MOSTLY-GIRL PUNK PARIAHS: SASSHOLE

Guest Blogger: Becky Hensley

Moving to Missoula was a transformative part of who I have become.

I was coming down off some seriously bad vibes from living in a small town in Wyoming and the only answer seemed to be moving to Montana and shacking up with my boyfriend who had moved there months earlier to live with his brother.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was moving to the Volumen house. The first one, actually.And from the moment I pulled my car into the city, packed with everything I could fit in a beat up ’86 Buick Century, life was different.

My gut told me that the boyfriend wasn’t going to pan out, but I stuck it out hoping I’d find a friend or two to help make sense of staying in Missoula.

The Volumen dudes suggested I meet up with Sasshole.

A phone call came in, ”Meet us at Squire’s Pub” - I could hear laughing in the background and for a moment I felt like it might be a prank.

I had heard about these Sasshole ladies and what I had heard scared the living shit out of me.

Stories had filtered through emails from my boyfriend about these women. Kia, Jen & Milli would go harder and faster than anyone else out there. They’d put cigarettes out on your face, drink you under the table…literally, and if you couldn’t keep up…GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY.

Sitting across from them, I was nervous - trying so hard to be cool. They wore chokers, smoked cigarettes, wore ringer tees paired with sparkling vintage jewelry, and swallowed back bottles of beer in such an elegant and effortless way.

They were rebel girls. They encapsulated every part of how I had idealized Riot Grrrl culture and they were immediately the queens of my world.

After our first encounter, I found a home with these weird and wonderful and sometimes fucking terrifying women. They made me laugh, got me into parties, shared their beer with me, and became my very best friends. They supported me to pursue boys and be confident, they didn’t get mad when I puked on their butts or slept on their couches, and whether they knew or not, they enabled me to grow into an empowered woman.

They were passionate about their lives and they lived every moment like it was about to explode.

This passion and insanity plays into every part of what Sasshole is as a band.

Sasshole is silly, horrifying, offensive, dark as fuck, and always irreverent. They never take themselves too seriously, but you can always tell when they’re proud of the arrangements they’ve put together or a song is particularly well crafted. Because that part is important too…but they don’t really care if you know or not.

Kia’s voice is urgent and mewling and it’s sexy as hell. Her stage presence feels a little off beat, but always ends up connecting with the rest of the pieces of the band.

Milli is a force to be reckoned with. Her rock stance on lock, she plays her bass hard and she stares down the audience. Her voice punctuates the places where Kia’s falls away. She’s a powerhouse.

Girl drummers rule and Jen is no exception. She kills it and manages a flourish or two while rocking a serious brown lip and throwing her curls around. She is cute and dangerous and doesn’t have anything to prove.

And although I’ve fan-girl’d the heck out of the ladies of the band, Dave is one of my favorite guitar players in Missoula. He’s serious and deliberate and he shreds. He’s the straight man, literally, to this wiley crew and it’s always a treat to hear Dave shout along with Kia and Milli.

To say Sasshole changed my life would be an intense understatement. 

People talk about the soundtrack of their lives and I can say without a doubt that the music scene of Missoula in the early 2000s was mine.

I tried to use the present tense to talk about Sasshole as a band because in my heart they never broke up. They never took a break for kids or jobs. They’ve always been a band to me. And even after this last show, they still will be.

I’d recommend you not miss their set at Total Fest this year. And don’t be surprised if you end up covered in corn or peanuts or kitty litter.

It’s happened before.

sassholereunion
Ladieeees and gentlemen! Preeeesenting: JENNIFER LEAH TACHOVSKY and her band!
Posted by Lee Conway on Saturday, April 30, 2011

JONNYX AND THE GROADIES BRING TOTAL VIBES. AND CONSORT WITH LOATHSOME BEASTS.

Groadies

I'll be exploring two themes for this write up here: 1) lighting and 2) lycra.

