The Bollard published their list of The 10 Best Local Rock Albums Of The Decade (complete with mp3s). Is your favorite Portland band/album listed there? I’ve heard a few different opinions on what they missed or what shouldn’t have made it on such a list but did, but altogether it seems to make a lot of sense to me.

This weekend is another busy one, starting tonight with the Bakery Photo Collective’s annual fundraising photo auction, Photo A Go-Go from 6-8pm, with music by the venerable King Memphis. Check out a preview of the work available here.

The fun continues tomorrow, with the first PICNIC Holiday Sale, happening at the Irish Heritage Center (34 Gray Street) in Portland. I’ll be there at the Portland Pins table, selling photo prints, pins, and more. Get more info on the event – which will include live music – here. Once you’ve gotten some holiday shopping out of the way, head over to SPACE for the [dog] and [pony] dvd release show, featuring performances by Jacob Augustine, Marie Stella, Jesse Pilgrim, Wes Hartley, and more (including some interesting collaborations). The [dog] and [pony] guys have a new episode up, this time featuring Jakob Battick + Friends.

For more events this weekend, check the showlist.

Wesley Hartley, of Dead End Armory (who are, I believe, on hiatus), has quietly released a free, 10-song solo acoustic album through his art website. The album, Quiver Spoked Largely Eyed, can be downloaded (one track at a time unless you upgrade your account) from here.

Catch him live at SPACE Gallery in December opening for AA Bondy or at the Dog and Pony Show DVD release show!

It was just yesterday that Peapod Recordings officially released Brown Bird’s excellent new (and more upbeat than some may have expected) album, The Devil Dancing, which our friends at Dog And Pony featured with this interview at the Friendly Toast in Portsmouth.

Already, the band has some more news. In February, they have the opportunity to tour Europe for two weeks with The Low Anthem, but they need to raise some money in order to do it. To do this, they’ve set up a unique donation page where you can purchase an album of unreleased tracks (for $10) or contribute more and get more (from the new album to Brown Bird’s entire catalog).
Download “Danger And Dread” and go here for more samples from the new album.

• enclosure: http://peapodrecordings.com/media/thedevildancing/01_danger_and_dread.mp3 5435919 audio/mpeg

I have to say, Nick and Krister from Dog And Pony do some great work. They filmed all of the performances during my HillyTown OFFStage @ SPACE Gallery concert series last month and are rolling them out in episodes over at their website. This week they present “King Day” by Brooklyn’s Blood Warrior. Check it out below:

Head over to their post for a large video and interview with the band. Today around 4pm, Liberation By Sound on WMPG will feature an interview with the creators of [dog] and [pony] in which they make a big announcement. Tune in!

Just to clear some things up, I have official word from Asylum to update us on changes going on at the club. Contrary to what you may have be hearing from anonymous posts and commenters posing as employees, the venue is not going to be discontinuing their live music programming this year.

We will be doing some renovations over the summer to improve the venue; we will be continuing a live music schedule throughout the summer, though. There will be some 2-3 week intervals where we do not have shows (to allow for the improvements ), but Asylum is alive and well and not going anywhere anytime soon!

Also, a side note about posting comments here on HillyTown: I encourage you to join the discussion here with any thoughts related to the posts, and all opinions are welcome. However, posting under someone else’s name or posing as them in any way will not be allowed.

Let’s end this post on a positive note. The fine gentlemen over at [dog] and [pony] have posted the first of their Tower Of Song Festival episodes, which features Sam James and Chriss Sutherland. Do yourself a huge favor and watch this, and fall in love with the Portland music scene a little more.