FUNHOUSE: DEAD BARS

When I first sat down to write this, I was telling myself not to just cobble together a list of Dead Bars' accolades and accomplishments. I mean, killer pop-punk just about sells itself, right? Sure, but I'm gonna blurt that list anyways because I don't care what you think a' me, I just want you to like this band:

CJ Frederick (of Total Fest alums Big Eyes) is not only Dead Bars' drummer, he founded the band with other core member John Maiello. CJ also started On The Real Records which though he's not running it anymore, is still going strong. They're signed to No Idea, they're playing the Fest and Pre-Fest in Gainesville, and on top of it all they are some of the biggest DIY promoters in their hometown of Seattle. Pretty damn busy, these guys. Not too busy to tear off some top serious pop-punk though (recorded with TacocaT's Eric Randall):



These tunes are a rolling party. We're lucky because that party is rolling towards Missoula and Total Fest XIV is only the better for it. Get ready, doods. This is gonna be one hell of a weekend.

EVERYTHING LOOKS BORING: VHS

Self-described "gloomy analog garbage" seems a pretty simple (and apt) description of what Seattle's VHS throws together but you gotta listen harder, buddy. There is some serious depth at play here, some love for TRV CVLT 80's goth, an equal measure of straight up TRV PVNK that finds a goddamn happy home with these ears. Think The Wipers or The Adverts or that Golden Time when punk was just becoming "post" and that label wasn't covered in a thick layer of music-writer bullshit (kettle, black, I know). 

Art-damaged and loving it, VHS (which stands for Violent Human System) have put out a handful of incredible cassettes. They're shamelessly just like you, poor as all hell, total dirt bags with hearts of piss-colored-gold. Before your Tinnitus completely overcomes you, before you've graduated to Respectable Adult, remember that paranoia and making-rent-anxiety can be the difference between screwing around and some of the greatest punk rock this side of the divide. 

BAD FUTURE: GOOD TIMES AHEAD

Post-punk is one of those labels that gets tossed around so much that I think it's officially lost its meaning. I'm sure other folks have proclaimed the death of the genre so let's leave that right there. What's tough is for a band to claw its way from the genre-limiting tendrils and be measured on their merits.

Step in, Bad Future. The Seattle foursome, consisting of members from Filth Mattress and Slut River (two amazing bands) offers some wonderfully, melodic punk with the right amount of gutter infused urgency. Think some of the more driving songs by the Wipers, where you keep thinking it's going to change so you try not to get too comfortable with the groove, but the thing keeps on trudging along in a grunge-tinged trance. Their recent release Nightchurch on Dirtcult (totally awesome label name) is a coaxing, slightly distorted and noise-enriched effort. Four tightly wound tunes with enough undertones to keep the most frenzied influence sleuth busy for a few months. If you're able to step away from all that, it's a great record with little frills and a purity of sound that should raise your ears. There's no hope for you if you're dead or too jaded to really hang out with a record a few times over. Ty Stranglehold's review in Razorcake review of 2014's Golden Age sums them up nicely: "I remember this feeling from the pre-Bandcamp or Youtube days. No hype or anyone telling me to check this out, just hearing it and getting chills."

If you're into a band that is as meticulous as they are random, as straightforward as they are challenging, Bad Future will hook you just right. Allow it to hit you as it wants not as you expect. The future is okay.

SMILING IS TOTALING.

Smiling, photo from future-breed.com

Our friend Anna set us up with this newer Seattle band called Smiling and said they were playing some of her favorite tunes out there currently. I think Max also said they ripped when he saw them with Stickers, another sweet band. I might be all mixed up though.

We listened to this record of theirs called "Pink" (with a cover image of zipper-mouth bondage mask wearer rendered in pink) and liked what we heard. It's frenetic, thrashy and has a song called "Annoyalist."

That's what we know. I also know we don't get nearly enough of these kinds of tunes out here since Ass-End Offend moved away. Here are some hashtags I made up to help you prepare: #hickpit #windmillguy #watchfromadistance

Smiling, photo from future-breed.com

 
Smiling - Live at Cairo from What's Up Seattle on Vimeo.

