• There aren't too many people who've been around and about the local scene more than MATT SHARDLOW over the past 15 years. He's played with the HOBBES, ZION TRAIN, 8 TRACK, STATE RADIO, and various CLASH OF THE TITANS ensembles, while doing sound at the Big Easy for a spell and being a hired gun in general. This summer will be something of a coming out party for him, though. He's got two projects, DIV KID and NOTHING VENTURED, that will both drop discs. The first hits July 11, the second July 25. Be ready.
• Maybe you know BLIND BILLY BLAKE. Plays at Blue every First Friday? Well, he's reverting back to plain old BILLY CARROLL and he'll be releasing a disc this summer under his given name.
• Things continue to go well for SPARKS THE RESCUE. They leave this week on a tour of Europe opening for ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS. We wonder how that name plays on the Continent...
Related:
Portland Music News: March 20, 2009, Seeing Sparks, What are the odds?, More 
- Portland Music News: March 20, 2009
We got a chance this weekend to finally see ALL THE REAL GIRLS in action and we were certainly impressed,
- Seeing Sparks
Those hardcore fans among you already have much of Eyes to the Sun in your collection. Sparks the Rescue have been selling nine of these 12 songs on a disc they've brought to shows and mailed out from time to time.
- What are the odds?
Ten years! When we organized our first Best Music Poll, way back in the day, we could only hope that it would one day wind up the institution it is today, with the annual Portland Music Awards ceremony drawing the best collection of musical talent Maine can produce.
- Hot summer nights
If the coming week is indicative of anything, it's that this is going to be one busy summer. Discs have been flooding into the office and there's no end in sight. In an effort to keep up, here's a collection of four reviews for albums being released before summer even officially starts.
- Kudos to Phish nerds, and other music matters
We stand corrected
- 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.
- Power pop, radio rock, and more
NOW IS NOW frontman MITCH ALDEN has plans for a solo release. The party's scheduled for January 21 at RiRa. Expect some seriously upbeat power pop.
- Photos: Warped Tour 2010
Bands and fans congregate for the Massachusetts installement of Warped Tour 2010, at the Comcast Center on July 13, 2010.
- Live review: Matt Meyer and the Gumption Junction at Blue, November 11
On my way to see Matt Meyer and the Gumption Junction play at Blue, I made sure to get there on time.
- In the Audience's untitled disc, and Sparks the Rescue does their Worst
IN THE AUDIENCE are ready to follow up their debut disc, What Lives , from this fall with a new, as-yet-untitled EP that they're planning to release March 31.
- Spending time with Custardpaws and Mr. Freezy
Jeff Badger is a bit of a Renaissance man-about-town — visual artist of all stripes; musician of all stripes with the Hot Dogs/Transmission Drop — with a reputation for dabbling in the absurd and ridiculous.
- Less
Topics:
New England Music News
, Nothing Ventured, Blue, Blue, More
, Nothing Ventured, Blue, Blue, Billy Carroll, Billy Carroll, Billy Carroll, The All-American Rejects, The All-American Rejects, The All-American Rejects, Matt Shardlow, Less
