DESERT DOOM: DEATH MOTH

An over-saturated Polaroid. Dreamy, desert-fried blues. Death Moth inhabit a world that's both mysterious yet infinitely familiar, bridging gaps between rock and country and soft-psychedelia that were always there, just not completely obvious. These are the kind of tunes that stand ready against late spring storms, apocalyptic clouds rolling over some mountain somewhere and crest right up against your stupid, feeling heart.

We've heard something like this before, when Death Moth's June West played Total Fest years ago with the stellar Julie & The Wolves. West is a sometime-Missoulian who's returned intermittently, recruited some serious fellow travelers (Travis Sehorn and Best Western's Dave Martens play on Death Moth's True Blues) and delivered some incredible shows that feel as equally momentous as they do effortlessly casual. Death Moth is a treat that I'm lucky to say we get to see again, this time at Total Fest XIV. 

AUSTIN PSYCHIC TACO ROCK: HUNDRED VISIONS

I first heard Hundred Visions on Dave Martens' excellent Hi-Tone/8 Flags Over Guadlajara radio show on KBGA. Dave's an invetarate rock and roller from the Harbor City of the north and had been going to Austin for years checking out new music. Hundred Visions were one of the bands he's come back with music from. I was driving into Missoula on I-90 and I still remember having to know who the band was. I guess there are lots of moments like that on KBGA.

Regardless of all that Hundred Visions were the band I heard that evening,  I called in to figure it out, and I set my sights on figuring out how to get 'em up to Total Fest. We started swapping email with the band and were stoked to hear they'd heard good things about Total TF and were all about hopping into a van and coming north. Musically, it's got some a big rocking surf gallop and the kind of fast-tempo driving perfectly executed pop of Buzzcocks or something. It gets me a little nostalgic for one of my all-time favorite bands the Joggers when I hear the big melodies and uber-tight execution and the overarching good-time-all-the-time vibe.

Here's a recent video.

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.