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.

  

PUNISHMENT: FREE MUSIC

Wm. Statler.

Sound collage, performance art, exceptionally self-aware pop weirdness and a whole host of other adjectives of my own devising are popping up in my mind-brain while attempting to truly express how much Seattle's Free Music (nee Punishment) will completely surprise and wow you guys at Total Fest XIV this year. Musically, William Statler's one-man-magic-orchestra fits somewhere between the soundtrack to a Sega Dreamcast game and Brian Eno's emotional 1970's. It's a bizarre mix, sure, but the real neon icing comes into play when you see Free Music live and in person. I don't wanna give too much away; you really do have to see this.

Free Music is one of the true enigmas at the festival this year. While I did mention "performance art" and that phrase is sure to make more than a few of your eyes glaze over, you should trust me. Let's just highlight the word Performance for a minute. A few years ago, while Free Music was still known as Punishment, he played a show at the ZACC with Mega Bog and completely enraptured the room. It was one of the most amazing things I'd seen a solo performer do. There's a ton of humor in it, it's almost childlike, but the depth is there and you can tell this guy is completely serious about what he's doing. I seem to remember there was a basketball involved. "Not in my house."

Let me put it another way: Free Music is one of the most "punk" bands I've ever seen. This is the kind of punk that doesn't need a snarling beard or a half-stack. This is punk that doesn't need a band. This is punk like it really, REALLY, doesn't care what you think. It's confrontational but dressed up in a cartoon half-smile and completely one of the most unique things this festival has harbored in a good long while. CYA this summer, doods.

P.S. Don't just take my word for it: Julia Shapiro (of Total Fest alums Chastity Belt) included a song by Free Music (then known as Punishment) on a Seattle-centric mixtape she created for Hardly Art.

ULTRA MEGA TOTAL BOG: MEGA BOG

NY-by-way-of-Seattle's Mega Bog has morphed into a heavy-hitter of what this particular listener has termed the "elegant English psych pop underground" that really lives in no place, assaults your threshold for whimsy, and has so far produced nothing but amazing songs.

Erin Birgy has brought her 'Bog to Missoula on more than one occasion in the last two years. Once at the ZACC joined by Punishment/Free Music, and a couple other times with IJI (who are totally playing Camp Daze this year, btw). Every time has been a dream. I'm worried (not really) about geeking out or alienating some of the more "hardcore" Total Bros here because Mega Bog references a lot of the things I thought only record store owners or dudes that lived alone with their cats cared about: Kevin Ayers, Nico's "difficult music," woodwinds. There's a saxophone all over her most recent record and it's glorious. 

I can tell you one thing for sure and I know that it's true. Mega Bog rules and Missoula and the world is lucky to have her. Hell, we're more than ecstatic she's playing Total Fest this year.

Check it out, dooods:

COMMENCE OX-GORING.

Seattle, Warshington's He Whose Ox Is Gored may have the single most unwieldy name this side of Kowloon Walled City, but that hasn't stopped a molecule's worth of their ever-forward, momentous, dense and complex and alternatingly heavy, intricate, doomy and combination-of-those-elements output from laying waste to town after-town, like some kind of a tornado that just passed over a lead shot factory, or something.

My god is this stuff just aggro. And in a good, Jon Weisnewski/Nat Damm, kind of way. I think about Akimbo when I hear this stuff, even if it's not exactly the same vibe, it's that same type of tightness and intensity that I think's gonna be a huge treat to rage with on a Saturday night.

Dave Segal wrote a nice piece about the band here, for the Stranger. Some notes about He Whose Ox Is Gored:

1) This band officially gets the blue ribbon for persistence and patience with us at the sprawling suburban office complex that houses Total Fest. Our wait list was packed with awesome bands this year (as it always is) and our typical plan is that we hear from bands pretty soon after announcing them that somebody's quit, or their ability to tour just got upended because of a wedding or something. This year was different, and the space we typically have free up didn't occur. He Whose Ox kept in touch, booked shows on all but the final day, and even printed posters with the words Total Fest on 'em before we'd inked the deal. Remember we do this thing in our un-copious free time, and our (okay, my) communication could be better.

