If you still haven't made plans for this coming long weekend, it's not too late to drop everything and get the heck outta dodge for what is oddly the summer festival season's best-kept secret: the Electric Eclectics Festival in Meaford, Ontario. Now in its fourth year, the brainchild of sound artist and former Berliner/Torontonian Gordon Monahan, EE takes place on the "Funny Farm," the bucolic property not far from the shores of Georgian Bay that Monahan owns with his partner, visual artist Laura Kikauka.

Not only is it insanely affordable — $65 gets you a weekend festival pass PLUS camping — the surroundings are beautiful, the people are friendly and interesting (OK, it's pretty much 100% loogan-free), and the vibe is suitably "free-form," the complete opposite of the concentration-camp experience of any given corporately-sponsored summer music fest.

And then there's the music itself. This year's line-up is less heavy on the Berlin/Continental connection than previous installments, but as you would expect from Monahan and assistant director Chris Worden, there are still plenty of international heavyweights on board; many of whom you would never even get to see here in the Big Smoke.

In what appears to be a smart move to attract more of "us" youngsters up from Tronna, 2009's festival features a handful of "headliners," including beloved Wavelength alumni Holy Fuck, Katie Stelmanis and former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki (yes, he played WL back in 2003!), not to mention iconoclastic L.A. vocalist Carla Bozulich. This makes for an interesting mix, as the line-up seems evenly split between serious/experimental/international and homespun/indie/fun. Of course, there is plenty of overlap between those various signifiers.

In the event you've been drawn to the mysterious Funny Farm by Katie, Damo, Carla and the Fucks (does anyone call them that?), and you're wondering what the hell else you're going to hear, here's a quick primer:

Lukas Ligeti (Friday @ 9:30) — Indeed, the auspicious surname is not insignificant, his Dad was György Ligeti, the literally Monolith-ic 20th century composer whose music was famously used in Kubrick's 2001. But this Austrian-born, New York-based composer/percussionist makes music that is entirely his own, hypnotic minimalism that draws on modern electronic music and various African traditions.

I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can't (Friday @ 10:15) — We thought we had heard the last of these guys last year, and so had they, until EE invited them to perform. Ostensibly broken up, ICPMABOYC's MySpace states they "are currently only accepting show offers for Europe, South America, and Japan." While they were together, they were Southern Ontario's most instrumentally intense and pointedly reductionist post-mathcore trio. The Last Head-Nod? (2/3rds of ArmBackOn are now Boars, playing WL on Aug. 9.)

Odradek (Saturday @ 5:30) — I actually haven't yet heard Odradek, having stupidly missed all their frequent performances at Toronto loft space Somewhere There. Featuring former (I assume??) CKLN radio host James Bailey on found objects, radio and gramophone, Michaelangelo Iaffaldano on guitar, clarinet, homemade instruments and Andy Yue on keyboards, Odradek are wonderfully described as "a long-running trio of friends who delight in improvising on any sound source they can lay their hands on, from the concert hall to the curb." So I'm looking forward to finally seeing them.

A trio of international visitors on Saturday — German duo Augusta and Kalle Laar a.k.a. Kunst Oder Unfall (7pm), Brooklyn multi-media artist Amelia Saul (7:45pm) and Romanian electronic musician Yvat (8:30pm) — sound mysterious and intriguing.

Greater Explosives (Sunday @ 6:45pm) — The rarely-heard, ambient/guitar-oriented solo project of former Torontonian and current Fenelon Falls-ian, Damian Valles, drummer for the aforementioned I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can't and Boars and guitarist with ETAION SHRDLU.

DBMG/RAF (Sunday @ 9:45pm) — I don't know much about Owen Sound electronic/multi-media artist Joshua David Richardson, but this project is named after Germany's notorious domestic terrorists, Die Baader-Meinhof Gruppe / Red Army Faction. So you know it will be pretty bad-ass.

— posted by Jonny