THE BUGS: Two Men, One Mission.

The mission the Bugs are on is to write some of the most gut-twisting, no pretense rock and roll music you'll find in the western hemisphere. They get compared to the Urinals whose vibe is certainly untuned in the instrument department, frantic and a little spastic too. That comparison, is about halfway right, the other half is that the Bugs are their own awesome deal, they write brilliant songs, play from their hearts and damned if I don't well up a bit when they bust out a love song.

I first remember meeting Mike Bug when he was roadying for Last of the Juanitas. Mike would get up on stage and sing Big Eyed Space Girl with the band, when they were essentially an instrumental group. The guy's got unique, awesome pipes and it's awesome he's got the bugs to rock with.

They've got a new record out called Barbaric, Mystical Bored and KBGA's got a copy, ask for it by name, friend.

VOLUMEN: SET TO POP AT BIRTHDAY BASH! (and) PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE PANTS.
Lots of reportage here in KBGA Country, friends: first things, first: KBGA is now streaming over the web! link up and listen from anywhere with a decent connection! http://kbga.org/ is the site! Next up: KBGA's big- summer co-sponsored to-do, Total Fest VIII was a smashing success, and in particular, the station's contribution of Oakland boogie-rockers Drunk Horse helped make this August event one of the most memorable yet! The Horse rumbled, rocked and ultimately slayed a packed Badlander house on August 22nd. This Holly Huthman photo attests to the wildness. Other highlights: Japanther (juicers gone wild), Wildildlife (psych psounds!), Electric Dandelion (dandelonious!), Helms Alee (!!!!holeeee SHEIZ!!!!), Filth Mattress (wahooooo!) Etc. etc. etc. It was an epic year, and KBGA was a proud part of the festivities.

NEXT UP: KBGA's 13th annual Birthday Bash is nearly upon us! The Bash happens Friday, Sept. 25th at the Badlander and Palace Lounge, downtown Missoula. Click here to avail yourself of all the Birthday Bash festivities. Heavy Missoula new wavers Volumen (who've been a band for just longer than the station, but who've been one of the local bands the station's always had a soft spot for) are using the occasion of the Birthday Bash to push out a BRAND NEW ALBUM! The record, entitled "Skipper of Reverses," is a heavy-hitting collection of this great band's last few year's worth of material. It's music that's largely based around single riff, or a at max a couple riffs per song, when in the past the bands ability to multi-song on single songs was a big part of their stock in trade. I've always liked comparing to Volumen to (good) XTC, with its heaviness, great melody, wild hooks and a serious grounding in pop. The record was enginered my Shmedley "Shmed" Maynes at his Club Shmed studio.

Other star power at the birthday bash comes in the form of Spokanite and sound-mixer extraordinaire, James Pants. Pants has been putting his hometown on the map for a bunch of years as a guy you'd be much more likely find in downtown Philly, or the Bronx, rather than the self-proclaimed capitol of Washington state's (rural) "Inland Empire." He's got over 8000 myspace friends and is buds with Peanut Butter Wolf. What more do you jive turkeys need?

KBGA IS BRINGING DRUNK HORSE TO TOTAL FEST VIII!
Oakland, California's a town with a musical pedigree. From Tower of Power to the Coup, and back over to High on Fire, Brainoil and the Fleshies Oaktown's a powerhouse. Sitting well atop the pile of talent that decides to call the East Bay home is Drunk Horse. Drunk Horse's dynamic, loud rock and roll is the kind of music that you don't hear in crappy punk clubs, unless ... it's Drunk Horse playing. Lyrically, Eli Eckert's words deal with a wide range of themes, ranging from the biblical to Bach, and man's fallibility.

They started their career on Frank Kozik's upstart imprint, Man's Ruin, and released an epic couple of records, Drunk Horse and Tanning Salon/Biblical Proportions, and then moved along to Tee Pee.

Somewhere along the line, they hooked up with the Fucking Champs, Cherry Valence and Federation X, played Total Fest I (in 2002) and toured like men posessed. They went to Slovenia. They came home. They put out the Prince covers 7"s on Wantage. Their most recent, 2005's In Tongues, upped the ante for the Drunk Horse deal. It brought their straightforward hard-boogie sound to new levels, and left fans with the record left on perma-repeat for months. Songs like Reformed Asshole and Vatican Shuffle showed that they were erudite dudes who could fucking rock. And then, right around the 10th anniversary of the 'Horse's founding, they began to play a lot less. Cyrus upped his commitment to equally shredding Saviours, Eli stepped up his fathering duties, and the Horse came through much less frequently.

