222. Like the numbers in “Lost,” those numbers follow the Bangor band the Symmetry around no matter where they go. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i… Read More
    One of the major concerns voiced by people I encounter when I’m out enjoying live and local music, is how do we create and sustain a music scene here in northern Maine. Any music fan around here wants it desperately, but there seems to be some confusion as… Read More
    It might not normally occur to you, but the holiday season is one of the best times to go out and see live music. Think about it: What could be a more satisfying way to end a day of shopping, cooking and tree-trimming than with a beer (or… Read More
    Guster loves Maine. And Maine loves Guster. The Boston-based band loves Maine so much that guitarist Adam Garland moved to Portland, and two years ago the band recorded a live album titled “Guster on Ice” over two nights at Portland’s State Theater. Its show this… Read More
    Jake Battick’s dream is to have a stage show to accompany his band 1800s Sea Monster’s performances. Y’know, like David Bowie or the Flaming Lips or something. “I want to have waves and fake trees and stars and stuff that we’re going to carry around… Read More
    The Wu-Tang Clan are synonymous with their home base of Staten Island; Portland-based Lab Seven have the same sort of relationship with Maine. “So many people that are into hip-hop are trying to sound like guys from down south, or from out west,” said rapper… Read More
    There are a few things that take up most of my time, outside of scouting around Maine for awesome musicians to write about. I see my friends. I read a lot and watch movies. I hang out with my cat, Stan. I drink too much coffee. I obsessively… Read More
    This may be the first-time ever that a member of a hard-core band professes in print his love of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. “We’re all into southern rock,” said Radiation Year vocalist Nick Chiasson. “Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Read More
    It’s established that we’ve got a metal scene in this part of Maine. We’ve got an emo scene, too, and as with death and taxes, you can always count on a surplus of jam bands. But what about hip-hop? googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
    According to www.dictionary.com, “cambiata” is a musical term referring to a series of changing notes a few tones above one another. According to Sean Morin, Chris Moulton, Daniel McKellick, Miguel Barajas and Stan Dzengelewski, it’s also the name of a post-hard-core/emo band from central Maine,… Read More
    Rocking for a good cause. Now that sounds like something we can all get behind. There are two great showcases this month benefiting two very worthy organizations in the area – the Maine affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the R.E.A.C.H. Read More
    It’s that time of year. I’m not talking about pumpkin-flavored beer starting to hit the shelves. Nor am I talking about having so many fresh tomatoes from the garden that you start chucking them at passing vehicles, or using them for a game of dodgeball. Read More
    I ‘d like to take a moment to acknowledge a phenomenon that has arisen in the past few years. One that’s had a far-reaching impact on music scenes across the country and the world, and has changed the way many people – musicians and fans… Read More
    If any local band ’round these parts has had anything resembling a hit song, it’s probably Echo Theory’s “Beware of the Penguins” – if only for the fact that the song asks the listener to please, for the love of God, whatever you do, in increasingly impassioned, frantic… Read More
    California, South Dakota, Texas and Pennsylvania. Basically, every corner of the contiguous United States is represented by the four members of Dead End Armory, who one by one have ended up here in Maine, bringing with them a wide array of musical interests and backgrounds. Read More
    After nearly five years together, the Bangor-based metal band Nobis was almost ready to call it quits last winter. Half a year had gone by and they hadn’t found a replacement for their drummer, who left over the summer. They hadn’t recorded anything since 2004’s “A Blurred Sense… Read More
    Dreadnaught scored a pretty cool gig as an opening band this year – it’s just that the people they’re playing with are at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, instead of the Billboard Charts. The New Hampshire guitar-bass-drums trio is the house… Read More
    To understand Lamine Toure and Groupe Saloum, the Afro-beat band featured at this weekend’s Culture Fest at the Bear Brew in Orono, you have to understand one thing. At the center of it all is one instrument: the drum. The Boston-based eight-piece weaves elements of… Read More
