Happy Birthday Siouxsie Sioux!
Occasional dispatches (mostly about music) from a little town in the mountains that time forgot.
Questions, submissions? Contact WEIRD MISSOULA.
May 27, 2012
May 22, 2012
HIGH LIFE 5-21-12 (True Chaos Dub Edition)
No matter how much you hate hippies, or hessians, or punk rockers, every one of those folks have given us some music worth saving. Not all of it bad, not all good either, but I’ve always been of the opinion that every genre is worthy of some consideration. I’ve never been proven wrong. I love god dub. Hell, despite my Skrillex debacle some weeks ago, I still think there is some decent dub step out there. I know many of my friends here might not enjoy it, but I stand by a ton of reggae, ska, and dub records that they’ve disavowed after that one big late 90’s craze died down. There were good things in that. Yeah, not many, but they were still there.
Whatever. I angled this week’s show in a more tropical, African, dubbed-out trajectory than I have many others. It turned out ok. It’s been a joy to try and navigate the confluences of dub and noise, calypso and art-rock. It’s not hard, it’s all there, and I believe you only need listen closely and all those stupid secrets become revealed.
HIGH LIFE airs every Monday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm on 89.9FM KBGA, Missoula, Montana.
Here’s the playlist:
Koji Asano “Solstice Eclipse”
K.S. Chithra “Vandadhe”
Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengra & The Congos “Food, Clothing, & Shelter”
Mark Stewart and The Maffia “Learing to Cope With Cowardice”
Aaron Dilloway “Labyrinths & Jokes”
Gang Gang Dance “Side 1”
Batucada & Ethnic Choirs “Scenes de la Macumba”
Exuma “The Vision”
Black Dice “Spy Vs. Spy”
Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras & The Congos “Jungle”
Saka Acquaye “Down The Congo”
The Upsetters “Dread Lion”
Excepter “If I Were You (Live)”
Free Agents “Untitled (Side B Song 1)”
Bola “Tivona Vonbubo”
Orchestre Régional de Mopti “Recital (Seku Amadou)”
Rob “But You”
The Slits “New Town”
Ex-Cocaine “Sheafman”
Germ Hunk “Uncle Hair”
Amen Dunes “Miami Beach”
Is/Is “Untitled One”
Dr. John “Danse Fambeaux”
Phantom Payn Days “Orchid Hunter”
Kites “Dirt”
Blackout Beach “Beautiful Burning Desire”
Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras & The Congos “Happy Song”
No Neck Blues Band “Qvaris Theme 1”
Stream it here: HIGH LIFE 5-21-12 (True Chaos Dub Edition) by Weird Missoula on Mixcloud
May 20, 2012
Here’s Some Other Sites You’d Be Want To Check Out
Boring adage: it takes a village to build a yadda yadda yadda. It does take a lot of people to build any kind of “scene” and believe me, Weird Missoula is definitely not the only house-of-opinions out there. We’ve been pretty particular about the kind of stuff we’ve covered lately and we just want all our friends to know that there are some other great places on the INTERNET to check on sweet Missoula happenings/news/etc.
First off, Missoula Punk News is a relatively recent enterprise, run by the illustrious Lady Kate. As you could probably tell by the name it’s primarily got a punk focus, but due to the fact that it’s a blog based on Wordpress and not the clunky annoyingness that Tumblr can be (ugh, we’ve regretted starting this blog on Tumblr time and time again)…they’ve got some neat features we’ll probably never figure out how to implement. First off, they’ve got a show calendar. We want one too but man…either we’re internet idiots or Tumblr just sucks. Secondly, they’re organized into reviews, band profiles, show reviews, etc. It’s pretty awesome. Check them out. Like us, they offer an opportunity for folks to submit articles and I think they’re off to a fantastic start.
Total Fest’s blog arm, Total Blog, is one of those sites that gets active for only a few months of the year but when it does, it’s the best place to stay up-to-date regarding what is easily Missoula’s greatest music get together and the only festival I’ve ever actually enjoyed. Total Fest is soon approaching (Aug. 16-18 this year) and their blog will soon get active with the band announcements and any relevant news.
In addition to having a “proper” label website, Minor Bird Records also has a blog. They’ve put out some great records by local punk dudes Bird’s Mile Home, Goddammitboyhowdy, and Squalora, as well as other releases by Tacocat and The Trashies. Like Wantage and Killertree, they’re one of a small family of great Missoula-based record labels. Check ‘em out.
