WEIRDSTOCK

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the oft-celebrated Woodstock festival. Not that music wasn't weird back then, but in the four decades since, music has certainly gotten weirder. Cue WEIRDSTOCK, a three-day experimental music and arts celebration to take place at the Cambridge YMCA Theatre (all ages, apparently a historical landmark?) August 14, 15 and 16, presented by and funded by the Whitehaus Family Record, a D.I.Y. artists/musicians collective/label/venue straight outa Jamaica Plains, MA.

The collective has bred many an interesting act over the past couple years, including Truman Peyote, Many Mansions and so many more it's hard to sift through it all. These acts, among 50 others, will perform over the three days. Friday's performances run from 6PM sharp til midnight, while the Saturday and Sunday shows run all day, noon to midnight. Other acts include Western Mass noise man George Myers, FB loverman Julian Lynch, Keith Fullerton Whitman + Geoff Mullen, Invisible Circle, Tooth Ache, Guatemala City (a.k.a. Rene Netherlands), Sore Eros, Kurt Weisman, Dreamhouse, Cave Bears, Radio Wonderland and a ton more, all of which sounded so very tantalizing when described by Shane Donnelly (a.k.a. Many Mansions). Also of note, New Yoga's Dark Bong audio/video collaboration will be screened during Saturday and Sunday's 6PM intermissions.

The Whitehaus Family Record started off as a smaller collective, hosting "hootenannies" at their former space the Treehaus. Once that got too rowdy (neighbor complaints, etc) the party moved to the Whitehaus, where Shane and company have resided for the past 2+ years, a legacy which will hopefully be continued years into the future. In their current space they host shows about once a week, record, produce CDRs and fill the space with sculptures/art made from found objects. These hang everywhere: walls, chandeliers, staircase. Everyone (10 people love in the house) shares resources, materials, etc, which makes creating cheaper and easier.

Regarding the Weirdstock festivities, Shane said "Even if no one shows up it'll at least bring people together who should know each other already, playing and sharing together. In Boston there's so much stuff going on [music/arts-wise], but there's not much unity." Shane hopes to unite various circles of weirdo Boston music/art together, as well as exposing bands to touring bands that might not have made it out to Boston otherwise. The event has been in the planning stages since April and next weekend all the legwork will pay off. If it all goes well, Shane said he wouldn't even think of a 2010 Weirdstock, rather "we'll start working on the next one right away. Why wait til next year?" Collectives like this thrive on this kind of bright-eyed excitement and motivation and it's refreshing to see people this dedicated to making music happen.



FULL LINE-UP AND ARTIST DESCRIPTIONS