It's the final year of Total Fest and that also means that yes, it's time to announce our final Total Feast. This is something we've come to look forward to every year. It's a time where we partner with one of our most stalwart supporters, Biga Pizza, and go nutz with an all-out all-you-can-handle pizza buffet. This year, all that pizza sets you back $12 and it runs from 5pm to 8pm. Know that a big portion of those proceeds goes towards making this last best fest something to remember. We're still a non-profit, volunteer-run enterprise so we rely on fun events like this to pay all those bands you can't wait to see.
Biga is one of our (and Missoula's) favorite restaurants in town. The place is run by Volumen and Bavon and Egg member Bob Marshall and he's been tossing brick-oven-pizza for years now. The menu has some pretty creative topping choices (the Flathead cherries, the marscapone, all so so good) but they're just as solid with your regular sausage, pepperoni, and cheese. There's always been a few gluten-free pizzas popped out for you celiacs and there will be plenty of salad for all you Yoga instructors. We love Biga and we're extra super totally elated to be doing this again, even for the last time.
To reiterate: TOTAL FEAST runs from 5pm to 8pm on Sunday, August 9th and like I mentioned earlier, it's only $12 for all-you-eat pizza and salad. PBR is available as well as Biga's regular beverage menu. The Ole Beck VFW Post #209 is available next door for overflow seating and booze-drinks for the 21+ set. This event is 100% FAMILY FRIENDLY and we can't wait to see you there.
Dedicating a few paragraphs here to a band like Volumen is a kind of ridiculous thing in a number of ways, here's why: I can't think of any other Missoula band over the last roughly 20 years that inspired the same kind of love, had the same kind of weird pockets of mostly upper-teenage boys willing to put duct tape Vs on themselves and offer their allegiance, and that's released as great a body of music. Like the Fireballs of Freedom, there are probably thousands of stories to go along with the band, and they're better told in person where the inflections, facial expressions, hand gestures, Prince impersonations all can get their due.
Volumen started at some point in the middle-latish '90s when childhood friends Shane Hickey and Doug Smith decided to end their Laramie, Wyoming band (Some Kind of Cream) and move to a weird mountain hamlet called Missoula, Montana. Shane and Doug used to play along with a drum machine, drew as much inspiration from Motherbaugh/Casale as they did Gene/Dean, and Bowie. Shane was and is a science fiction reader and Doug used to be a member of Up With People. Like a lot of bands without legitimate, human rhythm sections, their audience was "under capitalized."
Volumen a Total Fest IV in 2005.
Luck would intervene in the form of three individuals, Bryan Hickey, Bob Marshall and Chris Bacon who would help to form a five-piece band with five of the most psychically-meant-to-be-playing-music-together individuals that really I've ever encountered. From there, lots of things would happen in quick succession: They'd record their first official output, How Do You Spell, go on tour, and begin regularly playing at Jay's Upstairs often, using an ironing board as keyboard stand. That all would continue for a lot of years. They would purchase an old ambulance with a working light rack, install an Atari and drive it around, getting approximately 9 miles to the gallon. They'd regularly record, tour, play in Missoula, and around the region etc.
Food shopping in Estonia.
In 2002, at the urging of Bryan Giles from then Last of the Juanitas, now Red Fang (who said something like, "they're like the Beatles, man. You should put something out!"), I encouraged the band to go record with Tim Green in San Francisco, and released a kind of 30 minute mini-LP of their stuff called Cries From Space. I still love how Tim recorded them. In 2003, Andy Smetanka and I helped book/roadie for an Eastern European (Baltic) tour, that started in Finland and went as far south as Vilnius Lithuania. they learned the Finish and Latvian National Anthems and played them amazingly, in a highly-engineered (by Smetanka and me) attempt to win the interest of a stoic audiences. It turned out not to be terribly necessary, but was fun to watch regardless. As time went on lives became filled with different family and work responsibilities, and I don't know what the official word was, but they stopped playing much, and then altogether in 2009 about six years ago.
Volumen Army Recruits.
