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.

IS IT? IT REALLY IS

Like fellow Iowan's Slut River, Sioux City's It Really Is continue what I guess might be called a thing now, this weirdo Midwestern punk explosion that can and often does sound like chaos, but a chaos that totally rules. Like a lot of pretty small operations, too, they've barely got an internet presence so some of those fancy-blog bells and whistles we've been posting for some of the other acts are gonna get lost here. Don't worry! There's a cassette released by Omaha label Rainy Day Records floating around Bandcamp and jeez louise this is a damn good introduction to what is gonna be yet another sterling addition to Total Fest XIV 

SCRAMBLED POP MUSINGS: NUCULAR AMINALS

Portland's Nucular Aminals came through Missoula a few times in the past couple of years (Spruce street house in 2011, and with Slut River in 2012 -- supported by local darlings 10yoGF and Needlecraft, respectively). Admittedly, I missed them at the house show (it's summer and sometimes you could be at the house without ever entering the house. It was a nice yard), but the set at the Badlander was very impressive. Perhaps it was the fact that I hadn't seen a punk show at the Badlander for a few months or that the line-up was awesomely curated for a late summer show, but the melancholic pop of Nucular Aminals fit perfectly with the hunktastic fun of Needlecraft and the rawness of Slut River.

Much is made of the deliberate misspelling of their name, and, I occasionally have to fight my spell check and the damnit-they-made-me-sound-like-Bush feeling I get when I speak their name, but moving beyond that is really quite easy. With seven recordings under their belt (including a 2011 release on K Records) and fresh off a European tour, Nucular Aminals have steadily tweaked their petulant, minimalist, echoed melodies into a jubilant nihilism. The organ ties it all together, adding an odd moodiness to the reconfigured psych-grunge elements that are deeply rooted in their music. There's also a fair bit of silliness that infuses the songs -- like hanging out at a rainy beach party.

Their most recent releases, Start from an End (Self Released 2012) and Alice Day (Hovercraft 2012), push the laid-back grooves, allowing the haunting vocals to seamlessly flow along with the airy beats. In a way their songs remind me of odd eulogies, but the brattiness makes me think they're hanging hammocks over the graves.