Josh's Top List of 2010

And with no ado whatsoever, here are some top lists for last year. I'm going to see if I can't collect these from some of our Total Fest organizers!

RECORDS
Bassholes: And Without A Name LP (Columbus Discount)
Don Howland's records keep getting better, spookier and more excellent and time goes by.

Kieltolaki LP (Feral Ward)
Finnish hardcore done so well it's unfunny.

Kvoteringen LP (Feral Ward)
Swedish harcore done so well it's unfunny.

White Shit: Sculpted Beef (PPM)
For a one-sided 12", this thing packs in adventure, Jim Morrison references and plugs four of my favorite musicians into a single, ripping band.

Fleshies: Brown Flag LP (Recesss)
Who knew this killer band was still killing?

Omar Khorshid LP (reissued material by Sublime Frequencies)
Offers crucial pre-surf, and showcases Arab guitar at its absolute finest.

Fist City: LP (Deadbeat)
Southern Albertans whose sound is as rurally-isolated, beautiful, and frustrated as Lethbridge.

Harvey Milk: Small Turn of Human Kindness LP (Hydrahead)
Not rock whatsoever, but good in spite.

the Lights: Failed Graves LP (Wantage)

Jangle-jangle donk, jangle-jangle donk. Rhyming choruses... the formula is unchanged and perfect.

Japanther: Rock N' Rolle Ice Cream (Menlo Park)

My soft spot for Japanther's pop is real, and their pop keeps improving.

Shahs: Dry Heat/Valley Low (Riley Bushman) LP
One man and a tropical, washy mission.

Post Regiment: Czarly reissue LP (Nikt Nic Nie Wie)
Polski punk at its finest.

White Lung: CD (Derranged)
Canadienski punk at its finest.

Bird's Mile Home LP (Minor Bird)

Missoula's only 12" in ... what, 4 years? A fist pumper.

Child Abuse: Cut and Run CD (Lovepump)
Lightning Bolt's estranged west coast cousins? Or is it just a west coast label?

Broken Water: Whet LP (Radio Is Down)

Great, slow, enveloping rock and roll music.

Konono #1: Assume Crash Position (Crammed)
Congolese all-stars continue to thwack at their likembes.

Custody Battle 10" (Morning Star Tapes)

My sleeper hit record of 2010.

AFCGT CD (Sub Pop)

A-Frames dudes, Climax Golden Twins dudes. A one time collab? Who cares.

1776 12" EP (Aerodrome)

Federation X fix, four songs worth anyway.

Mordecai CDR (Self-released, LP soon on Killer Tree)

Rock a rolla from the caustic, environmentally-troubled part of the state.

LIVE

Ohsees @ the BSMT

Capricorn Vertical Slum: Live at

Mordecai

Broken Water @ the ZACC

Warcry @ Total Fest IX

Night of Joy @ Total Fest IX

TOTALLY TOTALED.

I think Carly Starbird's quote (above) captures it better than anything longer winded. I mean, Ach mein gott, man! Are you kidding? From the opening notes of Abe Coley's space-jam, to the pop-heave of Muhammadali to the melodies of Street Eaters, power of Warcry, jam-sense of Grandparents and scuzz-menace of White Drugs, Total Fest IX was a blast. Highlights are too copious to list, lowpoints involve only hearing loss, too few hours in the day, and so many friends to re-connect with.

The picture of Oneida on the right here was taken by the folks at musicsoula.com who have got a slide show up too. We'll keep you posted on developments around here, but for now, thank you for coming, get ahold of us if you haven't gotten paid and thank you for making Total Fest what it is. It's a lot of work, but I come off it pretty well charged up for a good handful of weeks. It's such a refreshing thing to see so much incredible, diverse music in one weekend. Additionally, it's an honor for us organizers (Lou, Wendy, Kari, Julie, Niki, Josh, Josh, Johnny, Genna, Neight, Marty, Jordon, Erin) to be part of something as community as Total Fest is. It wouldn't be anything without people to cook food, house bands, buy passes, play music, organize record swaps and all things in between.

We're hocking what leftover shirts and posters we have at wantageusa.com.

SNEAK PREVIEW: TEE-SHIRT BACK.

Holy moly, four days till Total Fest nine starts at the Missoula Art Museum! Passes are moving fast, plans are getting made. We'll see you there.

Oh, and yes. Missoula artist Mathew LaRubbio's the man behind this year's Total Fest, Feast and Test poster art, and he's designing our tee shirt too. This is a sneak preview of what the back of the shirts is going to to look like! Go on, give it a click.

Garage Tees (in the Warehouse Mall in Missoula) is Total Fest's official sponsor, and they're the ones printing the shirts.

EATA THE PIZZA, SUPPORTA THE FESTA.
Biga Pizza Total Feast: a benefit for Total Fest. Happening Sunday, August 15th, 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM, or until the dough's gone. Seriously. No dough, no pizza. $10, all-you-should-eat pizza and salad, beer too. But you've got to buy the beer separately. See you there!

Oh, and while you're here, we've got two sweet new developments: 1) We've got a live interview with Oneida's Hanoi Jane up at kgba. org! 2) Next week on Muffin Tops radio, at 5PM August 19, Niki's gonna air her interview with Fist City! they're an incredible punk band from Lethbridge, Alberta. Here's a video!

