AYERVE
www.joseayerve.com
José Ayerve is the frontman and lead songwriter for the indie rock group SPOUSE. Ayerve is recognized mainly for his distinct 'feather smooth / sandpaper rough' voice, as well as his knack for exploiting the realm of catchy, heady, pop. Additionally, Ayerve has been functioning as the director of the band's label Pigeon Records which has developed into a small independent and regional collective. Ayerve is an active member of both the Portland, Maine and Northampton, Massachusetts music scenes (when he's not road managing Pernice Brothers).
RELEASES:
solo:
Cinco Pesos - EP, pgn 005 (2001)
with SPOUSE:
1 Marvel to DC - pgn 001 (1999)
Focus - pgn 002 (1999)
Nozomi - pgn 003 (2000)
Love Can't Save This Love - pgn 013 (2002)
Are You Gonna Kiss or Wave Goodbye? - pgn 017 (2004)
Relocation Tactics -
pgn 026 (2007)
BROWN
www.myspace.com/52270070
Miranda Brown arrived, sun-burned and disoriented, in the bustling musical metropolis of Austin, TX. Fresh from her triumphant win as best female vocalist in the Western MA - Valley Advocate's 2003 Reader Poll, she packed up her truck and decided to try her hand at winning friends and fans in a city known for it's welcoming embrace of up-and-coming artists.
With her debut CD, "Baystate" is an album about love, and loss, and vans. She recorded the album with a variety of musicians from the Pioneer Valley including Jose Ayerve, Ken Maiuri (Pedro the Lion), Scott Hall (Drunk Stuntmen), Don McAuley (Ware River Club), and Peyton Pinkerton (Pernice Brothers, New Radiant Storm King) to name but a few. Look for Miranda to play a bar, living room, or backyard near you soon.
RELEASES:
solo:
Baystate - pgn 018 (2004)
official website:
www.bullyclub.net
band:
Doug
Cowan - vocals, guitar
Mark McDonough - guitar, bass
John Nunan - drums, vocals
Josh Denkmire - bass (Not pictured)
also:
Jose Ayerve - guitar, sk-5, vocals
BULLY CLUB is a hard band to pin down. Neither a group of practicing bullies
nor a collection of recovering meanies, it's instead a quartet that revels
in making unapologetically melodic, literate guitar pop music. Music that
can be big or little. It can be dense or simple. It’s like indie-rock
that’s all grown up, or a singer-songwriter having a real bad day.
RELEASES:
Like Songs - pgn 004 (2001)
Tender Hooks - pgn 009 (2003)
Babbleluck -
pgn 021
(2006)
Tenure -
pgn 027
(2007)
CULT-MAZE (formerly
EXTENDO-RIDE
official website:
http://myspace.com/cultmaze
band:
Peet
Andrew
Jay
Joshua
EXTENDO-RIDE (RIP)
RELEASES:
You Are At the Top Level; You Cannot Go Up Another Level - pgn
037 (2002)
Cult-Maze:
35,36
(2007)
DENNIS CROMMETT
official website:
http://denniscrommett.com
Dennis Crommett is an ethereal guitarist, with a beautiful capacity to craft memorable melodies, delicate in their delivery and colorful in their effect.
RELEASES:
The Evening Sorrow
- pgn 024
(2006)
official
website:
www.lofine.com
band:
Brian Marchese - drums, vocals
Kevin
O'Rourke - vocals, guitar
Mark Schwaber - guitar, vocals
Bruce Tull - pedal steel, guitar
Thane Thomsen - bass, vocals
Lo
Fine has been winning over audiences from Boston to Atlanta to Ireland
and back. With his penetrating lyrics and achingly hushed songs, Kevin
O'Rourke lands his vocals on just this side of melancholy. Lo Fine create
expansive, beautifully literate songs that slip under one's skin with
a welcome ease. Less is
decidedly more, and the emotive resonance of the music speaks volumes.
RELEASES:
Nine - (no catalog #, 2001)
Slow To a Crawl - pgn 007 (2002)
Not for Us Two
- pgn 025
(2008)
FLOOD
official
site:
www.mikefloodmusic.com
Mike Flood is a prolific and politically charged songwriter with a talent
for capturing everyone's attention and holding it hostage. In 1997, he
released a 7" single on Sub
Pop. In 2002, he recorded an album, Canyon, which has been
completed and is pending release. Currently, Flood is beginning another
record to be produced by Scott Hall of the band, Drunk Stuntmen. Mike
Flood occasionally performs solo, and with various bands from the Northampton,
MA area.
