HONK! Band of the Day: Artesian Rumble Arkestra

Posted on April 25, 2011 by tyson

Local horn players and drummers formed Olympia’s Artesian Rumble Arkestra to promote peace, raise political awareness, and support positive social action with music. The band strives to bring joyful sounds to community events, playing streets and public places as part of rallies and other worthy causes. We play a variety of jazz standards and atypical covers reflecting the broad diversity of our members. Styles covered include samba, rock, Balkan, New Orleans, gospel, reggae, and pop. Our open and collective group operates by shared rule and through critical mass. ARA’s purpose is to increase momentum of positive events while paying tribute to artists and the cultural expression created by music.

Their Facebook.
Their Website.

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Thank you!

Posted on April 25, 2011 by tyson
Titanium Sporkestra - Photo by Nic Launceford

Titanium Sporkestra at a Night of Mischief and Music - Photo by Nic Launceford

Even though it’s a week and a day later (we were up until very early that Saturday), we don’t think it’s ever too late to say thank you for a successful event at the Fred Wildlife Refuge, and an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign!

We met our goal and then some, then threw a fabulous shindig to celebrate. We can’t possibly thank you enough for that. Keep your eyes peeled for the full outlay of HONK! Events to go live today. If you’d like a taste of what you missed at the Fred, and what’s coming for you in May, allow us to share a video from Malixe Photo of the Mighty Spork’s Conga Line:

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Weekend Events!

Posted on April 22, 2011 by tyson

GUESS THE BEAT: Oooh, now here’s a bill that gets our pulses kicking: The Polyrhythmics, Seattle’s original 8-piece Funk and Afro-beat Orchestra, and Spekulation, producer/emcee who brings together live horns and hip hop with a jazz influence. The former fuses music from all over the world, with a focus on heavy grooves and fearless improvisation, while the latter will bring a live band to fill out his sound, featuring DJ Absolute Madman, acoustic-bassist Nate Omdal, vocalist Michele Khazak, Jose Gonzales on keys, Jason Parker on trumpet, Mike Dodge on saxophone, and Steve Nielsen on guitar. If you ever wondered how funk could taste so sweet, test Nectar tonight.
Friday 8:00 p.m. // Nectar Lounge // $10 (21+)

BUNNARCHY!: This Easter, why not celebrate with a few hundred of your closest friends in the purest fashion we know of: dressed as bunnies, maurauding through Belltown and Pioneer Square. It’s Bunnarchy! Taking its cues from Santacon, Bunnarchy is the day when strangers, bound together only by their cottontails, bar hop up and down 1st Ave. Details are still under wraps (we’re guessing just to cut down on the possibility of pot boilings), but you can follow the bunny parade on Twitter @Bunnarchy. And if dusting off your Harvey isn’t your thing, all costumings of the season are welcome: chickens, robins, ducks, even carrots and giant eggs. Get sprung on spring.
Saturday 12:00 p.m. // Pioneer Square and Belltown // FREE

WORLD RHYTHM FESTIVAL: Beat the drum and learn from the best at the the 18th Annual World Rhythm Festival this entire weekend at the Seattle Center House. Listen and learn at over 120 performances and participatory workshops in the world music traditions of Africa, Asia, Cuba, Brazil, India, America, the Middle East, and more. Featuring Northwest Taiko, N’Nato Camara, Grupo Quetzalcoatl de Olympia, Naby Camara, and Sham el-Nissim, to name just a few, it’s time to bust out your boogies shoes, your djembe and get connected. Check out Friday’s schedule here (pdf) and Saturday and Sunday’s here (pdf), then tap up your tattoo. We’ll be listening.
Friday – Sunday Various Times // Seattle Center House // FREE

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T-Shirt Party!

Posted on April 12, 2011 by tyson

Tonight, you are invited to a HONK! T-shirt making party! We will be silk-screening t-shirts and totes and anything you want to bring along. If you would like to help us make some sweet sweet tees, then please get in touch with Tyson at info@honkfestwest.com.

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8 days left! Pledge your support to HONK!

Posted on April 8, 2011 by tyson

Our hearts are pitter-pattering. Our palms are sweating. Oh boy, we say, our voices low. This will be close. We’ve never done this before. Do you think it will work? Our discussion is like that of two 1st-gen NASA engineers. Sure, the math is right, but it’s SPACE. There could be starworms out there. Or Nebulawumps!

Thankfully, we do not have to plot galaxy calculus or figure out the best way to navigate dwarf fields. But that level of uncertainty, of wondering about the what-ifs of the unknown, has certainly been part of this grand experiment in alternative funding.

We are talking of course about our Kickstarter campaign.

HONK! Fest West has always been and will always be community-supported, but we’ve never explicitly tried to harness that support like we have this year. And like most things you try for the first time, the going hasn’t always been smooth. We started with 30 days and a goal of $5,000, a sum that represents a sizable portion of our operating budget. Now we have 8 days left to go and $2,657 left to raise. Like those ambitious engineers, we believe in the math, but we worry about the unknown.

Here’s what we do know: We have 8 days to raise $2,657 in order to meet our goal. That’s $333 a day, or $13 an hour ($0.23 every minute, if you’re curious). It’s rigorous, yes, but totally do-able. We just need everyone’s help to make it possible.

Please support HONK! Every dollar counts! And watch out for Nebulawumps. Those things are nasty.

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HONK on Blues & Bluster

Posted on April 7, 2011 by tyson

4/16, Fred Wildlife Refuge, $25

Blues & Bluster returns this evening for another fabulous two-hour block of the old, the wondrous, the odd, and you.

Tonight, B&B stumps for a good cause: HONK! Fest West!. The Festival returns to Seattle in May for its fourth year, but before it does, the organizers must wrap up their fundraising season.

This includes a Night of Mischief and Music Fundraiser at the Fred Wildlife Refuge next Saturday and a Kickstarter campaign.

(I should note that HONK! Fest West is volunteer-run and community supported. It is a 501(c)3 Organization through The Vera Project and all donations are tax deductible. All proceeds go to covering the logistical line-items of a music festival and paying the musicians for their awesomeness.)

The show tonight will feature HONK! bands, HONK!-related music, street performances of all kinds, and maybe some field recordings of traffic jams if the mood strikes. I may even have a ticket or two to give away to the upcoming fundraiser at Fred. You’ll have to listen to know. And why wouldn’t you? It’s Blues & Bluster! Only on Hollow Earth Radio. Every Thursday from 11pm – 1am PST!

Levi identifies Hollow Earth Radio by tysontalksmusic

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