THRONE UP! DIP DOWN!
Dear christ, this stuff is so crushing! Thrones play Friday, August 20th at the Palace.



Saturday's (August 21, 12 noon) Record Swap happens at the Big Dipper, on South Higgins. This spring, the Dip went mobile with this thing!

DERANGED DICTION: LISTEN TO THE TAPE ON A VIDEO, MAN.
Back in the 80s Montana had its hand in a nice Bloodstain across Western America style group called Deranged Diction. They had a nice rural isolation vibe, a nice Discharge style snare tone, and a good disaffected, fuck-up vocal style . The dudes are older, the music and message ain't.

AHOY, TOTAL WORLD!
Get your walking shoes on! Total Fest marches into August with exhibitions and events held during the First Friday Art Walk on August 06 from 5 - 8PM (First Friday). We've assembled a few tokens from yesteryear and have branched into the smacktastic world of pinatas. A photo retrospective of past Total Fests will be on display at Taco Del Sol. Betty's Divine will host an evening with wine, treats, Total Pinatas and music by Colin Johnson. We're bursting at the seams to get this party going. Stop by some of the other venues on Friday but be sure not to miss the Total events!!

SERIOUSLY?
CUSTODY BATTLE. THURSDAY AUG. 19.


BIRTHDAY SUITS. THURSDAY AUG. 19


ONEIDA.FRIDAY AUG. 20.


THE LIGHTS. FRIDAY AUG. 20.


WARCRY. SATURDAY AUG. 21.

AH HOLLY FAM'LY, ALL UNFOLDING AT TFIX

This bands' fantastic folk album "Reservoir" has been played regularly between the turntable and the ipod since they last played Missoula in October of 2009. Their calm, cool caress of sound with their pretty strings and flute combined with lead male vocalist Jeremy Faulkner's unique croon is a contrast to a lot of the loud, hard and fast blast of many other Total bands but their command is only slightly more subtle and no less powerful.

Previously of Moscow, ID, the band is no stranger to Missoula. Aside from the afore mentioned 2009 basement gig, Ah Holly Fam'ly has graced other lesser known local venues before their move to the big city of Portland, Oregon where they're currently hailing from. They're kicking things off at the Palace just shortly after our first ever Totaltini at the MAM so shuffle quickly from one venue to other and don't miss this terrific treat of a group. We think they're stellar.

STREETLIGHT PEOPLE, PEOPLE.

If being from semi-rural Montana's a crime, then Dave "Davre" Martens is a guilty man. Dave's a native of Havre, Montana. Pride of the Hi-Line, Northcentral Montana's unofficial regional capitol. A real-deal Blue Pony, and it comes through at every turn. That the guys got more authentic rock and roller in him than redneck is a not-minor and beyond-strange semimiracle, perhaps owing to the guy's height or something. Havre and the Hi-Line is fertile land, and has in fact produced some of the state's most notable punks. Look at it by the numbers: Jeff Ament/Deranged Diction is from Big Sandy; Dave Parsons/Humpy/Sasshole/Nazgul/Juveniles: is from Havre. Matt Svendsen/Antidifrancos/Ass-End Offend/Nazgul/Squalora has roots in Loma. It's an isolated part of the state. Close to Canada, two Indian Reservations and the Bear's Paw mountains.

My theory is that in towns like Havre you've got the opportunity to settle down and figure out what you really like and don't like. It's not like a larger town where there were probably 29 kids at your high school who already knew about Steel Pole Bathtub (or some cultural analog).

Anyhow, thisv is getting dangerously close to quasi/faux sociology b.s. or something, and I think its point really ought to be that Dave's one of those local music heroes here in Missoula, having played with handfuls of people, probably most notably Rooster Sauce as the drummer, and it turns out the guys also a pretty excellent guitar player. Streetlight People is Dave, his buddy Fletcher and a bassist and drummer. They released one hell of a record about a year ago. It's called A Diving Man and there may be a copy somewhere to be had. It's got a rather hard pop vibe, not unlike the Kinks or Unrest, get's its thing done in less than thirty minutes and left me as a listener immediately wanting to replay the thing. Live it's the same deal.

SPOTLIGHT ON THE TOTAL SPOTS, PART ONE.
THE MISSOULA ART MUSEUM, PATTEE STREET, DOWNTON MISSOULA. Because we've all but wrapped up the slow release of our lineup, and have actually posted the TFIX schedule here on our website (right hand side there), we're going to take a minute to look at some of the spots and people and their businesses that help us make this thing possible. First up, it's the Missoula Art Museum ("MAM"). A vibrant place on all accounts, first as a Carnegie Library, the museum had a classically Roman via Pittsburgh facade. Then a couple years ago, after much raising of funds and planning, a nice modern addition was put on, and the museum's galery/office space went from not much to lots more in just about a yar. As fans of art, creativity and all things in between, it's been awesome for we Total Fest organizers to see the museum grow as a central part of Missoula's cultural life, with our very own Tom Dewar (Total Fest poster printer nonpareil) having shown work there, as well as tons of awesome local, regional and national artists. The folks who run the museum have the rare gifts of being both visionary and ambitious about bringing in art from elsewhere, but also to fostering a creative, arts-stoked Missoula/Western Montana communities.

