Sandrider Confirms!

I like people who like Dune, or who make me think of it, more than I like Dune itself. All the ingenuity and nuance is maintained that way. Two parts Akimbo and one part Ruby Doe, Seattle’s Sandrider is every bit the recipe for bad-ass rock that your spoon licking gluttony should expect. Jon Weisnewski and Nat Damm have been playing together for over a decade, and Jesse Roberts is a seamless addition. The songs ebb from beer raising, vocal-peppered riffs to hair growing, sludge ridden blasts. Guitar driven vocal hooks steer you into a bass and drum-accentuated stupor. All you love about hardcore, metal and good old fashioned fun is harnessed and manipulated into a brutally drawn out and rolling release that is refreshing and familiar. Matt Bayles recently recorded their EP so keep your eyes open.

JAPANTHER CONFIRM!
"Say you love satan! I love you mom!" Seems like a wicked combination of expletives, adjectives and other shit's always on deck when somebody's writing about Japanther, whose noise blast sound has grown into its own melodic, punk rock deal over the past three years. In 2009 they sound more like the Beach Boys and the Ramones, versus the Screamers --a band I regularly compared them to when they started. They still like to confront, get in your face, encourage behaviour changing, room-cleaning, swimming, etc. but now they are accomplished songwriters and Japanther's melodies are some of the hummed-est around this household. Start with their Skuffed Up My Huffy LP and then work through the catalog. Stop at Master of Pigeons and spin I-10, head over to Wolfenswan and get your noise-skuzz fill, work back to Operating Manual for Life on Earth and be greeted by the voice of Jimmy Carter. It's an ambitious, eclectic, varied body of work these guys have whipped up in their short career.

And the music's only about 75% of the deal with the band. Every time one turns around, there's a wild audio/video/visual/puppet art blowout going on at the Whitney or at PS122 or in Marfa... or at Art Basel and invariably, Japanther are putting something together with Dan Graham (Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty) or a handful of other seriously creative types. Japanther played Total Fest I in 2002, and since then they've gone around the world a few times, played hundreds of shows (recently with the Dillinger 4 and Against Me!), but they continue keep Total Fest and Missoula directly on their radar. We love Japanther. They play from their guts, they do what they feel, and they work like mad to make their music and art happen, and on their own terms to boot.

GIT SOME CONFIRMS!
(This from Total Organizer Lou)
Denver. The Mile High City. Closer than you think. Farther than you’d like. Git Some’s Home Base! This is actually all I can come up with before my brain stops working. So I call Git Some's singer (and Kingdom of Magic guitarist/singer) Luke Fairchild and ask him if I can use an excerpt from a blog they posted before heading to Europe last fall. It goes a little something like this:

“We are gonna spill our guts in ancient cities! We are gonna throw-up blood, chunks, and rock-n-roll on the pretty shoes of all you people! We will cough and hack up filthy, perverted guitar chords! You won’t smell the same as when you showed up to see us! We are gonna put out cigarettes on all the safe comfortable feeling you get when you think about rock; or punk; or metal; or whatever the fuck you kids call it at the moment! We’re gonna blow loads out of our cerebral cocks onto the brains of those that shine so brite! We want you people to fuck under the stars and the trees under the face of the moon; grit your teeth and scream like a panther! Live this day like you fuckin’ mean it! ROCK IT LIKE A FUCKING WOLF!”

… Um … Take that!
Plus, this is what I was going to say anyway.

THE BLIND SHAKE CONFIRM!
Minneapolis' Blind Shake make music that makes me think of some of my favorite noise rock bands of the 90s and 00s. Their bassplayerlessness and songwriting makes me think of Federation X at their most economical. If that's a reference that's lost on anyone, I have to withhold apology. Federation X were an against-the-grain (read uncool), powerhouse of a band whose most memorable attributes were the way their two guitars wrapped around each other, their spartan riffs, and the way it was all supported by behemoth, dynamite drumming.

All those same attributes are present in the Blind Shake, and we're pretty sure that the cosmic paths of the two groups somehow never crossed. The Blind Shake have crossed paths recently with seminal psychedelic boogier, Michael Yonkers. That meeting resulted in a sweet, ultra-limited 12" on the Learning Curve label, to be released at the end of July. Hopefully they have a few of those along with 'em!

RAD TOUCH!
(This from Total Organizer Lou)
If you were lucky enough to catch Rad Touch at last year’s Total Fest, then you know. But, if you missed one of Seattle’s best kept secrets, then let me tell you … Rad Touch is well, Rad! Do yourself a favor and don’t allow the word “Rad” to connote any visions of the 80’s. That’s like comparing Bangkok (my hometown) to Vegas!! It just doesn’t work. But, RT Does! And how! Metal, rock and hardcore mayhem with a sprinkling of tongue-in-cheek (“Hottest Bitch at the Beach” is about a dog and not you ladies!) is what these boys are about. Who else is gonna have you chanting “Shark week”? Get “Touched” and you’ll know who!

(Editor's note: It's nice to see a Seattle band comfortable in flannel.)

LOCAL SIGHTING: TYSON BALLEW!
(This from Total Organizer Nicole) The world is not going to end, so we better start doing something. In Missoula, there is no other who works harder to spread the DIY spirit. Through radio, one man bands, pockets full of handmade handbills, word of mouth and hard work, Tyson Ballew has been marching to his own beat for the best cause, for a long time.

His most recent Club Shmed studio recording, Fruit Trees for Cassowaries, is a dynamite, refined example of his earnest folk, pop punk musical persona. Tyson tells true stories of a kid underground, doing what he believes in, believing in what he's doing. This world is full of kids, and he's going to make some honest friends.

THE BLANK ITS CONFIRM!
This from Total Organizer Neight:
the Blank Its are future primitive just like Lance Mountain. Where other bands went for Total Recall, the Blank Its gave us Westworld, and made other bands want to give us Westworld, who instead gave us Terminator. They blew my mind in 2004 with their first record, and they will infect yours with their infection now.

It seems to me that there used to be be this genre of music called "garage rock," or "thrash punk," and that it has evolved into something else. That something else is pretty cool too... and then there is this band the Blank Its whom I've heard called a "more accessible A Frames," and perhaps that's a bit true, but they are garage rock and the new wave as well... Empty Records and Sweet Rota had released their music and the bands cites "crappy childhoods" as their sole influence.