Beautiful Knowledge - pgn 019 (2005)
MITCHELLS
official
website:
www.themitchellsrock.com
band:
Kayvan
Darouian - guitar
Jon Herbert - bass
Mike MacLean - drums
Caleb Wetmore - vocals, guitar
Vivid
constructions of unpredictable guitar patterns punctuated by hyper-
melodic bass and energizing drum lines reveal the Mitchells' admiration
for Pavement, the Wedding Present, and Polvo. The Mitchells formed in
the spring of 1994, on the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts.
Frontman Caleb Wetmore can be seen and heard regularly playing bass for
legendary indie band New Radiant Storm King.
RELEASES:
Hear Where You Are - pgn 014 (2003)
Slow Gears
- pgn 023
(2007)
TRADAR
www.loveandfootball.com/radartradar
Former Seattle staple Johnny Lomba, returned to his home state of Maine in 1997. He opened what will perhaps be regarded as the greatest music venue ever, of the east coast -THE SKINNY. It was during the three-year life of his club that Lomba formed and performed with the now defunct THRUTHEWIRES. It was also about this time that he began to record and perform under the name RADARTRADAR. Wind in Blue is not as much a collection of songs as it is a representation of atmospheres, internal and external. If you can imagine it - delay and reverb have rarely been used so effectively.
RELEASES:
Wind in Blue - pgn 008
co-released on
North East Indie Records
SANDRA
BLACK
website:
www.sandrablack.com
Sandra Black is a band from Morgantown, West Virginia. Indie-rock-style 'house' beats accompany a very vivid vocal imagery sung by one of the most distinct tones you'll ever hear. Everything fits perfectly, as songs are created with respect to free space, gorgeous runs of intermittent guitar lines, and moody bass lines, stirred amongst shiny percussion, and moody keys. This band sounds like no other.
RELEASES:
(self-titled) - krebstar
(2000)
The 40 Ounce Confession
-
pgn 020
(2005)
MARK
SCHWABER
website:
www.markschwaber.blogspot.com
Mark Schwaber is a Western Massachusetts mainstay who has added greatly
to the Pioneer Valley's legendary music scene. Schwaber's now-defunct
band, Hospital, was the focus of a brief yet influential revival of rock's
softer side. Mark Schwaber is a key member of LO FINE and an adjunct member
of SPOUSE.
RELEASES:
Two Years and Thirty Minutes - pgn 016 (2003)
The Killing Card
- pgn/lcr 022
(2006)
photo by Liz Bustamante
official
website:
www.spousemusic.com
band:
Jose
Ayerve - vocals, guitar, bass,
Naomi Hamby - guitar, synth, vocals
Ken Maiuri - guitar, synth, vocals
Don McAulay - drums, percussion
Michael Merenda - drums, vocals
JJ O'Connell - drums, vocals
Kevin O'Rourke - bass, guitar, vocals
Dan Pollard - bass, guitar, vocals
Mark Schwaber - bass, guitar, vocals,
with:
Liz Bustamante - drums, keyboards, vocals
John Cowden - guitar, bass, vocals
Alisha Goldblatt - vocals, bass, guitar, drumsGabe McElwain - guitar, bass, vocals
Erin McKeown - vocals
MaryKate O'Neil - vocals
Henning Ohlenbusch - bass, guitar, vocals
Philip Price - vocals
Flora Reed - vocals
Robert Voyer - bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals
SPOUSE
is a band whose music is perhaps best described as
"schizophrenic pop". The group has undergone countless changes
due mostly in part to the transient quality of its numerous members, present
and past. SPOUSE performs in various incarnations, from solo to septet,
though the unifying element is frontman Jose Ayerve.
RELEASES:
1 Marvel to DC - pgn 001 (1999)
Focus - pgn 002 (1999)
Nozomi - pgn 003 (2000)
Love Can't Save This Love - pgn 013 (2002)
Catch 22 - pgn 015 (2004)
Are You Gonna Kiss or Wave Goodbye? - pgn 017 (2004)
Relocation Tactics - pgn 026 (2007)