We hope we didn’t forget anyone. If we did, we’re dreadfully sorry. Any mistakes are products of our ignorance and nothing more. We just want y’all to know we’re one voice among the choir that make up Missoula’s admittedly vibrant music culture. Never forget that!
May 18, 2012
HIGH LIFE 5-14-12 (I’m Never Answering The Phone Edition)
It’s true. I’m not.
HIGH LIFE airs every Monday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm on 89.9 FM KBGA in Missoula, Montana.
Here’s the playlist:
Aaron Dilloway “After the Showers”
Black Dice “Carnitas”
K.S. Chithra “Vandadhe”
Gang Gang Dance “Glory In Itself/Egyptian”
Amps for Christ/Woods “Brothers”
Julia Holter “This Is Ekstasis”
Aaron Dilloway “Labyrinths & Jokes”
The Flying Lizards “Her Story”
Peaking Lights “Marshmellow Yellow”
La Dusseldorf “Geld”
Psychic TV “Godstar”
Ducktails “Beach Point Pleasant”
Iggy Pop “Turn Blue”
Lorren Cornelius “Fantasy Woman”
Is/Is “Fire”
White Suns “First Purge”
Naomi Punk “Trashworld”
Nymph “Snow Song”
Bola “Tivona Vonbubo”
Shahs “Sade”
Nâ Hawa Doumbia “Dan Té Dinyé La”
Otis G Johnson “Time To Go Home”
Aaron Dilloway “Tremors”
The Makers “Don’t Challenge Me”
Stream Here: HIGH LIFE 5-14-12 (I’m Never Answering The Phone Edition) by Weird Missoula on Mixcloud
May 16, 2012
Josh Vanek’s Top Ten (believe me, there are more) Reasons To Go See The Blind Shake @ Zoo City Apparel, Wednesday, May 16th
(Photo by Greg Schaal)
Josk Vanek, local medicine man behind Wantage, KBGA’s Ultra-Mega Ultra Blast, and the venerable Total Fest, is fucking pumped. But he might really be dying for a Pepsi. No matter the reason, Mr. Vanek is a man full of ‘em. Cringe no more, Missoula, your answer to a weird Wednesday eve is probably located somewhere below:
10) Their (the Blind Shake) album Seriousness, released last by Learning Curve shows an already great band taking their stuff a step further, getting weirder, writing more austere riffs and making less sense lyrically. Odd endorsement? Maybe, but listen to their records in succession sometime, it’s the sound of musical ideas taking form and turning into a unique voice. What’s all that add up to? Dunno, but it’s such solidly great, creeping rock and roll and folks like Poison Ivy, Link Wray and ….somebody younger, like uh, I don’t know, Duane Denison maybe all get nods.
9) The Blind Shake are power trio. Like you know, the Minutemen, the Experience, Blue Cheer, James Gang, Motörhead. Sometimes three is better than four.
8) Needlecraft is playing the show. Unfamiliar with Mikki Lunda’s and Hana Montana’s new band? It’s nutsily catchy, ‘60s pop. Jangly, melodic and fun as shit. I always think of Sasshole’s sense of humor when I see them.
7) Loud, aggressive, but not macho. Talking about the Blind Shake here. In a music world of men making clutching symbols to the heavens and dropping their drop Ds even lower and their Marshalls even 11er, the Blind Shake just come off as kind of dorkily serious (w. Members Only jackets with duct tape Masonic symbols), super well-rehearsed band with a fresh set of ideas, great stage presence and cheaply priced records. Dane thinks they’re straight edge because of the Bic’d heads. I’m pretty sure they’re not.
6) The Monster With 21 Faces is playing. This is Bryan Ramirez, P.J. Rogalski and Holt Bodish’s new group. Kind of a power-psych vibe. I saw ‘em at Modality’s VFW residency and they ruled. Covered 13th Floor Elevators too.
5) Brothers. (Blind Shake again) Speaking from experience, being a brother isn’t always an easy deal. Consider being in a band with a dude who shares what, half your DNA? Or more right?
4) Magpies are playing! Dave Martens, in addition to playing 11 other bands, drums for the Magpies. He’s a savage on the kit, and the Magpies trade off the dude/lady vocals in a Fred and Toody-esque way when they’re at their best.
3) Zoo City’s a fun place for a show. The VFW’s excellent. The Palace is great. The Top Hat rules. Missoula’s got some options again, and for that we thank Jah. Zoo City Apparel’s kind of our town’s DIY, low-overhead, collectively run deal that seems to work well for shows like this.
2) Javier Ryan’s playing! One man, some wild synths, some pop, some melody, some hooks, some soul. Stoked.
