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Pull up a chair, this is gonna be a long one. Let’s start with the big news: in celebration of this little website’s first year on the internet, I’m throwing a party. Well, a bunch of parties, actually. Let’s just call it a music series. Specifically, the HillyTown OFFStage @SPACE Concert Series. Every Wednesday in August, HillyTown presents a free, all ages concert at SPACE Gallery, beginning at 7pm. Bands will play on the floor, and you’ll hear new local groups, check out great touring acts, and see some of your favorites in ways you never expected. Here’s what we’ve got in the works: 8/5 – Boxy (new Portland band, first show) + Theodore Treehouse [Washington, DC] + Haru Bangs 8/12 – Panda Bandits + Dan Wholey (Earth People Orchestra) [Boston, MA] + Jesse Pilgrim 8/19 – Phantom Computers (actual name TBD) + Happy Machines [Red Bank, NJ] + Dead End Armory 8/26 – White Light + Blood Warrior [Brooklyn, NY] + Mark Summers We’ll have posters and more fun details about this concert series in the coming weeks! Though it’s not technically a HillyTown Presents show (I am a little uncomfortable with putting the name on shows for which I book my own band), I’m exceptionally proud of putting together Clues and Goes Cube, with Marie Stella opening at Empire on July 31. Let’s call that the unofficial kickoff of the HillyTown Year One Extravaganza of Awesome. It was also a pleasure to get to add a listing (I did not organize the show) for my friends the Two Man Gentlemen Band to the calendar (far off though it is), as they’ll be visiting SPACE Gallery after their tour with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, & John Mellencamp this summer. Exciting! Hey, it’s the First Friday in July! You know what that means – Art Walk time!
Only a band like Over A Cardboard Sea could get away with musical farting solos, but they pull it off perfectly. This is their first ever official music video!
I’m not sure how it happened exactly, but a really great music festival has been brewing (and selling out of presale tickets) up in Bangor, Maine, and news about it seems to just be drifting down here to Portland today. On Saturday, August 15th, KahBang ’09 will take place in Downtown Bangor and the Bangor Waterfront. It sounds like more bands may still be added, but the lineup so far is full of strong national acts: Matt & Kim, Ida Maria, the Gay Blades, Ra Ra Riot, April Smith, and more. There are supposed to be a total of 15 bands playing, so there are definitely more to be announced – hopefully some of those are locals who can get a chance at some great exposure by sharing the stage with these higher profile national acts! Since it doesn’t seem to say it anywhere on the site, I should mentioned that tickets are $27.50 each (presale saved you $5, too bad I didn’t hear about this festival existing before presale was over), but I had to create an account and login to buy tickets before being able to find that out. Not too high of a price to pay for the festival, but it would probably make sense to make that info a little easier to find! Let’s hope this endeavor is able to be successful and grow to be as big as some of their inspiration (Bonnaroo, Coachella, etc.). It would definitely be great to have something that big right here in Maine every year. |
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