Like I said, Volumen inspired fan loyalty like I've never seen. And that loyalty translated to large audiences who'd regularly turn out for Volumen shows. They bankrolled the Baltic tour largely on money saved from shows. I think the fan loyalty can be attributed to simple things: 1) they're a really tight, well-rehearsed band with a great sense of melody 2) they're fun as hell to dance/sing/party along to. When I decided this would be the last Total Fest a few months ago, I also decided that having Volumen play it would help it go out with the kind of bang I wanted. Volumen played the first Total Fest in 2002, and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to ask them to consider it. Luckily, they said yes!
Some stats:
-Number of people officially enrolled in the Volumen Army: 54
-Last time in Estonia: 2003.
-Last album: Skipper of Reverses (2009)
-Last show, April 28, 2009.
-# of Volumen-owned/operated businesses that directly support Total Fest: 4
One of the worst things about being human is that other humans sometimes have the tendency to see you as the human who used to do that one thing a few years back, rather than seeing you as the human that is doing this thing now. Time does funny things to our perception, and there's an apt analogy somewhere about how a mosquito trapped in amber has allowed scientists to clone a behemoth from the past, Greg Ginn circa 1983, but instead of being Greg Ginn circa 1983 it's just Greg Ginn in 2014 and the Black Flag reunion shows are hella disappointing. Basically, whenever you write about a band whose members were in other beloved bands, the risk is run of their old bands becoming elephants in the room. You can try write around these pedigreed pachyderms, accidentally drawing even more attention to what you're specifically not mentioning--or, you place an undue amount of emphasis on past projects, thereby trivializing the new exciting thing that these folks are doing currently. Decisions, decisions.
Mass FM is a new band, but their members have all played in beloved Missoula bands off and on since the Clinton administration. Isn't that cool that some folks that used to do awesome stuff are still doing awesome stuff? Yes, some members were in Volumen, one was in Victory Smokes--but do you wanna know what I think is really interesting? They have two members named Chris and are a great band (despite the fact that I was once in a band that had two members named Chris and we imploded due to all of the internal confusion). It's not that their old bands--or other current bands--aren't great, but this blog is about Mass FM, so let's talk about Mass FM (now that I have every possibly non-sequitur out of the way).
Tricky is kind of a weird word, but Mass FM is a band with some tricky qualities. Jamming somewhere between The Cars at their most angular and--I don't know--Fugazi at their most Cars-like (?), the songwriting is slippery and clever without drawing attention to itself by winking at the listener. There are twists and turns in the tunes that aren't so much unexpected as these twists and turns don't distract the listener from the groove or melody. Good, hook-heavy, head-bobbing music, hence the appropriate "FM" in the band name (if the average FM station was populated by bands like Brainiac, 12 Rods and Servotron). Bad comparison, but if you've ever had a stoner musician buddy chew your ear off about how Pink Floyd's "Money" is in 7/8--like it's some illuminati conspiracy that no one knows about--I could similarly chew your eyes out by over explaining all of the really cool little rhythmic hiccups in Mass FM's "Pull Some Strings." I'm not going to do this, but I will suggest you listen to the song posted below and get ready to see them at Total Fest XIII.
We're just over two weeks away from
this year's Total Fest. We're extremely proud of the line-up and
couldn't be more excited to see everyone again this summer. It's a
testament to our mission statement that bands and people from all
over the country, continent, and globe make special trips to Missoula
for Total Fest each year. It's really humbling.
By now you know that we do everything
that we can to keep Total Fest an all-ages, not for profit, volunteer
driven festival. This requires additional costs on our part. We're
not here to massage some guilt ridden sympathies from you but to
acknowledge all the hard work our sponsors and volunteers put in to
help keep Total Fest rolling all these years.
Our biggest fund raiser and what is
essentially our Total Kick-off happens this Sunday, August 4 at BigaPizza. Between 5 and 8 PM all you have to do is pull together $10 or
so and head down to Biga for one of the best deals of the summer.
That's right. $10 gets you all you can eat pizza and salad. This
isn't some cardboard crust, ketchup and string cheese pizza, either.
