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.

TOTAL IS TOTAL: NAOMI PUNK

naomi punk

Everybody says grunge. I don't think that's it, man. Naomi Punk, yeah, they come from the Great Northwest (Olympia, WA), but just because you play something that looks like a jagstang in a three-piece doesn't necessarily mean you're beholden to a tradition that lived and died over twenty years ago. There are similarities but that's mostly because this a group of humans making music: that's bound to be compared to just about anything. 

We all know: Mike just wanted a goddamn Pepsi. Naomi Punk just play, no frills, an incredible amount of volume, and one of those things I think that makes them really stand out to these ears: this odd sense of, well, "triumphant-ness." I don't think that's a word. It should be. Naomi Punk's live shows belie this knowing kind of intensity that creates a tension that touches you and then, wow, they did that thing where it just kinda makes you understand what the hell it meant (it means!) to be PUNK. You are at this show, buddy, you know the way this works. They pummel like the big big metal bands pummel and they math out like every college kid with a Wittgenstein fetish and man, can you tell I'm excited that I'm telling you how awesome it is that Naomi Punk (Naomi Punk!) is gonna play Total Fest this year? Believe it, people. Epic it shall be.

  

ANNOUNCING DEAED LANGUAGE

Total Fest proudly welcomes Olympia lo-fi, brainy and political hip-hop fella Deaed Language, who has the inspiring motto "Learn like you'll live forever, Rap like you'll die tomorrow."

Deaed Language brings a suitably Northwest-rainy vibe to rap, with lyrics that are contemplative, smart and somber, and lists influences like Aesop Rock, Dead Prez, Hail Seizures, Prefuse 73 and Sage Francis.

Check him out on Bandcamp and Facebook.

-Kate

SEDAN Cruises into TFXI

It's difficult adequately describe a band like Olympia's Sedan. Sedan released an amazing split with Thrones, a full length CD on Hamburgereyes, and self-released an awesome single "Patronized."

Simply put, Sedan is Scott Seckington on piano, weaving together tunes that are oddly ambient and agitated at the same time. It's a one man show "with a more spacious vibe kinda going on."

Instrumental music gets a bad rap -- maybe it's attention spans or laziness, but the lack of lyrics leads people to think that instrumental music is inherently melodramatic and repetitive. That's a little shortsighted. For one, instrumental music takes on the daunting task of crafting a story without words. Sedan accomplishes this through the piano with some electronic accents here and there. It's a vivid and moody journey. Ambiance, however, remains an even more difficult cat to herd. At its finest, it erases the lines between background and foreground. It's an event that surrounds us and solicits us to participate within it. Once we start thinking about the experience, we lose it. Don't get me wrong, I dig all the stuff that comes with a traditional band -- the flailing, screaming, hair thrashing, sweaty banter, etc. -- but it relies upon a distinct audience / band relationship. They're on stage; we're on the floor (or on chairs, tables, barstools). But, along the lines of Brian Eno, Sedan not only offers us a highly individual experience where we can lose ourselves for extended moments but also forces us to share that experience with a host of people.

Like a fun house, Scott leads us through mirrored and off-balanced hallways, smoky rooms, and spontaneous leaps, while we hear the laughter and shrieks echo on the other side of the wall. With that, we welcome Sedan, and invite you to come out and play this August. Bring your cotton candy, your caramel apples, your fried dough. Sedan will be there waiting.

(this video features Sedan's old drummer. Scott will be flying solo for Total Fest, but he promises that the set will still be killer)

BROKEN WATER

NO MORE NICE GIRLS

Straight from Olympia, Babies! Broken Water is a three-some of self-declared feminists and grunge-aholics. In an interchanging instrumentation of bass, guitar and drums, Abigail, Kanako, and Jon blend together punk and pop with shoegaze and psychedalia. If you enjoy Total Fest veterans like RVIVR, Milk Music, and Gun Outfit as much as I do then Broken Water is a must see/hear/experience. Just consult Maximum Rock and Roll if you don’t believe me (specifically issue #320) or check out their new full length Tempest released by Hardly Art. I can’t wait to watch this band and fantasize about being them. Broken Water is not gender specific and watching them is like watching three ambiguous people hum together, it really doesn’t matter who has the dick. Maybe it is not okay to say that, but their songs like “Stop Means Stop” and “Boyfriend Hole" lead me to believe that their brand of tongue-in-cheek sarcasm so well hidden in their tunes overcomes the suffocating political correctness that surrounds the topics of gender, sexuality and politics. Stop being so sensitive and let the music stroke your gender, whatever that means.

SHARKPACT IS COMING INLAND.

This duo is a powerhouse of loud. They are here to scream about things that matter to them, like the year-old-already-forgotten oil spill in the ocean, working in the service industry and helicopters. Jeff and Camille are best friends and love making music together. Both play with The Hail Seizures, that familiar group of folk-punkers busking throughout the northwest. Sharkpact is a bit different from HS, a little darker, louder and more “plugged-in”. I got a chance to see these two at Le Voyeur in Olympia the other day and I was blown away.

