Somewhat later than before...

Dodgy Mountain Men Open Roots

It was a tough assignment to fill, opening the prestigious Roots Fest, especially with a new bass player just a few rehearsals into the job. The Dodgy Mountain Men came through and provided the annual event with a sensational lift off. 

Their music elevated people.

Disclaimer: The above photo does not have my name in the corner, because it was taken by my partner, Melissa, pictured below with an instant friend from Pennsylvania, appropriately named Joy.

Miller Creek

A great day of music was continued later by Miller Creek. These cats have been out of sight too long, after a time of almost weekly local gigs. They've been somewhere working hard on their chops, as they blew the jams out and the crowd away.

Out in the hot sun of stage left, was a local keyboardist of some note. Once upon a time there were Secret Powers...

It would be understatement to say folks had a good time.

My favorite art was the Home Resource set up for the kids on Main between the music and the art vendors.

A walk through the food court followed by a left turn up the alley at the Rhino brought me to a jam session under the stairs in back of the Top Hat.

Big Medicine

Speaking of the Top Hat, that place resembled a revival meeting when Medicine for the People poured out the medicine and the spirit on their congregation Saturday evening. Footnote: Ecstatic dance is an ancient mystic tradition. 

This was the first time Melissa and I have been out late in months. We just celebrated the anniversary of our first date. We looked like this a year ago,

and now this is how our garden grows.

It is almost September, and this is my first post of the year on this old blog. Should I revive it, or begin a new one? Am I capable of doing either?

Click to find a set with more photos of each band featured in this post on flickr. 

Bon Voyage, Angie

Angie Biehl has left Missoula for Kalamazoo, Michigan, to work on a master's degree in musical therapy. As a farewell party, several of the bands she plays in appeared at the Top Hat, on Monday, August 15, 2011.  The symphony probably wouldn't fit, but she had just played with them the night before down in Caras Park. Did you hear her play the glockenspiel?

Tom Catmull, John Sporman

The one band not featuring Angie was Tom Catmull and the Clerics. Bands which included Angie were Stellarondo, the Tulis, New Hijackers, Slowly but Shirley and Broken Valley Roadshow.

New Hijackers: Caroline Keys, Angie Biehl and Travis Yost

 Angie and brother, Nate Biehl

Angie with Broken Valley Roadshow

Big Music Night

I usually start Friday mornings with KBGA listening to Swim Lesson with the Mermaid. This morning's show featured an interview with 10yoGF (10 year old Girl Friend), who will appear tonight at the Badlander as part of the Total Fest program. This may be one of your last opportunities to see this band,

because the drummer is leaving town. 

What these other creative folks will do without him, only the future will tell.

These images came from their Endathon performance on February 18, 2011.

Total Fest is the biggest event of this weekend, and expands beyond the Badlander/Palace complex to fill some other venues with the multi-faceted music its famous for. The complex will be jamming tonight from top to bottom, the Palace, the Badlander, Central, Golden Rose, the Savoy Casino, music, food and alcohol.

Japanther returns to Missoula, tonight, and will be over at Zoo City Apparel with four other bands, including Goddammitboyhowdy.  This, too, is Total Fest.

Goddammitboyhowdy is another local (or are they back in Browning again?) band I've enjoyed listening to and photographing.

Zoo City Apparel, in addition to iconic t-shirts, is making a name as an underground music venue. They are providing space lost with the closing of the BSMT and other shifts in the local scene.

This is one of those days when there is too much available in Zootown, and hard choices must be made.

Tom Catmull will be on the Union Club Stage tonight, beginning at 9:30.

Mudslide Charley will be at the Top Hat, along with the Frederico Brothers and Full Grown Men.

More Top Notch Zootown Music

Where did all the musical talent in Zootown come from? For a small burg like this, it's a large, diverse and deep pool. The previous two posts high lighted a couple of upper echelon local bands. There are so many quality groups performing around Missoula, it would be impossible to name them all. You can read back through this blog to find others I praise. Here are some others I want to mention again.

Secret Powers

Downtown Tonight's weekly event on Thursday, July 7, 2011, featured the Independent's Best Of winners. Secret Powers and Reverend Slanky played, after being announced as finalists in the Best Band category. 

