Night after night, in the shadowy light of the Badlander bar, Aaron Bolton’s relaxed smile beamed from behind the sound board. He was in his element, there in the bar that he bought with a trio of friends in 2007 and helped transform into a cornerstone of Missoula’s nightlife scene.
On Monday, Bolton’s friends in the music community struggled to cope with the news that his body had been pulled from the icy waters of Seattle’s Elliot Bay early that morning.
“He was simply the nicest person I ever knew,” said Justin Lawrence, owner of Hellhouse Sound and the regular sound-man at the Palace Lounge, a music venue in the basement of the complex of bars at the corner of Ryman and Broadway. “(He) never had a cross word to say about anyone or anything.”
Details of Bolton’s death remain sketchy. According to Seattle Police spokesman Jeff Kappel, police fielded a report at approximately 6 a.m. Monday of a body floating in Elliot Bay, near Pier 57 in downtown Seattle. Bolton’s body was fished out of the water by firemen around 7 a.m.
Kappel said that no cause of death had been determined, and would not confirm Bolton’s identity. [Read More...]
There’s a great interview with local animator and writer Andy Smetanka in the Winnipeg Free Press this week, advancing a showing of his animations there. As usual, Andy is erudite and funny as he talks about his work and his town: “I’m too attached to Missoula,” he admits. “It’s a little like Boulder, [...]
It’s a little bit late notice, but then this one probably isn’t for everyone. At the Top Hat this evening, local filmmaker and writer Andy Smetanka will present a short program of films, highlighted by the second-ever public screening of his animated ode to Missoula, “City in Shadows,” and the public premiere of another film, “The Miller’s Daughter.”
The first of those was produced during a month-long residency at the Missoula Art Museum this past spring, and features music by locals Gibson Hartwell, Lisena Brown, Hermina Harold, June West, and Smetanka.
The second one…well, that’s a little bit of a different story. [Read More...]
Earlier this week I wrote a preview of a fascinating performance that will take place tonight (Thursday) at the University of Montana. The UM Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform composer Craig Naylor’s “Chickadee Symphony,” which drew its inspiration from real biological research done on the vocalizations of chickadees — including, notably, research done [...]
Here are a few things I have learned since starting a gourmet popcorn stand at the weekend outdoor markets late last month:
Everybody likes popcorn, but not everybody likes popcorn before their first cup of coffee in the morning.
The building on the southeast corner of Higgins and Pine is 169 bricks wide, if you count (as I did) the half-brick on the end.
Some people think “free samples” means “please, take all the samples on my table.”
And, most soberingly: It takes money to make money – and it takes more than twice as much money as you thought it could possibly take just to hope to break even.
Actually, I had heard various versions of this last pearl of wisdom before I ever conjured the idea that would become my new weekend venture. I have even owned a small business in the past, and know from that experience how expensive it can be just to hang a name on a sign.
But apparently it was time for me to re-learn some old lessons when I decided, with just ten weekends left in this year’s outdoor market season, to introduce Missoula market-goers to Junkpit Von Lederhosen’s Cornutopia of Popped Delights.
It has been a dozen years now since a Helena-born Missoula musician named Colin Meloy abandoned this Island of Misfit Toys for the City of Roses. Little-known to the outside world before his departure despite some fine records by his alt-country band, Tarkio, Meloy has since emerged as a most unlikely star in the American rock scene: a bespectacled logophile who writes tunes that sound more like old British sea shanties than radio-ready pop songs, built around lyrics that often read like mystical fairy tales, sung in a faux-British accent and dressed up in a mismatched raiment of instruments – bouzoukis and electric guitars, dulcimers and drums.
At least, that was the narrative until early this year, when his band, the Decemberists, released “The King Is Dead,” its sixth studio album since the band was formed in Portland in 2002. [Read More...]
For those who missed the news a couple of months ago, the Badlander/Palace/Rose/Savoy complex in downtown Missoula will be closed from June 6-9, as part of punishment for past violations involving minors getting served alcohol. That’s bad news for local barflies and music fans, not to mention the owners of the complex, who [...]
For most people in my adopted town of Bloomington, Ind., it was probably just another sunny Sunday morning. I don’t recall the date, though given where I was on that day, it must have been the spring of 1993. As had become something of a weekend tradition, my roommate’s girlfriend Christy was making her awesome vegetarian sausage-and-biscuits in our dingy apartment kitchen with the slanted floor.
Eric and Rachel showed up, and then Kelley and Terry. We mixed up some mimosas in a cheap plastic pitcher, and shot some footage for our weekly cable-access TV show, which had recently gone viral in our little town, spawning newspaper articles and even drawing a little bit of financial support from fans.
Rachel had her Mamiya medium-format camera, and we all climbed out the kitchen window onto the roof, where Rachel shot some goofy faux-rockstar photos of us. The whole time, Eric was chattering in his 50-mile-a-minute way about his idea for a video production company. Ween’s “Push the Little Daisies” came blasting from my stereo, and we all agreed that Daisybrain would make a fine name for the company. Eric would find the space, and we would help fill it with equipment, and it would become a local hub of grassroots media and art-video culture.
It’s quite possible that none of those folks remember that day like I do. I imagine that part of the reason I recall it so vividly was because, somewhere along the way, while dancing to the music in my bedroom, my knee inexplicably buckled under me, dislocated for a moment, and left me writhing on the floor until my knee popped back in place. [Read More...]
The call is out for bands and individual musicians interested in playing Missoula’s biggest weekly summertime festivals in Caras Park….here’s the info.
The Missoula Osprey baseball team announced today that it’s looking for a couple of talented kids to sing the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful” at a baseball game this summer. Tryouts will be held at Southgate Mall during the Kids Fair this Saturday. Here is a press release I received about it, with all the relevant details:
It has been a dozen years now since a Helena-born Missoula musician named Colin Meloy abandoned this Island of Misfit Toys for the City of Roses. Little-known to the outside world before his departure despite some fine records by his alt-country band,
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