Biography
Formed around 1996-7, shrouded in mystery, strange multi-media presentations hidden in a variety of masks. Moog and tape samples mix sometimes, but not always, with haunting wind instruments and bent cello, noise and prepared guitar, ambient vocals, distorted , sometimes drums but often other percussion things from rocks to thundertube, computers and digital toys, and even digeridoo.
For over a decade they have shared stages throughout the NW with the like-minded and the unalike, toured Pittsburgh PA behind poet Chuck Swaim in 2001, and have put in sets at Olympia's Experimental Music Festival for eleven years straight. An internet radio broadcast on KMLP in 2001 was purported by the station staff to be heard by some 12,000 streaming listeners including one very excited Russian who proclaimed in an e-mail, "Dead Air Fresheners Rock!"
The current direction of the Dead Air Fresheners is these days primarily an instrumental one, but contrary to frequent misconception it is not a purely improvisational purview. There are actual compositions for most performances that draw upon the Chance Deterministic style of John Cage, filtered through the fluxists, Sun Ra's style of jazz conducting, and a healthy dose of post-punk chaos. It's not that they know exactly at all times what they are doing, but rather they know more than anybody else.
Recorded history began with I Try To Show My Love, on Olympia WA's ultra-independent Plastic Duck Records in 1999, then three self-released albums from 2001-2003 providing soundtracks to Chuck Swaim's poetry: Verses of Echo, Bastard Customer, and Pleasure Is Where All Labor Ends. They appeared on a two compilation CDR series: Infamous Polywogs Vol. 1? released by Inlet Recordings in 2002 and Infamous Polywogs Vol. 2? released by Kill Pop Tarts in 2004. 2006 saw the release on Kill Pop Tarts of a CDR-ep called An Ulcer is a String of Pearls, and also the inclusion of the track "God Damn Bullfighter" on a compilation by Icky Recordings entitled Reek of Influence. 2007 has brought us the most recent Dead Air Fresheners album A Slip Inside the Quiet Room on Bristol CT's Icky Recordings!
For over a decade they have shared stages throughout the NW with the like-minded and the unalike, toured Pittsburgh PA behind poet Chuck Swaim in 2001, and have put in sets at Olympia's Experimental Music Festival for eleven years straight. An internet radio broadcast on KMLP in 2001 was purported by the station staff to be heard by some 12,000 streaming listeners including one very excited Russian who proclaimed in an e-mail, "Dead Air Fresheners Rock!"
The current direction of the Dead Air Fresheners is these days primarily an instrumental one, but contrary to frequent misconception it is not a purely improvisational purview. There are actual compositions for most performances that draw upon the Chance Deterministic style of John Cage, filtered through the fluxists, Sun Ra's style of jazz conducting, and a healthy dose of post-punk chaos. It's not that they know exactly at all times what they are doing, but rather they know more than anybody else.
Recorded history began with I Try To Show My Love, on Olympia WA's ultra-independent Plastic Duck Records in 1999, then three self-released albums from 2001-2003 providing soundtracks to Chuck Swaim's poetry: Verses of Echo, Bastard Customer, and Pleasure Is Where All Labor Ends. They appeared on a two compilation CDR series: Infamous Polywogs Vol. 1? released by Inlet Recordings in 2002 and Infamous Polywogs Vol. 2? released by Kill Pop Tarts in 2004. 2006 saw the release on Kill Pop Tarts of a CDR-ep called An Ulcer is a String of Pearls, and also the inclusion of the track "God Damn Bullfighter" on a compilation by Icky Recordings entitled Reek of Influence. 2007 has brought us the most recent Dead Air Fresheners album A Slip Inside the Quiet Room on Bristol CT's Icky Recordings!