The MAM folks do a monthly event called Artini, wherein they sneak preview new shows and open the doors in the evening, and allow for some alcohol enjoyment on premises. This year, Artini, or TotalTini as we're calling it will bring some punk rock to the MAM in the form of Abe Coley, Japanther, Fag Rag and Muhamadali. We'll start up first thing at about 6PM on Thursday, July 19 and welcome folks to Total Fest with a new venue in the family. We're excited about the partnership, and encourage Museum patrons to come and enjoy some more of what we've got on offer. More to come soon!

TOTO FEST?
We're not sure about the relevance here, other than there seems to be some confusion that softrock legends Toto have something happening at Total Fest. It's not true, at all. The rumors are unfounded.

However, note on the right hand side of the screen that we've both got passes for sale and the full schedule (some changes coming) published. That is all.

MISS LANA REBEL ALL SET FOR TOTAL FEST
No matter what venue I’m at I have a certain habit of standing in the same spot for shows. I stand just outside the main gathering of people making sure I can see the entire stage while garnering a little personal space at the same time. The last couple of times I’ve seen Miss Lana Rebel I’ve stood in my normal spot, which is also a pretty good spot to survey my fellow patrons. Each time it never fails that I see people in front of me start to immediately chatter to each other with excited “damn, she is really good!”

Former bassist for the sludged induced math-metal outfit Last of the Juanitas, Miss Lana not only traded in the bass for the guitar but traded the Melvins for Lefty Frizell and Hank Williams. Miss Lana’s shift in style has resulted in some of the most honest, dobro filled, beautiful tunes that have a Pavlovian effect on me. When I hear Miss Lana Rebel strum her first chord my brain tells me I need whiskey and I need it quick. After a couple of songs that make me feel bad about anyone whoever did me wrong Miss Lana swings into one of her barn burning, stomp your feet tunes. Which should also be about the time the bottle is empty leaving me no choice but to throw it in the air and shoot it down with my six-shooter.

TOTAL FEST: NIGHT OF JOY

Denver's Night of Joy puts to shame most of the bands that are pigeon-holed as “post-punk” – a phrase that I'm still trying to comprehend. Are we really in need of recycling this category? Seriously, we'd be better served by jettisoning the entire “post” naming fetish. Given the list of bands that typically fall under the post-punk revival umbrella, it's border line insulting to brand a band with it. NoJ – Bree Davies (Teen Pass Out) and Valerie Franz – serves up some great pop power with strong emotive vocals, sitting somewhere between soothing and caterwauling, that challenge simple record store shelving. The energy is refreshing and oddly comforting. Quick, spidery and haunting, Night of Joy brings a bundle of honest, good time, tangible DIY rock. Look out Bro Rock, this shit is asking you to do something new.

SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR: ADDED TO THE TOTAL BREW
When this August gets too hott and even the coldest ice cream won’t cool you down emerge yerself in the sweet sweet sound of Sugar Sugar Sugar.

Bellingham’s music scene sweethearts Sugar Sugar Sugar (whom I will henceforth refer to as SSS) are a three piece, one sugar for each member, fronted by two dudes who know how to rip and backed by one girl-b***h drummer who hits hard. SSS applied to Total Fest with an impressive Curriculum Vitae of bands and musicians they have played with over the years including but not limited to: Black Diamond Heavies, Pierced Arrows, Lozen, Helms Alee, The Trucks, Coconut Coolouts, Bugs, Yogoman Burning Band, The Narrows, and Lana Rebel of the Juanita Family. They are also talented enough to have played with members of The Stooges, The Minutemen, The Germs and Dead Moon. So we said “please, pour some sugar on us, your sexy blues songs and heart pumping beats are what we love to have at Total Fest”. … And it turns out hot sticky love is what they want to make you feel. They will be sure to give you the sounds of good lovin’ and hip swangin’ no matter if the lyrics break your heart or make you sweat.

Enough with the sweetness though, their sound is anything but. SSS serves you loud, hard blues tunes with an edge of grunge rock. SSS’s brand of sex-core (if I can call it that) is about more than getting some; it is about creating a corporeal experience in four dimensions.

Come to think of it, SSS may make you hotter than that melted ice cream cone so prepare to lose some layers and sweat Pabst profusely.

STREET EATERS: EAT EAT EAT.

Errrr, speaking of things we're all kinds of fanned out on, howabout John Geek's bands/projects? Freakin' Triclops! somehow a band that did the heretofore unthinkably undoable and made punk rock and prog rock at the same time. It doesn't sound like it'd be a good idea, but when Triclops! did it, it was such a good thing. Back in '08, man, when Triclops! played Total Fest VII, their set blew more minds than really anthing that year. John made crowdsurfing work, even though the music wasn't exactly what you'd call "totally conducive" to that sort of thing.

Then of course you've got the mighty Fleshies, whose blown out, strained, desperate and hopeful (and participatory) punk rock made my Show of the Year List at least two years consecutively. No other band could have a dude in cop outfit, a guitar player named Mattowar and a usually naked, spastic but extremely on-point singer. Yeah, the Fleshies, man.

Going way, way back to the second half of the nineties you've also got John's awesome S.P.A.M. label, responsible for more expand-the-horizons-of-punk-to-include-total-outsiders than any label the Bay's had before or since. Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads? Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children McNuggets? The list goes on and on and on and on.