2) They seem to be playing at least two places with the word "shred" in the name on this tour. Apparently both Boise and Salt Lake are shred-friendlier than I would've guessed.

3) Paul was supposed to write this.  -JV

MINT MILE/TIM MIDYETT

Tim Midyett (L) and Andy Cohen (R) of Bottomless Pit, and Silkworm

Tim Midyett's (formerly Midgett) music first came onto my sonar in any kind of real way in 1994 when Silkworm's In The West LP was released by the C/Z record label. C/Z had some bandwidth, and the 90s were definitely a decade when labels and engineers mattered. I had had the Treepeople's C/Z-released Time Whore/Something Viscious For Tomorrow cassette stuck in my Civic's tape deck for about sixteen mostly high school months and had positive associations with the label. I also read the music-focused (pre-Stranger) Rocket, which I think came out weekly, and kept dorkily close tabs on who was putting out what with what label for about three or four years. Strangely I remember hoping Silkworm would sound something like Treepeople did, consciously knowing that was a ridiculous thing to hope for. Of course, other than being an underground band from the northwest with guitars, drums, bass and vocals, there weren't any similarities. In The West was recorded by Steve Albini and I was stoked about how Steve made recordings sound, and so I bought the CD. My favorite track was about Missoula, and it was (and continues to be) a great song. Also, it rhymes "half racks" and "railroad tracks," and it's one of Tim's songs.

Silkworm probably occupy the space of The Most Famous Band To Come From Missoula, Montana. Which, you know... is  pretty sparse competition. They got called things like "thinking man's grunge" by hacky journalists unclear on how to categorize them. They started here, kind of grew out of the high school art/punk group Ein Heit, and then quickly moved to Seattle and eastward to Chicago and left a ten-LP catalog recorded over eighteen years, and released by labels like Touch and Go and Matador. About a year ago, a good documentary called Couldn't You Wait came out and it tells the simultaneously fascinating, sad and hopeful story of the band. It's totally worth a watch.

So that's a long way around to say that we're excited to announce Mint Mile, the solo/acoustic project by Tim Midyett. Following Silkworm, Midyett's kept busy with his other band Bottomless Pit, barbecue rubs, his family and day job. Mint Mile Plays Saturday, August 16th at the Badlander.

Q: WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LACK? A: WIMPS!

Seattle's Wimps attack the banality of existence with a serrated party knife, leaving all the various sinews and tendons sprawled out on the floor.

Bored with life? Swimming in the cold sweat of ennui? Eat it.

Wimps drums up a pop-filled, dance party that presses up against the mundane bullshit of paying bills, waking up, working lame jobs, hangovers, unemployment, laundry, saying hello. Featuring members from The Intelligence, Consignment, Meth Teeth, Butts and Partman Parthorse, Wimps run through a host of short, punk driven songs with distinct guitar, catchy vocals, and just enough playful bitterness that it can be easy to miss the serious affirmation of living. Try as we might, we have to wake up sometime. The curtains have to be opened. The trivial provides us with compelling narratives and moments of joy that, if we fail to acknowledge the absurdity of it all, drive us to dark, negating spaces rather than basking in the hysterical, exuberant joy of taking a breath or catching someone shitting in the alley. Wimps find a perfect balance between self awareness and raw, punk desolation. Their songs are short, ear-blistering, pop-infused, middle-finger acts of defiance. Like our favorite scrivener, Bartleby, they prefer not to; unlike him, Wimps devours the world in satiating bliss.

Party at the wrong time? Well, things could be worse.

STAYIN' CLASSY WITH THE TRASHIES

We're pleased to announce that Total Fest punk alumni The Trashies are returning this year to shoot at your feet until you dance. These classy folks promise nothing but a well-behaved time, judging by Facebook statuses like, "Then we will take our bugsmoking shit show on a tour to force feed you rat puke on a 12" platter. you are worms, we are worms, we live in dirt, fuck you, etc." Being a worm has never sounded so fun!