    The Cure has had 12 different band members over the years. So has Blondie. Journey’s had 17 since 1974, and Steve Perry isn’t even in the band anymore. And Jefferson Airplane? Well, if you count Starship, then yes, they’ve had as many band members as Paris Hilton’s had… Read More
    The Kave in Bucksport has been very quiet for most of 2006. Too quiet. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) {… Read More
    The lawn is up to your knees. It rained all last week, and now it’s 800 degrees and wicked muggy. Construction just started on your street, so now it takes you 5 hours to get to work. Worst of all? Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob are up from… Read More
    Open mike night Wednesdays at Soma 36 in Orono has its share of novices, but a couple of the regulars there take their music beyond just one night into something a little more all-encompassing. The beginnings of a serious music career, let’s say, at least in the cases… Read More
    So what, exactly, happened at the Gilpin Railroad Incident? “We all grew up near this little dirt road in Orland called the Gilpin Road,” laughed Chris Soper, singer and guitarist for the above-titled band. “There are a lot of different memories from that area. We’ve… Read More
    Dun-dun-dun-DUH-dun. Dun-dun-dun-DUH-dun. Ahh-ahh-AHHHHHH-AH! Ahh-ahh-AHHHHHH-AH! googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes… Read More
    The last time we checked in with Soundbender, it was summer of 2004, and a Rockin’ Out column featured the then-power trio in the process of recording its first EP. Nearly two years later, much about the band has changed. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
    Nigel Hall’s mother got him an early start in his career as a musician – a really early start. “I was born to be a musician,” said Hall. “My mom was putting headphones on her belly when she was pregnant with me. I don’t have… Read More
    This is one of those infrequent times when I’m writing about a band knowing that, eventually, they’re going to be big. Someday I’ll have the occasion to be discussing music with a group of people, and the conversation will turn to how much everyone likes… Read More
    A few weeks ago, I was sitting at a local food-and-beverage establishment, enjoying a frosty cold, locally brewed pint of ale, when a random fellow approached me to ask about some local bands and upcoming shows he should check out. Not only was I taken… Read More
    Derek Williams, son of the recently deceased Orono restaurateur Frank Williams, is carrying on his father’s legacy by keeping the music coming at the Blues Cafe. The elder Williams’ death in late March was a great loss, not just because he was such a well-known… Read More
    It sounds like a joke at first: a folk band, a punk band and a polka band play at the same bar on the same night. Not only is the music all over the place, but the fallout from the fashion clash could potentially be deadly. Birkenstocks, mohawks… Read More
    Beloved by folk and alt-country fans nationwide, Patty Griffin is best known round these parts as the only Grammy nominee ever to come out of Old Town, where she grew up with her seven brothers and sisters and lived until her late teens. Now she has settled down… Read More
    The last time Jack’s Wild played at the Bear Brew Pub in Orono, they almost burned down the house. Literally. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i… Read More
    Those unfamiliar with Christian rock may hear only what breaches the mainstream: modern rock that’s as preachy as it is derivative. Unimaginative lyrics are slapped down over loud, boring riffs that Creed didn’t bother to put on its last album. Music is one of the most rewarding ways… Read More
    Everyone loves an Irish band. Whether it’s St. Patrick’s Day or not, it’s hard to resist the lure of a good fiddle player and a smooth pint of Guinness. The amount of Guinness consumed is parallel to the likelihood of many to get up and dance, but whether… Read More
    It’s not that I want to be late for everything. I just am. Ever since grade school, when my mom would thrust the alarm clock in my face as it clicked from 7:34 to 7:35, I was officially tardy. When I graduated high school, they… Read More
    Reid Genauer is a country boy. He may live in New York City, but he’s keenly aware of the difference between rural and urban life. “I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life so far in New England, in a rural, agrarian setting in Vermont,”… Read More
