TRIBE

If I remember rightly, I’d have to say it was the summer of ought-’welve. I had probably finished up a sweaty shift as a jack-of-all-trades at the local Old Person’s Restaurant, and drove home in the oven that is most any automobile on a broiling Montana summer afternoon to relax for a couple hours before going out for the night’s festivities. My guess is that something came up; like my dog threw up on the carpet or my in-laws had an emergency that I had to help out with for some reason, so whatever down-time I was looking forward to was eaten up pretty quickly. Instead of making a quality meal, all I had time for was some leftover beans and rice that tasted more like pellets and glue, and hurried out the door to head to a garage show a few blocks away.
Upon arriving, I said hi to a few guys I knew and likely admired the bravery of one of them who was so out of his mind that he had shaved off one of his eyebrows. Then I found out that someone had done it to him because he passed out on the front lawn or something. ...It’s still a move that takes at least a small amount of courage to walk around like that afterward. Anyway, I had heard some well-played heaviness coming from the garage, and decided I should poke my head in and check out what was going on inside. I opened the door to the garage and stepped in to find it fifteen degrees hotter and stinking of the odor of unwashed adolescent male. Not to insult the guys, and hopefully they don’t take it as such, but that’s the kind of metal these dudes play! ...I mean, it was too loud to make out lyrical content and, of course, there wasn’t any real time to analyze the tunes, but, standing in the back corner of the room watching them shred through a number of high-speed rockers, sweating profusely and hamming it up with the crowd, in those moments, they seemed gleefully young and male. Ah, to be a teenage midwestern American band: rhythm pounding, heads banging (seriously good technique on the short guy!), pit circling with skin and bravado, and a one-eyebrowed guy with a backpack full of booze yelling at the top of his lungs and crashing into your side. Here’s a short q&a session with that very same band, Billings’s Tribe:

Who you are, what you do:
We are Tribe!

How did you learn to rock so hard?
From our idols, ranging from Maiden to Pantera, and from the people we look up to in local bands (Assnyne, Shangri-La).

What are you focused on, concerning the band?
Doing what we like doing. If someone else digs it, then we dig them.

A lot of metal bands house guys that enjoy the gory, strange, and fantastic. Take your pick and tell us why: Sci-Fi, fantasy, or horror?
Probably sci- fi. Many of us are actually really terrified of the idea of extraterrestrial life, but at the same time really pulled towards anything that has to do with the subject. And one of our songs is based on a Alien abduction film!

TRIBE (l-r): Ryan Buening, Billy Zahn, Ron Bray, Forest Woodrow Squirrelhouse the third,
Riley Madsen, Curtis Harris

If you were to name your own shade of black, what would it be called?
Slayer.

Is there a particular venue in town that you enjoy playing at?
Manny's, the Railyard, the Shrine, the F.O.E., our friend Colt's basement ... we're really not too picky. As long as we get to rock out to at least one person who's into us, we're set.

What do you do when not wailing on your instruments?
Work, sleep, eat, drink, smoke, and spread diseases.

Describe your band using only onomatopoeia:
wooooommmm... froooooooooooooooWAAAAAWWWWRRR! SQUUUEEEEEEL! WEEE WEEE WEEEOOOOOORRRR! bop.

Short and sweet, sucka! Thanks to Tribe for participating and thanks for reading. Keep on the lookout; there’s more interviews to come. 

See you at Dreyfest!

POSTURE

Posture is secretly a supergroup who formed from the remnants of two Chicago bands (Bust! and Heart Shaped Hate) when two of their members (Kyle and Natali) moved to Seattle together. (That may not be 100% accurate, as I hear Bust! is actually still a band...but I digress -The Editor) They hooked up with Trevor Leonard (ex-The Reddmen) and a guy named Adam, who, given the pedigree of the other members, I’m gonna assume was in Night Ranger. And now they’re coming to Dreyfest to prove to you that even though your old projects may dissolve, You Can Still Rock In America.

Names. Ranks. Duties.: 

Kyle, guitar, uh
Natali, organ, organs

Seattle: Come for the __________, stay for the ____________.