Well, that all had to change, and the forces that be at KBGA decided that to commemorate year 8 of Total Fest, we'd invest in bringing this crew back up to the Treasure State. Total Fest happens August 20-22 in Missoula, Montana at the Badlander/Palace. Enjoy.

FINNS ON PLAYLIST PATROLS: AAVIKKO
Leave it to the land of the midnight sun to produce a band whose aesthetic is a hybrid of ultra-kraut and Soviet disco (especially Latvia's Zodiaks). Aavikko, which is Finnish for Desert, are a three piece group with two keyboardists and a drummer. Their new record Novo Atlantis has landed itself squarely onto KBGA's playlist, and we're excited to have it there. You are invited, listener, to familiarize with Aavikko.

DEATH: 1975 DETROIT BROTHERS OUT PUNK MOST PUNKS.

Who would've guessed that in 1974, in Detroit Michigan a band of three brothers would be writing some of the world's earliest punk rock? I guess weirder things have happened, but this is a pretty special deal that Drag City's unearthed on the For The Whole World To See, an excellent 7-song ep. The story is a wild one, with the label holding the release of these songs against the band, untill the they picked a more market-friendly handle. Like the punks they were, Death refused and the album was buried, with just one single (Politicians In My Eyes) ever released. Until NOW!

Death (not to be confused with the dullish, contemporary Florida metal group) formed in 1974 when the Hackney brothers started writing music. Death's sound definitely has more of a proto punk vibe ala DMZ and MC5 (ca. Back in the USA) but with a keener ear for dynamics, stops, tougher lyrics, more angst and hell, it was '74 when this happened.

Detroit was always a gritty place, and in lots of ways, musically ahead of the curve for aggressive, angry music, even though it wasn't coastal. Next time some Lydon/Jones etc. ex-Brit punk gets up on his tea box to tell the world that he started everything, the only answer necessary is "Death."

Stay Tuned for Montana's early hardcore contribution with Deranged Diction!

GET SAUCED!
Rooster Sauce have finally released their brand new Zombies of the Ultra League long-player into the wild. The thing clocks in at well over 30 minutes, features most of their best material, and is a loud, clear, excellent representation of what this outfit does on stage. It's pretty exciting for us at KBGA because this group features bass-thumping by long-time KBGA 9AM-12:00 PM Fridays DJ Adelaide Mermaid, also counts Chris "Count" Knudsen, Dave Jones (ex-Herman) and Havre Dave (most recently from Streetlight People, who also just self-released a real stellar piece of work).

Lyrically, the music seems to center around front-dude Knudsen's fascination with Italian Horror films, John Carpenter films, and little else. It's the work of a fan who's made a film-obsession interesting to others, and that's a somewhat rare feat. Who would've figured that a band from Missoula, Montana in 2009 would be channelling Kurt Russell's Jack Burton character from Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China released in 1986? Not me. Though, I guess if you told me this was a Chris Knudsen project, I might have guessed true on a T/F test.

The LPs are beautifully hand-silk screened, stamped and numbered and the first run was limited. Request it on KBGA and look for copies when the band plays live (often) and at Ear Candy Music.

Doc at the Proverbial Radar Station, Dude. I.E. Come Rock with KBGA!
Joe Kingdom and his mighty manatees of metal, Kingdom of Magic make a one-night only "domer/stoom" stop in the Garden City, May 7th at the Palace. The terms "stoner" and "doom" are totally overused, but may be some of the best easy descriptors of the epic sheets of sound the Kingdom are responsible for. KOM has been a band for scaring the heck out of 4 year, are vets of a couple Total Fests and have been on the road promoting their newest, and first vinyl release. We're looking forward to partying with the lads.

In other, much more immediate news, the wild-Japanese of Ghost steer their star-ship into the welcoming arms of Missoula this Saturday night! This group is nuts and this is as epic a show as you're likely to see all year. Opening up is (former Missoulian) Jamie Henkensiefken's new group H Is for Hellgate and our very own Rooster Sauce. Last but hardly least, the Sauce are dropping a beautiful BRAND FREAKING NEW 12" record! It's called Zombies of the Ultra League, features a spot-on loud and raucous Club Shmed recording, and Aaron Farseth screen-printed cover. Dagg is right. The KBGA connections run deep in Rooster Sauce, as you should know. Both members of the rythym section are DJs and long-time station supporters. Come out and hear their first rate tunes first hand, and buy a record~ That's this Saturday, May 2nd at the Badlander.