I must insert a photographer's note here: the light really sucks at most of these daytime events in Caras Park. I am not good at shooting sky, and my camera weighs me down in the hot weather. I'm going to quit carrying my camera and just dig the music, the crowd and the smell of food. Indoor events are more my cup of tea, anyway.  

Here are a few shots taken in the Top Hat on Friday, February 11, 2011. 

Secret Powers rates bonus points with me for producing so much original material. Shmed simply cannot rest on his laurels and charges into the next project almost immediately after the last one is done. 

Fans know these guys can handle covers, too, as their amazingly textured Beatles' work has shown. Let them practice a bit, and they can do most anything. 

$4J = Cash for Junkers 

$4J the ads say, as this group appears all over the map, including a monthly gig at the Union Club. These practiced musicians know their stuff and quickly fill any dance floor. Their crowd-pleasing allure has to place them among Missoula's best bands.

Cash for Junkers is intertwined with Broken Valley Roadshow, as Nate Biehl is in both bands, and other members trade off and fill in.

Nate Biehl with Caroline Keys, BVR at the Top Hat, Thursday, July 14, 2011

Nate Biehl and John Rosett/$4J @Union Club 

Tom Catmull and the Clerics

 When top bands are discussed, Tom Catmull and the Clerics have to be mentioned. They appeared in Caras Park at the Downtown Tonight event a week after winning Best Band for the fifth consecutive year. Tom was again a double winner as Best Musician.

Mudslide Charley

Mudslide Charley @Bernice's Bakery July 7, 2011

This being the first Thursday of August, Mudslide Charley will be playing their monthly "Blues and Bread" event at Bernice's.  It's a benefit for the Missoula Food Bank with fresh hot rolls on sale inside, and hot blues outside. This is smack you in the face authentic style blues with classics any blues fan will recognize, and a growing number of original tunes. 

 Mudslide Charley @Old Post July 15, 2011

Mudslide recently had a CD release party at the Old Post, and for that event back-up singers were added.

As usual, there are sets of images on flickr of all the bands mentioned here.

Skurfs Way Up, Pounding the Mountains

OK, so the 3D gizmo didn't perform as promised, but the Skurfs certainly did. It was a raucous party as the group released their CD, First Run, at the Top Hat on Friday, July 1, 2011.

Gavin McCourt says Skurf is a combination of ski and surf, and the sound is Montana surf music.

Sam Ore

Aaron Johnson

Dan Venturella, Aaron, Gavin and Sam

In the Independent, Jed Nussbaum said this wasn't the Beach Boys' Surfin' USA. No kidding! This sound is the Ventures, on crack, mating with the Beach Boys a'la Deliverance. The roots are there in the 60s surf music, but this music is here and now, without a whiff of anything old. It's also brilliant. 

If you see Skurfs on a marquee or in the ads, get out for some live and local music. 

Yes, I am returning to the "live and local" mantra, because it is important. Zootown is a hotbed of artistic creativity, and music is a huge part of the scene. Since government wants to cut the arts (because studying art teaches us how to think rather than what to think), we must assist artistic impulses where ever and whenever we can. 

Most local bands play for love of music, as they struggle to make ends meet. When they have honed their skills and produced the awesome sound they were after, Portland, Seattle, Austin, and even the city of Angels appear to be bigger, greener pastures. I have wanted to rant or weep when terrific local bands left town. Anybody been in touch with Thomas Pendarvis lately? What happened to the iNHUMANS?  Closer to the Skurfs, do you remember Arrows to the Sun?

Citizens who can afford it, please, pay the lowly cover charges for live and local, buy locally recorded CDs and assist in keeping some exceptional music in Missoula.

I, on the other hand, cannot afford cover charges. If I paid cover charges, my archive of Missoula music and musicians would only contain hundreds of images, instead of the thousands currently there. Just saying, if you want your image or venue to appear here in the kitchen, or on the stove, let me in. Do not ask me to deal in filthy lucre, since I have none. Disclaimer: I am slow, not from age; I've always been a bit that way. I cannot accept all invitations, can't be everywhere at once, and can't carry a tune in a bucket. Please, don't ask for a song and dance. 

There was a thunder shower just know, and I must go for a walk. I'll see you all along the way, down the road, and hopefully near some art, because I love the stuff and the people who make it.

Still to come:

Dumpstaphunk