Improv music blends with film - Dallas

[Lois Gilbert]

Improv music blends with film
Festival offers alternative to South by Southwest
Thomas Fawcett

No $150 wristbands here. Call Yeast by Sweet Beast the deranged little sister of Austin's better-known South by Southwest music festival.

Yeast by Sweet Beast is a two-day festival featuring experimental music accompanied by film installations from Austin artist Lori Varga.

"Experimental music involves being able to listen while you're playing and not having to play a rigid set of notes," said Anne Heller, the event's organizer. "It's like improvisational comedy, only using music and sounds."

The festival is now in its sixth year of "flying the freak flag," according to Heller, who also makes up one half of the band Aurora Plastics Company. Her musical partner is Lars Nilsen, host of the Weird Wednesday weekly film screenings at Alamo Drafthouse. Between these two gigs, Nilsen certainly does his part to keep Austin weird.

Heller said the festival was inspired by Andy Warhol's "Exploding Plastic Inevitable," a series of multimedia presentations in the 1960s featuring avant-garde music, film and art.

The bands featured at Yeast by Sweet Beast rely on improvisation and experimentation to spontaneously create bizarre compositions. According to Heller, it's a tradition rooted in jazz music and voodoo rituals.

"Every time we perform it's a different sound," said Doug Ferguson of the band Necessity. "We never do the same thing twice."

"We're the orphans of the music scene," Ferguson said.

The event will take place March 12 at Plush and March 13 at the Red Eyed Fly. Tickets for the event are $5 each night.