• MICAH BLUE SMALDONE is taking his talents to Fort Kent. After teasing us with several new darkspun lullabies at scattered live performances the last few months (featuring brother Tristan on uke and violin), the balladeer will soon be leaving these streets for an indefinite period. Surely a gaping hole in the city's ochre-colored folk loom, but a silver lining exists. Unless Micah gets deep into the pleasures of dogsledding, we trust the move will give him ample room to produce a follow-up slab to 2009's The Red River.
• Twenty-three years ago, Iron Maiden released their seventh record, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Twenty-three months (well, give or take a couple) after their first show in 2009, metal dogs HESSIAN anoint their seventh drummer, Tim Webber. The parallels are uncanny. In taking the throne, Webber travels vast gulfs of sonic terrain from his usual duties with piano man WILL GATTIS. Do professional leaps this impressive ever occur in the corporate world? Surely, no. Credit yet another weird union to the city's karaoke culture; the band met during a recent CLASH OF THE TITANS.
• Speaking of new unions, THE FLIPSIDES are a new squad of scene vets returning to the garage for that timeless rock and roll spark. These particular dudes issued howls decades ago as the Brood, the Stains, and the Vampire Lezbos; their debut August 5 at Bayside Bowl promises the refinement of R&B.
• Matador's COLD CAVE, whose principal architect Wesley Eisold has deep Portland/Brunswick roots, embark on their first full-scale US tour this week. Their still-new Cherish the Light Years LP is proving to be a lasting specimen of post-punk thaw, and just played the Pitchfork Festival. Not bad for a kid who used to bark monosyllabically into mikes at Zootz.
• Grapevining now, but word has reached us that a fierce team of females called THE OUTFITS stormed the Geno's stage early this month, allegedly turning out some brisk punkish delights for their first show. We'd love to hear some demos or a perspective from someone who was there, but for now, consider us delighted that there's finally a punk band in town that lack a Y-chromosome.
• And we've got some word on what's up with SOPHOMORE BEAT frontman DAN JAMES (né Lohmeyer): His new solo project is WORRIED WELL, which just played with DUSTIN SAUCIER and ONE GRAIN at Geno's on Saturday. He's got a seven-song record in the can and is doing some shopping around for label help and some touring before he plans to do a proper release this fall. The sound is more straight-ahead rock, not quite so radio-pop, but still pretty damn catchy. If you're willing to travel, catch WW with the GAY BLADES at the Great Scott, in Allston, Massachusetts, July 27.
• By the way, there's confirmation that MARIE STELLA are done-done. Their last show is August 5, as part of HI TIGER's CD-release show at the Empire with SUNSET HEARTS. (And you should probably start getting psyched up for that Hi Tiger record — that band are a lot of fun.)
• Feeling experimental? Might want to save August 20 for the RUNNYMEDE PROJECT, an outdoor gig at Runnymede Farm in North Hampton, New Hampshire, to benefit the Runnymede Project as a whole, which "is about actively reconsidering modes of being in the world." Bands include MOUNTAIN MAN, DUCKTAILS, BROWN BIRD, and ALEX BLEEKER AND THE FREAKS.
• Oh, and welcome to our new music-scene feature, THE WAX TABLET. Bands, musicians, and fans: Please send us your tips, plans, and ideas to waxtablet[a]phx.com. Thanks!
