HAMMERHEAD TONIGHT (MONDAY, OCTOBER 5) AT THE VFW

Hammerhead.

The 1990's were a curious time. Folks interested in underground music were hugely record label-conscious, or at least I and most of my friends were. You got a lot of stuff just because Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, or Tom Hazelmyer had put it out on their Sub Pop or Amphetamine Reptile labels, respectively (or SST, CZ, Kill Rock Stars, Boner, etc.). I thought of places as having their own sounds. Seattle always sounded very much like halfway between Mudhoney and Gas Huffer to me. The Twin Cities sounded like Hüsker Dü, Boise like Treepeople, Olympia like Beat Happening, Ellensburg like the Screaming Trees. It didn't make a ton of sense in retrospect, but so it goes, right?

All that has largely faded with the advent of ala-carte song purchasing/stealing courtesy of the internet's "here's everything, no waiting necessary." and youtube to MP3 capabilities, etc. My point isn't to say anything was better about the old way, just to kind of set the tone for how Hammerhead came onto my radar. Missoula was somewhat of a stopping point between the Twin Cities and Seattle, and we hosted a lot of the bands who's music got released by Tom Hazelmyer's Amphetamine Reptile or "Amrep" label. We had the Cows, God Bullies, Janitor Joe, Steel Pole Bathtub, and probably several more I'm not remembering through town. And regardless of whether anybody knew anything about the band or their music, there was some kind of a cache that came with being associated with this label that had put out all this raw, weird, angry noise.

Hammerhead were different, though. They had a paranoia and desperation about their music that just kind of set them apart, and made the others seem a bit like more of an act. Hammerhead were from Fargo/Moorehead, and came with the full-on endorsement of North Dakota transplants the Fireballs of Freedom who helped add to the super-human mystique that surrounded the group. It didn't hurt that Hammerhead were and are a spot-on tight power trio, with great musicianship, better tones and huge volume. They stopped playing or broke up, not sure what the exact story is, right at the end of the '90s. Jeff Mooridian and Paul Erickson went on to form Vaz, which has been very productive for the past 15 years, releasing some of the decade's best music, from my vantage point.

Roughly five years ago rumors started that Hammerhead was reforming, if ever so briefly, to play the Amrep 25th anniversary show. They also used the occasion to record a few songs for an EP, called "Memory Hole." We got them out for a Total Fest set shortly after that, and they continued to play sporadically, recorded an album called "Global Depression" for Learning Curve. This summer they released a record called "New Directionz" and are doing their first tour in something like 15 years to support. They're coming out with the band Qui, who played with the Jesus Lizard's David Yow for a while. Both bands and Missoulians Naked Limbs play tonight, Monday October 5th at the VFW in Missoula. Show starts at 9PM, $6. Here's a nice video to whet your appetite.

HAMMERHEAD.

Hammerhead ca. 2015

When you've already written a piece about one of your favorite bands of all-time, and tried to provide as much context and explanation as possible, it makes the task of writing up the band for a second time a little bit interesting. Whoah is me, right?

So, in addition to being an excellent '90s vintage noise rock stalwart, Hammerhead is very much a current band disinterested with comeback circuits and just playing their "hits" from twenty years ago. That said, as a man just as subject to bouts of occasional nostalgia as the next, I've got to say that I played most of 1994's "Into the Vortex" on my radio show last week, and it's every bit as good as I remembered. There was one LP that followed it (1996's Duh the Big City) but I've always had a special place for the focused desperation, amazing bass and guitar tones and drum sounds, and overall momentum of "Into The Vortex." It's for my money, as good as AmRep ever got. It's a great album that captures most of the amazing live power that Hammerhead commands.

Hammerhead ca. 1994

Since 2010, Hammerhead has released a couple EPs, (Memory Hole, etc.) and is on the verge of releasing its second LP called "New Directionz." I'm just a few listens into the new LP, but it's all Hammerhead, MXR distortion and weird high plains space desolation rock, done impeccably well. Sector 5 is pretty spot-on "classic" Heammerhead, and honestly I like every bit of the new LP.

As an update, Jeff Mooridian and Paul Erickson recently moved themselves, and their other band Vaz, back to the Twin Cities where third member Paul Sanders lives. So it will be interesting to see Hammerhead again with the benefit of regular practice space availability.

So, we'll leave it at that. Total Fest is honored, stoked and happy, all simultaneously, to be offering Hammerhead up this year. See you there. Neck stretches, limbering up, etc. to commence now.



 

NOVACRON

St. Paul, MN's Novacron doesn't necessarily need me to list off their pedigree, because really they're just pummelingly awesome, but I'm just gonna do it anyways and see if it changes anything for you. Three-piece heavy loud band, yeah, that's typical, it's Total Fest, but wait, these are the bands these dudes come from (in no certain order): Seawhores, Vaz, Hammerhead, Skoal Kodiak, Cows. I hope I've piqued somebody's attention because you are in for an apocalyptic good time. We've spilled a lot of virtual ink on this blog extolling the intensity of (and our love for) Vaz, Hammerhead, and the Amphetamine Reptile label, and I just wanna tell you people that Novacron is TOTALLY WORTHY. I hear they haven't been around for a while but you know, I'm almost certain they've just been asleep, like some Cthulhu of the Midwest. 2015 is the year and they're not only up and risen but planning on invading Missoula's sanity just in time for Total Fest XIV.

