alt.lib

Swan Dadd // Roland Olayvar // Tessa O'Connell
2021-05-28 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver)
This week on the Alt Lib Radio Hour, we’re stoked to host Chicago-based experimental singer-songwriter Tessa O’Connell, whose lilting vocal arrangements explore longing, leaving, and “that fuzzy space in-between.” We’re also joined by Bellingham pop artist (and stalwart of the arts scene) Roland Olayvar and Seattle-based musician/ projectionist Swan Dadd, whose playful, ironic tunes explore the intersections of punk, synthetic drums and country twang. You know the drill — come masked and ready to party.

[Hyphen] // Worldwide Levitation
2021-05-21 19:00 - 21:00
This Friday continues our recent weekly tradition of hosting live backyard performances! This week the flavor is experimental rock music, with two as-yet unheard acts, including [hyphen] who describes himself as a one-man lo-fi electro-math-surf-wave project, combining gameboy and drum machines with live guitar and keyboards to form a multimedia mindmeld. This will also be the debut performance of Worldwide Levitation, formed during quarantines and performing a kind of bluntforce birdsong. DJ Leroy Sorry will be bringing out a box of records for the purposes of socialliy maligned mood music. Come for the noise and stay for the obtuse temporal shapes that excite your multiple lobes.
Poster designed by Riley R.

Mercury Retrograde Avante-Garde Variety Show
2021-05-14 19:00 - 21:00
Mercury Retrograde Variety Show featuring:::
• Spaghetti Feedbag Product Demonstration
• Appliance Arkestra
• Gump Worsley B-day Altar
• Freddy Mercury Retrograde Lip-Synch
• and many more surprises!
Come dressed as your favorite celestial body, and bring a prepared performative offering if you feel inspired to do so ~ there will be room for some spontaneous performances!
$8.43 exact change requested, NOTAFLOF! AltLib is always ALL AGES!
Do to the sheer experimental audacity of this show, there is no guarantee that we will livestream the performances ~
Poster designed by Jabez Richard

AltLib Radio Hour: ini // Little Obsidian // Yin
2021-05-07 19:00 - 21:00
The AltLib Radio Hour continues this week with a set of performances in the backyard and livestreaming on instagram: @bhamaltlib
This week features songs, mantras, and incantations from three of Bellingham’s witch squad!
$8-10 sliding-scale donations support the performers and the AltLib! NOTAFLOF

AltLib Radio Hour: Emma Et Cetera // Glitchlette // DJ Parts Per Million
2021-04-30 19:00 - 22:00
Our LAST show in April boasts a *killer* lineup, including high-energy electronic artist Emma Et Cetera, brooding synthpop producer Glitchlette, soulful singer-songwriter glass egg, and the eclectic, quirky DJ Parts Per Million. To RSVP, please email info@altlib.org with your name and the number of tickets you would like to reserve.
Suggested donation is $10.

AltLib Radio Hour - CHRVNS // Guayaba
2021-04-16 19:00 - 21:00
E-Mail to RSVP: booking@AltLib.org
$8 suggested donation for the artists and the AltLib
ALL AGES / NOTAFLOF

AltLib Radio Hour - Cheer // Limanjaya // Ashtray Runo
2021-04-09 19:00 - 21:00
THIS WEEK we’re back to live programming, bringing you ethereal ambient pop, modular synths, improv club music and psychedelic, abstract projections. Rain or shine, we’ll be partying, masked and distanced, on Billy Frank this April 9th at 7 PM. Swipe for booking info and covid safety, and read about our artists below.
Limanjaya is the lo-fi, experimental/ambient project of Joshua Limanjaya Lim, played on modular synths. Cheer, aka the side project of Ian MacPhee, joins us from Seattle with ambient bedroom pop tunes. Digital artist Ashtray Runo will project synthetic color spaces with a dash of fabrication.
E-Mail to RSVP: booking@AltLib.org
$8 suggested donation for the artists and the AltLib
ALL AGES / NOTAFLOF