Doughnuts, heroin addiction

In your past two bands, you toured Japan together. What were your favorite and least favorite parts of Japan?

Favorite: Jin & Shin.
Least favorite: the guy playing bass in Bust! (total prick).

You were both pretty involved with the operations of Cassette Deck Records while you lived in Chicago. Do you keep in touch and, if so, what are they up to?

No, nothing.

Kyle- you moved around a bit when you were growing up, and part of that time was spent in Laurel, MT. Do you consider it “home” at all? Do you ever miss it?

Growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s was a lot like growing up in the 70s. I hung out at the starlight roller rink a lot. Taco Johns is great.

Cats or cats?

Dogs specifically owned by DMX. 

photo courtesy of the paparamenzzi

Have you thought of any great band names or song titles lately?

Bongfucker. Susan Bitchin' Anthony. Narc Bats. Joint Division (reggae Joy Division cover band).

What else is your creativity funneled into?

Kyle - sandwich artisanship; Natali - crafts for satan

What can we expect from Posture live?

Dissapoimted [sic]

Final thoughts? Final Fantasy? Finals Week? What?

One time when I was 18 I got drunk in a bar in Coeur d'Alene Idaho then went to a state line strip club in Washington then woke up in a public park in Idaho on top of a minivan. It was "on holiday's." That's it.

...So that’s what you have to look forward to: inside jokes and references to things you have no way of knowing about. That is, if these questions were actually answered by Posture... Since the interview was conducted via email and it was signed,

“

K, one love.
-Jahstin Timberlake
”,

it’s entirely possible that someone from a Jamaican dancehall boyband hacked into their email account and answered the questions this poorly in an effort to sabotage the band; especially given the fact that everyone knows that the bassist for Bust! on their tour of Japan was a diamond encrusted demigod who probably should have been paid copious amounts (or at least given earplugs) for having to put up with said band’s “music”. Thanks Posture!

http://www.posture.cc

See you at Dreyfest!

LOOKIE LOOKIE! IT'S RICHARD TRYFEST!!!

Richard Tryfest is a compilation album made up of recordings from some of the bands who are playing Richard Dreyfest 2013! Listen or buy and name your price! All proceeds will go to help us pay, feed, and house the touring bands, so if you do decide to buy it, you’ll be helping out the very artists who you’re listening to. Enjoy!

http://richardtryfest.bandcamp.com/album/richard-tryfest-2013

Thanks to Dave Johnson for the excellent graphic! http://ironimageindustries.blogspot.com

...And watch out for Richard Tryfest Part II on the horizon! ...Or is that a shark fin? See you at Dreyfest!

THE DEADNECKS

The Deadnecks might be the quintessential Billings punk band of the current era. Like, if someone asked me, “What’s up with the punk scene in your city?” I’d probably tell them to go to a Deadnecks show to get some semblance of an idea. There’s a few punk bands that play in various styles in our area, but they probably have the biggest following and the highest number of other bands/artists attempting to play in a similar style. They have the country influence you might expect from a bunch of guys from Montana, the who-cares-if-it's-P.C.-or-not sense of humor that this side of the state seems to breed, a showmanship attempted by many around these parts (but mostly not done as successfully as by them), and an appreciation of the more rough and angry side of punk. What would GG do? Probably listen to the Deadnecks. Then fling poo around. and die.

Names, ages, what you do in the band:

Steve Nicol, 28, Bass & Vocals. Luke Lindell, 25, Guitar & Vocals. Johnnie Lindell, 23, drums.

You guys are one of the longest continuously running punk bands in Billings...how long have you been together now?
Coming up on 5 years.

Before this band, you guys had other projects going. Was this band an evolution from those bands or did you want to do something different with Deadnecks from the start?
Yeah we wanted to do something different with the Deadnecks from the start. When we started the Deadnecks we were all listening to a lot of old timey country and blues type music and wanted to combine that type of music with the punk rock that we've been playing for years.

Speaking of evolution: within the last couple years, you have started using a standup bass and playing some slide guitar in your sets. Is that from a specific influence? (If not, what led up to it?)
No, what we're doing now is what we always wanted to do. It was just a matter of acquiring the instruments that we needed to make what we wanted to do a reality.

