Mikki's Top 10 for Total Fest

Mikki Lunda's Top 10-ish bands she's most excited to see at Total Fest XIII:

(in particular order)

1. Greco- Fri. 8pm, Palace
I hear from a reliable source that he wears a full-body-tiger-print-cat-suit, when he plays live.  And he's a bigger shameless self promoter than I am. All of his songs are about how rad he is.
[Editor's Note: You can listen to a couple of his tracks here at the Total Fest band camp.]

2. Obnox- Thurs. 9:15, ZACC
Dane Hansen (Bad Naked) told me "you can't miss this set."

3. Shannon & the Clams- Thur. 10:45pm, ZACC
I love this band's live energy. I've seen them bunches of times and they still made my top 3, that's saying something.

4. Underground Railroad to Candyland- Fri. 9:45pm, Palace
Last month I played with these guys in Pomona, CA. They are a party on stage, super fun to watch and are super tight. (multiple drummers)

5. j sherri- Sat. 12pm, Big Dipper
I'm just going to come right out and say it. These hotties have been my favorite local band for the last 2 years. I'm stoked to see them in the HOT HOT summer sun while licking a melty ice cream.

6. Woolen Men- Thur. 8pm, ZACC
I've never seen them live, but I NEED YOU TO KNOW: I really dig their sound.

7. Toupee- Sat. 8pm, Badlander
My pop idol, Richard Album, was in town last week and he said "in Chicago, anyone with our musical integrity will have this band on their list of favorites". I trust that.

8. Dreamsalon- Fri. 10pm, Palace
I've never seen them live, but I NEED YOU TO KNOW: I really dig their sound.

9. Kitten Forever, Sat. 10:15pm, Badlander
This band does it right. How they figured out how to transition instruments like that, is a straight up miracle.

10. Wimps- Sat. 9:15pm, Badlander
I've never seen them live, but I NEED YOU TO KNOW: I really dig their sound.

11. Dear Rabbit- Sat. 12:35pm, Big Dipper
Love his stage persona, he has a great booming voice and I'm impressed by people who can play 2 instruments at once. (Accordion/ trumpet)

12. Chemical Lawns- Fri. 8pm, Badlander
Another of my FAV locals.

Wowie, I can't wait to see all these amazing bands and more!
See you all there!
- Mikki "internet" Lunda

Check out Kate's Top 10 for Total Fest over at Missoula Punk News and Tom "T. Money" Helgerson's Top 10 over at Weird Missoula.

OBNOX.

Being as omnivorous as Total Fest aspires to be can be a tricky thing because you've got the heavy music dudes for whom the pop, melody and rock and roll is for some weird reason offensive, and the garage nobs who turn nose up at anything not wearing a Levi's jean vest and Ray Bans and a Burger Records shirt, and you know, all the little stuff like that that can bum a guy out. For the most part, however, we really like to think of the average Total Fest attendee like an Adam Noble Bass type. Adam's a Seattlite who has a voracious appetite for music, and I'm sure he's got his favorite stuff, but he's also the kind of guy who can just be straight up stoked about whatever you put in front of him, provided it's done with guts and integrity. Good music has a way of providing some universal language.

So, an announcement like Obnox for us is obviously a pretty special thing because it kind of encapsulates Total Fest's omnivorous vibe in a single, seriously fucking excellent group. Bim Thomas has been playing in great, weird groups for years.  Some of my favorites are the Bassholes and Puffy Aereolas. Here's a decent write up. The music Obnox makes isn't really a fusion deal, no Thai pizza or Italian burrito or whatever. Rather, it's music that comes fully alive with the crud guitar, hard-hit drums, waves of rhythm and certainly some things like hip hop and experimental music, but mostly just one guy's ever changing set of ideas about how to write real music.

I need to credit former KBGA 89.9 FM music director and DJ Dane Hansen for introducing me to Obnox through the playlist at the station, and probably for introducing a burned CDR of about 5 7"s and some records directly into my hand, actually).

Without Dane, no Obnox. Thanks, Dane. Obnox plays Total Fest's opener at the Zootown Arts Community Center on Thursday, August 14.

WHO'S READY FOR THAT OL' TOTAL MAGIC?

While August 14-16, 2014 aren't exactly just around any corners just yet, it'll be here soon enough, and we've been blowing our speakers trying to sort out the best set of tunes to launch this deal into the Moon's orbit. We are pretty stoked about what we've got lined up. Oh, and did we mention you can get a pass starting today? We've released our first batch of passes, man.

Here's what we've got on this Friday in May for you:

With some big help from Total Fest's co-presentin'-est radio station in the west, KBGA we are so damned excited to be able to announce that we're bringing up SHANNON AND THE CLAMS this year. Few bands have same ability to cut across the rock-garage-punk-hardcore-curmudgeon music fan distinctionss like Shannon does. We were pretty sure their 2013 Dreams In The Rat House LP was about the best thing we heard last year. We wrote about that here. It grew, grew and grew some more on us. Then we put it down, and we went back about a week later. Punk, soul, garage, a little doo-woppy. Whatever man.

Shannon and the Clams

VAZ, or as organizer Paul says "Vahhz", are a three piece group who do more to vocabluarize the Soviet space program and the Cold War than anything that's written. Vaz's 2013 Visiting Hours was a whopper of a shredding force that showed the 15-year old band creating a Masonic-quality temple to cold riff after cold riff. And they're originally from around Fargo.

Obnox

OBNOX is Lamont "Bim" Thomas's two-piece Ohio outfit. Lamont's a multi-talented, Rustbelt-stalwart-been-doing-awesome-bands-forever (Puffy Aereolas, Bassholes, This Moment In Black History) kind of dude, who's got no shortage of excellent ideas, and the means to readily execute them. He's never brought Obnox to Montana before.Goddamn!

CHASTITY BELT 's tags on their bandcamp page say "no regerts, punk, walla walla, blood, classical, metal, sex." The tunes they turn out soar around at about 35,000 ft. with  a dry, high desert oeuvre and we hear there's a tour with Wire coming up.

ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT is from the same Baltimore scene that turned loose Dan Deacon, Roomrunner and you know, around a dozen radical groups. Dan recommended Ed Schrader's Music Beat to us, and we're excited to have locked them in.

Lots more announcements soon.