Alt Lib Radio Hour - Silencio Epi Satellite Show
2021-04-02 20:00 - 22:00
This week the ALRH hosts its first satellite show, all the way from Mexico City 😈 We’re excited to feature guest curator @silencio.epi, an experimental label specializing in drones, power electronics, noise and distortion. The artists featured in this week’s lineup include: textural club music from ESE ES ESE, dystopic and pulsating analog loops from multidisciplinary artist Puzz Amatista, and spiritual, earthy soundscapes from Alina Sánchez. Luzefimero will provide visuals. You won’t want to miss this one!!! 8 PM on @bhamaltlib , bring your friends 🙂

Body Conference // Arrington de Dionyso // K. Kunkel
2021-03-26 18:00 - 20:00
Three artists join us this March 26th for a night of ‘sound, song and elegiac trance’, centered thematically around loss, elegy, release and letting go. Eclectic artist K. Kunkel offers us the vocal channeling of grief and surreal, unedited prose with sparse musical accompaniment. Body Conference, the project of writer, artist and theologian Ashley Chambers, will present a live sonographic iteration of her new book The Exquisite Buoyancies — described as an elegy for a departed spirit. Lastly, we are joined by experimental musician Arrington de Dionyso, who uses the voice and bass clarinet to pulverize your atoms with a 3million gigabyte download from the cosmic serpent.
This intense show wraps up the first month of the Alt Lib Radio Hour and marks the second in-person installment of the series. RAIN OR SHINE. To RSVP for space in our backyard, email: booking@altlib.org
$8 NOTAFLOF
Alt Lib Radio Hour is a new livestream performance initiative broadcast every Friday out of the Alternative Library. ALRH understands live-streaming as not merely a response to COVID-19 but a site of indeterminate possibility: where the internet is available, so too is an entire world of art and culture.
While intended to transition into (coterminous) live programming as weather permits, Alt Lib Radio Hour commits to exploring the emancipatory potential of live-streaming technology, which enables and engenders DIY relationships across borders and encourages collective innovation in an otherwise stratified reality.
We’ll be hosting new music and art each week, accessible to all via Instagram Live. Expect satellite shows in remote cities, audio-visual installations from artists across the globe, new and exciting local music — all rendered audio-visually with utmost care.
This event will be livestreamed on our Instagram, so please tune in at https://instagram.com/bhamaltlib

Alt Lib Radio Hour
2021-03-05 20:00 - 20:20
Alt Lib Radio Hour is a new livestream performance initiative broadcast every Friday out of the Alternative Library. ALRH understands live-streaming as not merely a response to COVID-19 but a site of indeterminate possibility: where the internet is available, so too is an entire world of art and culture.
While intended to transition into (coterminous) live programming as weather permits, Alt Lib Radio Hour commits to exploring the emancipatory potential of live-streaming technology, which enables and engenders DIY relationships across borders and encourages collective innovation in an otherwise stratified reality.
We’ll be hosting new music and art each week, accessible to all via Instagram Live. Expect satellite shows in remote cities, audio-visual installations from artists across the globe, new and exciting local music — all rendered audio-visually with utmost care.
This event will be livestreamed on our Instagram, so please tune in at https://instagram.com/bhamaltlib

