OlyMusic Experiences

A few weeks back, Rachel from Maze of the Mind Productions sent an email stating,
"on Feb. 10 at The 4th Ave Tav at 6 pm there is an
open meeting for those in the music business. Anyone who is interested in
getting this city networked and more open to each other and other cities is
invited to attend. We ask that you bring ideas on what you would like to see
happen in Oly, as well as ideas on what you can do to help. This is for bookers,
promotors, webmasters, musicians (both in bands and solo), or just anyone
interested in lending a hand. We hope to come out of this with a way to put
Olympia back on the map, and to provide the resources for musicians to play
when they want, in the right type of venues, and with the right type of bands.
This will make it easy for everyone to succeed in getting to where they want to
be in this business.".
I posted the invite on OlyMusic, and went to the meeting. Some things that I came out of that meeting with a sense about include plans for a central calendar, preferably with events on other calendars automatically merging into it, and with events on it merging into a Northwest Music calendar; promotions groups and bands and venues flyering collectively to reduce legwork for everyone, Local music shows being a good idea for airing on KAOS and TCTV; more all-ages venues with better coverage of and promotion of those and the already existing all-ages venues; and things of this nature. There will be more meetings, tentatively scheduled for the second Thursday of each month, location to be announced.

I caught these guys at the 4th Ave on the 10th, after the Open Meeting for Olympia Music folks.Melefluent.com Melefluent made us dance a whole lot, with their funky rockin sounds, and the lyrics seem to be really good. Got a CD and a t-shirt. Seriously, I was sweating a lot, and I think I even bumped into a wall, I was dancing so much, and wildly. These guys are good. I didn't catch them at Tugboat Annie's the next night, because A-Kamp was making their first appearance in 8 months or so at the Evergreen Housing Community Center, and I just plain had to go to that. A-Kamp put on a good show, sonically, as usual, and their visual setup was terrific too. Tommy had on a loud print shirt like something from Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gogh's combined offspring would produce, there was a new guitar player who amazingly never hit a wrong note, wearing a fur cap and interesting jacket, D-Kamp on trumpet was wearing an orange men at work type vest and very dark glasses while jumping up and down to the beat, and genius was wearing very shiny hammer lookin' pants with a fuzzy shirt half on half off, and of course Larstafari was hard to see through the whirling blizzard of drumsticks surrounding him at all times. There was some good tapping Van Halen would be proud of, and A-Kamp played well past the official bedtimes of most dormers. The previous night, after Melefluent, we went to The Mark and listened to L'Aguafois. They were pleasantly mellow with a few more upbeat moments, consistently conscious music that feels nice. We skipped out on Sesame Street Gangsters figuring they would play a much longer set, since they have a reputation for partying hard, but they were done when we came back after L'Aguafois. Perhaps we will see them on another occasion. They had great costumes, and also a giant inflatable penis that they were swinging around and poking people with during the Melefluent set. Oh, and before A-Kamp on Friday, Kenyatta & Special Guests rocked the house. There were several hand drums and a kit, and a bassist, and Kevin White on lead guitar, and they got people dancing, and it was enjoyable. Kenyatta sang and played guitar some, then he jumped on the drum kit, and Kevin took the lead for a while. I think I'll publish this now, and write about the meeting on the 10th in my next post.

Olympia-based indie label Space Gnome Records on tour gets a mention in this Eugene, OR paper The Register-Guard

The Seattle Times: Music & nightlife: Anna Oxygen: kicking up the karaoke