Bob Marshall and his fabulous staff compose some of the most blissful
creations. Try the Caramelized
Goat (caramelized
onions, goat cheese, fresh herbs, mozzarella, roasted garlic &
olive oil), or the Fennel Marmalade , Bacon & Gouda (housemade
fennel marmalade, local bacon, gouda cheese, mozzarella & olive
oil), or the Mushroom and Arugula (portabella
and button mushrooms, herbed mascarpone, roasted garlic, mozzarella,
fresh tomatoes, arugula & olive oil), or the Meatball Verde
(broccoli rabe,
local beef, herbed mascarpone, mozzarella, garlic, olive oil &
housemade cilantro-jalapeno sauce). Hell, with this deal you get to try them all and whatever other magical creations Biga has in store for you.
Salivate.
Bob's been a long time supporter of
Total Fest. Volumen have played a handful of times, including the
inaugural Total Fest that birthed all of this craziness. Bacon &Egg have played a few times over the years as well. It's been an
awesome and rewarding relationship. We count on the proceeds to help
us out with venue costs, extra staffing to keep things all-ages, pay
bands, buy food for bands and volunteers, etc. etc. We'll also have
PBR on tap for $1 per glass so save a little room for beer.
Like last year, the VFW will open up
their doors for additional seating. Directly following Total Feast
will be an rollicking show, featuring three local bands that have deep
ties to Total Fest: The Hounds, Hammshandy, and a Bauhaus cover band.
Who says Sundays are quiet?
For over a decade, Missoula science rockers (and multi-time
TF veterans), Volumen, were known as much for their oddball sense of humor as
their licks. Much of that comic sensibility can be directly attributed to lead
singer/songwriter, Shane Hickey. Since Volumen went on indefinite hiatus last
year, Shane needed an outlet for hilarious his songs about trailer park moms,
getting drunk, and poontang; he found that outlet in the tiniest of stringed
instruments: the ukulele.
After leading many a campfire sing-along with uke in hand,
Shane decided to unleash his musical and comical prowess upon the masses as
Shane Hicky And His Magical Ukulele (or SHAMU for short). Along with his
drummer Jerry (who usually gets fired at least once during every set) Shane has
crafted some really catchy and side-splitting tunes on that tiny ukulele. Having
known Shane for years, we here at TotalFest headquarters are unbelievably
excited to see what kind of material SHAMU…and Jerry come up with at our
expense. (To be fair, we probably deserve it.)
Saturday, August 13, 2011
BOARDS, CLOTHES AND SMILES: MISSOULA'S EoW SHREDS TOTAL FEST
One of the great things about the Missoula businesses that help support Total Fest is that many of them are owned and fronted by some of the same people who help craft the landscape of Missoula's music scene. Edge of the World is one of the handfuls of sponsors whose manager Chris Bacon is not only a fixture of Missoula's punk past and present (Volumen, Bacon & Egg) but also is on the front lines of Missoula and Montana's skateboarding / snowboarding culture. It's a hard gig to maintain, but Edge of the World and BOMB Sk8boards puts their best feet forward to provide a statewide support network for boarders, while also keeping them in some of the finest duds this side of the Mississippi. If you're in need of anything, you should consider stopping by EoW and having them help you equip yourself before saddling yourself into the recliner that has seen better days and perusing the internet for a quick fix.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
BACON AND EGG: SIZZLING TOTAL FEST The dudes of Bacon and Egg are a known quantity in these parts. Chris Bacon's been the president of the Missoula Skatepark Association since it's inception, and helped them raise over a million dollars to build our town's skatepark. Bacon plays keys and yelps in Volumen, and runs our skateshop, Edge of the World, too. Bob Marshall's the man behind the best Pizza in the west, Biga Pizza. Bob's also the drummer in Volumen. They've been in Missoula bands collectively for probably around 30 years.
Bacon and Egg is the band that grew out to the fact that once Volumen practices end, these guys wanted to continue rocking, and work out some of their own songs in the process. It's an excellent drum-machine driven, church keyboard fortified, guitar-blaze, replete with double vocal duties, songs about the malls and dirt bikes of their youths, and a hell of a lot of fun.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
BL'AOW! THE INTERNET DEBUT OF THE TOTAL FEST FILM. If you're an alumnus/alumna of Total Fest, you know that hanging out, checking in, talking, catching up, getting to know, joking, laughing, eating food, offering beer to dogs, and shooting a potato gun named (unoficial TF mascot) Donny America are all activities on equal par with enjoying rad tunes by great bands. Total Fest is a social, community event that takes its fun as seriously as its music. This is the internet debut of Andy Smetanka's Total Fest Forever, a piece of work spanning what looks like largely Total Fests III, IV and V, and maybe some VI, back in 2003-2006. The music accompanying it's from the excellent Cajun Gems from Portland. Cajun Gems are exactly one half of the Joggers, we think. Ben Whitesides and Darrell Bourque if we're remembering correctly.
