• While you're out celebrating MARK BELANGER's birthday August 21 — at Geno's, of course — make sure to catch the set by WHITCOMB, who are shaping up to be the next supergroup of sorts: BRANT DADALEARES (TWITCHBOY, TRIPE) on vocals, SEAN LIBBY and ANDY BEAVIS on guitar (both of the END OF EVERYTHING), RYAN FLEMING (Twitchboy) on bass, and MARK SAYER (VERTIGOD, RARE FORM) on drums. Apparently, it won't be super-heavy, and will feature a fair amount of range and melody, but we'd expect it to punch you in the mouth at least a little bit. MAN-WITCH (by the way, there's a female-fronted Manwitch out of Louisiana, if you're interested in hitting them up on MySpace) headline, along with Belanger's PIGBOAT.
• Anybody else find themselves watching golf on television and get seriously bummed out by hearing RAY LAMONTAGNE hawking Travelers Insurance? Okay, probably not.
• Rock historian JOE S. HARRINGTON is at it again, teaching "The History of Rock and Roll" through Portland Adult Ed (just google it) starting September 9. If you haven't read his rock tome, Sonic Cool (Hal Leonard, 2002), just know that this guy lives music, and was recently even tapped to drop some knowledge for an A&E channel thing on the ROLLING STONES. If that's not validation, we don't know what is. There's also talk that he'll be releasing another issue of his Kapital Ink rock rag, but we wouldn't hold our collective breaths.
• SIDECAR RADIO's new record, Dreadnought Cosmonaut, will hit the streets and the World Wide Interwebs October 6. We've heard fans of the excellent "Easy Gets So Hard" will be pleased.
• Speaking of new albums by big bands, watch out for DEAD SEASON's newest to be dropped September 13, at the OXFORD COUNTY FAIR (where else?).
