Rosegarden Funeral Party

Rosegarden Funeral Party has been making their mark on the international post-punk/goth scene since the release of their inaugural EP, the Chopping Block, in 2018.  Since then, the band has released another EP, At the Stake (2020), and three full length albums, Martyr (2019), In the Wake of Fire (2021), and From the Ashes (2024).  The band has garnered critical acclaim from Post-Punk.com, LA Weekly, SF Sonic, Dallas Observer, and more.

Rosegarden Funeral Party blends traditional gothic sonic stylizing with modern pop sensibility that supports emotionally evocative and relatable lyrics about heartbreak and healing.  The band heavily focuses on spreading a message of kindness and loving oneself and others.  Rosegarden Funeral Party’s music and message have earned them a devoted fanbase that continues to grow.

https://www.rosegardenfuneralparty.com/

Trigger Discipline

https://americangothicc.com/

Summore

https://www.summore.net/

Wake in Fright

Wake In Fright is a punk/rock/roll trio from Portland, Maine featuring Micah Blue Smaldone (Guitar, Vox), Jonas Eule (Drums), and Greg Bazinet (Bass). The band formed in 2022, taking the name as a nod to the Ted Kotcheff film and to their shared love of 70’s Australian punk.

Micah has had a unique presence in Northeastern underground music since the mid 1990s. His first group, the Pinkerton Thugs, were an integral part of the 90s Boston Punk scene.  Merging spirited street punk and Woody Guthrie style balladry with radical Anarchist lyrics, the band released a few 7” and two full length LPs.

Micah went on to play in several other bands – hardcore legends Out Cold, the Shods, Cops and Robbers, and Boston rockabilly group the Racketeers.

In the early 2000’s he began making music under his own name. Built upon a foundation of fingerstyle Country-Blues and Ragtime guitar, his solo efforts expanded over the years into full-band accompaniment, both acoustic and electric, and often vivid, harrowing lyrics.

Micah has released four solo studio albums, and has toured extensively across United States and Europe. He has collaborated withCerberus Shoal, Jack Rose, Death Vessel, Brown Bird, Big Blood, Asa Irons, and many others. His songs have been covered by Soft Kill, Matt and Kim, US Girls, and Joe Jack Talcum of the Dead Milkmen.

Greg Bazinet and Jonas Eule are childhood punk friends and stalwarts of the Maine music scene, both having played in several popular Portland area groups. Greg was in theRattlesnakes, Jonas in the Endless Jags, and both in Golden Rules the Thumb – an acclaimed indie collective who have released two LPs to date.

At Greg’s encouragement, Micah recorded a handful of demos in early ‘22, his first in ten years. Returning to the rudiments of raw punk rock, the songs reflected the isolation of the previous few years, frustration with the unhinged hostility in America, and outrage at the rise of neo-fascism. The film itself provided powerful focus to these emotions, the horror of waking each day to the deranged news cycle of an empire in rapid decay.

With Jonas brought in, the three became a band and began recording after just a few months time. The songs were done in true power-trio form – single guitar, bass, drums, with no extra overdubs. The result is a punchy ten song debut, every bit as coherent as it is urgent, something clearly made in the moment by three capable musicians excited to do something creative with their built up energy.

1970’s Australia is omnipresent – AC/DC, Saints, Radio Birdman, etc… same era UK is in there as well – Richard Thompson, the Clash, the Jam, New Model Army… as well as a strong vibe of early Wipers. But most of all, anyone familiar with Micah’s previous output will hear it as a continuation, albeit a little louder, of what the BBC described as his “song-cycle carrying a heart-of-darkness travelogue filled with terse observations about the malevolent force within us all that slips off the leash with a depressing regularity.”

The self titled LP was released by Feeding Tube Records in March ‘23, with a Cassette edition done by Abraxas Records. They have played frequently around New England since, and in August ‘24 released a follow up 7” EP entitled Around Every Corner.

amiright?

amiright? are Portland’s pioneers of cousin-rock. In February they released Husk of a Body, 9 tracks that are warm, loud, scuzzy, and full of lighthearted family fun.