Camille is on the keys and delivers a dark sound, something like a haunted church organ or a creepy dentist’s office. Jeff serves up his brand of energetic percussion ripe with bashing and bass and always with a smile.

I got a few vids on my digital point and shoot camera, the quality stinks but the energy is there and I can’t wait for y’all to see these guys live at Total Fest Ten!

MILK MUSIC. SHEETS OF UN-VERBED FUZZ WALL COMMENCE.
For a sort of bummer collection of mossy stipmalls, military bases, ports and clearcuts, western Washington and northwest Oregon has got damn near about every region of the country beat in terms of killer musical output. Think of it historically: frat rock bands like the Sonics and Wailers, hardcore groups like the Fartz, Dead Moon, the Rats, the Wipers, Gas Huffer, U-Men, Mudhoney, Seaweed, Beat Happening, Unwound, Karp, Fitz of Depression, the Lights, the Spits, A-Frames, etc. etc. Jesus. I can think of about 29 more off the top of my head. Add to that colossal list Milk Music, please.

This Oly (I think, based on their short MRR interview) group (Milk Music, I mean) has got an authentically blown-out and (in its reverb-undrenchedness) refreshing take on the pioneering SST hardcore (in approach vs. sound) deal of the late 80s. Every thing written about the band seems to mention old Dinosaur Jr, and I think that's apt, they also mention Hüsker Dü and the Feelies. Sure, why not. Good reference points for sure, but it's got it its own stuff too. This ain't some cover band.

Here's a link to their self-relased Beyond Living LP. Try it on for size. It blew my mind! And the thing gets better with age, the mark of good songs vs. a strictly tonally nice record. I think their web-presence is refreshingly meager. Maybe a Last FM page, though who knows how to make those work.

CHIN UP, MERIWETHER!
Bands are a dime a dozen, tight bands are a little rarer, and tight punk bands with good ideas are even rarer. Where are we going with all these uh, platitudes about tightness? That's a good, if rhetorical question. Well, when we listen to the long-awaited full length, debut Fruition, by Olympians via Missoula Chin Up, Meriwether!, we get fuckin' stoked. It's tight, it's punk, it's got good ideas and it's got unharnessed energy that's hard to deny. Chin Up! Meriwether started here in around 2006, in the basement of Missoula's anarcho curry house and bio diesel plant, the Lab. Steve played bass, Aaron, I think, drums. They ruled. They existed here for about 6 months. They put out a tape, wrote a poignant song about Missoula's nasty gay/freak-bashing bullshit culture, played a handful of sweaty, fun, full-on rollicking shows, and that was it. Peter moved to Oly, and Missoula's boom and bust DIY punk scene busted, for the moment.

Peter didn't wait long to find a new rhythm section and start kicking out more bitchin' jams. And now we've got this great document (Fruition LP, on Rumbletowne) of an amazing, fun, bouncy punk band. And while I always liked Chin Up! Meriwether, this iteration has spent more time playing, more time getting good at the songs, and more time honing their craft, so it's that much more incredible. And what exactly is it like? Singalongy, but not cheesy anthem singalongs, poppy, but wonderfully astute and good at crafting songs, not just punk with filed-down edges, and they've got a maniac of a bassist, whose tone makes me think of the Swing Ding Amigos, somehow. While it's hard to figure out how to discuss a band's politics, or err, agenda, without weighing down write-up Chin Up! Meriwether's always been good on content. They've got social commentary galore, and it's all of the personal politics nature, which I dig, and which is a lot more difficult to deliver that "fuck the governmnent/establishment/corporations" variety of content. Gay, ripping, and fun as a midnight game of capture the flag! Chin Up! Meriwether, ahoy!

BROKEN WATER CONFIRMS
I had the pleasure of seeing Broken Water play a show at the Capitol Theater with Japanther and Kimya Dawson in Olympia, Washington in December of 2009. Seeing bands I love away from home is one of my favorite things, ever. I was surrounded by friends, family and a ton of stangers; I had a blast. I didn't know anything about Broken Water, though my two Missoula transplant pals assured me that I was in for a treat. I was reminded that a few years earlier, I had seen BW band members Konoko (drumms/vox) and Jon (guitar/vox) play in another band, Sisters, also with Japanter, also in Olympia, also awesome.

Although it's difficult to touch on exactly what makes this band so great and why I'm so excited that they are coming to Total Fest, I can assure you that they've got the DIY spirit. I anticipate only that you'll love their slighly Siouxsie Sioux/My Bloody Valentine pop psych tunes, low key vibe and groovy live set. Broken Water are one of those bands whose love of the music they make is palpable on the faces of the players. In one of those rare very genuine "we're stoked" kind of ways. Stay tuned to Muffin Tops on KBGA for upcoming Total Interviews with bands like Broken Water. Thurs 5-6PM, 89.9FM."