    Sarah Borges, with her long, dark hair and black Fender telecaster draped around her neck, looks every part the alternative-country musician. Not the well-groomed Nashville stars you see on CMT, but a hip, tattooed babe who injects some punk rock into her tales of heartbreak and life on… Read More
    Hasidic reggae. That’s a new one. Though that’s certainly not to say that the music of Matisyahu is a novelty, or strange, or unwieldy. The 26-year-old Hasidic Jew, known as Matthew Miller before taking on his Hebrew name, combines rapping, beat-boxing and the heady rhythms… Read More
    Drummer and guitarist seeking other players to form serious band. Inquire within. That was the gist of the Internet message board post that Bert McDonald and Jeff Cutler read last spring. The guitarist and bass player, respectively, had been playing together since age 10, when… Read More
    Sean Leddy was on his way to work when I called him on his cell phone to chat about his band. The 19-year-old lives in Brunswick and works at a music store by day. By night, he is the singer and guitarist for the rock band Third Floor… Read More
    January is the cruelest month, waking us at 4 a.m. with rumbling plow trucks, mixing rock salt and melting snow. Winter keeps us frozen, covering us in long underwear, hardly seeing the sun for days at a time. Forgive me for waxing a bit poetic. Read More
    So you live in Aroostook County. It ain’t perfect, but it’s where you are, and it’s home. The problem? You want music. You live for it. It makes your situation in life – from generalized boredom to outright anger and frustration – more exciting, more meaningful, more enjoyable. Read More
    When you think of an open mike night at a bar or coffee shop, you may think of a guy sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar, strumming along to his latest song about how his girlfriend dumped him, or worse – covering the Dave Matthews Band. Read More
    I finished the bulk of my Christmas shopping in about two days. Fancy kitchenware and stocking stuffers for my family, check. Mix CDs and gag gifts for my friends, check. Homemade candy for co-workers, check. I’m a single 23-year-old fresh out of college, so no one’s going to… Read More
    Roomful of Blues isn’t merely a band – it’s an institution. The New England-based blues eight-piece has seen plenty of lineup changes in its 37-year existence, but one thing has always remained constant: the primary objective is to make the audience get out of their seats and dance. Read More
    I just love metal,” said Levi Archer, lead singer and guitarist for Disaster Complex. “I always have. This is what I love.” The Bangor- and Brunswick-based metal outfit has existed for only a little over a year, but already its members know this is it. Read More
    Mark Seiler’s record collection was legendary. You’d look at the stacks upon stacks of records squirreled away at his house – from obscure ’80s punk tracks to random club remixes of Whitney Houston singles – and you knew this was a man with a passion. The kind of… Read More
    How do you turn an abandoned movie theater into a multiuse artistic center? Especially when you’re in a town that’s been deprived of live music, theater and other performing arts for bordering on three decades – how do you go about making that happen? Well,… Read More
    There’s just one thing I’d like to say to concert-goers here in Maine: Learn how to dance! It seems that Mainers fall into two categories when they are at a show: standing stock still, or obnoxiously flailing their arms about, often after one too many… Read More
    “Enter the Dragon.” “Enter Sandman.” “Enter the Matrix.” Enter the Haggis? googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function… Read More
    In every town, there is a family that goes a little overboard on Halloween. Sometimes, it’s also the family that short-circuits the entire neighborhood with Christmas lights a la “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” You know the ones I’m talking about. In the first week of… Read More
    Melt your brain, manage your rage at Behemoth show Death metal, the bane of high school principals and church pastors everywhere, is obviously not going anywhere. Despite the best efforts of Tipper Gore and later anti-obscenity demagogues, the genre is more popular now than ever,… Read More
    Alejandro Escovedo is one of the heroes of contemporary American and roots music, although it took nearly two decades for his work to become widely appreciated. Though he’d been an underground favorite for years, it was in the late 1990s that he surfaced, with his popular album “A… Read More
