TOTAL CACAPHONY: DEFACEMAN

Towards a well rounded review that not only captures what it means to listen to Defaceman but also serves the equal and added purpose of convincing you, dear reader and hopeful Total Fest participant, that said band is 100% worth your attention, I give you a this cavalcade of word-garbage:

Maximalist Olympia, WA hardcore? Free jazz by another name? Does that equal free rock? Can rock ever truly be free? Noise and skuzz and inadvertent (or intentional?) Royal Trux worship? Mounds of sounds piled atop sounds and sounds? Base jumping from the Freedom Tower into the seven levels of hell? Total Chaos? Losing a very real grip on reality? Are any of these descriptors helpful? Are any of them mutually exclusive? Do you even know what I'm trying to say?

I have no idea, because when I listen to Defaceman I'm almost scared at how disoriented I become, how completely unhinged some of this "hard" core seems to be. How much can you take? Is that a dare? Am I daring myself? I think so. I'm definitely daring you. If you're the kind of Human Being that enjoys hearing the edges of the world turn up and consume you, drown your brain in a thick blanket of musical oblivion, the kind of Human Being that at least for one moment, finds solace in losing yourself against the abyss that has been staring back for a long, long time...you've found Defaceman. Prepare, buddy. You best prepare.

SMILING IS TOTALING.

Smiling, photo from future-breed.com

Our friend Anna set us up with this newer Seattle band called Smiling and said they were playing some of her favorite tunes out there currently. I think Max also said they ripped when he saw them with Stickers, another sweet band. I might be all mixed up though.

We listened to this record of theirs called "Pink" (with a cover image of zipper-mouth bondage mask wearer rendered in pink) and liked what we heard. It's frenetic, thrashy and has a song called "Annoyalist."

That's what we know. I also know we don't get nearly enough of these kinds of tunes out here since Ass-End Offend moved away. Here are some hashtags I made up to help you prepare: #hickpit #windmillguy #watchfromadistance

Smiling, photo from future-breed.com

 
Smiling - Live at Cairo from What's Up Seattle on Vimeo.

DERANGED DICTION: IN!
Hot dog, punx ('n drunx), we got us a hoe-down now. Huh? Who let the poser in? Uhhhhhh, yeah... Alright, now back in 1982 Missoula was home to a blasting hardcore group called Deranged Diction. They played desperate, underground hardcore, named their first Missoula-recorded EP No Art, No Cowboys, No Rules and quickly outgrew the town, and moved west. From there they had some lineup changes, and continued to be one of the west's original hardcore groups, trading tapes /corresponding with with skate kids in rural towns, running distros, and fucking shit up for the man.

The band may have been the first to start the bummer trend of the town's regularly hemorrhaging great acts, but we'll save the tedious theorizing for another place... All I know is that last year Deranged Diction reformed to play two shows for their 25th anniversary and for the purpose of finally recording some never-released songs. They re-issued their No Art, No Cowboys record (with the newly recorded old songs) as a double CD for a show last year and I went to the show. My only context was having heard and loved their songs on Matt Svendsen's/Poisoned Candy's Welcome To Montana CD comp from a handful of years ago, and I didn't know exactly what to expect from guys 25 years older. In 1982 I was 8 years old and punk wasn't near my radar.

Long story short it was excellent. There's video from the show below. The songs were great, and the dudes played 'em hard, fast and with guts. My neck hurt the next day, and I had a smile glued onto my face. Say what you will about reunions and reuniting, but getting to see a small piece of history once in a while is a pretty special thing. And its doubly excellent when you live in a town like Missoula where that history's pretty thin. We won't get all watery-eyed and tell you that "without Deranged Diction blah, blah, blah" but we will say "hey, this is the real deal, it's a rad thing, and we think you'll dig it, man."

Read about them on MRR
Read about them in the Seattle PI blog