• OGRE's ROSS MARKONISH checked in this week with some bad news: The band have decided that their 10th anniversary show, September 12 at Geno's, will be their last in Portland. If not for some already-booked Euro gigs, it would be the last, period. They are done. Markonish writes, "This decision to dissolve the band was not an easy one to come by, but we feel it is the right call. At this point, there is too much going on in each of our lives to sustain Ogre at the level of quality that our fans expect and deserve. And, before people decide to jump to conclusions (as is often the case when these things happen), we want to make clear that this decision was entirely mutual, all three of us agreeing that this was the right time to bring things to an appropriate conclusion." Now they're planning a "last waltz," for the last gig, with guest appearances, obscure covers and songs, and all sorts of fun prog-metally things. There are also still deluxe vinyl reissues of the band's three albums in the works, slated for release by Germany's IRON KODEX RECORDS in the fall. Good-bye proto-men. We'll miss you.
• Local producer/solo artist DUSTIN BEYETTE has a new release ready, his eighth since 2003: Change. It will be available August 25 online, and in physical copy at the Portland 7-11 every Friday night starting August 28. Look for a release party to be announced shortly.
Related:
Last call, Loverless at Geno's, December 18, Clubber Lang will kick your ass, More 
- Last call
One of the big topics of social conversation in Portland last week was the anonymous Portland Point blog's ruthless, somewhat self-negating takedown of the Honey Clouds' May 23 CD-release show.
- Loverless at Geno's, December 18
Loverless aren't technically on hiatus; they just aren't playing very much. Bassist Dan MacLeod confessed he got blood blisters from practice earlier that day.
- Clubber Lang will kick your ass
What do heavy rock quartet Clubber Lang have going for them?
- Taboo + Ancestral Diet at the Apohadion, March 8
When I entered the Apohadion, the room was nearly dark and the stage was empty.
- The Body at Geno's, May 12
Rumors that Providence's two-piece doom band the Body would be returning to town began as a whisper campaign in late April. With whom? No one knew.
- Foam Castles invite you to Come Over to My House
Bitch all you want about the firehose of new music nowadays, but the lowered barriers to recording and distribution certainly do make it easier for artists to be a lot more playful in their releases.
- By Blood Alone soar with Thunderbirds, Joe Walsh goes solo, and more
Be on the lookout for BY BLOOD ALONE 's new disc, Thunderbirds , which dropped on Tuesday. They'll play a gig to celebrate on April 22 at Geno's.
- Old friends return
The sinewy post-punk group HUAK drop Yorba Linda , their first full-length, named for the birthplace of Richard Nixon.
- Music Seen: Rosetta and Cryptic Overcast
Local stalwarts Cryptic Overcast have carved out a niche for themselves as an almost-instrumental band with a sound as informed by heavy metal as it is by psychedelic and progressive rock.
- Music Seen: Lost Cause Desperados
Lost Cause Desperados have kept a low profile over the last few months, with gigs few and far between. None of that downtime has gone to waste, however, as Portland's kings of warp-speed garage-punk have been hard at work on their upcoming album, Desert of Broken Glass.
- Music Seen: Man-Witch CD-release at Geno's
Anyone who doesn't like Man-Witch either didn't watch enough Saturday-morning TV as a kid, or is an incurable sourpuss.
- Less
Topics:
New England Music News
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, Ross Markonish, Geno's, Geno's, Sibilance, Ogre, Ogre, Less
