Artie Smudges Trio wants to fling the world into chaos. Their tools of annihilation are not weapons of mass destruction; rather, they will destroy civilization as we know it through the creation of beautiful noise. Sticking to mostly acoustic instruments- violins, cellos, horns, childrens xylophones, with electronic sound manipulation by Adam Griffen, Artie Smudges Trio is one of Bellingham's most interesting groups of musical experimenters, purveyors of avante-garde sound that still manages to be confusing and exhilirating while remaining tightly thematic on a song by song basis. Consisting of long time improvisers brothers Adam and Michael Griffen, Caroline Buchalter from Spooky Dance Band, and Danielle Morgan from Your Heart Breaks; Artie Smudges Trio is not exactly a trio. But they are the Olympic Dream Team of Bellingham bands, and their talent shows.

     Cut to a month or so ago. It was one of the last Showoff shows, and I walked onto the floor and took a seat up front, grinning widely in awe as the band finished a number that reminded me of how sad I would soon be to see the Showoff shut down for good. The piece was brassy and flippant, and it gave me the same creeps I got the first time I ever saw 2001: A Space Odyssey.

     Caroline seemed pleased that I was so visibly enjoying myself. "Can we give this guy a t-shirt?" she asked the rest of the band. Granted, I like free stuff. But I wasn't just smiling in the hopes of scoring merchandise. The elation I felt was real- a byproduct of the pseudo-fear I experience every time I bear witness to an illicit impromptu pyrotechnics display or almost trip down a flight of stairs.

     The following week, I trekked out to the group's remote practise space to witness a practise session and to ask a few questions about their approach to music in Bellingham.

How long have you guys been together as Artie Smudges Trio?
     Michael Griffen: We played that first show without Caroline in August of 2000.

And most of your shows are all ages, right?
     All: Yeah.
     MG: I think all of our shows have been all ages, actually.

How did Artie Smudges Trio assemble together?
     Adam Griffen: There's a long tradition here of experimental jam sessions, and introducing people to improv. [the band started] from people coming out and jamming and coming up with something and then all of a sudden having to come up with a name for it.
     MG: Somewhere in there, we did the movie soundtrack stuff.
     Danielle Morgan: Yeah, that's how I met you guys. There was a Super 8 thing at the Humdinger, where they wanted live soundtracks to Super 8 movies. And I was going to just whip out the trumpet, and then you guys were there and you said, "yeah, we're going to back you up," and I was like, oh my god, I can't improvise with other people. After that, when I came to practise, it was like, wow, this is great, this works, this is fun!
     Caroline Buchalter: It was funny, because I was gone for the summer, and then I got back and it was like, "Danielle's in the band now."

Well, I think that's something that's really exiciting about experimental music is that you can just jump in, so long as you've got the passion for it. I've been trying to convince my friend Anna to come down for this jam session, and she's really nervous about it.
     DM: And I totally understand, because the first time I came down, I was just like, I don't know who these people are, and they'll be virtuosos, like, "we're going to play something in the key of 'C',"but when they started playing, I was like, oh no, I can do this.
     CB: Like, I can do whatever I want, this isn't so hard.

Your expectations about performing, it's kind of like pushing peoples boundaries of what to expect when they go to a show. I like shows where they book lots of different types of bands, like one hardcore band, one experimental band, and one country band...
     CB: What were you calling that, Michael? "The Crossover Experience?"
     MG: Was I?
     DM: It's like the musical version of crossdressing, where you make people listen to lots of different types of music they ordinarily wouldn't.
     AG: That's been something Noggin's always done. I can remember years ago, in the Metaphonics, we played some shows that were like collective art spaces, but we'd also play bar shows with rock bands. And we'd come out in our costumes, people would call it post-apocalyptic, with head gear and everything.
     CB: And how did people react to it?
     AG: They loved it! And the experience I gather from that is that I know it doesn't matter if you're playing completely experimental music that people have never heard before. People can still like it.
     MG: My crossover experience was Tattletail.
     DM: Yeah, I love Tattletail!
     MG: Tattletail and Noggin played several crossover shows together. Mutual appreciation shows. Do you remember Tattletail? They were two women, fifteen and seventeen, singing and cello, sometimes the guitar. Noggin was loud noise, and we'd play shows with them, and that was an interesting crossover, I thought.
     DM: It's weird. You ask most people what kind of music they like, and they'll say: "Well I like any music that's good, except country," or something. There's always an except. And not to say people's ideas of good are different, but I think my feeling recently has been that the idea of good is just when people are really into what they're doing and they're having fun, and they're doing it when there's not people watching, and they're not doing it for some shallow commercial purpose, that usually, it's good. I've noticed that with authors reading, too- there might be an author you have no interest in, but they're so into it, you'll watch them reading from their book about a plane crash in India from the 1930's or something, and you wouldn't care otherwise, but they're so into it, you're like, wow, that is fascinating.

Exactly- I think it's that kind of broadening experience that really makes people question their assumptions about music, and what they like in general. For people to go to a show and to come out of a show and go, wait a second, this is not only something interesting and really good, but also that they might be able to do themselves.
     DM: Well, that's another nice thing about Bellingham, is you get to see bands of all different skill levels. So if you see someone who obviously hasn't been playing that long, but is really fun to listen to, it's just so many more times inspiring.
     CB: Well I think seeing someone like Cat Power making it, that's a really good example of seeing someone and saying, she knows five chords, and I know those chords, and although she does have an amazing voice, it's the soul, and the way she plays it. Just the idea you don't have to be some virtuoso to get up there and do it, and that in this weird way you can make it and still have this cult following, and still be terrible on stage.
     [laughs]
     CB: She is! She has no stage presence. Her stage presence is terrible. You know what I'm saying- she's redefined what we think of as a superstar, as a female vocalist. And that's what's fascinating to me. She's doing exactly what she wants to do, and people love her, because she's doing what's honest.
     AG: I've really noticed Bellingham is really supportive of beginning bands. A band that in a lot of places would be perceived as needing a lot more practice will go up and struggle through it, and the audience is cheering them on, and it seems like it's a really supportive place.
     CB: It's true. I think even for Spooky Dance Band, where people are like, oh, you're getting tighter every show, when we started we weren't very tight at all, people were still like, "cool, I really like what you do."
     AG: You were still projecting the same type of energy then, though. The details were rough, but people were able to latch onto what you were doing.
     CB: Right. They were like, maybe they're just starting, but I can't wait to see what will come. And that's really cool to get that kind of input from people. That, whoa, what you're doing is really different, but we respect that.

GAFJ #2, May 24, 2002. Find out what the Give A Fuck Coalition is up to: www.gafc.info