Tuesday, May 27, 2014

VAZ TO BRING VAZ, VAZNESS AND VAZOCITY TO TOTAL FEST

Paul Erickson, Vaz
Vaz .

We've written all about Vaz here, here, and Weird Missoula Tom wrote about them here.

We love 'em like few other bands. Jeff and Paul used to be in Hammerhead. They are orginally from eastern North Dakota/western Minnesota and nearby a nuclear arsenal.

Who knows if that had any effect on their music, exactly, but I like to think it did. Something about the cold war, nuclear arms races, Air Force controlled stockpiles of ICBMs buried in wheat fields can't help but give you something to consider. If you haven't listened to a Vaz record in its entirety start with last year's Visiting Hours on the Sleeping Giant Glossolalia label and move backwards. Second guitar player Tyler Nolan's played on the last couple and brings a great depth and heaviness to the band, whose twin Telecaster assault is more like Tar's and maybe Jehu's deal, rather than Bruce Springsteen. It's real nice, sonically speaking. It's steeped, or fermented for about fifteen years, and is a pretty mind-meld kind of thing to witness, if you dig it heavy and weird.

 

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