Little-known fact: As this photo illustrates, the "dead" in
Deadnecks comes from the fact that Johnnie is a ghost.

You recently did a split with Tales From Ghost Town. I saw that you can order it on Farmageddon Records’ website. Is that self-released or did Farmageddon Records put that out? Also, out of curiosity, who runs the label and how did you come into contact with them?
Nick from Tales From Ghost Town actually put up the money to put the record out, but Farmageddon did a lot to help out as well. A guy named Darren runs Farmageddon Records and we know him from when he was a promoter in Bozeman Montana with section 8 productions and used to have us come up and play at the Filling Station.

Have you guys caught that local country radio commercial where they say something about how their listeners don’t like “that new country” and they show a shot of a guy in corpsepaint? Do you think that the people who made that commercial had caught a Deadnecks show at some point?

I have no idea. Probably not.

What’s your drink of choice?
Robotits....... Robotussin mixed with breast milk.

Little known fact #2: Dikembe Mutombo is a part-time photographer and loves this band!

How many Billingsians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Three- one person to talk about how they had the idea to change out the light bulb first, one person to talk about how much better the light bulbs are in Missoula, and one to smoke shards out of the old light bulb.

Well, it wasn’t called the meth capital of the U.S. for nothing*. Thanks for the answers and the good joke, guys. Until next time, see you at Dreyfest!

*In an attempt to confirm this conjecture, it appears that it was very popular for reporters in many cities and states to claim the title of “meth capital” for their area in the late 90’s early 2000s, and this oft-repeated line doesn’t have much in the way of factual support. ...Now “grassy camo shirt capital” I’d buy... -the editor

BUDDY JACKSON

Some nights, when I’m alone and bored and feeling ponderous, I think to myself: “Gee, I wish I had some good friends around to talk to and joke around with.” Then I remember Buddy Jackson, and how annoyed I am when those guys are anywhere near me, and about how if they were around I would probably be thinking, “Golly, I sure wish I was alone so I could ponder things without these guys making fart noises and insulting me.” Unfortunately for me, I was assigned to interview bands for this blog and now I’m stuck having to communicate with these terrible, terrible people. Here’s my time (and I mean that in the sense of “time served”) with the boys of Buddy Jackson.

Names, ages, instruments/roles in the band?
Im Tim, I play bass and sing, Im 28!
Nick, 23, guitar/vocals.
Grant, Age 27, Drums/John Taylor (drummer of Burn Burn Burn) lookalike.

How come you're a band with the name of a solo artist?
Tim: Well, we ain’t King Elephant.
Nick: Essentially, Grant's a big dumb idiot who kept putting a terrible name ("The Have-To's" - Fucking awful...) on all our early show flyers, so we named the band after a song we wrote.
Grant: Cause with our powers combined we equal the least talented Jackson brother.

So if you get better, you might eventually change your name to Tito Jackson?
Grant: I don't think we'll ever be as good as the real Tito but he is our booking manager.

If I call you "Butty Jackson" during this interview, would that endear me to you, or would you react negatively?
Tim: I like butts about as much as Grant and Nick do. It’s just smellz...
Nick: Honestly, I'd respect you more than I ever have before.
Grant: I'd be offended you didn't think of anything better.

Great; Butthole Jerkzone it is.

You guys are all from other Montana towns, but have lived in Missoula for a while. Do you like Missoula? Do you miss your hometowns?
Tim: Would you ask “Buddy Jackson” such asinine questionable inquiries? Missoula’s alright I guess. MISTER Jackson seems to wanna settle down here.
Nick: Technically, I'm from Bonner, which is about 15 minutes from Missoula. So I'm sort of from Missoula, but also from a run-down shithole.
Grant: Missoula is pretty good. Definitely more open to all kinds of music and life styles. I'm from Great Falls and while it was a thriving musical destination in the early 2000's, it seems like it is now the kinda town that a remake of Footloose could be based off of.

"No- it's up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right, a, b, select, start, dummy." "There's no "select", this is an arcade, you moron."

