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SAM PFEIFLE

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At the Minimal

Mike Clouds has a beat-infused Message for you
Since 2007’s Blown Speaker Project an album full of MCs, Mike Clouds’s solo work has consisted exclusively of instrumentals, the latest being this month’s Minimal Message, a 10-track ranging from the new-agey to the electronica to more traditional boom-bip hip-hop.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 07, 2010

From Russia with love

Moshe’s Thinning the Herd finds its audience
The Internet has, of course, ruined the music industry. That’s the conventional wisdom. But for many musicians, the Internet has been a boon.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 07, 2010

Cindy Bullens to run for state senate

Rock and Poll
Is Cindy Bullens the first Grammy-nominated musician to run for Maine Senate?

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 08, 2010

Tough enough

Stroll, hop, or Run to the Mill
It’s hard to do genuinely new things with roots music, but the Toughcats have proven with their second album what everybody suspected after hearing their first: They are one of the most creative and inventive bands going today.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 31, 2010

Two and fro

Kolosko and Dimow’s Border Crossings
It can be easy to get wrapped up in Portland’s pop and rock scene, the singalong stuff you hear in the clubs and on the radio.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 24, 2010

By the Grace of Ralph

A debut that is Lying Down Looking Up
As debut records go, it's rare to find one as textured and fully realized as what Marion Grace have put together in the 10-song Lying Down Looking Up , an arty, smart, folk-rock affair that shows songwriting creativity with some genuinely great ideas.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 17, 2010

Home and away

Zach Jones's diasporic Fading Flowers
For many songwriters, home is where the art is.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 17, 2010

Holy rollers

Ten pounds of rock in a six-song Boo Box
This record grabs you by the throat from measure one.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 10, 2010

The most famous rapper from Wells signs with Universal

No, really: Actually awesome
A few weeks ago, we marveled at the reality of Portland's Top 40 radio station, WJBQ, playing a song by local rapper Spose called "I'm Awesome," an ironic, self-deprecating piece of pure hilarious ear candy.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 03, 2010

How Sophomoric

Camus and catharsis on Hi, Technology
Hi, Technology is one of the more self-loathing collections of songs I've heard in some time.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | March 04, 2010

In good Company

Dark Hollow Bottling debut a new old-time sound
Dark Hollow Bottling Company take a piece of their name from an old-school folk/bluegrass tune, "Dark Hollow," possibly made most famous by the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia's Old and in the Way , but also recorded as early as 1926, with popular versions from Bill Browning, Jimmy Skinner, and Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, with Del McCoury singing.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | February 24, 2010

Turkish troubadours

Okbari get all lovey-dovey
I owe just about all my Turkish music knowledge to Okbari.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | February 24, 2010

Taking up Arms

Deliberating on The Martyr, the Culprit, the Price
As might be expected from a band who take their name from Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy, Arms Against a Sea appear conflicted on their debut full-length, The Martyr, the Culprit, the Price .

By: SAM PFEIFLE | February 17, 2010

Zombie overdrive

Pete Witham's Cozmik view of Americana
Pete Witham and the Cozmik Zombies are and are not exactly what you'd think. Sure, they're silly and ironic and probably wish it were 1954 all over again. But behind a bit of hokum lies a damn good band, more than a few smart turns of phrase, and an interesting contemporary turn on some long-standing forms of Americana: hopped-up rockabilly, syrupy country, swing, and Elvis-era rock and roll.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | February 10, 2010

Spose, radio star

Apparently, smoking it all can be beneficial
Who knew? The era of the radio hit isn't completely over. Maybe five times recently, someone's asked, "Dude, have you heard that Spose song?"

By: SAM PFEIFLE | February 03, 2010

Woe be gone

Moshe and Brzowski revel in the sacred and profane
Moshe and Brzowski revel in the sacred and profane

By: SAM PFEIFLE | January 27, 2010

Get MAD about local music

Attention Seekers
So, you know this woman MADgirl (real name: Meredith Alex)?

By: SAM PFEIFLE | January 20, 2010

Lightning strikes

Weather the storm with Roy Davis's third LP
When Hank Williams sang a song like "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy" he could sell it because he'd been down low: born with spina bifida, father with a paralyzed face thanks to a stroke, brother he never knew because he was already dead.