable and relish the magic which is creativity in the moment. Many also perform in other musical genres. Each band gets a 30-minute set with 8 or 9 bands performing each night of the fest.

Yeast by Sweet Beast 2009 will feature Miami’s Laundry Room Squelchers, Denton’s The Watchers, Yells at Eels, Dust Congress, Table of the Elements artist Carlos Villarreal, , as well as such Austin-based experimental stalwarts as ST-37, Jherri Seinfeldt’s Atrophied Sac, Houston-based Future Blondes and Muzak John, Book of Shadows, Doug Ferguson of the Austin Theremonic Orchestra, and organic-electric soundtrack conjurers Aurora Plastics Company. Paul Baker of Sub Oslo, visual artists Eyeplug, RecSpec and Lars will visually accompany the musical performances, in traditional Yeast by Sweet Beast fashion.

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