    Oh, the ’90s. Specifically the early-to-mid-’90s. Flannel. Long, stringy hair. Big, stupid hats. Snapple. “Beavis and Butthead.” Oh, yes. I grew up in the heyday of ’90s alternative – I’m showing my age when I say that in eighth grade I was all about Bush, Silverchair and the… Read More
    Chances are, if you’re reading this, you know someone who knows someone who is in Animal Suit Driveby – if you don’t know them personally, anyway. They all went to Hampden Academy, for starters. They’ve played all over the state, from the early days, when… Read More
    Few punk bands today record albums that are both intelligent and popular. In recent years, it’s been either one or the other, and the smart bands are few and far between. Green Day pulled it off with “American Idiot.” Fugazi released “The Argument” and then went on extended… Read More
    Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, is no stranger to Maine. After all, he graduated from Colby College in the early ’90s with degrees in French literature and philosophy. Miller will return to Maine next week, with a lecture and performance at the University of Maine on Tuesday and… Read More
    The summer’s winding down. A new year of high school or college is looming for some of us. It’s getting dark a little earlier. The other day I saw a leaf – which was definitely not green, but an autumnal shade of yellow – flutter to the ground. Read More
    Chuck Prophet has a slightly unorthodox method when it comes to getting ideas for new songs. “I was just driving cross country, and I collect all these cassettes I’ve recorded of ideas,” he said. “I’ll put it on in the car and just start yelling… Read More
    He’s the hardest-working man in show business. Well, in Maine show business, anyway. Eric Green, a Bangor area mainstay, is back with a new band, and he’s better than ever. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more versatile, consistent lineup than the Frozen Swamp Choppers,… Read More
    The double album marks a turning point for a band. Sometimes it’s a sprawling odyssey that establishes a band as both ambitious and important; sometimes it’s a long-winded mess that gets relegated to the dustbin of pop culture. Folk trio Maggi, Pierce and E.J. are… Read More
    Kathy Findlay hates to turn anyone down, judging by the jam-packed lineup this weekend at her Bucksport venue the Kave. Some 15 local, regional and national bands are crammed into about ten hours of onstage time on Friday and Saturday at the third annual Kave… Read More
    The world of electronic music is a tricky one – it seems like there are about as many genres and sub-genres and sub-sub-genres as there are fans sometimes. Take a given track by a given disc jockey, and everyone will have a slightly different opinion as to what… Read More
    Singer-songwriter Michelle Lewis has had one goal in mind for a long time now: to make a living as a musician. Not always an easy thing to do, especially in the sometimes dog-eat-dog Boston music scene. But Lewis is persevering. Sounding a little bit like… Read More
    Adema has gone through a lot of changes since its self-titled debut album came out in 2001: going from being unknown to selling nearly a million records, landing on the main stage at Ozzfest after just one album, getting a new record label and then a new singer. Read More
    You can leave the brooding songwriters and gloomy rock bands to the depths of the winter months – summer is the time to lose your inhibitions and succumb to the pleasures of the more upbeat side of music. Anyone could be forgiven for shaking a little tail to… Read More
    Color and Talea doesn’t really fit into either of the categories that tend to fall upon it – jazz or punk. While the band members are all accomplished musicians and make up what looks like a jazz trio, their frenetic, high energy live show owes more to punk… Read More
    With summer comes the urge to fill up the tank, pile into the car and drive until you reach something fun. If you’ve got your ear tuned to what’s hot in music, you’re looking for a few really good concerts to attend this summer. Sure,… Read More
    You don’t typically hear Black Sabbath and Willie Nelson mentioned in the same sentence. Then again, you don’t typically part ways with your childhood friends after high school, only to reunite seven years later in a different town and a different state and form an awesome country rock… Read More
    The band Confusatron, playing tomorrow at the Kave in Bucksport, might be the culmination of a long and, yes, confusing, run of bands in Bangor and Portland. A brief history lesson: Spork, a Bangor hardcore band that broke up in the late ’90s, at one… Read More
