Sunday, February 15, 2009

Total Fest VIII Submissions: Open
Total Fest VIII (yes, vee-eye-eye-eye, ocho, vosim) will bust-free on August 20-22, 2009 in scenic Missoula, Montana. We've officially opened the submission floodgates. Commence flooding.

To submit, we need a few things from you:
1) A good recording, CDRs are fine, of three or four songs that best represent your band. One CD is fine. Electronic submissions are a hassle for us, so don't email us saying "just go to our myspace, dude. It's all there." We are old, traditional, luddites who like the U.S. Mail, CD players and tactile experiences.
2) Some type of one sheet explaining your deal. Who you are, where you live, whether or not you like Queen. We don't need a long list of the bands you've played with, but if a decent writer has written about your band, that's a helpful thing for us to have.
3) Good contact information for you (i.e. a phone and email address).
4) Your patience. We will listen to everything we get, discuss it, give it a fair shake and decide upon the bands and artists that most help us with our mission of Totality. Totally. Thank you.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: APRIL 4, 2009.
Send to:
Wantage USA Attn. Total Fest VIII Submissions
P.O. Box 8681
Missoula, MT 59807

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

VIVA KBGA!
KBGA 89.9 FM is Missoula, Montana's only place to hear a wide variety of local music, weirdo music, punk music, noise, and 80's synth-funk (H-Rap), live Dead sets (Aaron Barill), the Vintage Vinyl Revival (Day Cobb), the Mermaid (Adelaide), Ink Mathematics (Colin Pruit), the Magic Mountain Morning Show (Niki) and a ton more. This week, February 2nd through 8th, 2009 is KBGA's annual Radiothon fundraiser. KBGA may not always have what you want on the air, but personally I'd much rather be annoyed by a bad Steve Malkmus song than hear More Than a Feelin' for the 3400th time. Here in Western Montana it's our noncommercial station, and for people that care about independent music it's an important institution.

KBGA is volunteer-run and has a small student staff that keep things happening. As both a volunteer and beneficiary of KBGA's support, I feel like I can say honestly that it's a great thing for a lot of people. KBGA plays a big part in making independent music in Missoula as vibrant as it's been in the past 13 years. I think there was rarely an hour of the day that went by in all of 2000 that you didn't hear Radio Station or Miniature Action Jesus by Volumen!

More recently, KBGA provided underwriting to Total Fest VII and has helped promote all sorts of independent shows. On the local music front Secret Powers and Tyson Balew have recently gotten a lot of air and chart time, Poor School and Ex-Cocaine regularly get played, Birds Mile Home are on the playlist, Bridgebuilder have charted, there's a huge local music shelf and the station, and it's well worn. etc. etc. etc.

KBGA has just started its annual fundraiser. Please do what you can whether it's $25 or $30, or $50 or $100. The money's put to work, and the goal this year is just $10,000.

It seems that perhaps a disgruntled former employee may have shut down some of KBGA's social networking sites, right in the moment when we needed to call upon social networks the most. So: if you were KBGA's myspace friend, re-friend us (http://www.myspace.com/kbga), and if you were connected via facebook, your can figure that out too. More importantly, in the non-cyber world, please get out your checkbook and make a donation by calling 406-243-KBGA and tune in!

Thank you--

Josh