The Trashies' plan to release a new album, Teenage Rattlesnakes, sometime in summer. If you haven't caught these Seattle partier's scuzzy, poppy rock before, you're in for a treat. Visit 'em on Facebook.

-Kate

UNNATURAL HELPERS

Relenting only for the occasional drum fill, the drums are all hi-hat/crash trash. Guitar chords are cranked through what sounds like a cheese grater on top of a Marshall Stack (lol wut?). The bass is that classic pick-pounded 80s thrash following the guitar around like a rabid puppy. But the vocals--man, the vocals. It's the thing that makes Unnatural Helpers so instantly satisfying. Not in a nostalgic way that some modern punk-garage treads garbage in, riff-recycling and attitude assembling, but in the sense that you still love hearing so-sweet kiss-offs hollered (not screamed) atop a loud-fast band that doesn't sound heavy, but impossibly, irrepressibly scrappy--hell, almost skinny. Like the smallest-smartest kid in gym class out benching every jock fuck before kicking the teacher in the balls and storming out triumphantly to go read Origin of the Species. Or something like that.

And we stand back, totally impressed. We, the lucky attendees of Total Fest XI of course, where Unnatural Helpers are gracing us with their presence this year. They even have a new album coming out this fall on Hardly Art appropriately titled "Land Grab," because--as previously addressed--their music has a kind of rock-conquerer feel to it, invading a continent of hungry ear-drums and freeing them from the tyranny of bad rock writing (my sincerest apologies). I'll let the pros handle this kind of damage.

Go here to listen to a track off their new album, or look below to watch an in-studio from KEXP.

WALLS

Vicious. That's how I'd best describe WALLS. These four men from Seattle and Portland have been cranking out damaged, blown-out noise and punk for the past few years now. With members of Northwest outsiders Cold Sweat, Iron Lung, and Pig Heart Transplant, they are no strangers to creating relentless, aggressive music with a complete disregard for convention and make no attempt whatsoever to fit into one particular genre -- whether it be hardcore, punk, sludge or noise rock.  They carry plenty of sweat, angst, terror and frustration, and are fronted by one mad man of a vocalist, backed by feedback-soaked guitar and a pummeling rhythm section. Walls bring to mind bits and pieces of off-kilter classics like Born Against, Black Flag, and Unsane, but ultimately, they craft a vicious beast all their own. 


Be sure to check out their recent album The Future is Wide Open (Iron Lung Records) and prepare yourself for their set at Total Fest XI.

HELMS ALEE RETURNS TO TOTAL FEST.

Helms Alee are one of those bands that came out of nowhere and just straight up knocked me on my ass. I'd heard of their guitarist Ben Verellen's old band Harkonen in passing, but to be honest, I'd never checked them out (later smacking my forehead about that one). Anyway, I remember grabbing their first record, Night Terror, on a whim from my friend Andy's label when it came out a couple years back. A minute or two into the first track, I think my jaw dropped on the floor in utter shock at the weird, complex and amazingly heavy and melodic mix of sounds that came out of this little ol' three piece. Due to my geographic location at the time, it wasn't until last fall that I was actually able to see them live. And in that dark, dank Missoula basement, those songs from their LP (and much fabled demo 12" of which I then grabbed a copy) were fully realized for me, finally in a live setting. That said, they aren't super technical -- it's the range of sounds and textures that they create from such minimal instrumentation and vocals is what that makes them so unique. It's got equal parts of full-on, head crushing, sludgey riffs with sugary, border-line dreampop melodies and a few sparse, instrumental dirges here and there... it's hard to explain but utterly awe inspiring and all makes sense to me.

They played Total Fest a few years ago, and we're excited to have them back for Total Fest X this August. By then they'll have released a new full length on Hydrahead (out June 21st) and will be fresh off a long haul across the US with Big Business, Torche and Thrones (hell of a line-up, eh?). While we wait, let's marinade on a brand new song and a great older, live video here:

THE PHARMACY CONFIRM TO TOTAL FEST X! SIDE EFFECTS MAY CAUSE LOSS OF HEARING, DIZZINESS, ETC.