    Lydia Warren never cared much for the blues growing up, though judging by the music she plays now, you would never guess it. “I grew up listening to a lot of heavy rock, like Metallica and Nine Inch Nails,” Warren says. She remembers vividly the… Read More
    Shanghai Valentine, playing this Saturday at the Kave in Bucksport, makes no bones about its origins. “I’d been wanting to start a band forever, but Shanghai Valentine actually started at a Halloween party,” said Dave Sherman, bassist and co-vocalist for the Boston-based foursome. “Graham [Stetler,… Read More
    Loving hip-hop and living in Maine is sometimes like being a surfer and living in Kansas: It just doesn’t work. I’m not talking about high schoolers blasting Nelly or 50 Cent from their parents’ cars; I’m talking about the guy who owns all of Public Enemy’s albums, and… Read More
    In five short years Emilia Dahlin has gone from playing for spare change on the streets of San Francisco to being one of the best up-and-coming singer-songwriters playing in the Portland area. Dahlin, a 27-year-old Massachusetts native, studied art history and photography at Stonehill College… Read More
    Orono is the place to be this weekend for live music. Tonight’s events feature two distinctly different genres at two different venues. At Soma 36, the club within the Bear Brew Pub, Audible Mainframe, a Boston-based hip-hop band, will return for its second visit to… Read More
    Remember when God-smack played Bumstock back in 1999? It was quite a coup for UMaine’s yearly music festival, since just a few months later the band became one of the biggest hard-rock acts in the country, with several multiplatinum albums and a headlining slot on Ozzfest. Read More
    Keeping up with the constant stream of new genre names in music can be a bit daunting. Does anyone really know what the terms “grime” or “freak folk” really mean? How can anything be “post-rock,” when it is quite obvious rock n’ roll is alive and well? Are… Read More
    Maine isn’t the first place that springs to mind when thinking of reggae, but Nyah begs to differ. “I grew up in the Caribbean and wanted a change,” the singer and guitarist for the Portland-based band Stream said. “I didn’t want to be in a… Read More
    Even with traces of sawdust, whirring power tools and ghostly sheets of protective plastic all obscuring the view, one could still see the major transformation that had taken place on the second floor of Orono’s Bear Brew Pub. It was midmorning on Jan. 27, and… Read More
    Straight outta … Stanford? No doubt, being a 22-year-old student at a top-notch university isn’t going to bolster MC Lars’ street cred with the Eminem or 50 Cent set. No matter. Not that Lars, ne Andrew Nielsen, intends any disrespect to those current big-timers or the MCs of… Read More
    Lord knows, in these frosty depths of winter, anything that can help raise the spirits (and body temperatures) is most welcome. Which means Lovewhip couldn’t come to coastal Maine at a better time. Blending Afro-Caribbean rhythms with elements of funk, punk and rock, Lovewhip is… Read More
    Josh Small knows there’s untapped talent out there in the Bangor area. And for all those folks locked away performing tunes in the bedroom, living room or garage, Small and The Waterfront Bar and Grill have cooked up something to help give your fledgling musical career a little… Read More
    I try to keep myself open to all kinds of music. Rock, sure. Hip-hop, uh-huh. Hey, maybe even some bluegrass or jazz once in a while. Still, I’ve got my prejudices. Nothing against the fans or the artists, but I just can’t get my ear around anything “jam… Read More
    Bringing hip-hop shows to the Northeast is a labor of love for Sean Smith. Through his Bangor-based production crew, Queen City Entertainment, the twenty-something has been working with little more than a passion for the music to feature hip-hop in Maine – as well as… Read More
    If you take a tour of downtown Rockland, it’s hard not to stop in at the Time-Out Pub. Overlooking Rockland Harbor, the two-story pub is a slightly salty but thoroughly friendly spot for beers, some traditional pub grub and a game of pool. It’s also a great place… Read More
    It’s no secret that we here at “Rockin’ Out” are big fans of Eric Green’s brand of down ‘n’ dirty blues rock. And when we last checked in with the guitarman this summer, he was hard at work laying down tracks for an album. Now, fellow swampy blues… Read More
    Take a drive down McDonald Road in Bucksport, go past the quiet residential areas until you reach the end. There, just before the road bends at the entrance to the Silver Lake Cemetery, you’ll find a sign with flowing spray-painted letters that reads: “Kave.” Turn… Read More