RETURNING TO TOTAL FEST: THE BLIND SHAKE!

What does it mean to be A ROCK BAND in America, 2013? Scholars have dedicated a great deal of ephemeral ink toward this very question--both on the internet and in their own internal republic of the brain-space--in an attempt to codify the culture-shift rock music has experienced from being the dominant pop paradigm to its current phase of fault-line relevancy. It would seem that THE ROCK BAND sits on the figurative San Andreas of America’s pop-subconscious. The success of a form--that was once thought to produce the alarming aftershocks of long hair and teenage rebellion--now may be little more than the byproduct of an upwardly mobile youth-demographic. If a city in California quakes, is it the record buying populace stomping their feet in (dis)approval? Or, is this quaking the result of electric tones surging forth from real human-people--arguably the most explicit demonstration of the circuitous relationship between the biological and technological? 

I recommend we leave these debates to journalists who fear the loss of their jobs. Stuff makes itself relevant, and that’s why we, fans of electric-rock music, are so fortunate to have a band like The Blind Shake to look up to. 

“Look up to?” you ask, stunned. “But I thought that punk successfully democratized the market-driven ickiness of the mid-century music industry, finally placing the listener in parataxis with the actual producer, the musician.” Relax. Let me explain. 

The Blind Shake does it all, like the humble Olympian competing in the decathlon, which is why I demand respect for them. This is a form of socio-musical justice. Whether they’re collaborating with psych-folk-rock demigod Michael Yonkers, touring the country with their masonic-imagery-emblazoned track-suit intensity, or putting out release after release of high-quality unfrozen-caveman-lawyer-(a brute with intellect!)-style stomp, The Blind Shake is here for us. They are humble--nay, selfless. Which is why we reward them with our rapt attention and applause, when we listeners are fortunate enough to gaze upon them in the flesh, doing what they do, in that many-fold Flavian Amphitheater that is the rock-show-venue. Be it bar or basement, locale matters not to The Blind Shake, and I can attest to their ability to blow minds in both. You too, dear reader, will be able to attest to this blowing of minds come August when The Blind Shake returns to Missoula for Total Fest XII.

Check out their website, or listen to them now, right here! Technology!