As Pickathon celebrates its 10th Anniversary this years Festival is going to be a doozy. Jolie Holland, Langhorne Slim, Danny Barnes back with his Bad Livers, Kelly Joe Phelps, Melissa Ferrick and many, many more all ready to rock the main stage and, of course, long into the night in the more intimate barn. It all takes place over three days of festivities and camping just 20 minutes outside Portland at Pendarvis Farms. All the information you’ll ever need is here. And the full line-up list is here.

Ok kids, Matmos are playing at the Aladdin Theatre on Wednesday July 9th [this Wednesday!] in support of their album ‘Supreme Balloon’ and the Moose has a pair of tickets to give away. Send an email to info[at]pampelmoose.com with the answer to the following question - Name the LP/CD of a 2003 Matmos release. And hurry, the show’s on Wednesday….

Matmos - Rainbow Flag

Poster by Mike King

The Zombies, who formed in England in 1961, have reformed to mark the 40th anniversary of Odessey & Oracle, an album that was released in 1968 and has been ranked 80 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The four surviving original members of The Zombies participated in a three-night series of concerts at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire Theatre between 7th and 9th March 2008 and have now embarked upon a USA tour. They play Portland’s Wonder Ballroom on July 23rd. You can buy tickets here. Check out The Zombies MySpace.

I am not sure I enjoy a mystery revealed. Here’s the story - “Anonymous musician Podington Bear made his musical den on the internet in the beginning of 2007, announcing he intended to write, record and release three songs a week, via podcast and blog. 156 songs total. During this campaign Podington Bear was spotlighted several times on National Public Radio and Wired.com, profiled on numerous blogs, selected as a “Best New Podcast of 2007″ by iTunes Music Store editors, and more recently over a dozen of his tracks could be heard sprinkled across the second season of This American Life on Showtime. On June 24th, a little later than first planned, he released song #156, entitled “Graduation”. Also on that day, Portland label HUSH Records issued a 10 CD box set collecting these songs, as well as the tenth CD as a standalone, entitled simply The End.”

Then it was revealed that Podington is Chad Crouch. Have a listen to ‘Proof’….oh the irony.

Podington Bear- Proof

Menomena’s Danny Seim debuts Lackthereof live in Portland from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Danny steps out from behind the drums

Danny Seim, the mighty drummer for Portland’s preeminent alt-rockers, Menomena, stepped out from behind the kit last night to front his own band, Lackthereof. Additional musicians included Matt Dabrowiak and Paul Alcott of Dat’r on drums and bass and a guitar/keyboards player whose name has slipped my mind. Lackthereof has been Danny’s musical vehicle since around 1997 preceding Menomena by a few years so it can’t really be called a side project. Anyway, check the video for a couple of songs and a quick chat with Danny at the end. Look out for the new Lackthereof album ‘Your Anchor’ out on Barsuk in July.

Related Post: Lackthereof - new MP3