Now, roll forward to fall of 2009: I'd gotten a promo package from a Florida punk label called Bakery Outlet, and among the stuff they sent was an EP by a band called the Street Eaters. It didn't appear particularly special until I threw it into the car stereo. Once the dude started to sing (they're a two piece, bass and drums and both sing) I knew it was John, back, with his then girlfriend now wife, Megan. It's a nice combination of punk, cute, good and fun all at the same time. Yes, I'd be the first to raise some hackles at that description, so sample it for yourself. I don't want to damn this with faint praise or anything, let's just end by saying that Street Eaters rip.

SHAHS: AYATOTAL FEST!

We at Total Fest’s mountaintop citadel-based headquarters have got a thing for one-person bands with plural names. It seems to be a winning formula. Well, actually all we can think of is Thrones... and we do like them. Missoula’s Shahs is Tom Helgerson, a transplant with a keyboard, sampler, baseball cap and a freaking fantastic knack for pulling sounds of thin air and turning them into music. It’s got a High Places-y vibe, or maybe even a warmer Suicide sort of vibe to it. But it’s really Tom’s baby and you can tell that by the spookiness, the dancing he does while playing, and seriously good time he has playing. Shahs is a band that makes songs that have more of a jaunty soundtrack vibe to them than a straight up song-only vibe. It’s an entrancing thing to witness.

Part of a two-man wave of relocated Midwesterners, the other half of which is Colin Johnson whose band is called Capricorn Vertical Slum, a Bob Pollard-styled one man rock band, Shahs and some other notable locals (Fag Rag, Skurfs, the Infernal Machine, Thug Nasties, Judgement Hammer) have busily been breathing life into Missoula’s underground rock scene for the past year or so. I first saw them at a local showcase deal at the Elks Lodge in the Fall, and was really blown away by the depth the stuff brings. I saw them about a week ago with Gay Beast and it was no less enthralling. I think you’ll dig it. We do.

ABE COLEY BRINGS DA NOISE

Abe Coley’s oft casual but enlightening shows are something of a non-secquitur in the Missoula music scene. Abe has been known to blow unsuspecting minds, both in person and on stage, playing often in his homegrown venue the BSMT that has come to foster the attention of Missoula's misbegotten musical youth/nerds. Abe was last seen playing distorto-mega-guitar through an old fender bassman with strange dexterity, manipulating fuzzboxes and knobs to create an expanding and contracting sound much akin to the inner noise of one's own brain. Look for Abe to provide a great break from the usual gimmicks of the indie rock rat race, as his noisily picked of enveloping haze storms the Total Fest gates.

KINSKI SAYS "YES-FERATU"!
I thought artistic greatness died with Klaus Kinski, but I was wrong. Kinski the band carries on the family name in style and grace, albeit with slightly less weirdness, in their hard strum psychedelic dance music. In ’07 Seattle Wah’s Kinski released Down Below It’s Chaos to reviewers who eagerly lapped up the refined sounds of experimental rock like emaciated kittens. Time Out New York’s Mikael Wood said:“Kinski’s lengthy guitar jams are meticulously designed meditations on riff and groove in which each element contributes to an overall feeling of forward motion; few rock bands muster techno’s impassive determination as confidently as this one”.

Over here at Total Fest HQ the question “Hawkwind?” is tossed about regularly and Kinski formidably answered with the 2008 release of a 7” split with Bardo Pond-a tribute to one of our favorites, Hawkwind.

By using the Scientific Method to formulate noise hypotheses and to conduct sound experiments, Kinski has arrived at a solid theory of how music should be made, simultaneously allowing "geeking-out" over successful sound experiments to be cool. I promise that Science will have you feeling their live noise reverberating through your body and tickling those taboo places inside your pants.

…Now to wait patiently for the intimacy of a Total Fest stage and a musical Kinski experience that would make Werner Herzog proud.

TOTAL TEST UPDATE: GAY BEAST: TONIGHT! ***** TACOCAT: FRIDAY!
Holy jeez a'mighty, the heavy hitters have been coming out of the proverbial woodworkings! Tonight, we've stoked that the mighty Minnesotans in Gay Beast are in town! GB's a wild progressively bent punk the likes of the world hasn't seen since the heyday of weirdo bent punk like Scratch Acid chopped up with Ruins, or something. That show's going on tonight, Wednesday (une 30) at the BSMT at 235 N. 1st, in the basement and excellent locals and Total Fest IX bands Shahs and Fag Rag open. $5 gets one in!

Then, oh man what a week, on Friday (June 30) we've got a serious two-fer of a show. Or maybe a four-fer if we're being technical. Seriously bitching Seattle punks Tacocat come out and bring their catchily ferocious, energetic deal to the Badlander. Tacocat have got Butte-roots and spunk to the gills. It's hard as hell to not have a good time at a freakin' Tacocat show. Billings MT's Budgets share members with Noise Noise Noise, but offer a more garage rock attack than Noise's power pop deal. Good news all around, people. More good news than a truckful of souped up Harleys at Evel Kneivel Days. We'll see you there.

