The Bollard Bulletin for Monday, February 3
Local Music Monday: Future Mailmen + this week's future Sounds of the City
Local Music Monday
The local jazz-rock sextet Future Mailmen has found a good space. Their compositions are comfortable yet challenging enough to stay interesting. It’s really pleasant music to hear. And just look at that adorable drawing on the cover of their debut EP, Sun Run! Them’s some happy cats.
The seven pieces assembled here are way more jazz than rock, though the opener, “Ugly Cry,” brings to mind the indie swing of the saxxed-up post-rock classic Cavale by Chicago’s Shrimp Boat. Saxophonist Andrew Bedard, who composed this one, delivers an irresistible melody, guitarist Hunter Lefebvre lofts it into low-Earth orbit during his solo, and drummer Alex Ouellete and bassist Robben Harris ain’t stingy with the funk. Its unofficial B-side, the Bedard-penned “Orange Glowdown,” has the same great vibe.
Sax and woodwind man Jesse Beckett-Herbert wrote the slinky “Descent Into Gladness,” on which Michael Sabin (trombone and flugelhorn) also shines, as well as the brief out-jazz “Interlude.” The EP ends with two longer works: Lefebvre’s contemplative “Dirge” and the title cut, by Sabin, which nudges us back into a lighter groove and ends on the uplift.
The Mailmen play an album release show this Saturday at Blue Portland Maine. You can help save these musicians from a future of indentured postal servitude by showing up and buying their music.
… and introducing Sounds of the City!
Dig this! Speaking of supporting local music, for the past few months local super-fan Peter Jacobs has been making mixes of songs by acts playing Portland’s largest venues and posting them on streaming platforms for folks to hear and, hopefully, get interested enough to go out and experience some live music. Peter reached out last month to see if we’d like to share this project with Bollard Bulletin readers, and our answer was, Hell yeah!
Here it is: Sounds of the City for the week of Feb. 3-8, a SoundCloud playlist that includes tracks by local and national acts playing venues large and small around town. The online music-listings resource Portland Noise provides the raw data for Peter’s playlists, and The Bollard is chipping in to help defray posting costs and spread the good word. Our plan is to share the link to each week’s Sounds of the City playlist with you every Local Music Monday. So tune in, drop the bong, and go out to dance and shout in front of a stage this winter!
[p.s.: Local musicians, e-mail Peter at Peter.Simpson.Jacobs@gmail.com if you’d like to have a specific song featured or provide multiple tracks to promote your regular gigs. It’s all free, naturally.]
Highlight
OK, so there’s a name for it: crossover thrash, the unmentioned genre here crossing thrash metal being punk rock. Thus all the socio-political angst and anarchic humor also evident in the music of pioneers like Suicidal Tendencies and D.R.I. Virginians Municipal Waste are considered leaders of the pack in the second wave of crossover thrash bands, and for their show tonight at Geno’s (625 Congress St., Portland) they’re joined by locals Covered in Bees, who cross punk with death metal, and Corrective Measure. Doors at 7 p.m., $25 cash to get in (21+). Last punk standing sweeps up all the little foam pineapples.
Performing Arts
Poetry and prose open mic at Sacred Profane (50 Wasshington St., Biddeford) at 7 p.m. Free (all ages). 298-3307. sacredprofane.com.
Happenings
“One World, One Sky,” a planetarium show featuring Sesame Street characters, at Southworth Planetarium (70 Falmouth St., Portland) at 1 p.m. Tix: $8 ($7.50 seniors & kids). 780-4249. usm.maine.edu.
The Camden Conference presents a community event, How to Talk to Each Other in Spite of Our Differences, at the Belfast Free Library (106 High St.) at 6:30 p.m. Free. 236-1034. camdenconference.org.
Acclaimed film director John Sayles discusses his new novel, To Save the Man, at Print (273 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m. Free. 536-4778. printbookstore.com.
Dharma teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo delivers a talk titled, “We Were Made for These Times: Mindfully Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption,” at Kresge Auditorium (Bowdoin College, Brunswick) at 7 p.m. Free. 725-3000. bowdoin.edu.