Hey Grant- do you think Great Falls can ever retain it’s former position as a fun destination for regional bands?
Grant: With Great Falls, I highly doubt it unless someone just opened up a place that was set just to do shows/function as an all ages place to hang out. Missoula right now, I feel, is experiencing a resurgence in live music after kind of plateauing since I moved here almost three years ago. I feel that's mostly because the right people are stepping up and making it happen as well as bands around town are getting better and drawing people in. Sadly, I think it takes a band like a Green Day, a blink-182 being in the mainstream to get kids interested in playing real instruments. Add in that you need an actual all ages place for these kids to go out and show people what kind of music they created in their parent's basement to get place like Great Falls back into a place where a band can play at a local theatre on a Tuesday night in January and walk away with $200 in gas money.

What do you do outside of this band?
Tim: I’m raising an army. Nick’s probably taking a picture of his dog. Grant’s probably taking a picture of his dog.
Nick: I go to school and subsidize my musician's income with shitty food-service jobs. Also I have a dog I use to get girls to talk to me.
Grant: I work at Burns St. Bistro and try to write some acoustic stuff on the side.

I detect a lot of earnest sentimentality in your songs. Are you secretly big softies?
Tim: Well, I can’t really get more than a softy, if’n you know what I mean.
Nick: I'll give YOU a secretly big softie...
Grant: If you're taking about the ice cream place, sign me up!

What reoccurring themes can be found in the lyrical notebooks of Butty Jackson?
Tim: We don’t carry notebooks. Notebooks are for nerds. We’re lyrical freestylists that drop a conversational rhyme on your face like Nick drops his nuts into shot glasses.
Nick: Honestly, it sometimes amazes me how much of a downer a given song by us will turn out to be. Lyrics are always the last thing we write, and a lot of the time some song with a really happy melody will turn out to be about ruining your own life with your personal shortcomings or some equally-happy message.
Grant: Tortured artist type stuff. Lots of obscure Robert Smith/Morissey type lyrics. Maybe even stuff about meth.

Has B.J. traveled/toured yet?
Tim: A little bit. We’ve been to Grant’s mom’s house a couple times. And our uncle Hogan’s house a few times. He has a blue satin robe. We’ve done a few tours in the northwest, recorded some shit, stuff that other bands do. We’re not special. I hate being in a band. I don’t know why I do it anymore.
Nick: We've done the Northwest a couple times.
Grant: We've done a couple little runs to the north west.

Is “Hogan” the Matt Hogan that recorded your first couple releases (available on BJ’s bandcamp page- see link at bottom of interview)?
Grant: Hogan is the same guy who helped lay down the tracks of our Impound EP/demo.

What are you proud of, regarding this band?
Tim: Me personally? Mostly tolerating the other guys in the band.
Nick: The fact that it somehow works, in spite of our lack of chemistry or effort.
Grant: I'm proud that we just gel together quite well and are doing more things than I thought a band that started with Nick and I not knowing how to play our respective instruments.

What's on the horizon?
Tim: A hot steaming 7 inch slab of wax and an EP in the near future.
Nick: We have a split and an EP in the works. Might be cool!
Grant: 7" split with our boyfriends, Burn Burn Burn. Then an EP and hopefully getting out to the Midwest. After that we will probably start pre-production on "Buddy Jackson: The Movie" starring Jason Statham, Lou Diamond-Phillips and Charlie Day.

Who’s putting out the 7” and the EP? When can we expect those to be available?
Grant: We're going to self release the 7" with Burn Burn Burn. It's kind of a nerve racking experience but it's pretty cool that the 8 of us are just gonna do it ourselves and make it a learning process along the way. Hopefully we can get it out by the end of Summer. The EP is still kind of up in the air. Once we get the 7" stuff rolling, then I think we shall move on to deciding what to do with it. Right now we will probably self release that on CD and Tyson Ballew said he'd do a small run of cassettes just for fun. We will probably get that out by fall if things keep going well or just toss it up on the bandcamp. We recorded the total of 12 songs in two days with our buddy, Kii, in Seattle and we couldn't be happier with how they turned out. He did a great job capturing our sound, and, the butt tons of laughter in the background. At one point he told me to shut up cause I was making him laugh too much.