1) The Blind Shake are regular collaborators with Michael Yonkers, whose epically forgotten then un-earthed Microminiature Love is an insane, awesome psychedelic gem of record, as all his records are great, but I think it’s the first and in some ways, best. They regularly record great new stuff. Someday, they’re gonna bring him out for a show. Someday.
May 8, 2012
HIGH LIFE 5-7-12 (AOR Vs. True Noise Warrior Edition)
There’s something to be said for the heyday of 1970’s AOR FM radio. The dudes over at Numero Group seem to agree with me and this last Record Store Day I picked up their fantastic WTNG 89.9FM compilation of forgotten smooth yacht-ready classics, two tracks of which I played on this week’s HIGH LIFE. I could be digging a grave right now by saying so but I’m of the mind this stuff is prime summer tuneage.
I countered all those syrupy jams with some serious NOISE later on…it was a pretty asymmetrical show to say the least. Both White Suns and Is/Is, two bands we’re bringing to the VFW this month, made it on to the show. They’ve both released records pretty recently and we like to think they’re both pretty awesome. White Suns are running in thatheavy tradition known to bros like Wolf Eyes, Prurient, et. al. while Is/Is are more akin to the Cocteau Twins or My Bloody Valentine. Serious jams.
HIGH LIFE, the lovely Weird Missoula-affiliated radio show, airs every Monday afternoon from 2pm-4pm on 89.9FM KBGA Missoula, Montana.
Here’s the playlist:
Excepter “Leng”
Willis Earl Beal “Angel Chorus”
Amen Dunes “Diane”
Jakob Olausson “Morning and Sunrise”
Ducktails “Dancing With the One You Love”
White Fence “Hey! Roman Nose”
Timothy “Your Love Rolled All Over Me”
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Round & Round”
Dolphins Into The Future “Memory Of Self”
Lorren Cornelius “Fantasy Woman”
Carole King “Crying In the Rain”
Amps for Christ/Woods “Native Chantz”
Paul Metzger “side d”
No Neck Blues Band “The Doon”
Blackout Beach “Be Forewarned, the Night Has Come”
Phantom Payn Days “Screen Idol From France”
Naked On The Vague “Clock of 12’s”
Public Image Ltd. “No Birds”
Siouxsie and the Banshees “Helter Skelter”
White Suns “Waking In the Reservoir”
Throbbing Gristle “Still Walking”
Black Dice “Carnitas”
Hype Williams “Jesus To A Child”
Julia Holter “This Is Ekstasis”
Wire “French Film Blurred”
Is/Is “Bomb Me”
Chromatics “Plastic Kross”
Stream the show here: HIGH LIFE 5-7-12 (AOR Vs. True Noise Warrior Edition) by Weird Missoula on Mixcloud
May 8, 2012
Ty Segall, White Fence, Needlecraft @ The Palace, Sunday, May 6th
Supermoon hangover. That’s what I’m going to use to explain the utter lack of energy I had this last Sunday. Though I’m sure it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’d actually gone to sleep early that same morning, mystified that so little wine could be corked into so large a bottle, punk-rock was seemingly passing me by, I was getting too old for this shit but hell, let’s dance to this awesome compilation of late 80’s R&B I just stumbled across and yeah, that’s exactly what I want to do right now. There was probably pizza involved.
I made it. I wasn’t even that exhausted. My ultimate goal had been to see White Fence…I’d been in love with his songwriting for at least a year now. That self-titled record of his hit a nerve when I first heard it. It seemed to be a happy exception within this latest wave of garage rock troubadouring: the dude knows how to write songs.
All Things Must Pass. Did I mention White Fence kinda writes like Harrison? George Harrison, you know, the best Beatle besides Ringo? (I’m not kidding…Ringo rules) I mean, it’s pretty easy to get some reasonably talented musicians together and slug away like you’d never heard Them before. It doesn’t take much to do that whole 12-bar-blues-but-loud thing. There are exceptions of course, and like I said, White Fence is just one of those guys…writing like he should be starting the 21st century version of the Traveling Wilburys. End of the Line, folks. This guy has definitely got the stuff. “Produced By Jeff Lynne” Of course.
Maybe I am getting too old for this shit and going after music based on drastically different standards than I’ve been used to. Loud is all well and good, but music never excites me on pure volume and energy alone. There have to be good ideas underneath all those fireworks and hoopla. White Fence has got them for sure. He’s more in-line with the mid-60s British pop songwriting tradition than anything. Think early Kinks, early Who, Rubber Soul/Revolver-era Beatles, early Pink Floyd…it’s not necessarily garage rock but at least he’s drawing from the same era. Makes sense that he’s touring with Ty Segall I guess.