Cryin Caleb

Cryin Caleb is a singing, songwriting, guitar-playing one-man band from Maine. Playing his own style of roots rock ‘n’ roll/country/twang/punk, his influences creep out from the shadows stretched over several decades of underground song, from Hank Williams to Bo Diddley, Sinéad O’Connor to The Gun Club, and Dead Moon to Leadbelly. With equal parts cynicism and pathos, his melodic, rousing songs are almost always laced with desperation, dealing with existential crisis, lonesomeness, regret, alienation, love, and armageddon.

Buck Curran & Arborea

One Evening and Other Folk Songs, The Long Distance, and No Love Is Sorrow are the latest albums by guitarist-singer-songwriter Buck Curran. Since 2005, Buck has recorded and performed as one half of the American folk duo Arborea. To date, Arborea has released five albums, including 2013’s ESP-Disk’ release Fortress of the Sun. Buck has also produced several various artists compilations: We Are All One, In the Sun: a tribute to Robbie Basho (2010), Basket Full of Dragons – a Tribute to Robbie Basho Vol II (2016), Ten Years Gone: A Tribute to Jack Rose (Tompkins Square 2019), Solstice: A Tribute to Steffen Basho-Junghans (2023), along with the archival live recording; Robbie Basho Live in Forlì, Italy 1982 (Wire Magazine Best Archival Releases 2018).

Buck has developed his intense, intimate and engaging approach to live concerts through two decades of playing and touring extensively throughout the US, UK, and Europe with Arborea and as a Solo Act. Key festivals include: Green Man Festival, Moseley Folk Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Fano Festival, Hopscotch Festival, Odysseus Festival, etc. He also draws inspiration from the deep well of Folk and Rock of the 1960s  (Robbie Basho, Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny, Martin Simpson, Peter Green, Tim Buckley, etc.)  Bob Boilen, the host of NPR’s All Songs Considered/Tiny Desk, listed Arborea among his favorite concerts and recommended live acts in 2012, which led to the invitation to perform a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR’s headquarters. Arborea’s fourth album, Red Planet, was released in 2011 and received critical praise: David Fricke’s Rolling Stone ‘Best Under-the-Radar Albums of 2011”. Fortress of the Sun was released in 2013 on ESP-Disk’ coinciding with the label’s 50th Anniversary and made AllMusic’s ‘Favorite Folk Albums of 2013’ and ‘Favorite Singer/Songwriter Albums of 2013’, Acoustic Guitar’s ‘Best Acoustic Albums of 2013’, We Are All One, In the Sun: a tribute to Robbie Basho made Acoustic Guitar Magazine ‘Best Acoustic Albums of 2010’, Pitchfork 7.8, Guitar Player Magazine Editors ‘Top Pick’, etc. In 2016 Buck released his first solo album Immortal Light, followed in 2018 by Morning Haikus, Afternoon Ragas, listed among the ‘Best Albums of 2018’ according to Folk Radio UK and Aquarium Drunkard.

In April of  2020 Curran released his third solo album No Love Is Sorrow. Later that month he was interviewed by Jason Woodbury for Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. In May 2020, Premier Guitar Magazine published a feature article and NPR published a Tiny Desk Concert recorded at Buck’s apartment in Bergamo, Italy. No Love is Sorrow was also listed among the ‘Best Albums of 2020’ by Folk Radio UK and Aquarium Drunkard. In 2022 the Bert Jansch Foundation asked Buck to participate in ‘For Bert Jansch: Around the World in 80 Plays’, a special project featuring performance videos of select musicians playing special ‘Bert Jansch’ Yamaha guitars that were sent around the world. Curran’s video was filmed in historic Città Alta in Bergamo, Italy. In 2023 Curran released Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity, an album of selected improvisations from 2017 to 2022, The Long Distance (Curran’s first works for analog synthesizer, and Australian label Ramble Records reissued  Curran’s first solo album Immortal Light in a limited edition Vinyl pressing. Most recently Curran has performed at Odysseus Festival (We Jazz) in Helsinki, Finland (2023) and Ferentino Acoustic Festival, Italy (2022). One Evening and Other Folk Songs made Aquarium Drunkard ‘Best Albums of 2024’ and KLOF Magazine/Folk Radio UK ‘Best Albums of 2024’.