THUS SPAKE ZOROASTER: DOOM-STONE BLAST FROM DEEP SOUTH or Part of the cosmic struggle between truth and lie?
Zoroaster's label, Terminal Doom, just got KBGA a copy of this hefty new gem: Voice of Saturn. We promptly playlisted it. Why? Well, for starters it's got some great pieces of plutonium-heavy rock and roll on it, and when the band gets up a head of steam, things get interesting. There are a couple of delay/echoplex/etc. extra jams pumped in mid-record that add some space and depth. At roughly minute five of the album's first track, a hammered-on piano comes into the mix, adding an entirely pop element to what otherwise might have been just a bludgeoner of a song. I like a doom band with a sense of adventure and enough confidence to know when melody is just another tool in writing music.

Zoroaster (pronounced "zoro-aster") is the latinized version of Zarathushtra, the Persian prophet who kicked it in what is today Iran a couple dozen centuries back. Wikipedia reports that Zoroastrianism's philosophy is based on the "cosmic struggle between asa (truth) and druj (lie)." That's pretty heavy stuff, and sounds like a good philosophy for a heavy duty pot-rock outfit too.

The recording is a good one and it captures what's generally most difficult to capture for a deafeningly loud band, sheer weight and power. Like most music, this record sounds best loud, so tune in, turn up, and proceed the proverbial weedian. There's plenty to dig about this for the non-stoner rock enthusiast too, don't get us wrong. Voice of Saturn just offers plenty to fans of Sleep, High On Fire, Kingdom of Magic and the more epic, sludgy, riffing metal. Only available (on the airwaves) of KBGA 89.9 FM

KBGA FOOLS NIGHT OUT: SATURDAY, APRIL 4, BADLANDERO I PALACIO
Like seventy degree day followed by a snowstorm .. it's... Fool's Night Out, at the Badlander & Palace Lounge this Saturday, April 4th.
Doors open @ 9 PM/Show @ 10 PM
18+ 7 acts/$5 at the door.

So, he's the scoop: In The Badlander:
BOO & BOO TOO (Lawerence, KS) - 9 - 9:50 PM
(http://www.myspace.com/booandbootoo)
Fiancee (Msla) - 10 PM - 10:50 PM
(http://www.myspace.com/fianceeparty)
The Dream Team (Msla) 11:10 - 12:10 AM
*Blank Dogs (Brooklyn, NY) 12:30 - 1:30 AM
(www.myspace.com/blankdogtime)

Zach just saw Blank Dogs at SxSW in Austin last weekend and reports: "Their live show is absolute distorted bliss." The band features Mike from the groovy punk blasters DC Snipers.*

In The Palace:

DJ Mermaid (Msla) - 9 - 10 PM
The Zookeeprz (Msla) - 10 - 11:30 PM
(www.myspace.com/thezookeeprz)
(www.myspace.com/enzymes)
(http://www.myspace.com/mankiisi)
I.E. (Msla/Boulder/Twin Cities) - 11:40 - 1:20 AM
(www.myspace.com/ieharmony)

The party doesn't end when the bar closes though. An April Fool's special edition of the Afterhours Social Club takes over the Palace Lounge around 1:30 AM with Chicago DJ/KBGA business manager Fleege rockin' the digital 1's and 2's with an eclectic mix of crispy electro, tech house, and progressive. The Afterhours Social Club dance party w/ Fleege stays open as long as your feet are moving. Tech house people. Tech house will be in the house.

KBGA's annual Fool's Night Out takes over the Badlander and Palace Lounge on Saturday, April 4th at 9 PM and goes until 3 AM. Seven performances for only $5. This show is 18+. Tickets will be available at the door.

Tune to KBGA 89.9 FM for your chance to win tickets to the show.

KBGA Brings Ariel Pink to the Palace Lounge on Sunday, March 22nd. Next Up: Le Force/LKN/Palo Verde: Wedensday, March 25, Also at the Palace
Ariel Pink, comes to umm, Californicate with Montana on Sunday, March 22nd, this will go down at the Palace Lounge. We trust you'll do the right thing, persons of discernment.

Next up, entertainers I'm a bit more familiar with: Wasatch metal overlords Le Force will point the Econoline toward the Missoula Valley on Wednesday, March 25! They'll Join forces with LKN/Palo Verde for a show that will tousle hair, bombard ear drums and test the musculature of rockers' necks. Yes, that good.

