Ron Harrity

Latest Articles

Giving intelligence to simpletons, fools, and Idiots

Going Nuclear
There are a few reasons not to get overly excited about the debut release from Nuclear Boots.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 22, 2011

Feeling bad with Good Kids Sprouting Horns

Animal instincts
We have a natural inclination toward harmony. We look for patterns and symmetry and create narratives out of coincidences.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 25, 2011

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper seeks her fortune

Sibilance
LADY LAMB THE BEEKEEPER continues to turn heads now that she's exited the Pine Tree State.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | February 02, 2011

Review: Put your hands together for Olas's debut album

Keeping time
It's hard to believe, surely, considering bands like Cerberus Shoal, Fire on Fire, and his solo work, but Chriss Sutherland may have outdone himself again with Olas.
By SAM PFEIFLE | November 11, 2010

Beer, boys and parking-meter woes

New anti-anthems from Foam Castles and the Rattlesnakes
As if you needed proof that Ron Harrity is one busy man (see: new releases from If and It, Honey Clouds, Marie Stella), two more albums finished off in his South Portland studio hit the streets this season in advance of your summer road trips.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 16, 2010

Must be Marie

Marie Stella's debut EP full of pop and Trust
I’ve always loved Sydney Bourke’s contribution to Satellite Lot’s Second Summer album, and it’s great to see a band built around her excellent lead vocals with the indie-pop Marie Stella.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 01, 2010

Run for Cover

Honey Clouds shake the trees and get noisy
If there was ever the idea that Honey Clouds were just Harpswell Sound with a new rhythm section, let their sophomore album, Cover the Forest , dispel it forever.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 26, 2010

We heart these people

Meet Portland's most influential
We all know Portland is a busy, exciting place to live. It takes a lot of people's amazing energy to keep it going, though. Who's doing the moving and the shaking?
By JEFF INGLIS | February 10, 2010

Local luminaries’ picks

A sample of other best songs of the 2000s
I asked a bunch of people who really dig local music to help me make sure I wasn’t leaving any songs out when I was developing my list of the best 10 songs of the 2000s, but then I quickly realized that “best” is about as subjective as things come when you’re talking about songs.
By SAM PFEIFLE | December 22, 2009

Brown Bird in Williamsburg

Road Trip
Along with other Mainers in Brooklyn this weekend playing at the Slumberland Records 20th anniversary celebration, Maine/Rhode Island chamber-folk standouts Brown Bird were also in the borough, playing the narrow Williamsburg bar Spike Hill Sunday night.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | November 18, 2009

No sleep ’til Brooklyn

Maine ties to Slumberland Records’ 20th anniversary weekend
There’s a lot to love about Slumberland Records, the DC-born, Oakland-based label that celebrated its 20th anniversary last weekend with sold-out shows in Washington, DC, and Brooklyn.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | November 18, 2009

Rock of wages

Huak intertwine politics, sentiment, and decades of influences
Huak are the rare local band who, in the two-plus years they've been playing regular gigs, sound bolder and more self-possessed every time you see them.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | August 26, 2009

Hot summer nights

Before the solstice hits, four albums drop
If the coming week is indicative of anything, it's that this is going to be one busy summer. Discs have been flooding into the office and there's no end in sight. In an effort to keep up, here's a collection of four reviews for albums being released before summer even officially starts.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 10, 2009

Portland Music News: May 22, 2009

Sibilance
Even more RON HARRITY : BIRD IN THE RAFTERS will release their debut disc, recorded with Harrity last year, with a show June 13 at SPACE Gallery. They're calling it Jetlag and it will feature, among other things, a book oscillator invented by COMPUTER AT SEA 's GALEN RICHMOND . No, we don't know what a book oscillator is, either.
By PORTLAND MUSIC STAFF | May 20, 2009

Falling into you

Something old, something new from Honey Clouds
Between Ron Harrity's skills as recording engineer, label guru (Peapod Recordings), and guitarist/sideman, he's racking up an impressive resume (see the accompanying review of the Isobell record for more details), and the new Honey Clouds record just adds to the list.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 20, 2009

Put your skirt on

Isobell are a girl with style, grace, and muscle
Portland's aggressive new frontgal can hit all the notes while she hits you in the face.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 20, 2009

Love and consequences

Three restless souls try to settle down
Two of indie music's most popular and tortured songwriters, Will Oldham and Neko Case, try to reconcile encroaching middle age with a past of bad habits on their new albums.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 18, 2009

Good to great

Dead End Armory offer treasures by the ounce
Harrity attributes the reverb’s warmth to the location of the recording, but there is also a collective consciousness here.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 07, 2008

A Peapod grows in Portland

A young label sports sonic wisdom
Harrity’s albums sound like the work of an invisible hand, and it’s apparent that he likes it that way.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | May 07, 2008

Honey Clouds

Music seen at Empire Dine and Dance, January 25, 2008
At last! Honey Clouds, an indie-rock four-piece full of familiar faces, emerged from their year-long gestation to play their first show.
By IAN PAIGE | January 30, 2008

A Peapod press

Ron Harrity launches a new label with discs from Blakeslee and Hughes
Really, you’d have to be crazy to launch a record label in these troubled musical times.
By SAM PFEIFLE | September 05, 2007

Portland scene report: August 10, 2007

Sibilance starts now
Pfeifle’s some kind of weird ass-obsessed freak, apparently.
By PORTLAND MUSIC STAFF | August 08, 2007

Early and often

Summer heats up quick and stays hot
There’s plenty to get excited about looking forward into the scant three months that make up the only great time to be in Maine.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 13, 2007

Dead End Armory

Music seen, February 17, at the White Heart
Don’t you love it when an already solid band just gets better?
By IAN PAIGE | February 21, 2007

Portland scene report: November 24, 2006

Sibilance
The Poor Valley Salvation Society, purveyors of the old-school and old-timey, have said goodbye to drummer Diane Toepfer.
By SIBILANCE | November 21, 2006

Portland scene report: November 3

Sibilance
Harpswell Sound call it “big news;” we call it nearly crushing.
By SIBILANCE | November 01, 2006

Sing for you

Harpswell Sound’s warm embrace
Let’s Go Anyway is an album awash in warm embracing guitars, mid-afternoon sleepy vocals, and sentiments perfect for that nine o’clock dusk where everything is possible and nothing really matters.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 31, 2006