Buck Curran Link: https://linktr.ee/BuckCurran

NPR Tiny Desk: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/01/848334544/buck-curran-tiny-desk-home-concert

Adele H

Satie-esque piano underscores this intimate and powerful collection of experimental-spiritual pop songs by Italian singer-songwriter Adele H. Impermanence, the follow-up to her 2018 LP Civilization, finds Adele forgoing her looped and layered voices and primordial percussion for a classic stripped-down live setup featuring only piano and voice! The album (a deeply personal statement of womanhood in contemporary times) documents the breadth of a spiritual journey, revelations of love, and the inevitable fragility of life. ‘Impermanence’ brings to mind the 60s & early 70s Alt Folk and Jazz experimentations of Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, and Neil Young…and the more contemporary sounds of Tori Amos and Cat Power.

Video Links:

Impermanence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIEG-sMPjsw

Women’s Power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkSDJfF3IaU

Primordial Sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRqU4H6d2cc

Dogmas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55htuhW_JG8

 Glenn Jones:

“Though he’d never admit it himself, Glenn Jones might singlehandedly be the most important guitarist of the last several decades. His life long tenure to the underground has gifted us, dear reader, with 10 widely acclaimed solo LPs on top of an already emphatic career alongside the genre defying Cul De Sac – a band that you forgot played more times with Damo Suzuki than Can did. 

Jones’ subtle approach to fingerstyle remains uniquely idiosyncratic, having established and continued to innovate a deeply personal melodic grammar for the acoustic guitar and banjo that is witty, cleverly self-referential and tethered to the weight of reflection and memory. 

Sketches of Fahey, a close friendship with the late John Jackson of Fairfax Virginia, long conversations in the driveway with one Jack Rose; devotion to his mother, the ever lovely Nora Smith with her leather jacket, and his cats. The portraiture of days gone by, sentiment for those close and fondly remembered. Ever fleeting. Ever sublime. 

Here is a vital messenger of the steel string guitar who we can celebrate in his time – here and now.” 

— Man Tragil, 2025.  

Vade Mecum: Glenn Jones is a unique player in the world of solo guitar. Steeped in both American Primitive guitar music as well as rock and experimental music, Glenn Jones creates rich sonic tapestries with a distinct and stirring voice. Endlessly curious, Jones has spent the better part of four decades exploring the boundaries of expression and storytelling with the guitar and banjo. On Vade Mecum, Jones draws on his personal history to tell stories with elaborate musical detail and emotional weight. Exploring the complexity of personal experience, emotions and our shared histories, Vade Mecum finds Jones painting his music in boundaryless colors, captivatingly vivid.

“Vade Mecum means, literally, ‘go with me.’,” says Jones. “It’s an invitation.” With that invitation opening the album, Jones acts as a guide across the terrain of interiors and exteriors alike, from barking of seals at “Bass Harbor Head” to the gentle crumble of “A Handful of Snow.” “I tend to think of my albums as the latest entries into something like an ongoing musical diary,” Jones continues. “I don’t write pieces to order or with anything much in mind; I simply follow wherever the music leads me. Why this tuning? Why this note and not that one? Why this chord and not another? Why this tempo and not a different one? I don’t know, and I love not knowing. The ‘not knowing’ is what keeps me engaged and curious; ‘not knowing’ keeps me coming back.” Jones uses those questions of tempo and chords alongside unique open tunings and capos as a way of posing musical questions to himself which he in turn answers with sublime stories that unveil as much about Jones himself as they uncover memories or impressions of their subjects.

“When I play ‘John Jackson of Fairfax, Virginia,’ I think about John (who I met in 1972, and for whom I co-produced two albums, released in 1979 and 1983). John was a lovely man and a superb fingerstyle country blues guitarist – a living connection to the elegant Piedmont country blues and ragtime guitarists of the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, whose records I love so much. Like John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Jack Rose and a very few others,” Jones notes, “John Jackson was an influence and a friend.” The rousing “Ruthie’s Farewell” features the album’s one guest musician Ruthie Dornfield, a longtime friend and past collaborator of Jones’ who gifted him his first banjo in 1996 when she was leaving New England for the West Coast. The piece brims with the excitement of old companions reuniting and breathlessly trading stories between one another. A steady wind and unwind of tempo and shifting keys on “Black & White and Gray” conjures equally full, rich canvases of blurred beauty. Jones makes each passage as personal as the last as he dexterously imbues every note with precise emotion.