And that night is Lady's Night at the Palace Lounge! That's right, mmm-hmm, drink specials and deals galore for the fairer sex. Brought to you by KBGA's own Mermaid, Adelaidem who curates this excellent deal. Also playing: the Electric Dandelion, Knot Knocked Up and Monica Meltzer!

These Are Powers: Missoula-bound, March 6.

Shuuuuucks, yes! On March 6th, the noise-punk power-vessel of (somewhat unterrifically named) Brooklyn rockers These Are Powers docks at Missoula's ZACC Basement, 235 N. 1st West. If you wanna hear what the ruckus is about, head over to theirspace or listen to Missoula's only source of loud, wild rock and roll. 'BGA, 89.9 FM! Pat Noecker, who formerly bassed-0ut for the Liars, is the slightly balding fellow on thunder broom in the band photo.

The show's all-ages-welcome, $5 and music of this quality's a rare site this time o' year. Bridgebuilder, Knot Knocked Up, Deny the Dinosaur and Electric Dandelion apply the localism.

LUX INTERIOR, WE HARDLY KNEW YE.

Pitchforkmedia.com reports that Cramps front-fellow and punk-forebro has passed on to the great sleazy punk club in the sky.

KBGA tips its cap, pours brew onto curb, and sheds a collective tear for Lux, our hearts go out to Poison Ivy and the rest of Lux's family and friends.

From a slightly more positive note: MAKE A DONATION TO KBGA 89.9 FM THIS WEEK! YOU CAN DO IT! 406-243-5242 IS THE NUMBER!

RADIOTHON 2009!

KBGA's annual fundraiser is a nearly upon us! This February 2nd-8th, KBGA is calling on you for your financial support. The goal is just $10,000. Local businesses have offered some awesome premiums, and we'll have logo'd shirts, pint glasses and more sweeeet, sweeet swag for donors. In addition, KBGA's assistant MDs are all donating a mix CD of their favorite new tunes.

Once the week's wrapped up, we'll comemorate the end of what we hope is the most successful 'Thon on record, we'll be hosting KBGA's annual:

End-of-Thon

Like a wandering, musical horde, KBGA party people will be taking over the whole Badlander Compound for the End-of-Thon 2009 party.

Saturday February 7th 2009

Theme: Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWeezUxIzaE)

Doors @ 8 PM; Show 9 PM

$5 for 7 bands and 5 DJs!

At the BADLANDER, in order of appearance:

Streetlight People (Msla) www.myspace.com/streetlightpeople08

March of the Black Queen (Msla) www.myspace.com/marchoftheblackqueen

Rooster Sauce (Msla) www.myspace.com/roostersauceband

Ze Krau (Spokane) www.myspace.com/zekrau

Thank you, fair listener-supporter!

A Fresh Dose of Baltic-Sad Wave: Bērnības Milicija From the part of the world that nurtured artistic luminaries like Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Pushkin and Karlis Padēgs comes a young, new band hardly old enough to remember the tail end of the Soviet Union. Latvia is a small country bordered by Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus. It's got ever so slightly more ethnic Latvians than it does Russians, and it regained it's independence in 1992 when the Soviet Union collapsed. Bērnības Milicija -sounds like "bear-knee-bus meeleet-see-yuh," means childhood militia- is a band from Riga (Latvia's capitol) and they play music that sounds like a combination foreign language Joy Division, Gypsy subway-tunnel accordion wail, and late 80's Russian underground rock. To me, what's extremely special about Bērnības Milicija's music is that it continues the sad, dark, and utterly creative tradition of Soviet-Russian Leningrad supergroup Kino, or perhaps a better example is, Yanka Dyagileva. If you're unfamiliar with those two folks and consider yourself a conniseur of underground music from around the world, I recommend listening to Brian Turner's recent show, on which Kevin Pink Reason played a bunch of excellent Russian underground music. Speaking of WFMU, Bernibas Milicija has been getting some air time from that excellent outfit, in addition to KBGA.

Bernibas Milicija have got a new record called Nakti Gulot Uz Muguras which, like their debut Mūzika Dejām (Dance Music) was released by long-standing Riga label: Tornis Records.
While you're exploring that, there's a pretty solid handful of excellent Latvian music to be had from Tornis, which is also responsible for an excellent handful of 90's and 00's vintage stuff from all kinds of weird, obscure and excellent bands. Start by checking out Kartaga, Plastalins, Sarkanais Oktobris, Sirke and Voiceks! Inokentijs Marpls and Skyforger aren't directly associated with Tornis, but they make great music and are Latvians as well. If you'd like to go back further into the deep well of , search around for NSRD and Dzeltenie Pastnieki.

