PEACE CREEP: A CAREFUL ASSEMBLAGE OF DISPARITY

Do you remember when Triclops! played Total Fest VII? They're one of my all time favorite acts. It was strange and somehow accomplished merging punk and prog into something that worked beyond belief. That album still sits as part of my monthly rotation. It was a bummer when they called it quits, but out of those ashes formed Peace Creep. Although the sound is fairly different, it's equally successful. They describe their sound in a series of playful hypotheticals: "WHAT IF Neil Young were on SST records wearing a dress onstage while playing Meat Puppets/Dinosaur Jr/SNFU covers. WHAT IF Hawkwind/Husker Du decided it would boost each other's careers to do songwriter workshops in tropical locations. WHAT IF San Francisco was still really cheap to live in and Hickey, Jerry Garcia, Gary Floyd and Steel Pole Bathtub all shared a practice space and recorded everything, " Peace Creep covers that ground as well as a vast array of terrain that feels more like a frantic, crack fueled Johnny Appleseed reaping his rewards than any itinerary with a planned return trip. There are landmarks, but everything is so blurry and frenzied that all you can do is hold on and hope that the landscape stabilizes just enough that you gain a vague sense of orientation.

They're long time rockers with a few excellent projects, in addition to Triclops!, under their belts (Anywhere, Pins of Light, and Bottles And Skulls to name a few) and recently released a record on Alternative Tentacles (a small label you may have heard of). It's an exuberant and thoughtful affair that exploits the raw energy of punk while mixing in psychedelic overtones, a banquet of guitar riffs, and enough sludge filled tempos to keep you happy and wanting more. I've only been stalked by a mountain lion once, and it was one of the most disorienting feelings I've ever had. Circling across the trail, lurking in the early evening shadows, appearing to keep its distance as it closed ground. I'm not saying Peace Creep establishes a predator / prey relationship, but their songs keep you on your toes, guiding you into the oblivion of shared experiences that shatter your locus of perception. The uncertainty is wonderful once you're not eviscerated and you find the comfort of something familiar. In a way, Peace Creep uses music to offer up a series of questions and decidedly refuses to provide answers, challenging you to fill in the gaps to determine what it is you've actually witnessed. There's a moment of rage involved when you fail to sculpt meaning, but it's also a welcome reconfiguration of the boundaries you erect. Stability is a proven facade, and Peace Creep assaults it with a polymorphous zeal that dismantles the scaffolding.

AGED LIKE A FINE WINE: KOWLOON WALLED CITY RETURNS

If you've been following heavy music over the past couple of years, odds are you've probably heard of Kowloon Walled City. Since their inception in 2007, these San Francisco-based sludge stalwarts have come out of left field and have made quite an impression upon the world of long-haired, neck-tattooed, flannel-wearers among us and the clean-cut, desk-jobbing rest of us. From their debut EP Turk Street, to the recent second album, Container Ships, they've come a long way from their early days of AmRep and Pacific Northwest inspired melding of sludge and noise rock. While their recent album delves further into some familiar low-end wandering it is rather stripped down, incorporating occasional melody and a sense of introspective quietness that sort of takes over the whole thing. It's thinking man's sludge/rock/post-hardcore. Like a fine wine aged over time. Or something like that.

Since they last played Missoula at Total Fest X, on one ridiculous sweaty-ass night at the Palace, they've kept busy through the release of a couple records and have toured a bit here and there (including a run of shows last year opening for friggin' Sleep). Total Fest is proud to welcome back Kowloon Walled City to the Total Fest stage this August and we hope that you're as excited as we are about their return to Missoula.

Be sure to check out their Bandcamp page and their site to stream/download their recent and past recordings.


Photo by Bowen Anderson

Pins of Light: Visions of the Future

We're excited to welcome San Francisco's Pins of Light out to Total Fest this year. We've hosted many a great bands from their neck of the woods in the past (Street Eaters, PIGS, Saviours, Wildildlife, etc) and have been hearing whispers about this rad and relatively new band over the past year. They recently released their debut album II on the ever-excellent Alternative Tentacles earlier this year, had a song or two featured on a Thrasher skate vid (linked below) and come from a long lineage of equally awesome and explosive punk bands from the past and present such as Dead and Gone, Hightower, Triclops! and others.

Their LP's opener 4112 blasts off into a galloping, NWOBHM-inspired jam, and as the record powers on, the band explores some spacier territory with plenty of earth-shaking riffs and dark, futuristic themes (as if the record's cover art was not an indicator). We're not the first to compare bassist/vocalist Shane Baker's vocals to KARP's Jared Warren or even Motorhead's Lemmy, and for obvious reasons, we probably won't be the last. While the band draws influence from those mentioned above they cover quite a bit of ground with their driving and all-over-the-place mix of heavy metal, punk, prog and stoner rock. It's hard to 'pin' down but it is some extraordinary stuff, none the less, and we're looking forward to having them in Missoula this August.

T.I.T.S. “Totally Invited To Sing”

Now also known to us at Total Fest Headquarters as “Totally Invited To Sing” this TOTALFESTX.
Hailing from San Fran these four ladies have eight T.I.T.S. total, which is more than you’ll find in a majority of bands on the circuit. Two guitars plus bass and drum, this group is the Beatles with boobs.

….except their rock style is darkly different from the sweet-boy lyrics of Lennon-McCartney. These babes are loud and not apologizing. Their sound is metallic and spooky, spawned from the evil depths of the earth goddess. Deep, dark drones played by our endowed matriarchs drive a ritual chant to perhaps inspire sacrifice or, shall I say it? ...Castration. Too bad poor Knight, welcome to the Castle Anthrax, there is no Holy Grail here, just temptation.

Don’t bother searching “T.I.T.S.” on YouTube or google, you know what you’re in for. Go straight to their site titsacrossamerica.com to see other clever T.I.T.S. acronyms describing these ladies. And later, when you are sweating in the crowd come August, show these T.I.T.S. some respect and don’t ask them to show ‘em, (though I hear these girls are smokin’).

T.I.T.S. will turn you on and then turn it up, to like, 11.