FREE RANGE PSYCH: WILDILDLIFE

It's time to raise the excite-o-meter flag again. If you've been following the blog you may be a little exhausted from the anticipation you've been feeling since the first band was announced. No matter, time to take a deep breath and brace yourself for the trip-tastic, psycho-blast of Wildildlife. These cats rock. When they confirmed last year, I bought three new pair of boxers so I could make it through their set and that was hardly enough. Experimental, sludgy, drenched in smoke stained soot there's little not to froth about. They mix together some blues and acid rock in a way that reminds me of Black Sabbath rogering Pink Floyd. Throw in some early Buttholes and you may have something to latch onto. But, that's only the tip of the iceberg. This isn't your grandma's stoner rock. Six and Peas Feast are must haves, and you don't want to miss the dreadlocked drum pounding, hair whipping guitar and pop-sludge vocals. Wildildlife provides maniacal, sing-along distortions that will keep your neck hairs trembling for a few days.

SXSW#11: Wildildlife performing at aQ/WFMU showcase from Denman C Anderson on Vimeo.

THRILLA IN MISSOULA: MUHAMMADALi SET TO BRING THE PAIN

MUHAMMADALi is just one of those bands that get people amped right from the first chord. The energy this Houston, TX band spews into each song is contagious and no matter how cool you think you are it is impossible to stand still. Even the coolest of cool can't help but move their bodies (even if it's just a slight head bob) to the tunes. Their songs are jam packed with so much vigor I feel like I'm losing weight just listening to them.

MUHAMMADALi's catalog consists of one guitar driven song after another and this barrage of songs make for some downright catchy tunes. Combined with the gravel filled vocal styling of John Zambrano MUHAMMADALi reminds me of a steroid injected "Archers of Loaf" or maybe even "Chavez". No doubt their tunes will be ingrained in your brain for a lifetime. Dare I say many of you might just have found your new favorite band at this year's Total Fest.

WHITE DRUGS STRAIGHT TO YOUR VEIN TOTAL FEST STYLE
My parents can breath a sigh of relief that the White Drugs debut album came out ten years after my sophomore year of high school because that album would have put me straight into juvie. I mean I’m almost thirty years old and still get the urge to bash in a mailbox every time the first note of “Harlem” hits me in the chest.

I have never seen White Drugs live before, but I’ve heard enough of their music on wax to envision what’s in store for us when these Denton, TX boys take the stage. I can imagine a tornado of noise, bashing drums, a frenzy of fuzzed out guitars, beer and possibly some blood. These guys are loud and they WILL make your eardrums feel bad about themselves in the morning but I can’t wait. White Drugs is set to play the Amphetamine Reptile 25^th Anniversary Bash and release their second album on the legendary label as well. So uh, get excited!

BACON AND EGG: SIZZLING TOTAL FEST
The dudes of Bacon and Egg are a known quantity in these parts. Chris Bacon's been the president of the Missoula Skatepark Association since it's inception, and helped them raise over a million dollars to build our town's skatepark. Bacon plays keys and yelps in Volumen, and runs our skateshop, Edge of the World, too. Bob Marshall's the man behind the best Pizza in the west, Biga Pizza. Bob's also the drummer in Volumen. They've been in Missoula bands collectively for probably around 30 years.

Bacon and Egg is the band that grew out to the fact that once Volumen practices end, these guys wanted to continue rocking, and work out some of their own songs in the process. It's an excellent drum-machine driven, church keyboard fortified, guitar-blaze, replete with double vocal duties, songs about the malls and dirt bikes of their youths, and a hell of a lot of fun.

TOTAL FEST WELCOMES THE UNNATURAL HELPERS

The past couple of years it seems like Seattle has produced two things, facial hair and dudes with facial hair playing music I can only imagine astronauts listen to when they are going into hyper-slumber on their way to Mars. So you can imagine how refreshing The Unnatural Helpers are to a scene I always associated with all out rock n’ roll, for gods sake Seattle you have fucking Mudhoney! With whip tight drumming and punch-drunk guitar riffs The Unnatural Helpers fuses together no-nonsense, straight to your brain rock tunes. These dudes don’t mess around either; they get to the point with songs clocking in at an average of two-minutes each. Anything longer would seem - well - unnatural.

Dean Whitmore (The Diapers, Intelligence and Welcome) serves as drummer, lead vocalist and primary force behind The Unnatural Helpers surrounding himself with an ever-revolving lineup that has included members of The Lights, Kinski, The Intelligence, Dutchess and the Duke and Idle Times. So half the fun of The Unnatural Helpers playing Total Fest is one can only imagine who will be showing up to play along with Whitmore.

DERANGED DICTION: IN!
Hot dog, punx ('n drunx), we got us a hoe-down now. Huh? Who let the poser in? Uhhhhhh, yeah... Alright, now back in 1982 Missoula was home to a blasting hardcore group called Deranged Diction. They played desperate, underground hardcore, named their first Missoula-recorded EP No Art, No Cowboys, No Rules and quickly outgrew the town, and moved west. From there they had some lineup changes, and continued to be one of the west's original hardcore groups, trading tapes /corresponding with with skate kids in rural towns, running distros, and fucking shit up for the man.

The band may have been the first to start the bummer trend of the town's regularly hemorrhaging great acts, but we'll save the tedious theorizing for another place... All I know is that last year Deranged Diction reformed to play two shows for their 25th anniversary and for the purpose of finally recording some never-released songs. They re-issued their No Art, No Cowboys record (with the newly recorded old songs) as a double CD for a show last year and I went to the show. My only context was having heard and loved their songs on Matt Svendsen's/Poisoned Candy's Welcome To Montana CD comp from a handful of years ago, and I didn't know exactly what to expect from guys 25 years older. In 1982 I was 8 years old and punk wasn't near my radar.