Other Music Documentary - Virtual Screening
2020-05-15 15:00 - 2020-05-24 22:00
Independent bookstores and record stores are more vulnerable in today’s media landscape than they’ve ever been, and the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic, further harshens the conditions.
This is why the producers of the new documentary on NYC record store Other Music have decided to release their film online through a network of independent shops and theaters, who will be supported by rental of this film!
The film can be rented and screened at home, with a portion of proceeds supporting the Alternative Library, using this link:
https://othermusic.vhx.tv/checkout/alternative-library-presents-other-music/purchase
—
Other Music was an influential and uncompromising New York City record store that was vital to the city’s early 2000s indie music scene. But when the store is forced to close its doors due to rent increases, the homogenization of urban culture, and the shift from CDs to downloadable and streaming music, a cultural landmark is lost. Through vibrant storytelling, the documentary captures the record store’s vital role in the musical and cultural life of the city, and highlights the artists whose careers it helped launch including Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, William Basinski, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sharon Van
Etten, Yo La Tengo and TV On The Radio.
Other Music was more than just a store that sold CDs, records, tapes and magazines. It was a place where bands were formed, record labels were born and careers were launched. And it was THE place where a generation of New Yorkers at the dawn of the Internet age went to discover groundbreaking music by artists who would go on to become household names and underground icons.
Over the years the store established itself as a destination for music lovers from around the world. Its philosophy of hiring only the most passionate and knowledgable music lovers made Other Music a place where customers could come hang out and talk about music, art or life in general. It became a hub for creative people of all kinds; a place for musicians, painters, filmmakers, actors, etc. to meet and find out what was new, and what was happening in the city. It was a community that supported and promoted creative ventures of all forms.
With more and more record stores closing everywhere, the communities that have built up around shops like Other Music are slowly dissipating and migrating to online forums. Nowadays most people are streaming music online rather than purchasing it digitally to download, much less going to a store to buy physical media. As the music industry continues to move in that direction and community hubs like Other Music struggle to remain in existence, the documentary celebrates what spaces like these have meant to people in the past—and how their spirit can live on in an increasingly digital world.
—
Directed by Puloma Basu & Rob Hatch-Miller
USA, 2019, 83 minutes
Thanks for supporting independent arts!

Bill Horist (Experimental Guitar) / Lost Sock
2020-04-04 19:00 - 22:00
Advance tickets are available for $15 via WithFriends: https://withfriends.co/event/4456125/
Doors at 7:00pm; Music at 7:30pm
Seattle guitarist, Bill Horist is an improviser/composer/performer in a wide array of genres including rock, jazz, contemporary chamber, avant garde, folk, new music and several subgenres within each. He has appeared on over 80 recordings and has performed well over 1000 concerts throughout North and Central America, Europe, and Japan. Over the past two decades, Bill has collaborated with a long list of notable musicians from around the world including John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Stuart Dempster, KK Null, Matt Chamberlain, Chris Cutler, Damo Suzuki(Can), Vidushi Sumitra Guha, Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple), Julie Slick, William Hooker, Secret Chiefs 3, Eugene Chadbourne, Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Shazaad Ismaily, Six Organs of Admittance, Joe Morris, Climax Golden Twins, Haco, Illusion of Safety, Jamie Saft, Amy Denio, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Steve Fisk, Marron, Reggie Watts, Anla Courtis (Reynols), Eyvind Kang, Paul Rucker, Wally Shoup, and Jessica Lurie as well as members of King Crimson, Pearl Jam, Earth, The Boredoms, Sunn0))).
He has toured and recorded with a number of bands including Master Musicians of Bukkake, Kinski, Nobodaddy, Phineas Gage, Axolotl, UnFolkUs, Zahir, Tablet, Nervewheel, Ghidra, Rollerball and the Paul Rucker Ensemble in addition to extensive solo activity.
billhorist.net
Lost Sock is a duo collaboration between Cullen Beckhorn (AKA Future Man) and Melanie Sehman (MANtrio, Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, Hooves & Beak, Cat Valley)
RSVP and more info!

Poetrynight
2020-03-30 19:00 - 21:00, 2020-03-23 19:00 - 21:00, 2020-03-16 19:00 - 21:00, 2020-03-09 19:00 - 21:00
The second longest running Bellingham poetry group – Poetrynight.
All people are invited to join the group any Monday night at 7pm. You don’t have to be a writer to participate as readers of all ages are always invited to sign up to read between 7-7:30. Not all works must be originals.
Poetrynight got its start in Stuart’s Coffeehouse in 1995, when a group of poets gathered around a table to share their current work. It has grown over the years as it moved to different locations.
Poetrynight is a program under the Whatcom poetry series, and besides the weekly open mic/feature, can provide creative writing workshops for schools.