Travis Waves Goodbye to 2008 with his Top 10

(in no particular order)

Thee Oh Sees- The Master’s Bedroom is Worth Spending A Night In / For a couple of years now I’ve paid very close attention to all John Dwyer’s projects (all six of ‘em) but Thee Oh See’s have always been my favorite. It started as a lo-fi bedroom experiment that morphed into a full on garage-psych explosion. The Master’s Bedroom is full of catchy tunes that stay in your head all day, hell, all year. Can’t wait for whatever Dwyer has planned for 2009.



Eddy Current Suppression Ring- Primary Colours/ Literally the first time I heard this album I knew it was going to be on my end of year top ten. ECSR blend post-punk, proto punk, and pub rock influences into ten brilliantly crafted songs. For my money these Aussie boys created one of the best and unassuming albums of 2008.





Deerhunter-Microcastle/ This album was less weird and experimental than 2007’s “Cryptograms” which I thought was a good thing. I always thought “Cryptograms” was a good album but it will remain one that I have to be in the “mood” to pick up and listen to. Microcastle on the other hand is an album that I enjoy listening to straight through. I truly believe this is the bands best work thus far.




Ten Kens- Ten Kens/ It’s interesting to hear bands debut albums because I always get the feeling the band has been working on the songs for a couple of years and are trying to grapple all of their different influences. This causes each song to sound completely different than the one before. Sometimes this makes for disheveled listen but in the case of Ten Kens we get eleven songs of “where the hell did these guy’s come from”. This shit is excellent.



Endless Boogie- Focus Level/ Top Ten of a Top Ten of why I love Endless Boogie:
1.) The band is named after a 1971 John Lee Hooker Album.
2.) Band members go by Top Dollar, Grease Control, The Governor, and Memories from Reno
3.) Top Dollar rocks the Cat Power haircut with a crusty goatee.
4.) Endless Boogie is all of the members hobby, two work for Matador records The other two at record stores.
5.) They will play for free if you ask them.
6.) Average song on Focus Level clock in at 7minutes of pure psych/ metal/classic rock/blues jams, full of riffs that melt faces into pudding.
7.) Have songs called Low Lifes, Smoking Figs in the Back Yard and Jammin’ With Top Dollar.
8.) The combined age of the band is 169, but rock harder than any band with a combined age of 80.
9.) List influences as ZZ Top and Canned Heat.
10.) Oh yeah, did I mention they fuckin’ slay!!!!


Blood on the Wall- Liferz/Brother and sister Brad and Courtney Shanks share leads vocal duties once again for their third full-length. Blood on the Wall keep a mid-west honesty to their music. The tunes balance humor along with insanity and the Shanks male/female vocals kind of remind me of Frank Black and Kim Deal.





Flat Duo Jets-Two Headed Cow/ This is the soundtrack to a documentary that was done on the duo. No new material but a lot of live and different versions of songs. The Duo Jets are pure energy and the intro to the album sums up pretty much what you’re going to get for the next 70 minuets.






Black Mountain- In the Future/ In the Future is a far-out adventure that makes me want to hang out in my moms basement and smoke weed for seven days straight, drink high-life and play Atari. This was one of my most anticipated albums of 2008 and it didn’t disappoint.






Religious Knives- The Door/ Bands that start out as side-projects and morph into main projects 80% of the time kick ass. Maybe it’s because the band members have the freedom to try new things that they wouldn’t normally try and then they realize just how great it is. This is proven with Religious Knives, started as a side-project of Maya Miller and Michael Bernstein of Double Leopards the band creates complex garage-psych songs that are downright amazing.



Thomas Function-Celebration!/ I can finally say I love something from Alabama. Thomas Function is not one person but instead four gentlemen that constructed some of the catchiest tunes of 2008. Tracks like Relentless Machines and 2012 Blues are the type of songs that get tattooed into your brain causing you to sing, hum, or whistle them for weeks.

Top Ten 2008 Shows I saw in Missoula:

1. The Dodos
2. Monotonix
3. Dirtbombs
4. Thee Oh Sees
5. Blood on the Wall
6. Black Diamond Heavies
7. Ponytail
8. The Sword
9. Wilco
10. Blitzen Trapper