Long story short it was excellent. There's video from the show below. The songs were great, and the dudes played 'em hard, fast and with guts. My neck hurt the next day, and I had a smile glued onto my face. Say what you will about reunions and reuniting, but getting to see a small piece of history once in a while is a pretty special thing. And its doubly excellent when you live in a town like Missoula where that history's pretty thin. We won't get all watery-eyed and tell you that "without Deranged Diction blah, blah, blah" but we will say "hey, this is the real deal, it's a rad thing, and we think you'll dig it, man."

Read about them on MRR
Read about them in the Seattle PI blog

THE AX: AXING AUGUST NIGHTS AT TOTAL FEST.
Portland, via the inland northwest two-piece the Ax weild the kind of heavy, spartan bluesy punk rock hammer that Federation X did. Their sounds have got that haunted, far off but present feeling, and combined with loud drums and austere riffs they've got a way of worming into your mind and staying there. It's wild how much their 2009 Whoa! Boat LP, entitled (in a tres 90's sort of way that made me stoked) of Our Queen of Dirt makes me sick for the good old days when a summer never passed without a Fed X/Narrows tour.

Chris Pierce and Adam Jelsing have a worn-in, familiar vibe when they play and Our Queen of Dirt flew way too low on radar for a record of its quality. Let's do something about that, shall we? Wanna sneak preview? Get stageside when the Ax hack into town on July 10 (at the BSMNT in Missoula) with Belt Of Vapor and see what this group's got on offer. It's punk rock with it's own flavor, and the flavor is loud, heavy and good.

The Ax--Black Sea from Chris Stamm on Vimeo.

IT'S OFFICIAL: THUG NASTIES ARE PLAYING
It’s safe to say Missoula’s Thug Nasties don’t give a shit whether you like them or not, and that is sincere. These boys play loud, fast and with an irate amount of energy, which always makes me think a fight or even a riot is about to take place right before my eyes. However, every time it’s a super positive atmosphere with a crowd that just
wants to hear some punk rock music and dance, I mean pogo with their buddies. It’s no accident The Thug Nasties have rapidly become one of
Missoula’s mainstays on the local scene. People love to see these guys play so don’t be the one person in town who misses their set at Total Fest.

On a side note: is it me or does Chris Justice look exactly like the dude at the beginning of The Decline of Western Civilization?

LORDS OF FALCONRY TO BRING PSYCHELIC SONICS
If you’ve been a Missoulian and fan of music whose time in town began or, covered somewhat the 90s, then you know the name Sammy James Adams. Sammy was one of the wild crop of North Dakota transplants who rolled into town after John Fleming, Ear Candy Music (Missoula’s awesome independent record store) proprietor, bassist for the Helltones, Everyday Sinners, Hellgate Stranglers, Oblio Joes, Secret Powers etc. Yeah, so these NoDakkers were a wild bunch. Fast talking, hard partying, and fun as bag of fireworks. Sammy was the drummer for Honky Sausage, who at some point in time decided to become the Fireballs of Freedom. The Balls should need no introduction, but to cover our bases, they were a raucous psychedelic, punk, garage band whose live shows filled Jay’s Upstairs with loud, high speed prairie rock, and spilled into all-night blowout afterparties. Sammy James was the Fireballs’ drummer, and for a band filled with talented dudes, Sammy James’ drum style was hard to top. The guy hits hard, plays fast, and sits more upright on his stool than anyone I’ve ever witnessed. When the Fireballs were on, they were really, really on. And that was about 98.9 percent of the time.

So, now it’s around ten years later and Sammy’s got a new band, interestingly called Lords of Falconry. If you’re familiar with Sammy, that’s not a surprising name. The guy’s a scholar of Masonic cults, numerology, conspiracy and err, the ancient ways. The other half of Lords of Falconry is Steven Wray Lobdell whose past work includes guitaring with Faust(!), Sufi Mind Game and dozens of other wild psych folks. He’s recorded for the Klangbad, Holy Mountain, Ektro and Holy Mountain labels and lays down some of the bent-est psych this side of Gong. His discography is a who's who of the wildest and best from underground Americans, kraut pioneers and all things in between.

Holy jeez. Lords of Falconry.

DENY THE DINOSAUR? YES.
Deny the Dinosaur? is one of Missoula's bands that I have and have always had trouble finding words to match the totally jazzed feeling I get when seeing them live. I've been lucky to witness them roll through many punches, breaks and line-ups. Their most current set up takes the cake. They produce well written songs, all currently instrumental with a serious part prog, part punk vibe. They've recently added a new fella, Ralston, to the mix and he's helped add a little something special that perhaps the bands been seeking for some time. J. Lybeck who fingertaps for DTD agreed to take a moment to talk about then band, tacos and the new deal.