Jones’ recordings are indelible to his surroundings. Vade Mecum was recorded in March of 2021 on Mount Desert Island in Maine with longtime collaborator Matthew Azevado. The crisp, thin Atlantic air seeps its way into Jones’ playing. “Forsythia” moves with the lanquidity of a persistent winter keeping the spring flowers from blooming. After delaying the recording for a full year and bringing on Azevado to fill the shoes of Jones’ usual engineer, Laura Baird, the album took altogether different shapes than what Jones had initially intended. New pieces that spoke more to Jones’ moment emerged and shouldered out others. The challenges and triumphs of a world recapitulating but altogether changed is thoroughly interrogated in the liminal spaces highlighted by Jones throughout the album.

Glenn Jones’ music draws from a deep well of reflection and memory. Vade Mecum revels in the profound idiosyncrasies and contradictions inherent to the act of remembering and the people remembered. Jones summons luminous detail from the complicated web of emotions intrinsically bonded to memories of loved ones, unfamiliar places, and elusive feelings alike. “It’s a fact of life that as we age, we’ll lose people we love,” concludes Jones. “Vade Mecum contains pieces dedicated to a few of these. Though there is melancholy in such losses, my album is intended to celebrate, not just mourn.”

https://thrilljockey.com/artists/glenn-jones

https://glennjones.bandcamp.com/album/vade-mecum

https://acousticguitar.com/alternate-tunings-master-glenn-jones-returns-with-vade-mecum/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPXk1ElmzGs

Liam Grant: 

Liam Grant is a New England guitarist with a punk ethos, cut from the American Primitive cloth. The restless guitar explorations, modal epics, and driving uptempo rags recall the likes of Grant’s pedagogue; Takoma Records, and the path that was paved by his forebears John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Peter Walker, Max Ochs and later Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Jack Rose, and others. 

Bridging that past Grant evokes the pith of the landscape where he was raised. Instrumental memoirs and ruminations on the banks of the Merrimack River. Amoskeag. And the place where the waters flow around it. Salmon tails up the falls and black pearls from the river. The exodus to Stratton-Eustis and the last night on Dead River before the great flood. 

Prodigal Son 

VHF debut and second widely-available LP by Grant, part of a new generation of underground “American primitive” guitar players serving the traditions and smashing them up simultaneously. Prodigal Son is a portrait of an artist on the road, changing fast, recording things as they spring from the fountain. The sound here is raw – grass and dirt instead of prefab; homemade/handmade instead of high-tech, etc. There’s a visceral quality and immediacy of culture that’s being lost every day in modern life – Prodigal Son is a chance to grab some of it back. “Palmyra” has Liam on weissenborn-style lap steel, the sound fuzzed out and distorted by the guerilla recording technique. “Salmon Tails Up The River” stretches out to nearly 13 minutes, a dense meditation on 12 string that sustains a dark and heavy mood for the entire duration. On the B side, “Insult to Injury” reverses the mood, with an elegant and unhurried 12 string sequel of deep beauty. Liam’s unexpected take on Loren Conners’ “A Moment at the Door” is a perfect translation of Loren’s reverb-heavy electric drift to unadorned acoustic (and tape hiss) – a frozen moment of absolute grace. Wrapping things up is a take on “Old Country Rock,” with fiddle and banjo, just a brief taste of the barnstorming old-time sound of Liam’s touring trio. 

https://www.vhfrecords.com/catalog/liam-grant-vhf166-lp

https://vhfrecords.bandcamp.com/album/prodigal-son

Three local punk, rock, post-punk bands

Mouth Washington:

With more than half a dozen releases since 2011, Mouth Washington have become one of the longest lived and most consistent post punk bands in Maine, persevering through personal tragedy and adversity over the last decade.

Link:

https://mouthwashington.bandcamp.com/album/remiss

Curfew:

High school punk/rock from Lewiston. Youth are still making noise.

Art Car:

Art Car began in 2004 when two friendly acquaintances from New England realized that they had both wound up in Portland, Oregon and were without bands.

After 21 years, and countless moves within and without the United States (Vancouver, BC! New York City! Taiwan!) the band has about 7 songs to show for it.

The good news is that those 7 songs are a darn solid amalgamation of the garage rock of the Sonics, the free jazz of Albert Ayler and the sarcastic snarl of Shellac, and are being augmented with some of the pop whimsy of guitarist Alex Merrill’s other projects, Lemon Pitch and Heaven’s Cameras.