INTRODUCING HOVERBIKES

The future is here: We have Hoverbikes! That is, the band from Oakland, which makes its inaugural stop in Montana this August. It takes about as much time to listen to its EP, So Far So So, as it does to boil pasta, which is just fine by me: Short, sweet, snappy pop.

Hoverbikes' affiliate band, Death Ray, will play Missoula June 3 at the VFW, so be sure to welcome them to Montucky.

Check out Hoverbikes on Bandcamp.
-Kate

TOTAL PIGS.

You know those albums. You snag it on a whim or excavate it from the recesses of your memory, trying to recall who recommended that you seek it out. You spill out a handful of change and bills, grab a six pack on the walk home, put on the record and then make dinner. It's about the 5th time that you've flipped the thing when you realize that your dinner is burning and you're short 4 beers. This may not be the exact scenario, but it's just about how we all felt when we listened to Illuminati House Party by Oakland's Pigs. The record grew on us. It moves through instrumental psych-sludge into all out thrash. Part instrumental part gut wrenching vocals, this album lays waste to your anticipations.

Pigs -- Rachel Reichert bass, Jack Murphy vocals & guitar and Brian Hamilton drums -- is riff heavy, chunky, loud, metal-punk (all those attributes we love and cherish). There's some pedigree here (Civil Dysentery and the Fleshies), but it translates into a fresh sound that plays on those longings hard wired into our lizard brains. The first album is hand screened and initially self-distributed. It's a shining example of what can be produced through a small budget and a love for playing. Their live sets are as scuzzy and loud as the record, and they bespeak that well-seasoned and well-soiled DIY punk rock that some have forgotten sustains the bay area.

TOTAL FEST X: HOT PANTS, SUNBURNS AND SHANNON AND THE CLAMS SET FOR AUGUST.
"If there is one band we knew for sure we would pee our hot pants for when we heard they were playing Total Fest X, it’s these two handsome guys, and one smoking hot babe. Anyone who listens to Women of Action on KBGA (or KBGA at all, for that matter) has heard this band and loved it. Thank the gods, they will be rocketing from horny Oakland, California to our magical land of sunny Montana. This is music probably best experienced in the summer, when it’s hot as fuck and everyone is sweaty and you can look super cool in sunglasses and as little clothing as possible. Shannon + Clams have two full-length LPs and every single song is a dirty, doo-wop stained, rock and roll hit. Shannon Shaw does not fuck around when it comes to crooning with real soul and one of those Clams has a voice that would make Buddy Holly jealous. Emily Newton-John caught them in Portland last summer, when it was 90+ degrees and she was sunburned and nursing her heatstroke with ice packs and Bloody Marys. And guess what? They still blew her away with their ability to lay down sweet, upbeat party songs right alongside such emotive laments." (Women of Action, Emily Denman and Hanna Zimorino)

STREET EATERS: EAT EAT EAT.

Errrr, speaking of things we're all kinds of fanned out on, howabout John Geek's bands/projects? Freakin' Triclops! somehow a band that did the heretofore unthinkably undoable and made punk rock and prog rock at the same time. It doesn't sound like it'd be a good idea, but when Triclops! did it, it was such a good thing. Back in '08, man, when Triclops! played Total Fest VII, their set blew more minds than really anthing that year. John made crowdsurfing work, even though the music wasn't exactly what you'd call "totally conducive" to that sort of thing.

Then of course you've got the mighty Fleshies, whose blown out, strained, desperate and hopeful (and participatory) punk rock made my Show of the Year List at least two years consecutively. No other band could have a dude in cop outfit, a guitar player named Mattowar and a usually naked, spastic but extremely on-point singer. Yeah, the Fleshies, man.

Going way, way back to the second half of the nineties you've also got John's awesome S.P.A.M. label, responsible for more expand-the-horizons-of-punk-to-include-total-outsiders than any label the Bay's had before or since. Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads? Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children McNuggets? The list goes on and on and on and on.

Now, roll forward to fall of 2009: I'd gotten a promo package from a Florida punk label called Bakery Outlet, and among the stuff they sent was an EP by a band called the Street Eaters. It didn't appear particularly special until I threw it into the car stereo. Once the dude started to sing (they're a two piece, bass and drums and both sing) I knew it was John, back, with his then girlfriend now wife, Megan. It's a nice combination of punk, cute, good and fun all at the same time. Yes, I'd be the first to raise some hackles at that description, so sample it for yourself. I don't want to damn this with faint praise or anything, let's just end by saying that Street Eaters rip.