We love it when bands make our lives easy: Ocean kick off their spring tour on April 7 at Geno’s, then it’s 35 days across country . . . The full-length CD Here Where Nothing Grows sold out of its initial ‘limited edition deluxe package’ pressing of 2000 copies. Important records have re-pressed an additional 1000 jewel box copies at a reduced price. A double-vinyl version of the album will be available in March on 200-gram vinyl with a live cover of a Cure song on the D side. Ocean finished at number 24 for the year on the CMJ loud charts in 2005 . . . Important records has offered financial help to allow Ocean to purchase a new van for their upcoming tour. This has bound Ocean to Important for their next release in the fall of 2006.” And they don’t even have a press guy. Watch for a big feature on Ocean in next month’s Metal Maniacs.
You heard it here first: After eight years together, top bluegrassers Jerks of Grass (six-time Best Music Poll Award winners) will be swapping out two of their four members sometime after their appearance at the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival, which happens Memorial Day weekend. Look for banjoist Carter Logan and guitarist Jason Phelps to continue the band, with King Memphis bassist Kris Day having the inside track on Tom Jacques’ bass role and sometime fiddler Melissa Bragdon (who plays with Splittin’ Hairs with Matt Shipman) coming on board with more regularity. Details are still sketchy, but rehearsals with the new crew will start soon.
Speaking of Kris Day — he’s jumping into all kinds of roles lately. He also recently took over for Jonathan Takami with alt-country types Harpswell Sound. Day and the Sound are working on a follow-up to 2004’s excellent Skylight, and drummer Mike Dank expects tracking to be done by the middle of this month. Look for a release in late spring. Also look for their March 25 gig at Geno’s, which will feature the world debut of Poor Valley Salvation Society, an old-timey band featuring Dank on banjo and accordion and former Long Black Veil bassist Jennifer Lunden. The Society will also feature gal around town Diane Toepfer on drums. If you’re at all hip, you’ll recognize her from her day job owning Ferdinand. Harpswell Sound will play second, and Dank will fill the drum chair for his old band, Lars Vegas, finishing up the night.
One-time can’t-miss rags-to-riches kid Poverty will be playing his first Portland gig in 12 months at Havana’s, March 15. The rapper never did quite capture the national limelight as was once thought possible when he signed with Artist Direct, but he’s not done trying yet. His newest claim to fame is a three-minute turn in the upcoming feature Waist Deep, as a convenience store clerk who runs into a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. He’s got an acting agent now, through United Talent Agency, and he’s got a slot in a casting call for a new Affleck/Damon flick called Gone Baby Gone.
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- Ripple effect
The Portland Phoenix launched in 1999, just as the Portland music scene was turning.
- Wonderdrug wonders reunite
Are you ready for COLEPITZ to be back?
- History bites
Just a few months after the close of its upstairs neighbor, the Roma Cafe, the Bramhall Pub, long an institution in the West End, shut its doors two weeks ago. And while there's talk it may reopen after renovations, one thing is for sure: The 11-plus-year run of Jerks of Grass shows on Thursday nights, the longest-standing weekly gig in Portland, has come to an end.
- I remember when...
It's been a while, and I've been here for all of it. These moments are what I remember best, and what I wish there was more evidence of.
- Scrutiny of the bounty
I'm an enthusiastic guy, and maybe prone to hyperbole from time to time, but it's hard to argue that 2008 wasn't an all-time banner year for music created here in the Portland area.
- Portland music news: February 20, 2009
Somebody should have booked Ray LaMontagne back into Portland before now.
- The outsiders
Ocean's album Pantheon of the Lesser — a two-track, hour-long, deconstructionist monster — is the linchpin of what's become an exciting moment for the Portland doom metal four-piece.
- Letters to the Portland editor: March 20,2009
Just read the article ("The Outsiders," by Christopher Gray, February 27) and wanted to say thanks.
- Music Seen: Ocean and Pontiak
The day after Ocean's predictably under-attended (30-40 people) Cinco de Mayo performance at SPACE, a friend who also attended asked what I thought. "So loud," I said. "So slow," he responded. It wasn't hard to catch the reverence in both reactions.
- Into the heart of sharkness
Unless you are a spectacularly moronic daredevil hell-bent on getting shark-shanked, New Englanders are more likely to be mowed down by a molasses tsunami or felled by Lizzie Borden's ax than they are to die in the maw of Jaws.
- Ocean + Desolate Grace
At Geno’s, November 13
- Less
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New England Music News
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, Entertainment, Music, Concerts and Tour Dates, Culture and Lifestyle, Holidays, Bluegrass, Poverty, Carter Logan, Kris Day, Kris Day, Less
