It brings us great pleasure to announce our first round of releases:

Foam Castles “Bonanza”, Metal Feathers “Handful of Fog”, a new one from Brenda and live 10″ benefit EP from Daniel Johnston and Friends that we recorded back in May at the Rochester Opera House in Rochester, NH.

More details to come!
xo

I recently did a small project for the Portland, ME band Foam Castles. I was asked to take some lettering and mess with it a little bit. So I did. I printed out the font that the band wanted to use and simply sprayed it with water to make certain areas bleed on the text, then scanned it back in and made it all one color. The album Bonanza is awesome and available at their Bandcamp for super cheap! Go get it! Looks like they will be pressing it on vinyl very soon also.

Nothing Says "I Love You" Like a Morning Constitutional Outdoors

Only seven weeks away, and if you make a week’s allowance for shipping in time for February 14th that really only leaves six weeks.  This year the name of the game is preempting the seasonal trends.  Two months seems like a long time, but for research, development, execution, photography and listing it’s not that much!

Above is a popular photograph I sold last year, available both as an 8×10 print, or a 8″x8″ photograph framed in a 10″x10″ frame.  The photograph is of an outhouse my Grammie has outside her cabin in rural VT, which she’s using as a toolshed.  Let’s also not forget that on this very same photo-expedition in the woods behind her house I also saw a HUGE BEAVER gnawing on a tree, thought it was a baby bear, and promptly ducked behind the biggest tree I could find lest its Mama Bear found me to be a threat.  But then after a bit I am thinking to myself “Why is that baby bear chewing on a tree?” and quickly remembered the beaver pond was due east.  Ha-ha!  The pictures of the beaver aren’t the clearest, but if there’s enough interest I may throw a snapshot up on the blog.

Coming Soon to Little Eye

I’m also excited to report I’ve done a little Photoshop, graphic design fun time and came up with the above graphic as a future ‘set of 3′ magnets + pins.  I’ll also be making mix n’ match earrings and barrettes with the designs as well as pendants.

We used to have a bar here in Portland called The White Heart, a spoof off the famous UK watering hole called The White Hart.  For those of you in-the-know, you are totally aware that mature stags (appx. 5 years and older) used to be referred to as ‘harts.’  Now they’re just plain awesome.  I’m really digging these graphics because although they’re clearly seasonal, they’re applicable any time of the year.  I was considering doing a pink/red version of the set but something about that feels wrong so it’s just going to stay as is.  I might be persuaded to do red/baby blue since that’s my favorite.  In any case:  tell your friends!  Or don’t tell ‘em and get them a nice, $5 set of 3 pins or magnets as a little way of saying “I <3 you” this Valentine’s Day.

~~~

You know what else is happening around Valentine’s Day?  Our band, Bath Salts, is playing its first show up in Brunswick with excellent acts:  Foam Castles, The Rattlesnakes and Berth Control.  Details to come – but you should come hang out with us!  Ok!

There was a impromptu gathering of very excellent bands last night in an undisclosed location at an undisclosed time that kept me dancing until about 2:30 last night.  Foam Castles, Soft Pyramids (Boston), Brenda, and The Rattlesnakes played through the wee hours in a dimly lit room and it was the best. show. ever.

Here is a little video that Mike from Brass Cankles took of Brenda playing a new song.  This, and the blurry picture of the room I took with my dinky cell phone above are all you’re going to get!  Click on the band names to hear/learn more.

]]> http://modernmysteryblog.com/2010/10/08/portland-maine-cmj-showcase-the-trash-bar/ Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:41:17 +0000 Melissa Nastasi http://modernmysteryblog.com/2010/10/08/portland-maine-cmj-showcase-the-trash-bar/