Last Words:
We're excited to come play Richard Dreyfest and eat many, delicious Doritos Locos Cool Ranch Tacos.

Okay, so I exaggerated a little, and I think that I probably insulted them more than they insulted me, but c’mon- they’re obviously jerks. Look how they’re all... you know... Jerky. And shit. Right? ... Alright- you got me. I’M the fucking jerk. Are you happy? I’m an asshole and Buddy Jackson are, in reality, three good humored friends that are a reminder that in an ideal situation, bands are not made to simply be star-making money-generating machines; but a good excuse to hang out with like-minded pals and create something worthwhile together. ...Now get off my back you buncha ingrate gape-mouths!
http://buddyjackson.bandcamp.com/

Oh, and: See you at Dreyfest!

MR. DAD

Mr. Dad are the sort of band that you might have a hard time believing exists. Not just because they’re an unlikely group of great musicians from the little town of Minot, ND, but also because they’re so fully-realized it seems like they might have been playing for years and years in obscurity, and having heard them for the first time, you might believe you just stumbled upon a cult band that many other people have loved and obsessed over for years while you were busy collecting the entire Mumford and Sons back catalog like a chump. Fear not, Dumbford, ‘cause the truth is, they’ve only been playing a short while and they have not achieved any sort of cult-status, though it’s easy to see that if they keep playing, it wouldn’t take much to become one of those bands that people freak out about and constantly recommend to their friends.

They play an art-damaged freak scene amalgamation of musical genres...one foot entrenched in punk, another in funk, and a third mutant foot that might like off-the-wall metal and/or prog. ...How they accomplish melding such seemingly incongruous sounds together without sounding forced or like some lame punk-ska-chorus-h/c breakdown-ska-dubstep interlude-chorus-chorus-chorus band we can only hope to understand. Add probing, thoughtful lyrics and what I hear is an energetic live show to the kettle, and you’ve got yerself a heaping pot of hot and delicious Mr. Dad- what a great bunch of weirdos! 

Richard Dreyfest: Names, ages, what you do in the band:

Ages : old enough to party!
Zach - Whomping, bomping, crashing and bashing / Chris - Ass boogie / Arvin -Jitter Gitter Box / Charlie - Throat Wobbling

How’s everyone doing today?
Zach is quiet cool. Chris is Tired. Charlie is lost and Arvin is rev'd up with no place to go!

Anyone who hasn’t been there might be skeptical that Minot, ND could support a community of involved musicians and artists. Why do you think the people there are so active in their (your) scene?

Let's not kid ourselves Minot isn't the best place on Earth.
We are currently recovering from a devastating flood in '11 and smack dab in the middle of a terrible oil boom that is scum sucking the earth dry and shitting all over us. However that isn't stopping us. Minot has always had a strong musical community that usually consist of a bunch of weirdos from all walks of life who strive to make this town a little more interesting.

Speaking of being active, what other pursuits do you put your time into?
Arvin has three kids and a lovely wife, dogs, cat and years worth of art projects rattling around his brain. He sometimes plays in other bands and has had a number of other bands in Minot.
He gets pretty buck when no one is watching.

Zach is a Luthier (he fixes guitars) and is an all around talented musician playing in many other bands in Minot. He is the only straight edge member of the band, like that matters.

Chris is a dad of a cool lil dude and currently engaged to be married this fall. He is also allergic to beer and constantly quitting cigarettes, don't let him bum one from you. He also tears the shit out of a bass in TOD which also has Arvin in it,
Charlie surprisingly teaches young children art and Gymnastics. He also dabbles in janitorial work. Other than that he makes art, skates bowls and is definitely not straight edge! He also plays bass in Duffy and the beer slayers.

Richard Dreyfest was in part inspired by the music and arts festival WHY NOT? in Minot. Assuming at least some of you are involved in that, how is the planning going so far for this year’s WHY NOT?

It is going really well! This year is gonna be a blast! See ya there!