It seems as though Seattle Washington’s The Pharmacy have cracked the formula of crafting a perfect psych/pop song. Their latest release, “Weekend” is chock full of tunes that would make a 22 year old Mick Jagger envious. Beautiful melodies meet with the perfect amount of reverb and then ease into memorable choruses that you’ll be singing for days, and you kids get to see em’ live at Total Fest!

If you haven’t witnessed The Pharmacy for yourself trust me when I say their set will not let you down, it’s full of energy and brilliant musicianship and you will be moving with the crowd in no time. We at Total Fest couldn’t be more excited to have these gents play at this year’s fest!

THE TRASHIES BRING THE PARTY TO TOTAL FEST.

We're proud to share the news that Seattle's The Trashies will be hitting the road this August and playing our little party here in Missoula. They've been kicking around for a while now and if you've not heard these fellas before, prepare yourself for a damn good time. And just a warning - you'll probably wake up Sunday morning in your neighbor's yard and not remember the feel-good, booty-shakin' psychedelic surf punk party jams you and yr friends danced your ass off to the night before, not because it wasn't totally radical, but it probably had something to do with the two empty forty bottles you found duck-taped to your hands. We're looking forward to the Trashies at Total Fest... and a little sketched out.

They've got a new record coming out this summer, the first in a while, so get stoked. Check out some songs from their past couple releases on their 'space and this nice live clip to hold ya over.

KINSKI SAYS "YES-FERATU"!
I thought artistic greatness died with Klaus Kinski, but I was wrong. Kinski the band carries on the family name in style and grace, albeit with slightly less weirdness, in their hard strum psychedelic dance music. In ’07 Seattle Wah’s Kinski released Down Below It’s Chaos to reviewers who eagerly lapped up the refined sounds of experimental rock like emaciated kittens. Time Out New York’s Mikael Wood said:“Kinski’s lengthy guitar jams are meticulously designed meditations on riff and groove in which each element contributes to an overall feeling of forward motion; few rock bands muster techno’s impassive determination as confidently as this one”.

Over here at Total Fest HQ the question “Hawkwind?” is tossed about regularly and Kinski formidably answered with the 2008 release of a 7” split with Bardo Pond-a tribute to one of our favorites, Hawkwind.

By using the Scientific Method to formulate noise hypotheses and to conduct sound experiments, Kinski has arrived at a solid theory of how music should be made, simultaneously allowing "geeking-out" over successful sound experiments to be cool. I promise that Science will have you feeling their live noise reverberating through your body and tickling those taboo places inside your pants.

…Now to wait patiently for the intimacy of a Total Fest stage and a musical Kinski experience that would make Werner Herzog proud.

TACOCAT CONFIRMS

Here's pieces of a perfect, I-Couldn't-Have-Said-It Better, review of Total Favorites, Tacocat: "Often dismissed as a joke band, Tacocat has surprisingly good pop instincts with a rough, unpolished riot grrrl sound." "...Bikini Kill... that’s who their sound immediately brings to mind. They have a similar lineup (three women and a male guitarist) and sing about personal women’s issues. Bikini Kill, however, saw the personal as political and Tacocat sees the personal as really funny (they’ve got songs about muffin tops, wearing leotards, etc.."

"Tacocat might be the goofy band that plays your party – except they write very catchy songs and don’t let the pop hooks get drowned out by the loud, messy guitar parts. Like The Ramones, most of Tacocat’s songs are around two minutes." "Singer Emily Nokes, whose hair might be the brightest shade of red I’ve ever seen, has a magnetic stage presence and her voice is very melodic. They are a fun band that has zero pretension and doesn’t take themselves too seriously. I think the moment they start, the joke will be over. In the meantime, I’m going to try to catch every upcoming Tacocat show I can."

To read the complete review click here.