Yeast By Sweet Beast Experimental Music Festival

Yeast by Sweet Beast 2012 Highlights Experimental Music

In the Quest to Keep Austin Weird!

                Yeast by Sweet Beast 2012, presented by Anne Heller of Aurora Plastics Company and Church of the Friendly Ghost,  is a three-day experimental improvisation and outsider music festival (now in its 12th year) to be held Saturday March 10th from 2 pm to 10 pm at Headhunters (720 Red River St., Austin TX 78701, 512-825-5600), Sunday March 11^th from 2 pm to 730 pm at Headhunters (720 Red River St., Austin TX 78701, 512-825-5600), Sunday March 11 from 930pm to 2am at Skinny’s Ballroom (115 San Jacinto, Austin, TX 78701, 512-476-1962) and Monday March 12^th from 5 pm to 2 am at Trophy’s (2008 South Congress, Austin TX 78704, 512-447-0969) 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 artists Paul Baker, Laurel Barickman and Katie Rose Pipkin, 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 America by 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 2012 will feature Vienna, Austria’s Le Cowboy, Louisville, Kentucky’s Bosco Stravinsky , Houston’s Future Blondes and  as well as such Austin-based experimental stalwarts as ST-37, Jerri Seinfeldt’s Atrophied Sac, Book of Shadows  and organic-electric soundtrack conjurers Aurora Plastics Company.  Video artists Paul Baker of Sub Oslo, Laurel Barickman and Katie Rose Pipkin will visually accompany the musical performances, in traditional Yeast by Sweet Beast fashion. 

            Please contact Anne at cfood3000@gmail.com  (512-483-1631) or Chris atjohnnymeatworth@mac.com (512-965-1379) or check http://www.yeastbysweetbeast.com or https://www.facebook.com/yeastbysweetbeast  for more information.