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• Seven of our finest soundmakers played New York's Sullivan Hall last Thursday as part of the CMJ mania. Sources tell us that more than 100 badgepeople, 30 or so industry reps, and a healthy crop of regular folk were in attendance. Those who watched all seven saw the full spectrum of styles that Portland music is all about (well, besides metal and music made by women . . . we kept most of that here, it seems). THE TOUGHCATS got things going with their typically bouncing bluegrass and ad-hoc instrumentation. THE MALLETT BROTHERS BAND played a romping arena-country set, set afire by both the dobro and Will Mallett's recent selection as "Maine's most eligible bachelor" by Cosmopolitan magazine. THE MILKMAN'S UNION came in their alt-country guise, playing a set of slow boilers. KURT BAKER impressed memories of Joe Jackson with sharp cuts from his new Rockin' For a Living EP. BILLY LIBBY mellowed things out a bit, steering the crowd through some saccharine slow-pop (we caught his rather stony cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" on the Bayside Bowl simulcast). SUNSET HEARTS reinvigorated the crowd with a set of big hooks and immaculate melodies, and by all accounts we've heard, SPOSE killed it, rewarding the couple dozen bros who stuck around 'til 1:30 with a tremendously energetic set. Smashing successes all around. And although the simulcast idea is a great gesture of support, we've heard mixed reviews of its practice. Streaming a concert at a club is pretty cool, but in a crowded bar, it's a rather low-sensory way to experience music, and not nearly as interesting as either seeing it live or even imagining how it went. Portland's CMJ weekend isn't going to put anyone on the proverbial map — there is no "making it" anymore — but that's beside the point. It's a great success to put some of our hardest working local musicians in front of passionate strangers, and the PORTLAND MUSIC FOUNDATION pulled it off well.
• Guitarist, music historian, and provocateur ALLEN LOWE was recently awarded a $13,000 grant from the Maine Arts Commission. Lowe, who moved to South Portland in 1996, has been churning out some thrillingly lunar jazz and blues records lately (his latest, Jews in Hell, lists Marc Ribot, Matthew Shipp, and Erin McKeown as collaborators). He's also is a fierce historian, having compiled audio/literary archives with the titles of American Pop From Minstrel to Mojo, That Devilin' Tune: a Jazz History 1900-1950, and God Didn't Like It: Electric Hillbillies, Sibling Preachers, and the Beginnings of Rock and Roll, 1950-1970 since becoming a Mainer. Naturally, he's also a bit of a curmudgeon (you'd be too if you had to get that much work done), and declared Jazz in Hell to a be a "fuck you" to Maine and its most revered art institutions. Not sure what Lowe plans to do with the grant, but if his other works are any indication, we should expect another plunge into the pool of near-extinct sounds.
• Lastly, we heard a rumor that DEAD MAN'S CLOTHES frontman DON DUMONT has been playing out again, his first appearances since the departure of DMC guitarist TJ METCALFE. Gid'up.
