A recent New York Times review of a WILCO show included a photo displaying a little piece of Portland. Specifically, a BROWN RABBIT effects pedal produced by FREAKSHOW EFFECTS, which manufactures and paints by hand custom effects pedals for guitarists near and far. Headed up by JUSTIN PATRY, local guitarists TODD HUTCHISEN (Seekonk, BALTIC SEA) and PAT CORRIGAN (SEEKONK, lots of other stuff) are on board to help out. Get your own at www.freakshoweffects.com.
HARPSWELL SOUND’s TREY HUGHES and RON HARRITY have resurfaced with the brand-new HONEY CLOUDS, featuring former DIAMOND SHARP bassist MANDY WHEELER and former high school drummer SEAN WILKINSON (also sometimes known as COUNTRY RHODES, and accompanied by a small man named THE FUGE). They’ve got a demo up at www.myspace.com/honeyclouds called “Throughthe Trees,” which should remind you of Harpswell, with Hughes on vocals and a similar guitar tone from Harrity, but maybe it’s a little more bouncy? It’s hard to say. Regardless, don’t get too excited about Harpswell tunes being unveiled at future gigs. Harpswell Sound are totally and completely dead.
RUSTIC OVERTONES didn’t let anyone down over the course of their four Asylum shows. Yes, DAVE GUTTER hit the high note at the end of “Hardest Way Possible.” Yes, at one point during the Sunday, Aug. 5, show there were 14 people on stage playing something or other, including a three-piece string section who chimed in on about half the tunes, and a random assortment of horn players who came up on stage for the penultimate tune, “Light at the End.” Highlights of the Sunday show included an absolutely pyrotechnic “Combustible,” that simply had the entire crowd screaming the title lyric, and a closing “Dear Mr. President,” where Gutter descended into the crowd for the anti-war ballad and then segued into a Lennon-esque “Give Peace a Chance.” A number of Rustic fans would have been wise to come a bit earlier, though, to catch searing sets by COSADES and LOVERLESS.
Two quick corrections to last week’s review of the LEFTOVERS’ On the Move: First, the frontman is KURT BAKER, not Kurt Adams. How the head of the Maine Public Utilities Commission became transposed with a big-haired pop-punk is frankly beyond us. Pfeifle must have had PUC on the brain. Second, a set of lyrics for the tune “Camel” was mis-transposed (and, remember, the promo disc being reviewed did not include lyrics). What read, “just what your ass can do to me, baby,” should have read, “You probably don’t have a clue, just what your eyes can do to me, baby.” Pfeifle’s some kind of weird ass-obsessed freak, apparently.
