In 2004, the apex of the Bush years, Greg Mudarri, Noah Wolf, Eric Gosselin and Dave Paige were unwinding in a Beantown basement after logging another practice session as Formosa. Mudarri, a gifted sculptor and origami artist, found a wad of Play-Doh and formed it into a clenched fist.

"Noah thought that making something hard and aggressive out of something soft and innocent was an interesting idea," Mudarri recalls.

The four musicians - who had just elected to self-release an EP of wild, progressive violin punk - suddenly had a punny name for their self-started label: Pass the Fist.

But that Formosa EP never actually saw the light of day. As Wolf puts it, the band played "one chaotic, semi-disaster equipment malfunction of a show" and dissolved shortly thereafter. Mudarri moved to Tokyo, and Wolf, Gosselin and Paige relocated to Los Angeles and formed Wreck of the Zephyr, a band inspired by '90s alt-punk greats and named after a 1983 children's book by Chris Van Allsburg. Despite its initial false start, Pass the Fist lived on, transforming from vanity label into artsy DIY venture.

While its immediate ambitions are limited to a 2011 Wreck of the Zephyr full-length called For Helen, Pass the Fist also plans to release a slew of material by Mudarri, who plays long-form experimental music on his double-necked guitar under the sobriquet Mixmaster. They also have designs on some other Japanese artists and aim to finally get around to putting out that Formasa EP, Double Record Concept Album. Pass the Fist's website remains unfinished, but the project only moves at a tentative crawl because its founders are strictly committed to a DIY mentality and weigh every decision carefully. Having grown up in a family of creative types, Wolf experienced firsthand the effects of the clash between art and commerce.

"Because a lot of the art I was raised around was community-based, I have always made a strong connection between art and community and between art and struggle." says Wolf, who volunteered at famed underground space The Smell, and founded his own LA venue space, called Dig In.

"Why start your own label if you are not going to attempt to make every aspect of it a reflection of your deepest beliefs?" he wonders. The obvious rejoinder: because you want to make money. But Wreck of the Zephyr - and the whole Pass the Fist crew - are clearly in it for the passion, not the profit.

[Le Voyeur, Wreck of the Zephyr, Saturday, April 9, 10 p.m., free, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710]