I'm a sucker for a light show, so long as it relies mostly on crazy-ass spasm-inducing disco strobes, primarily. Nothing's worse than a not-very-nimble "now the singer is green" light rig. More like, "who gives enough of a fuck that a green light shone on a singer is somehow part of the budget for this show" which is typically what I end up asking about things like bad rock band lighting in 2014. But, all that to say, JonnyX and the Groadies, (JonnyX is correctly spelled, thanks) used a strobe masterfully, last time I saw them. Their intense blasts of spasmodic hardcore cum black metal just work really nicely with a strobe light that makes your eyes twitch.

Next up, lycra, the synthetic polymer skin-substitute that comes in all manner of shimmery colors and is worn professionally by cyclists and few others non-ironically. Nate Groadies is one of those rare dudes who can (unironically) step into a pair of lycra trousers, or a full body suit (I think) and proceed to rage bass.

Self-propelled Groad-Mobile

If you were around in the summer of 2004, you might have been lucky enough to see JonnyX and the Groadies at Jay's Upstairs with Sasshole, or at the all-ages (then, just) Total Fest matinee at the Boys and Girls Club on South Higgins. It was kind of a special deal, as I remember. They didn't, and really don't, tour per se. Just weren't interested in that part of being in a band. Anyhow, what the Groadies did do was twist off some completely intense and excellent keyboard/drum machine, guitar, bass and screams punk rock music. Think of Ghengis Tron, a little Lightning Bolt, maybe some ... er, Dimmu Borgir or something. Shit was so great. In 2010 they released their first LP of a roughly (then) fifteen year career. It's called "the Upheaval on Titan" and is excellent too. And, just last year, when two great defunct bands like Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live and the Need get together for a couple show,  guess who's on the Portland bill? JX:ATG, brah!

REUNION ALERT (CODE BROWN): SASSHOLE!

Back in the '80s, err, I mean '90s, man, there was this mystical place called Jay's. From it issued only goodness and positivity, to it came only the most talented. Blahhh blah blah… I’m always concerned with nostalgia clouding my recollection of some of my absolute favorite Missoula bands, especially when we talk about our reunion acts. I saw Sasshole dozens of time, as did a lot of my err, vintage. Often, I guess, like similarly great bands (Humpy, Oblio Joes, Honky Sausage/the Fireballs of Freedom, VTO, Hughes, the Helltones, and the Hedons, etc.) it was more or less waiting for the of town band I wanted to see more. At some point I reached the important understanding that really good bands can and do from this, our very own town. Sometimes it’s easy to equate a band’s foreigness with goodness, or having some special je ne sais quois, and missing the really good stuff that's right in front of you. I imagine it's called something like "xenophilia"... So, anyway, at some point I started to listen to Sasshole on their own merits. They have John Waters style senses of humor, obsessions with: death, murder, stalking, bodily functions, corndogs, shit, blood and are gifted in the art of late-night-full-on debauched partying.

Sasshole started as a four piece, did a handful of lineup changes with dudes like Andy and Justin from Humpy, and settling on Dave (also from Humpy) Goatboy Parsons. During the eight or so years that Sasshole were active, they did what few Montana bands regularly do and regularly left town. They made friends up and down the west coast, toured in a pet-grooming van, and did a couple tours a year before they essentially broke up around 2004 or so, after introducing another fine Montana punk export, Disgruntled Nation, to the west.

From my fan’s vantage point, the last three years of Sasshole were some of my all-out favorites, bar none. The band had grown from a trashy, barely-holding-it-together-but-charmingly-awesome punk band into songwriters who’d found a unique voice and worked hard at forming it into a gritty and dynamic force. Their shows were fun as hell, the band was good, and their melodies were unique and awesome. I always think about L.A. punk like the Germs and X when I have to describe Sasshole to a newcomer, probably doesn’t do justice to the influence the Moo-La-La catalog, or Sacramento '90s scene had on them, but it’s an alright starting point. Total Fest is pleased as-can-be to announce Sasshole! Be sure to listen to the MP3s that are up on sasshole.net and dig around on places like Terminal Boredom message boards to read up on this wild bunch.