SUPERSOUL CHALLENGER have spun off guitarists STEVE MARQUIS and TONY VEGAS, and singer SEAN SLAUGHTER into SUN GODS IN EXILE, what’s being described as a heavy classic rock band. Expect gigs by early summer. Vegas’s Boston-based band CORTEZ will be concurrently supporting a debut disc recorded at NEW ALLIANCE STUDIOS.
Has anybody drawn your attention to the SPACE GALLERY calendar this month? Holy crap. KOOL KEITH and KID KOALA on back-to-back nights (the first being 4.20, appropriately, not that we know what that means). Those two are exactly what hip hop ought to be emulating.
STEVEN BACON will be playing a string of dates with LA-based JOHN ELLIOTT, starting with April 6 and 8 gigs, respectively, at Blue and Chicky’s. Elliott must be fairly dreamy, considering one of his songs graced Grey’s Anatomy, and Bacon’s got both an interesting style (featuring looping for the first time this tour) and back story (he’s from Alaska). The pair are in NYC April 26, and Jet Blue has cheap tix, so why not check out www.stevenbacon.com for the details and have yourself a little getaway to support him?
The MAINE BLUES SOCIETY has ramped up their participation in the INTERNATIONALBLUES CHALLENGE, starting the Maine portion of the competition at the Station last Sunday and continuing with qualifying rounds at the Timeout Pub in Rockland, April 15, and at the Funky Red Barn in Bethel, April 29. Regional winners will battle it out at the Sea Dog in Topsham, May 6. For more on the contest as a whole, see www.blues.org/IBC. We’re rooting for MARK “GUITAR” MILLER.
Hope you caught MEGAN JO WILSON last weekend. She’s off to Barcelona April 13 and won’t be back till summer. Smart girl.
ARBOREA, new-agey folk types from Lewiston who are totally down with the banjo, released Wayfaring Summer in October without telling too many of us Mainers about it. The good news is that Swedish label KNING DISK has already signed the coed pair up to release their next disc. Also, they’ve got a live set on NYC’s WFMU at the end of May and will be traveling overseas for the GREENMAN FESTIVAL in Wales and the MUSICPORT FESTIVAL in October (lucky bastards).