They were once known as Jet Legs, too. Here's some footage from AmRep's 25th Anniversary Post Show BBQ: 

GAY WITCH ABORTION: WHAT'S in a NAME? EVERYTHING.

I can't lie. The twelve year old in me loves Gay Witch Abortion. The name alone is enough to furrow eyebrows, curl lips, raise blood pressure, get you sent home from school or inspire a rogue group of grandparents to rip stickers off of every skateboard and electrical box across the country.

Yep. Making people uncomfortable is awesome.

It's not all surface antics for Jesse and Shawn. While the novelty of the name allows you to feel like you're getting away with something, the noise furnace they generate between the spastic drums, cheek-gnashing guitar and oddly rhythmic vocals pummel you to delirium. In a good way. There's plenty of fist pumping groove rock going on, but the hardcore influence and out-of-left-field changes keep you reeling. They're unbridled and wonderfully choreographed. Each album / recording points toward an evolution that may just signal the creation of a new dimension. I'm prone to exaggeration. I know this. In my opinion, Gay Witch Abortion is one of the top 5 bands out there. They're tireless in their execution, ruthless in their song writing, and merciless when it comes to your ear drums, headphones, or speakers. They were one of my tops at Total Fest last year, and the records that they've put out since then land squarely in my tops of the year. (I don't publish these lists, but I do talk about them).

Plus, they're totally cool dudes. Seriously chill, unassuming, and funny. It's hard to reconcile. In a flurry of sound, GWA punches you in the stomach and face, bites your ear, takes your beer money, and probably pants you in the process. Shawn and Jesse smile and say thanks. Some people may not be so happy with the increased vocals, but I dig it. It adds another layer to an already complex sound, pushing the hypnotic drones into more hyper explosions and chaos. Somehow it's more expansive and unbounded, but it never loses focus.

Tunes and such can be found at the bandcamp link above, as well as on Learning Curve & AmRep. Give the Held Hostage Rsd Compilation a listen while you're at it.

We're damn pleased to welcome them back for this year. Don't miss them!

HAMMERHEAD, VAZ BRING PLAINS-THUNDER TO TOTAL FEST X.
Back when many of us were impressionable young men in the early 90s, there was a noise rock renaissance happening. It kind of centered loosely around the monolithic Amphetamine Reptile record label, Your Flesh fanzine and probably some bars/clubs that I was never old/cool enough to figure out about. Granted, Missoula's about 1200 miles west of Minneapolis, but you know, we got a lot of it through here too. We got bands like the Cows, Janitor Joe, the God Bullies (California), Steel Pole Bathtub (Californians with Montana roots), Walt Mink, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (New York)... uh, there were more I'm pretty sure. And a lot of us spent what little money we could scrape up on things like AmRep's Dope, Guns and Fucking compilations. All of it had this sort of built in coolness, and allure. Every third shirt you saw a show had the huge NOISE AmRep logo on its back.

Looking back, I'm not sure exactly why it had that built in allure. I think for Missoula, it was the confluence of some recent North Dakota transplants in John Fleming (now Ear Candy Music co-owner) and Kelly Gately (Honky Sausage, Fireballs of Freedom, etc) and how ready to be blown away by loud, epic, desperate rock so many of us were. Lots of it was and is awesome, and certainly much of it hasn't aged terrifically.

For my money, the absolute top of the heap was the band Hammerhead. I saw them probably three separate times in the '90s. Once at Connie's bar, a scuzzy biker/hippie sort of place shut because of massive health code violations. Connie's gave a new, dark meaning to the words "dive bar". Anyhow, Hammerhead helped destroy the place, with bassist Paul Erickson knocking loose ceiling tiles with his base, to punctuate some song. The two other times were at Jay's. Every time was like Christmas. You heard about the show about 6 weeks ahead of time, and just spent the time carefully anticipating how excellent it was going to be. And it never failed to deliver in the excellence department. It was loud, though a big feedback/Ampeg rumble powerful and driving kind of way. They pulled you into what they were doing and dropped you onto the floor afterwards. They each had Soviet space program inspired band pseudonyms, they had songs about World War I.. and they had the White Album of the noise rock epoch, Into the Vortex. There was always lots to like. After a final record (Duh, The Big City) and tour, Hammerhead called it quits. I never read an official account of the break up, but the third party scuttlebutt made it sound like there wouldn't ever be a reunion.

Following Hammerhead's demise at the end of the '90s, Paul Erickson and Jeff Mooridian, the rhythm section, moved to Los Angeles and began a new band, Vaz. In lots of ways, Vaz picked up where Hammerhead had left off. It had all the paranoia, all the driving through space sonic blast, and their first record was called Demonstrations in Micronesia. Since then, Vaz has released a major catalog of full length records, each of which continues the excellent saga. At some point, Vaz moved to Brooklyn, and base from there now. They tour much less frequently, but when they do, it's a special thing.

About a year ago, word started circulating about a Hammerhead reunion in time for the Amphetamine Reptile (AmRep) 25th anniversary. We were beside ourselves with joy over the possibility. And when it happened, we knew that someday, if we played our cards right, there might be a chance to get them back to Missoula.

Here's the Brooklyn Vegan piece that ran for their reunion show at the Amphetamine Reptile 25th anniversary.