Harpswell Sound call it “big news;” we call it nearly crushing. One of Portland’s best bands will no longer be performing as a four-piece band (or at all, really) “for the time being.” The quartet of frontman Trey Hughes, guitarist Ron Harrity, bassist Kris Day, and drummer Mike Dank have crafted a unique alt-country aesthetic and it will be sad should it drift away into the ether. “For the time being,” Dank will continue with the old-timey roots revival Poor Valley Salvation Society, which also features Lunden from Long Black Veil. Day, as has been documented here, has no shortage of gigs with Jerks of Grass, King Memphis, Pigpen, and the Hot Club of Portland. Hughes and Harrity will apparently continue to write and record together and say they’ve got releases up their sleeves for 2007 (which could very well approximate a Harpswell Sound disc). Harrity will also be busy launching his Peapod Recordings, the label on which Harpswell released. First up are a disc of Hughes’s four-track recordings, a release from Harrity’s long-distance effort Nord Express, and a CD of electronic music from Tulsa’s “Nurse Shark.”
Moses Atwood is either really good, or the best self-promoter in town. Just about every publication in the state (well, this one, the Press Herald and USM’s Free Press, anyway) featured loving takes on his debut disc, and we have reports (well, from Atwood, actually) that during the Atwood release show “SPACE sold out of every bottle of every beer that they had, which they said had never once occurred.”
Radio rockers Soundbender have lost bassist Jeremy Soderberg, who’s been with the band for the last two of their six years. They’re currently trying out newbies. Give them a call at 207.299.7781 if you’re interested.
The Swaggering Growlers, part of the local Irish punk set, report entering the studio to record about 13 songs in anticipation of a debut record next year.
