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SAM PFEIFLE

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Brahms’s fifth is a big red flag

Why does a person spend 20 years in Portland making music, releasing records, and playing shows?

By: SAM PFEIFLE | June 20, 2012

Zach Jones gets all Smokey and Wonder-ous

Better and better
Isn't Zach Jones a guitar player? And yet, on the brand-new Things Were Better , it would appear he doesn't play a single note.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | June 13, 2012

Fogcutters document a show for the ages

Big band, big deal
Since it's BMP season, let's grant the Fogcutters an award for Most Heartwarming Local Show of the Year, for their ambitious, and ultimately wildly successful, "Big Band Syndrome" show at the State Theatre last December 2.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | June 13, 2012

A moving second record from Dark Hollow Bottling Company kicks off a busy summer

A Dream preferred
Talk about a band stepping up their game. Dark Hollow Bottling Company lead off a busy summer of releases this weekend by moving from being a pretty entertaining and fun string band to putting out a genuinely important second album in American Ghosts that is emotionally gripping and excellently executed.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | June 06, 2012

The city’s practice-space situation gets worse yet again for musicians

Prime real estate blues
Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Such is the case with Portland's already beleaguered bands in search of affordable and accommodating practice space.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | June 06, 2012

The soothing sounds of I Am a Tidal Wave

Built to chill
You could infer a good bit of ego from a title like I Am a Tidal Wave , the debut release from Builder of the House. I am a force of nature. I am a really big deal. Pay attention!

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 30, 2012

Sunset Hearts steal your pain

Ask and they won’t say
You know a band are doing something right when five-minute songs finish up and you're pissed.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 23, 2012

Anna Lombard’s first post-Gypsy release

Can you Digg it?
It's not exactly Stevie Nicks releasing her first solo album post-Fleetwood, but it's hard not to listen to Anna Lombard's first release with her new post-Gypsy Tailwind band, Anna and the Diggs, without comparing and contrasting.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 23, 2012

Amy Allen travels to Neptune

Shooting for the stars
There were a couple directions Amy Allen could have taken to follow up her 2010 pop-lovely debut EP, Honey, released just as she headed off to the big city for college.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 16, 2012

A solo full-length from Ryan Augustus

Give it up to Ghost
If there's one thing rapper Ghost/Ryan Augustus/Ryan Doughty can now safely say, it's this: He's prolific.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 09, 2012

Rattle them Bones

Reimagining the trio
For too long has dance pop been solely occupied by commercial beat-makers like Dr. Luke.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 02, 2012

Slipping beneath Whitcomb’s Amber Tide

Nothing hurts like tenderness
Last weekend, visitors to Record Store Day at Bull Moose's Windham location found themselves face-to-face with enough amp firepower to rattle the fillings right out of their back molars, especially given the placement between two head-high shelves of DVDs that promised to focus sound like a shotgun barrel.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 25, 2012

Dynamo-P, Ryan Augustus, and Misl team up

Case of the Mondays
It's testament to the depth of our local hip-hop scene that a side project like the new Manic Mondays can be so consistently strong throughout 17 proper tracks.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 25, 2012

Kastaways and cut-ups

Safe at home with Maine's first all-mascot band
Watching the Kastaways practice, it quickly becomes clear that this band is all about the Clam. Sir Nigel the Rat might be the frontman and attention hog. Herman might be the lead-singer and actual hog. Spike Porcupine and Pete Puffin might even provide the band's true musicality.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 17, 2012

Street style

Another band running themselves ragged
If the limited-edition Wilco vinyl isn't enough to get you to Record Store Day this weekend, on April 21, how about some local releases?

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 18, 2012

Shimmering Snaex

New duo capture a moment in time
Chris Teret and Chriss Sutherland's new collaboration, Snaex (say it as "snakes"), is just about everything I'd have hoped the two would put together, going by their past history with indie folk/rock (Teret's solo work and Company) and innovative multi-genre, multi-ethnic explorations (Sutherland's Cerberus Shoal, Fire on Fire, and Olas).

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 18, 2012

The Audacity of Ryan Peters

Preposterously Spose
Spose hears all of it. Aren't you and Seacrest supposed be sharing chicks by now? Where's your Escalade, dude? Or, as he puts it on "Gee Willikers," off his brand-new full-length The Audacity! , "Fuck that shit/I bet he doesn't know any black kids . . . I know I hated Spose from the get go."

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 11, 2012

Elijah Ocean’s new Tumble & Fall

The man who fell
You definitely can't accuse of Elijah Ocean of just doing the same old thing.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 04, 2012

Jeff Beam’s latest achievement

Diffraction and reflection
Do not, under any circumstances, listen to Jeff Beam's new Be Your Own Mirror in a pissy mood.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 04, 2012

Chopsticks: A new and different 'novel'

A pair of hands at work
There's very little we writers like to do more than gnash our teeth about the future of our profession.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 28, 2012

Falling Skyward's The Ships Are Calling

Down with the upside
It's been a while since a local band evoked the likes of Killing Joke, but with the way that Falling Skyward mesh pop dance synths and beats with double-kick-drum metal, it's hard not to recall the 1980 debut Killing Joke, and the swirling dance synths of "Bloodsport" accompanied by a thumping rock bass line and crunching guitar lines.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 28, 2012

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