I didn’t stick around for more than a song or two of Segall’s set. Said supermoon hangover started to get at me again and Sundays are usually not a night I like to spend out at the bar.
Fun was had by all. I had fun. Great fun. Nice to see Needlecraft a second time, they keep getting better. Nice to see a ton of friends and a healthy contingent of people I’ve never seen before. I’m guessing that had something to do with the 18+ nature of the show but who knows…well, that’s probably why.
May 1, 2012
HIGH LIFE 4-30-12 (April Showers, Etc. Edition)
It’s become evident to me that I’ve used weather analogies to describe many episodes of HIGH LIFE and to fill up these requisite introductory paragraphs as some kind of NOAA masthead to the playlists. Whatever. Weather is one of those social lubricants I fully embrace. We native Midwesterners view weather with a more serious tone than I think many native Montanans do. That may not be entirely true, but it’s just an inkling…I dunno. It’s common for all us farmer’s sons to rap around about how torrid or chilling or how whatever any given season happened to be in some past beyonder. Weather is its own language in the Midwest. A little different out here (though similar?) methinks. It’s not the easiest thing for me to explain…sorries.
Either way, it’s been raining heavily this last week. Doesn’t look like that is gonna change any time soon. I hate this part of spring. It’s nice, yeah, because it really gives our Garden City its name but man…give me the sun PLEASE.
UGH.
That picture up above if of the illustrious Ryan Garbes. He’s great. He was once the drummer for Iowa City’s freak-rock ensemble Racc-oo-oon, though he now plays solo and with Wet Hair. All good things. Check him out on this week’s episode. Check him out regardless. He’s pretty handsome.
HIGH LIFE, the only Weird Missoula-affiliated radio show, airs every Monday afternoon from 2pm-4pm on 89.9FM KBGA, Missoula, Montana.
Here’s the playlist:
Nate Young “Comes Unbidden”
Free Agents “Untitled (Side A)”
Purling Hiss “City Special”
Get Hustle “Pharaoh’s Horses”
Kites “Something About America”
Three Legged Race “Mourning Order”
Han Bennink and Dave Douglas “ZVV”
Carole King “Crying In The Rain”
Woods “Roto Koto In C Major”
Amen Dunes “White Lace”
Jakob Olausson “Neptune”
Wooden Wand and The Vanishing Voice “Return of the Nose”
Ex-Cocaine “Sheafman”
Viki “Unknown”
The Phantom Payne “Waiter! A Bad Joke Please”
The Raincoats “The Void”
White Fence “Breathe Again”
Tom Verlaine “Days On The Mountain”
Psychick TV “Being Lost”
Justin Meyers “Scales”
Julia Holter “Goddess Eyes II”
Black Dice “Spy Vs. Spy”
Jeff Phelps “Excerpts from Autumn (Instrumental)”
Carole King “Like Little Children”
David Candy “Diary of a Genius”
Jakob Olausson “When your Bridges Burned”
Ryan Garbes “Dream”
Run DMT “Dreaming”
Willis Earl Beal “Away My Silent Lover”
Download Here: HIGH LIFE 4-30-12 (April Showers, Etc. Edition)
Stream here: HIGH LIFE 4-30-12 (April Showers, Etc. Edition) by Weird Missoula on Mixcloud
April 27, 2012
HIGH LIFE 4-23-12 (Epic Skrillex Prank Edition)
Just look at that guy. Fucking Skrillex. A big chunk of Missoula has been drawn into the bowels that is dub-step and as a result, I’ve gotten lots of callers requesting stuff like Skrillex or a ton of other dub-step producers I can’t name. Usually I’m pretty nice about the whole thing, mentioning that I try to give my show a particular aesthetic and that deviating from that isn’t something I willing to do very often. Most of the time they’re pretty understanding. I like to think I have a healthy detente with Missoula’s dub-step community: I may not like it, but who am I to judge, you know?
