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.
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