2016. What a year. Am I right? Yes, I’m right. To commemorate the year that was, here, once again, is a Spotify playlist, lovingly curated by yours truly. It contains many, many excellent tracks from wonderful artists and bands, and there’s a good chance you’ll find something you like — if not many things you […]
Wait, a five-piece post-rock band based in Bangor, has done very little of what the name of their band suggests. The band, comprised of Travis Davis, Mathias Hillborn, Chris Mathews, Justin Kovacs and Dan Dawson, has only been together for about a year, and just this past spring recorded “Higher & Dry,” their debut album, on their own, and released it […]
Calling either Kafari’s “Knockturnes” or Micromasse’s “Anthropocene,” two new albums from a Portland solo artist and a Portland trio, respectively, by the simple genre name “jazz” is a bit misleading. Yes, they are both “jazz,” in the sense that jazz in the larger sense is encoded in both albums’ DNA and foundational to their existence. […]
Are you aware of the punk, indie rock and hardcore scene that’s developing in downtown Bangor? No? You should be. Most weekends, there are bands playing stacked bills at the Central Gallery on Central Street, and one of the best of the bunch is They Called Me Legion, a duo hailing originally from Lee, comprised […]
I’m having a hard time coming up with many other bands in Maine that have been as consistent and have been together for as long as Portland’s Dominic and the Lucid. When I think about all the bands that broke up, got back together, took extended breaks, didn’t play a live show for years and all […]
The 14 tracks that comprise “Fresh From the Woods,” the debut album from Waldo County folk trio Sugarbush, are pure and unfiltered, like raw honey or rough wood. Three voices and three instruments, blended together by hand; no frills, no polish. Much like the simple life sought by several generations of back to the landers […]
As a teenager growing up in coastal Maine, Alice Limoges was already cutting her teeth playing guitar and singing in coffee shops and restaurants throughout the Midcoast. Now 21 and a college student in New York City, she’s certainly got a leg up on her fellow youthful competition in terms of experience — and the […]
Given the choice, I’ll take a band that’s ambitious and energetic over a band that’s aloof, cool and understated. I like a good frontman. I like a band that can really play. I like it when a band is trying to do something challenging and fun and unique. Portland’s Five of the Eyes, a band […]
I’m a sucker for good arrangements. Well-placed strings or a clever combination of instruments other than the standard guitar-bass-drums can elevate what might otherwise be a mediocre song into something spectacular. Which, of course, is why I’m thrilled by The Fogcutters new album, “Flotsam,” a collection of all-original songs from the Portland-based 19-piece contemporary big […]
Pretty Purgatory, the Portland-based record label run by Peter McLaughlin, has had a good run in the past few months, releasing several albums in keeping with the sort of left-of-center folk, electronic and indie rock, mostly from Maine, it has already become associated with, just 16 months since it was founded. This week, “In the […]