Some of you are real-life dads. How difficult is it to make time for work, kids, significant others, and a band (not to mention the other projects you have going)?

It isn't too hard to get together once and a while for a practice, and we surprisingly play a lot of shows in Minot. It is just sort of an availability thing. Traveling is the hardest part which is why we are so thrilled to be a part of Dreyfest!

Your first batch of songs are all named after reality tv shows. Were they specifically written about each show as a concept, or do they just happen to deal with themes those shows present and you named them afterward, accordingly?

The first four songs were all named after reality t.v. shows before Charlie was in the band. Chris, Arvin and Zach were just using stupid names to identify each song. However after Charlie joined the band he just kind of took the titles and ran. Deadliest Catch is more about someone trying to catch a massive fish. Instead they would rather be Kevin Costner in Waterworld and be able to breathe underwater and swim with whales and shit. 
Ice Road truckers is just about traveling and how it is better than home sometimes. It just feels like real living.
Storage Wars is about having too much shit period.!
Say yes to the dress is all about the theory that we are all made out of space dust, and one day we will all be space dust once again. Because that is fucking awesome!
90% of the time we write the music and we name the song and Charlie just goes off lyrically loosely based on a title or an idea.

If you had a reality show, what would it be called?

That's a good question and it would be less of a reality t.v. show and more of a show where young children ask deep thought provoking and devastating questions that are not easily answerable. Because those are the kinds of things people should be thinking about rather than fucking weak ass reality t.v. That's a good question! Weeknights at 5 on kdixzlebia tv!

Is there a Mrs. Dad in the future?
What does this question even mean? Arvin is married. Chris is engaged. Zach has a lady. Charlie is celibate (you don't want people like him breeding).

What else is going on in the future?
The sun will die. Hopefully humans will embrace one another and become Earthlings and we can start space travel exploration for a new home. Space is the place!

And really, how else can you end an interview other than by promoting interstellar travel? Is this a topical endorsement of Richard Branson's quest to make affordable the launching of our populace into the outer reaches of the galaxy or is it a clever allusion to the 1977 Richard Dreyfuss movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind? We say that it is destiny! See you at Dreyfest!

MAY DAY MAY DAY! SHIT'S GOING DOWN!!!

"Was that a denim-eating shark?!"

For real! Here's the official lineup:

RICHARD DREYFEST 2013

Billings, MT - August 2 and 3



Ando Ehlers (Seattle, WA)

Noise Noise Noise (Billings, MT)

Serenghetto (Minneapolis, MN)

Mr. Dad (Minot, ND)

Posture (Seattle, WA)

Duffy and the Beer Slayers (Minot, ND)

Poetic Intelligence (Billings, MT)

Systems Victims (Bismarck, ND)

Alex Nauman Organ Trio (Billings, MT)

The Helligans (Great Falls, MT)

Buddy Jackson (Missoula, MT)

Weather-Control (Cody, WY/Boise, ID)

Farley Moore (Billings, MT)

Idaho Green (Huntley, MT)

Deadnecks (Billings, MT)

Armaund Hammer (Missoula, MT)

No Cigar (Billings, MT)

Friends of Cesar Romero (Phoenix, AZ)

Tribe (Billings, MT)

Shramana (Missoula, MT)

Tales From Ghost Town (Bozeman, MT)

The Budgets (Billings, MT)

Too Many Teeth (Fort Collins, CO)

AssNynE (Billings, MT)

Duchovny (Greeley, CO)

KaNcErUs (Billings, MT)

Bedlam Saints (Billings, MT)

Show For Nobody (Billings, MT)

Oxen Free (Fort Collins, CO)

Australis (Billings, MT)

Jamz Dean and Legacy (Billings, MT)

Part Time Ninjas (Billings, MT)

Medicine Bow (Laramie, WY)

Greater Apes (Billings, MT)

Shangri-La (Billings, MT)

Panther Car (Bozeman, MT)

Stranded By Choice (Billings, MT)

Vibe Technicians (Billings, MT)

The Sweets (Billings, MT)

Reid Perry (Billings, MT)