Clothing Swap
2020-03-28 14:00 - 19:00
All day, all styles, all bodies, all ages~
Bring your used/unwanted/ill-fitting clothes (washed and/or smell-free!) and search a sea of garbled garments to find a fresh fit!
Please no single socks~
All clothes remaining at the end will be donated to Wise Buys to help raise funds for Lydia Place!

Alternative Thanksgiving: An Experimental Dinner Party
2020-03-27 19:00 - 23:00
$15 supports the artists and the Alt Lib
Advanced tickets are available via WithFriends:
https://withfriends.co/event/4460637/
Doors at 7:00pm; Performances at 7:30pm
An uncanny evening of food oriented art, film, and dining set to music and performances from:
– Guillotine Eyes
– BF Knowhere
– Tim & His Winter Campers
Art and film by Tim Root
Plush sculpture installation by Suzie Marco
Culinary creations curated by Marissa Wall
Immersive sound installations
…and other surprises.
Formal dining attire encouraged.
~~~
AltLib is always ALL AGES!

Volunteers' Meetin'
2020-03-25 19:00 - 20:00, 2020-03-18 19:00 - 20:00, 2020-03-11 19:00 - 20:00, 2020-03-04 19:00 - 20:00
Every Wednesday is our weekly volunteer meeting, where we discuss the goings on and future of the AltLib!

Paper Club
2020-03-24 19:00 - 21:00, 2020-03-10 19:00 - 21:00
Come cut and create through collage! An opportunity to put your mind to rest and your fingers to work~
We’ve got all the supplies you’ll need — magazines, scissors, gluesticks, and laughs! Bring yourself, maybe a friend, and maybe a snack!

IWW Meeting
2020-03-15 18:00 - 20:00
Industrial Workers of the World unite!
Whatcom-Skagit IWW host a monthly communion of comrades

11:11 Writer's Communion
2020-03-15 11:15 - 13:00
com·mun·ion
kəˈmyo͞onyən
noun
1. the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.

V.Vecker / Ruth Davidson & Jonathan Sherman Duo / Orgone Donor
2020-03-14 19:00 - 23:00
$8-12 supports the artists and the AltLib
Doors at 7:30pm; Music at 8:00pm
March 14th @ Alt Lib
V.Vecker (aka Keith Wecker, b. 1983) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has been a member of the Vancouver experimental scene since 2006 and has been touring North America since 2009. He releases his music through his imprint Vancouver Free Jass + Drone Society and was a founding member of the Emergency Room. V.Veckers’ work is inspired by the commonalities he found in free + spiritual jazz, electronic, noise and drone music. His music can resemble a melting pot of any of these genres at a given time. His current work is based around saxophone loops and synthesizers working with a heavy interest in producing atmospheric experiences. Leading with free and improvisational ideas counter balanced with an interest in more formal compositional methods and electronic musics lead to a cross section of genres resulting in music familiar yet original.
V.Vecker has participated in New Forms Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Living Things Festival, and the Improvisation Summit Portland. He has shared the stage with Wolf Eyes, Sarah Davachi, Chris Corsano, Hauschka, Jessica Moss, Nadja, Sun Araw, Thundercat, Zs, Anthony Braxton, and Glenn Branca.

https://vveckermusic.bandcamp.com/
Ruth Davidson (Moraine) and Jonathan Sherman (Falling Up Stairs) will be performing a duet of spontaneous compositions for cello and drums.
Orgone Donor is Dustin Williams (Tarsier Eyes) Riley R (The Sheen), and Alex Wolf (Twin Sibling, Guillotine Eyes) who will be performing improvised electronic music with guitar pedals, synthesizers and tape machines.
~~~
AltLib is always ALL AGES!
NOTAFLOF