Total Fest: Where ya'll from, originally?
J. Lybeck: Two from Great Falls, Chinook, and Victor.
TF: Deny the Dinosaur has been around for how long?
JL: 5 years, maybe even six.
TF: What was happening musically pre- Deny the Dinosaur?
JL: Really bad punk bands, nothing anyone probably remembers. Jarrod was in a band called The Bright Side (GF), Carson was in Mannequin Republic, err...
TF: The band has been on again, off again. What did we miss while you were away?
JL: Traveling, different solo adventures, none of us have been to school so there's no reason there..., girls, exhaustion.
TF: Deny the Dinosaur is tough to pin down genre wise. What get's you dudes excited musically?
JL: We don't really know what genre we fit into... some kind of rock and roll. We listen to a lot of Hip Hop, Prog, Punk so there's influences somewhere in there. We're an amalgamation of different tastes.
TF: Favorite 90s band?
JL: Brian Jonestown Massacre.
TF: Ideal taco?
JL: Ground beef, soft shell (flour), hot sauce, lettuce.
TF: Personal highlight playing music in Missoula?
JL: Opening for the Faint around a year ago at the Other Side. House shows have been our favorite too, though we're not great for neighbors... kinda loud.
TF: Tours?
JL: We've toured small twice, lots of out of town shows.
TF: Highlights of the new addition, the new line-up?
Jordon: We work well together. There's been a change for the better lately. We've played some really stupid music in the past. We're writing well... Ralston plays sax, keyboard, guitar and other odd instruments. He's added a lot.
TF: Beatles, Stones or Who?
JL: Stones. I also really like the Black Lips, the Velvet Underground...
TF: Any band rituals?
JL: We're typically pretty calm pre-show. We drink to calm the nerves, there's not a lot of talking before, quite a few cigarettes get smoked. That's about it... oh and the trailer lights are usually out so not getting pulled over at night coming home from shows is pretty ritual.

In conclusion, Total Fest IX is proud to announce Deny the Dinosaur?

THE LIGHTS: CONFIRMED
With roots in the rolling hills of the inland west, there’s a weird ag land vibe that comes along with the Lights cold, clanky rock and roll. Like they’re from a town that wasn’t close enough to anywhere big that when they got to see shows, they were highlights of the year, and they were remembered. That they live in Seattle now doesn’t really have much bearing on anything, other than the fact that they play most of their shows there. To me, the Lights are Palouse band. Or maybe even a Boise band, which is where they moved after they left home. Not exactly a tactical move, but a move that shows who their people were and where the bands they affiliated with lived. That was back in the 90s, before the Lights, when they were called the Left Coast and when they had a fourth member, Sean Lennon.

The Lights are a band whose songs always have an instant classic kind of feel. It comes from bizarre and insanely sticky lyrics. Rhymes for days, and a cadence, or creep that rock bands just generally aren’t able to pull off. That and the fact that the Lights don’t change up what they do. Ever. They refine it. They make it seem more effortless. They add another tower on the castle.

Three LPs and a handful of EPs in, and after a decade, it doesn’t appear that the Lights are going to do anything but ripen with old age.

BELT OF VAPOR TO BELT TOTAL FEST WITH ITS VAPOR.
Spokane, Washington may be the self-proclaimed capitol of the inland empire of the pacific northwest, but it's a gritty, sprawling town with a set of falls whose past has a direct link with Missoula's glacial lake. When the dam that held that lake back broke, at the end of the last ice age, millions of cubic yards of water went blasting across the broad plain of what's now eastern Washington. The water scrubbed out hollows and valleys, leaving a scabland of exposed basalt in its wake.

Speaking of leaving scablands of exposed basalt in their wake, Belt of Vapor leave plenty of exposed basalt around after they're done playing. The long-standing punk-cum-prog outfit has a sound that's as sprawling and rich as the fertile plains of the Palouse, as starkly beautiful as the scablands and as gritty as the Spokane bus terminal.

They're veterans of Total Fests past, having played first Total Fest V and the VII a few years ago. They've got the sort of three-dudes-who've-done-this-together for a long, long time vibe. It's got a propulsive, enveloping sort or plow to it. I always hear some alot of what I like about Lightning Bolt, with an octavey, played-lead style bass and a hard-hitting drummer. Add the snaking guitar of school teacher and rocker Bob Homburg and I think you've got it. Get belted.

TOTAL TESTS: LAUNCHING TUESDAY JUNE 15 W. LORDS AT THE PALACE LOUNGE, MISSOULA.
This year, as a special lead-in, get-folks-stoked, build-some-momentum sort of a deal, we've got a handful of TOTAL TESTS, shows with some kind of unique Total Fest connection.

The first show is with Louisville, Kentucky's mighty Lords and it happens Tuesday, June 15 at the palace lounge on Broadway in Missoula. I did a show for Lords and Akimbo in 2007 and my jaw is still lying in the alley behind the short-lived MARS show space.

Exaggeration and hyperbole can be excessively used tools in the world of writing about bands, so let me put this as succinctly and honestly as possible: Lords play with a tightness, loudness and band dynamic that one's hard-pressed to find in 2010. It's the kind of music that leaves me with a wide grin, and total ear-ringing, what the fuck just happened kind of euphoria that bands like Karp did. Lords' stuff is a little more blocky, or start-stoppy and with shorter songs, but it's got that same kind of whoa vibe going on. So, come and party with Lords, and check out rad locals Thug Nasties and Velcro Kicks!

By the by: If you like this poster, and we sure do, write to Mathew LaRubio (theantunderground AT yahoo) o pay him to design yours.