That didn’t necessarily change this week, but things got weird. Midway through this episode I got a caller. It started out tame…he initially told me he had been listening for the last half an hour, it was a good show, etc. etc…but then he asked me to play Skrillex. That in and of itself wasn’t too surprising, but I just said the usual “sorry, I really don’t think that would work with my show” spiel. He quickly countered, “Oh I think it will.” Whatever. I hung up on the guy. He calls back. “Why are you hanging up on a listener?,” dude seemed a little pissed. Oh well. He asks for Skrillex again, I say no, and I hang the phone up again. A few minutes pass and another guy calls up, requests Ariel Pink, and then starts going off about how his “son” can’t seem to get through to me because all he wants to hear is Skrillex. Yeah, I found it a little odd that someone’s “dad” wanted to hear Ariel Pink but whatever, I didn’t think about that at the time. Minutes go by, the phone keeps ringing and I refuse to pick it up. One of the KBGA staffers comes in to the studio a few minutes later and mentions that some dude has been calling the office phone number, furious that the DJ A) isn’t picking up and B) refusing to play Skrillex. Ugh. What an asshole. If this dude wants to hear Skrillex so badly you’d think he already has the record or something.
Either way, more time goes by and I’m thinking he finally gave up. The calls stopped, there were no more problems. It took me a little while to notice it but there was a commotion growing beyond the windows of the DJ booth. At least nine members of the KBGA staff had gone outside, each holding a printout bearing a letter. They were spelling out “SKRILLEX?,” jumping up and down, and apparently chanting (the building is thankfully soundproof enough so I didn’t hear it). My gut reaction was to give them the finger. I did.
It took another fifteen minutes but finally KBGA’s general manager walked into the studio and let it be known that the whole thing was an admittedly, pretty well orchestrated prank. He was apparently the first and second caller. Some other staffer posed as his dad and they just kept going with it. It was pretty funny.
HIGH LIFE, the Weird Missoula-affiliated radio show, airs every Monday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm on 89.9FM KBGA Missoula, Montana. And no, I will never play Skrillex.
Here’s the playlist:
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “The Ballad of Bobby Pyn”
Willis Earl Beal “Angel Chorus”
Terrestrial Tones “The Sailor”
Maria Minerva “Favourite Song (Italo Interlude)”
Spontaneous Overthrow “Money”
John Maus “Head for the Country”
T. Dyson and Company “It’s All Over”
Xiu Xiu “Smear the Queen”
Drainolith “Deepwater PA”
Ssion “Blonde with You”
Inc. “Swear”
Black Dice “Spy Vs. Spy”
Throbbing Gristle “WalkAbout”
Ducktails “Daily Vacation”
Eric Copeland “Reptilian Space Beings Shapeshifting Bloodsucking Vampires”
Julia Holter “This Is Ekstasis”
Jakob Olausson “Riding On The Wind”
Wire “Blessed State”
Psychick TV “Godstar”
Public Image Ltd. “Unlikely Pub”
Health “Unknown”
Racoo-oo-oon “Antler Mask”
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Flying Circles”
Black Bananas “It’s Cool”
The Phantom Payne “A Vague Thing, Very Likely”
White Fence “Do You Know Ida Know?”
Germ Hunk “Uncle Hair”
Iggy Pop “Nightclubbing”
Dirty Beaches “Horses”
Jakob Olausson “Neptune”
Download here: HIGH LIFE 4-23-12 (Epic Skrillex Prank Edition)
Stream here: HIGH LIFE 4-23-12 (Epic Skrillex Prank Edition) by Weird Missoula on Mixcloud
April 21, 2012
Merchandise, Boys, & The Magpies @ the VFW, Sunday, April 22nd
Does anyone remember that Shoppers show we were supposed to have at the VFW this winter? You know, it was the weekend after Snowpocalypse and Shoppers’ car broke down somewhere near Coeur d’Alene. They were stuck. There was no way they were gonna make it. Still, the show went on and Memo to Maury and Shahs did just fine. Can’t stop, don’t stop.
Well…guess who totally reminds us of Shoppers? Tampa, Florida’s own MERCHANDISE, that’s who. They’ve got some of those same chaotic vibes…walls of sound like they’ve eaten a couple Jesus & Mary Chains, puked up a hardcore band, then ate that just for the drugs. I actually feel like Shoppers may be heavier, but Merchandise would still be up any Shoppa-lovin’ fan’s alley. I would not lie to you. I love you.
Merchandise has one of the most un-Google-able names in recent memory. It took me forever to realize that they had embedded a link to their very own blog in one of our initial emails to each other. Oops. Either way, here’s a little taste of their stuff: (click me). There’s an “audio” portion of that page where you can download a pretty healthy amount of their material. Here’s a track we particularly like off their Es Muerte7”:
Remember! The show is Sunday, April 22nd at the VFW (located at 245 W. Main St. in downtown Missoula; next door to Biga Pizza). Joining Merchandise will be local men-gone-nuts Boys and local tall people The Magpies. Everything will get rolling around 9pm and will cost $3.
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