BEEF JERKY zine release ft Porch Cat + Island Gigantism
2020-03-07 19:30 - 23:00
Join us at the Alternative Library for the zine launch of BEEF JERKY! The vibe is middle school sleepover, so wear your best PJs or middle school fashion and prepare to party like there’s no bedtime!
$6-10 admission supports the artists and the AltLib
Doors at 7:30pm; Performances at 8:00pm
BEEF JERKY Includes work from 10 local artists:
Julian Stefanzick / Sayr Watson / Corinne Barber / Sara Dolan / Lexie Stabiae / Gabi Gonzalez-Yoxtheimer / Eli Nikolas-Isenhour / Finn Donnelly / Wyatt Moretti-Dobo / Re Pinter
Music through the evening from Porch Cat and Island Gigantism!
RSVP and more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/189368435651070/
~~~
AltLib is always ALL AGES!
NOTAFLAF

Become a Tea Brewer
2020-03-07 14:00 - 16:00
Did you know our tea room is available for tea lovers like you, to brew and serve at? Have you ever wanted to learn how to lead a tea ceremony? Or do you know the ropes but need a tea room for your offering? Water Bear Tea Collective is a volunteer-run tea room available for anyone that wants to offer tea related workshops. We provide the space, tea pots, cups, trays, and atmosphere. You bring your enthusiasm for tea! All profits are split 50/50 between you, the brewer, and the collective. Anyone is welcome, no experience needed.
Come learn more at our Introduction Tea Party!
2pm – Discuss Water Bear Tea Collective and how you can get involved. Sign up to serve tea whenever you want.
3pm – Tea Brewing 101 – We’ll go over how to offer a tea ceremony or a tea party.
RSVP and more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/648744552358897/

Nachyn Choreve + Arrington de Dionyso
2020-03-06 19:00 - 22:00
After the sold out Sounds of Siberia concert, Tuvan throat singer, Nachyn Choreve returns to Bellingham! He will be performing a solo set, followed by a duo performance with artist Arrington de Dionyso (Old Time Relijun), performing spontaneous compositions, blending each of their influences together.
$15 supports the artists and the AltLib
Doors at 7:00pm; Music at 7:30pm
Tickets are limited and are available in advance via WithFriends: https://withfriends.co/event/3920760/nachyn_choreve_w_arrington_de_dionyso
Nachyn Choreve is a soloist in the Tuvan State Philharmonic and member of Tuvan psychedelic rock band Hartyga. Hartyga was founded in 2003 and represents the younger generation of Tuvan throat singers. They follow in the footsteps of the legendary Tuvan ethnic rock group Yat-Kha, and in 2017 toured and recorded with Yat-Kha’s iconic frontman, Albert Kuvezin. In September 2019, Nachyn and Hartyga toured the US for the first time with Olympia-based artist Arrington de Dionyso.
Arrington de Dionyso (b. 1975) has lived in Olympia since 1992. A self-taught artist, musician and linguist, he is the founder of seminal NW post-punk bands Old Time Relijun, Malaikat dan Singa, and the avant-jazz ensembles This Saxophone Kills Fascists and Trance Music For Crows. He has performed and exhibited around the world and in 2015 his drawings were prominently featured as prints and embroidery in a fashion collection debuted by Saint Laurent Paris. As a kind of “punk ethnomusicologist” Arrington circumvents academic approaches in favor of building direct cooperative relationships with diverse musical cultures, as an invited participant and active collaborator. His investigations of Jathilan trance music in Java, and collaborations with groups such as Senyawa, Karinding Attack, and HMM have brought him to the forefront of the Indonesian experimental music scene, and he has recently traveled to Morocco (Master Musicians of Jajouka) and Peru (instrument builder Dmitri Manga) to build similar connections linking the indigenous with the avant garde. In August of 2019 he traveled to The Republic of Tuva as the headlining “international” artist of the “Throatsinging in the Center of Asia Festival”, performing at the National Theater of Kyzyl and collaborating with numerous local musicians and shamanic practitioners.
