Release party set for new Montana music compilation

Friday at 6 p.m. at Triple Dog Brewing Co., Dave Martens Jr. will be presenting his second in a series of music archival projects, a record of under-appreciated or forgotten punk, postpunk, new wave and hardcore music from around Montana on one record, "Without Warning."

For years now Martens, who's the curator and producer of the album, has been working to preserve, archive and showcase music made in Montana throughout the decades with the record label, Lost Sounds Montana.

Martens said the goal of this project and its predecessor, a record of forgotten '60s music from Montana released in 2015 that sold out its 500 copies, is an effort to preserve lesser-known music from Montana bands of the analog era.

He said he's been tracking down songs and recordings from bands across the state, and compiling them into records like this so they aren't lost to time.

10 years ago, he said, he was working as a DJ in Missoula and the studio had a record section for local Montana bands, but the oldest record in the section was as young as 1996, and he and his friends thought it would be great if they could find older music.

Since then, Martens and his friends have been slowly but surely tracking down music from various genres, played by small Montana bands, some that were garage bands, and most have been disbanded for decades.

He said talking to one band often leads him to others, but, even when they find them, it can take time for them to see if they even have any old recordings left, never mind ones in working condition.

"It's a slow process," he said, "... It's a miracle if anyone hit 'record' on a lot of that stuff, and another miracle if they held onto it."

Martens said he was hoping to have this new project done by summer, but putting everything together took longer than expected.

Even as cassettes and audio recording became easier and less expensive as time went on, the chances of a lot of this music being successfully preserved is still small, and digging it out takes time.

Even so, he said, it's still great to be able to put projects like this together, and hopefully Friday's event will give him an opportunity to talk about it.

"It's a nerd project," he added.

Martens said he thinks he has enough contacts and material for a '70s album as well, but they delayed that to focus on the this record, which he thought would take less time to produce, though it didn't end up working out that way, unfortunately.

Martens said archiving has been an interest of his for a long time, from back when he used to collect show posters outside of music stores in Missoula like Rockin' Rudy's when he was in fourth grade.

He said he's played in bands since high school and live music has always been a fascination.

Of particular interest on this project is the amount of music from people connected to Havre.

Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, who was in the band Deranged Diction at the time of the recordings, was born in Havre and grew up in Big Sandy, and Tim Midyett of Silkworm was born in Havre, as well, but the album also includes music from Havreites John Kappes and Shawn Swagerty of ErnstErnst, and Tom Kipp of Ein Heit.

The album also features early recordings of Reggie Watts of Autumn Asylum, and Steve Albini of Just Ducky, who engineered albums for Nirvana as well as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Other bands included on the album are The Banned, Beat Nothings, Boy Toast, Circle 7, Dashing Catholics, The Details, Ein Heit, Panache, The Pugs, Rust & Smuts, Sheryl & The Spineless Yes Men, Steel Pole Bath Tub, Surfer Ruth, and Who Killed Society.