Lord Byron |
• Among other musical happenings you can expect in 2012, WMPG's new radio transmitter is now running at 100 percent strength, broadening the station's wattage to 4.5 kilowatts and receptivity to areas as far as Lewiston-Auburn and York. This is major good news for those who still prefer music selected by a real live human DJ, rather than commercial radio or via the often-stultifying autogenerated options prevalent today (Pandora, Spotify, even Maine.fm). Cheers to longtime station manager Jim Rand for making this happen. Check wmpg.org/?programming for the station's vast acreage of sonic real estate.
• A bit of sad news about 2012: Maine has to face it without LORD BYRON. The outrageous, salacious performance artist, dancer, and enabler of the avant-garde is moving to Los Angeles this month. For those who don't know Byron: he's been performing in Maine for ten years, as either a founder or crucial member of PV-Scene (a fetish-based performance art troupe), Vivid Motion (where he organized the absurdly successful Nutcracker Burlesque), and OrGaNiZeD cHaOs (a deterritorial radical queer performance troupe). He's been a fixture of Atomic Trash! and a catalyst for numerous drag performances at countless venues. We've lauded him in 2010 as one of our Most Influential in Portland roster and in '10 and '11 with nominations for Best Performance Artist, and in terms of fearlessness and willingness to bare all, he's gonna be hard to replace. Best of luck out west, Byron.
• While we're still in 2011, we'll congratulate BILLY LIBBY on his recent and particularly heartwarming charity collaboration. The pop songwriter — who last year founded Your Song, Your Story, an organization that provides afflicted children with songwriting outlets — recently penned "Can't Wait for Christmas Time," a holiday chestnut available on YouTube and for $1 download. Proceeds benefit his charity, which has become a fixture for Portland's Center for Grieving Children and many such orgs nationwide.
Related:
Review: Mother And Child, No Age | Everything In Between, Abe Vigoda | Crush, More 
- Review: Mother And Child
Elizabeth is a city-hopping attorney with plenty of career drive and no attachments — she treats her lovers with black-widow disdain.
- No Age | Everything In Between
What are a couple of LA noise rats like No Age trying to say with a stargazing track like "Katerpiller" smack in the middle of their new album?
- Abe Vigoda | Crush
Over the past three years, Abe Vigoda have made some serious progress, going from California kids making cryptic but pretense-free DIY clatter to the sole opening band on one of Vampire Weekend's national tours.
- A little bit country
The line-up for the Portland showcase at the CMJ Festival will be: SPOSE , BILLY LIBBY , THE MALLETT BROTHERS BAND , SUNSET HEARTS , THE MILKMAN'S UNION , THE TOUGHCATS , and KURT BAKER .
- Pitter Patter goes Billy Libby's heart
Billy Libby's new EP, Pitter Patter , is such a step forward for him that I half expected he'd have slapped the name William Elizabeth on the packaging.
- Road show report
Seven of our finest soundmakers played New York's Sullivan Hall last Thursday as part of the CMJ mania.
- Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone
Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler's documentary details Fishbone's quarter-century journey from musically-diverse South Central middle school classmates to becoming one of the most influential Los Angeles bands of the '80s.
- Schoolboy Q | Habits & Contradictions
Without much that can be considered "structure" in terms of the verse-chorus-verse standard, Q confidently wobbles through an album's worth of jaded bangers.
- Interview: Alice Bag of Stay at Home Bomb
Alice Bag (nee Armendariz), who shone bright in the Los Angeles punk scene of the late-1970s, will be in town Saturday to read from her book Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage and to play a few tunes at 7 pm at Rochambeau Library.
- Dan Capaldi steps out from behind the kit
In addition to plenty of other projects, Dan Capaldi has played drums now for two of Portland's most important bands of the last five years: the brightly burning Cambiata and the still-on-the-rise Holy Boys Danger Club.
- Strange world
Bob Pfeifer's debut novel, University of Strangers (published by Power City Press, the print arm of the punk label Smog Veil Records), is a fictionalized retelling of a sensational, true-life murder case, as related in the voices of real people.
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