People we immediately recognize in the film include: Niki, Becky, Joanna, Justin, Jim, Lana, Jeff, P.J., Bill, Craig, Sean, Colin, Lana, Sharif, Coady, Jared, Britany, Beau, Joey, Wendy, Lou, Kyril, Lindy, Suzanne, Linda, Bacon, Bryan, Milli, Count, Matt, Kelly, Ian, Syd, Doug, Jen, Don, Justin, John, and Cristina.
Bands: the Narrows, Last of the Juanitas, the Lights, Big Business, International Playboys, Yakima Nation, Federation X, Volumen, Fireballs of Freedom, Mico De Noche
Who's missing?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
..... PLEASE ENJOY MISSOULA'S FINEST, WHILE YOU WAIT. So, yeaaaaaahhh, the time before we start having some actual line-up announcements to make can get to be a bit awkward and tedious, we know. Thanks for being patient! To pass the time, and ease with the excessive nail biting, label peeling, cigarette smoking and uh, squirming around, we've decided to offer you the following wonderful and excellent piece of Cinema Missoula-te: welcome to Snakes, a music video for the Missoula band Volumen, directed by Missoula animator, film-maker and one-time Totalist (Humpy, 2005?, yep, same guy) and all-round oft-seen-lending a hand behind the scenes with various wordsmithery, heavy lifting and general improvements, Andy Smetanka. That laundry list doesn't really start to do justice to Andy's quality of craft.
While Smetanka's stuff's only starting to get the notice it deserves (Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, Big Sky Doc. Film Fest), it's beautiful and deserves a larger audience. You can help! This is an early work, and if you like it, use Youtube's search engine and check out his Le Force Le Wizard video, and the tons of other excellent pieces out there. The Volumen song's from their Wantage debut, Cries From Space. Smetanka, like many Missoulians, has been at every Total Fest since we started. He's housed bands, played music, covered TF in the Indy, and most recently, debuted a super 8 film documenting the barbecue and river scenes of Total Fest. This piece of work should be up on the intro-net real soon, and expect to see a notice here when it is. Thank you, carry on.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Total Fest VII LINE-UPAugust 14-16, 2008
The Bandlander and Palace Lounge, Missoula, MT Tickets Available from Ear Candy Music (Missoula) and via wantageusa.com
Below is the collective work of the TF volunteer organizers. We have musical tastes from all over the map but luckily, we think this lineup represents most, if not all of the different types of music we dig, and the out and out best examples of underground music and culture around. We are excited that this is as strong and diverse a roster this year as we've ever had. Additionally, we have a couple of awesome re-union/un-retirements happening. The big news is that with travel underwriting support from KBGA we are able to bring Federation X out of their distance-caused semi-retirement, for their only show in 2008! We're figuring out how we can swing all-access (everywhere in the building, not just downstairs), all-ages from 8PM-11PM each night. At this point this is the line-up, and we still have an awesome waiting list for when changes happen, and changes always do. If you're a band on this list, please link up to Total Fest, and list the show on your websites! Keep an eye on our Total Blog for more details, and we'll see you in August!
Oh, before we forget: because Wantage is the official "umbrella" under which Total Fest happens, we have a special pool of bands whose music Wantage USA has released, those bands are: Federation X (Bellingham/Brooklyn) the Lights (Seattle) The Narrows (Bellingham) Squalora (Portland) Volumen (Missoula)
In 2008 we received a record one hundred twenty applicants for the forty available slots. Honestly, nearly all of what we got was pretty good, so it's not easy to filter things out! If your band didn't make it in, it's not because we didn't like you. Rather, we just have pick the stuff we're most stoked about, and nobody does this to be exclusionary. Please come out and check out the shows, submit again, and keep in touch.