Total Test 2010 Lead-In Shows.
-Tuesday, June 15: Lords (Louisville), Thug Nasties (Missoula), Velcro Kicks (Missoula) -the Palace Palace Lounge

-Monday, June 21st- Fugitive Kind, Goddammitboyhowdy, and Birds Mile Home (BSMT, ask around)

Sunday, June 27: Thou (Louisiana), Moloch (England), Bridgebuilder, Judgement Hammer (secret venue, ask around)

-Monday. June 28th- Raw Nerves( PORTLAND), Former Thieves(IOWA), TSMF, and The Graveyard Girlscouts(KALISPELL) -(BSMT Missoula, ask around)

-Friday July 2nd- Tacocat(SEATTLE), The Budgets(BILLINGS), and Secret Powers and Streetlight People at The Badlander

-Saturday, July 4th-Black Wine, Fag Rag, Tyson Ballew -(house show, ask around)

WARCRY AGREES TO LAY WASTE TO TOTAL FEST IX
Storming out of the rain-swollen gutters of Portland, OR, Warcry is absolutely crushing hardcore from folks who have been around long enough to know how to do it exactly right. Members of Tragedy, Talk Is Poison, Hellshock, etc. take their cues from Discharge's relentless aural assault and bleak world view. With a live show that will leave you feeling like you got nailed in the face with a sledgehammer, Warcry couples their unapologetic and misanthropic lyrics with tunes that would fit right alongside the sounds of a bomb ridden battlefield. While they're certainly not reinventing the wheel, goddamnit they're definitely making it better than anyone else.

Having recently returned stateside from a Brazilian tour and documented over the years by a spread of face-melting releases (seriously, could they have fit any MORE pick slides in there!?!), Warcry will get even the most sullen of punks to pump their fists, bash their heads, and go running for the nearest underground fallout shelter. Nevermind the inevitable apocalypse, I'm more concerned about the wicked bangover I'll have the next day. You've been warned! Photos by Daigo Oliva and Karoline Collins.

VAZ CONFIRMS BEYOND A SHADOWY DOUBT
I could not be more excited to get a chance to see Vaz again. Thundering drums, pulverizing riffs, and an overall feeling that can best be described as "spooky" lays the groundwork for Vaz's gloomy yet relentless songs. Vaz have been around for a while, rising from the smoldering ashes of Fargo's untouchable Hammerhead, and have released several criminally underrated records. "Demonstrations in Micronesia" leaves me feeling like I have finally come across a human settlement after spending the last month trudging through the arctic tundra only to discover that the encampment is actually a remote forensic laboratory full of frozen corpses in varying states of decay. Yup.

Sometime back in 1999 I made my way down to the Black Cat in Washington, DC for a Melvins/Melt Banana show. I got there a little late cause I really didn't care to see whoever the opening band was ("Vaz? Never heard of them, next!"), though I managed to catch the last five songs. I still regret that dumbshit move to this day - walking in there I immediately felt like I was in the greatest melding of a haunted house and punk show ever. And there was something so familiar about the way that guy played drums - holy shit, these are the dudes from HAMMERHEAD!!! It was a few years later that I got the chance to redeem my mistake when, while living in Richmond, VA, I got a call from a friend after I had already gone to bed. "Dude, don't you like that band Vaz? They just showed up at the PRC (defunct anarchist bookstore) - apparently the show they had booked fell through and no one had even heard about it anyway. They're gonna play in a few minutes!" Buttoning my shirt as I flew down the streets on my bike, I made it just in time for Vaz to melt the faces off of the ten or so folks that stayed around. While it was probably a pretty shitty situation from their perspective, that was one of the best shows I have ever been to.

After seeing them for yourselves, I'm sure you'll agree.

THE INCREDIBLE EDIBLE TODD CONGELLIERE W/ AUDACITY
Where do I even begin. There are a handful of people that have unknowingly played major roles in my life, even if from a distance. Todd Congelliere, in various forms, just so happens to be one of those individuals (so I guess he's partially to blame?). From the time my old high school band drove up to New Jersey all starry-eyed to play a show with F.Y.P. (and the undeniable Grumpies!) that left our young minds splattered all over the walls of the crumbly VFW, to setting up and attending unforgettable basement shows for Toys That Kill on both sides of the country. From the countless phenomenally great releases on his Recess Records imprint (I SPY, Grumpies, Japanther, Off With Their Heads, The Bananas, not to mention all the recent represses of Screeching Weasel, Queers, Pinhead Gunpowder - where does it end!?!), to dancing wildly to his more recent Underground Railroad to Candyland band's shows that have left me sweaty, exhausted, and anxiously counting down the time till they can next swing through whatever town I'm living in at the moment. Todd's recurring role throughout my life is no accident either - this man has done more for independent punk rock than most of us could ever hope to do or will ever try to.

I tell you all this because I just don't think Todd needs any more of an official intro - he and his various bands (Toys That Kill, Underground Railroad to Candyland, Stoned at Heart) have all graced the stage at numerous Total Fests over the years and let's be honest, who hasn't blasted "Dance My Dunce" at two in the morning, loaded on 40's of Steel Reserve and day-old dumpstered pizza?? Well, maybe not all of us have that in common, but can we at least view it as something to aspire towards? Anywho, we are unabashedly proud to be having Todd Congelliere back to play his own songs at this year's Total Fest IX, backed by fellow San Pedro folks and his favorite local band, Audacity.