• The metalsmiths in DEAD SEASON have hit the HEATSEEKERS (NORTHEAST) BILLBOARD chart with their latest album, The Negative NUMBers. It's debuting this week at positive number 2.
• Yeah, yeah, we've seen you acoustic bands busting out your ironic versions of rock and pop songs. But how about taking folk songs and rocking them out? That's what DAVE ROWE TRIO bassist KEVIN O'REILLY is doing with his new project, the SHELLBACK BRIGADE. The first album is Pollywog's Lament, and features full rock treatments of tunes like "1491" and "Surf's Up for Drowsy Maggie." Find them on Facebook for details on getting yourself a copy.
• Looks like the TREBLE TREBLE series, compilations highlighting Portland's music scene, will continue with a volume three, to be released on ETERNAL OTTER RECORDS this fall. They've got a chunk of cash thanks to a SPACE-acquired grant from the MAINE ARTS COMMISSION, and Eternal will be raising the rest of the dosh with an Indiegogo campaign. Notably, this will be the first of the series to be released on vinyl. Look for tracks from BIG BLOOD, SAMUEL JAMES, WESLEY ALLEN HARTLEY AND THE TRAVELING TREES, and many others.
• More good news following PUTNAM SMITH's CD-release show last weekend: He's been selected for an Emerging Artist Showcase at the FALCON RIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL in July.
Related:
Great days ahead, Otter calls, Short-form Portland, More 
- Great days ahead
We here at the Tablet can find the nostalgia industry a bit overwhelming sometimes, but now and again an idea comes along that gets it right.
- Otter calls
The adventurous folks at ETERNAL OTTER RECORDS have been keeping things nice and weird lately.
- Short-form Portland
I can hear the snarky comments already: "What?!? Rustic Overtones put out an album this year and Pfeifle hasn't fallen all over himself naming it #1? The sky is green!" But this isn't 1999. It's 2009. And it isn't all that strange for a phenomenal album to hit Portland's city streets anymore.
- See you later, Dead Season, and Dean Ford's new disc
• Listen for hip-hop/electronic artist VIK44 's new tunes accompanying the new web series to be released by the ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIMENT . Ragged Isle is a murder-mystery kind of thing, filmed all over Maine and set on a coastal island. The first 10 of 20 planned episodes have been shot and the first episode will "air" March 9, at www.raggedisle.com .
- Grupo Esperanza bids farewell
After eight years of being one of the most in-demand party bands in town, GRUPO ESPERANZA have just one last show left in them: April 1 at the Empire. People looking for a working band, starting practicing your Latin beats.
- Dead Season give in on The Negative NUMBers
What's that Neil Young said about castles burning? "Don't let it bring you down?" Someone ought to tell Dead Season. The band previously known for keeping a stiff upper lip through trying times have, on their new EP, given in to a little wallowing.
- A Rush and a push
When a thousand people turned out at the Skowhegan Fair last weekend to watch Sinfist, Loki, Salvo, and Colon Blow battle it out for $1000 and a fair bit of bragging rights (Sinfist won), it was a sweet night to savor for Chris Rush.
- Exploring the countryside with Max García Conover
There are so many guys with guitars nowadays.
- A flurry of releases in the new year
Like predicting the impact of climate change, looking forward to the season's album releases reveals an increasing number of significant events, but you can't quite pin down exactly when they'll all happen.
- Good Fela! beats Nigerian drum
Riddle this: what's more unlikely than the fact that the current toast of Broadway is a musical about a Nigerian agitprop pop singer, or that it owes its existence to a Caucasian commodities trader from New England?
- The Big Hurt: Season's beatings
Taking advantage of your seasonal obligation to buy stuff for people, the music industry unleashes its annual torrent of giftable crap: holiday albums, greatest-hits packages, high-profile releases, deluxe reissues.
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Topics:
New England Music News
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, Maine Arts Commission, Samuel James, Samuel James, DEAD SEASON, DEAD SEASON, Putnam Smith, Putnam Smith, Big Blood, Big Blood, Dave Rowe Trio, Less
