Music

At the drugstore

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An incredible crop of metal, crust punk, doom, and otherwise heavy bands turn up on a nasty new comp out of Boston titled SealbeardS, named after a DIY venue that was shut down last fall

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 16, 2013

Filling up with Putnam Smith

Kitchen, Love, and Emily Dickinson
Putnam Smith wishes he could trade places with Emily Dickinson.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 16, 2013

Tricky Britches are in Good Company

Don’t call it a throwback
Tricky Britches lean pretty heavily toward the old-timey end of the spectrum, with a deep and abiding respect for the body of American stringband work, manifesting itself in original songs that are instantly familiar.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 10, 2013

Several strings attached

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A goodly amount of ukulele news this week.

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 09, 2013

Four new works from Whitcomb

The free Conqueror
Part of Whitcomb's appeal is that the material and the performance are of a piece, everything placed just so and meticulously machined.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 10, 2013

Crossing state lines

DEAD TREND, an '80s hardcore punk throwback group, slap down their debut record False Positive this week, and make it official with a show at Mathew's on May 5.

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 03, 2013

A vibrant and forward Worried Well

Baroque me, Amadeus
There's something baroque, something emotional and primal, vivid and stark about Luck, the band's first proper full-length release.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | May 03, 2013

The Malletts know the lay of the Land

Rub some mud on it
On their new and third full-length release, Land , the Mallett Brothers Band alternate between boozy and anthemic ballads and boozy and anthemic sing-along stomps, always providing plenty of opportunity for just about anybody to find a personal touchpoint.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 24, 2013

Get in the ring, kids

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Wax Tablet

By: | April 24, 2013

Brown Bird are not a folk band

The Rhode Island duo cranks it up and gets cerebral on 'Fits of Reason'
Brown Bird's David Lamb and MorganEve Swain challenge themselves (and anyone who still insists on calling them a folk band) on their stunning new album, Fits of Reason .

By: CHRIS CONTI | April 17, 2013

The eyes have it

Brenda find their identity on album two
The paradoxes in Brenda, the rock band of three (or sometimes four) members split geographically between Portland and New York, are hard to iron out.

By: NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | April 17, 2013

Bangers and mish-mash

First thing with the English Breakfast
The order of operations used to be you played a bunch of shows, then you released an album. Now it's often the other way around. When the English Breakfast played Slainte last weekend, it was their Portland live debut. Yet their debut album, Shifting Seas , has been marinating on Bandcamp since March 1 — a 15-track affair, no less.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 19, 2013

Arborea erect fortifications of light and darkness

And the horse they rode in on
"After the Flood only Love Remains" is stop-in-your-tracks beautiful, and what passes for a single for them. If you can slow yourself down to their pace, see the world in half-time for a bit (which is almost impossible when you try to keep up with the pace of things like the Internet), it becomes incredibly catchy, a sing-along.

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 10, 2013

Not like all the other folk

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The youth rock camps of MAMM get all the attention, but we're almost more charmed by their programs for adults.

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | April 10, 2013

Spring sounds a note

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Wax Tablet

By: PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | April 04, 2013

Cozy up to KGFREEZE

Songs for people who don't like people
When Kyle Gervais says he has a solo project in the works, people pay attention. A musician's musician, with a deep knowledge of and love for a wide spectrum of work, Gervais has a way of pushing boundaries and challenging the listener with songs that are familiar at their core.

By: | April 04, 2013