With debut album done, Rattlesnakes slither into Orono

If you look on the Rattlesnakes’ MySpace page (www.myspace.com/therattlesnakes, and yes, it’s true, everyone and their brother is on MySpace), you’ll see that the band lists burritos, bikinis and “nature destroying stuff” as influences, besides more obvious ones like Guided by Voices and the Pixies.

“Everything is an influence. I mean, I don’t know, man,” said guitarist Brian Cohen. “We just call it rock ‘n’ roll.”

The 24-year-old Cohen is a man more focused on rocking than talking, which is entirely commendable, seeing as his band does rock.

The Rattlesnakes, made up of Cohen, bassist and vocalist Tara Binkarousky and drummer Mike Cunnane, is an indie rock power trio from Portland, and will perform Saturday night at the Keith Anderson Community Center in Orono with Wood Burning Cat, Some Damned English City and 1800s Sea Monster.

The band plays a tried-and-true brand of upbeat, quirky rock, deeply reminiscent of bands like Pavement and Yo La Tengo – Pavement, for Cohen’s inventive, discordant guitar work, and Yo La Tengo, for Binkarousky’s melodies and detached, cool vocals. Cunnane adds a bit of punky muscle, and the end result is some good ol’ fashioned indie rock that’s both smart and danceable.

The trio just finished a debut full-length album – “El Bursto,” recorded over the winter with Bangor-area producer Tony Bitetti. Fourteen fully realized songs, which is no small feat for a band that has barely played outside of Maine (though the next big plan is to tour the Northeast, as soon as all three can get a few weeks off from work).

“This was the first time we went to a studio and were really serious about getting it right,” said Cohen. “We laid it down with no mess-ups. It came out sounding amazingly good, for recording it in a basement studio.”

The group formed two years ago, when Cohen and Binkarousky decided to start a band soon after they started dating. The couple met at the University of Maine at Farmington; he studied environmental science, she studied history (hey, the drummer Mike was a physics major – they’ve got all their bases covered).

Cohen said that playing in a band with your significant other is both rewarding and challenging.

“It can be really stressful at times. If we get in an argument at practice, it carries over to our not-practice time,” he said. “But other than that, it’s pretty cool. We get along really well.”

The Rattlesnakes play on Saturday, March 17, at the Keith Anderson Community Center in Orono with Wood Burning Cat, Some Damned English City and 1800s Sea Monster. Admission is $5 and doors open at 7 p.m. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.

Supporting acts:

Once again, it’s that special time of year, the time when everyone drags out all their green clothing, cooks up a slab of corned beef, stocks up on Guinness and pretends that they’re Irish, whether they’ve got a drop of Celtic blood in them or not. You could be from Ethiopia, and you’d still sport a shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day. There are tons of events occurring throughout the area this weekend, from the grand opening of the new Irish-themed bar Paddy Murphy’s in Bangor, to the more low-key proceedings at Three Tides in Belfast. For the full list of all the St. Patrick’s Day events I could find, visit my blog, www.community.bangordailynews.com/blog/30.