The Dimes Blog

Hey all - hope the weekend is treating you well so far. Believe it or not, it’s been snowing again here in Portland, which is perfect for song ideas about Norman Rockwell paintings…

This is one I’ve had sitting around for a little while this winter - it’s a bit of a music box lullaby that I’ll find myself playing from time to time, but one that I’ve never really finished. With the sun shining off the snow on the rooftops of my little neighborhood, I found myself playing this song and shot a quick impromptu video. Thought you might enjoy it…

Happy New Year! Tonight the ball drops in Times Square on one of the best years I can remember - we started the year having just released “The Silent Generation” and we end it wrapping up work on our second full length record and having just released an EP of what’s to come in the “New England EP”.

‘08 was a year of politics in this country - I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It was a year of crazy ups and downs - from $4 a gallon gasoline to stock market crashes - a year where I had the chance to go to Italy and experience an incredible art and culture…and climb castle towers. It was a year of writing songs, almost 30 songs (that I’ll admit to), all surrounding the history and people of an amazing place called Boston. It was a year of new instruments, new beards, new friends and old friends…

Every year has it’s up and downs, but, for me anyway, 2008 had many more ups than it did downs. If you all get a chance to reflect on the year a bit, let us know what you’ll remember most about 2008. Happy New Year!

The Dimes - Auld Lang Syne (click to listen)

Johnny

Happy Christmas everybody - it looks like we’re going to have a white Christmas here in Portland, and since that’s a first for me, I must admit I’m still a bit thrilled to look outside and see the snow on the ground…

We’ve been, for the most part, stuck in our homes these past few days, and I’ve been working on a new song called “Abigail (Don’t Be Long)“. It’s a tune inspired by an incredible woman called Abigail Adams. I wrote a few weeks back about the John Adams show I saw not too long ago - Abigail was played masterfully by Laura Linney, and through the course of the show she absolutely brought her to life for me…in fact, the song could just as well be about Laura Linney : )

Either way, it’s a fun tune and one I’m looking forward to playing live. I figured, since it’s Christmas, I’d post the demo we’ve got in the works…I’ve still got plenty of ideas I want to try on this one, but it’s got some good bits in there that I think you’ll enjoy. Just click on the link below to listen and let us know if the player gives you any trouble…

The Dimes - Abigail, Dont Be Long (DEMO)

Have a great Christmas and stay warm out there -

Johnny

Hey y’all - hope you had a good weekend. Those of us in the Portland area have had a lot of snow (for us), and the roads have been pretty bad - we had to cancel our studio session today, but we braved it yesterday and got some good work done. That meant home studio time today, which is good too. I shot a short little video to show you the snow - those of you in the Northeast are used to this…

I’ve always thought it very cool that certain songs can almost take you back to a certain time or place in your life. You’ll remember where you were the first time you heard a song, or maybe you were somewhere really cool and a certain song was playing, and now that song always reminds you of that place - I have a couple of friends who make a mix CD at the end of every year with whatever songs or records they were listening to a lot that year - a bit of a time capsule, if you will. It’s a great idea - many thanks to Dan and Andrew, both of whom have given me mix CDs this week…

I probably won’t get around to making a mix CD this year (not while we’re working on this album anyway), but I started thinking about what I’d say if someone asked “what were you listening to in 2008?”. I got the other guys in on this one too - we spent a lot of time on the road this past year, and there’s always music playing in the van. I asked each of the guys to list 5 albums they were listening to a lot in ‘08 - Jake listed 8, but we made him cut it to 5…

Disclaimer: you’ll probably notice they’re not all necessarily new records, just what we were listening to this year. Here’s what we came up with:

Johnny:
Iron & Wine - Shepherd’s Dog
Tom Petty - Wildflowers
Matt Pond PA - Emblems (especially “New Hampshire”)
Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (my current fave)

Jake:
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Radiohead - In Rainbows
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Pierre:
Iron & Wine - Shepherd’s Dog
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends (among others)
MGMT -  Oracular Spectacular

Ryan:
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Ray Lamontagne - Trouble
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Sufjan Stevens - Illiniose

Honorable mentions: The Beatles - Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, The White Album, Sgt. Pepper’s…it always seems like there’s at least one Beatles record played on every road trip…which is why we get along so well…

Let us know what you guys were listening to in 2008 - favorite albums, favorite songs, whatever it may be. Hope you’re having a good week -

Johnny

The blog from Dec. 11th included a video clip from a friend at San Jose State University, not Santa Clara University. My mistake…

We love both schools, and we actually did on-air performances at both schools on the same tour…so that’s my excuse for getting them mixed up. Here’s pictures from that tour at both radio stations -

Hey y’all - hope you had a good weekend. It was a cold one here in Portland - we had a bit of snow yesterday, but that didn’t stop us from working in the studio for most of the day. After sliding through a couple of stop lights, I got to Pierre’s place without a scratch and tracked vocals for a few of the new songs. I had a lot of fun working on vocals for a new song called “Abigail (Don’t Be Long)” - we played around with different lyric ideas and phrases, and I think we made a lot of progress. We got the keeper vocal for another song called “Charles Street”, one that has become something of a favorite at the recent shows.

I also had some fun with a song I’ve been working on called “Maggie and Milly, Molly and May“. The lyric is straight from an E.E. Cummings poem - I’d never set someone else’s words to music before, and I love E.E. Cummings’ style and word play. I was playing the song idea for Pierre and he wanted to record it live, just as it was, so we did. Here’s a link to stream it - we’re not sure if we’ll end up recording this one and releasing it or not, but it’s a fun song.

The Dimes - Maggie and Millie and Molly and May

Have a great week and stay warm out there…

Johnny

A friend of ours just sent us a bit of video from earlier this year - we had the chance to do several “on-air” performances, mostly at college radio stations, on our spring tour along the west coast. This clip is from KSCU at Santa Clara University and we’re performing a bit of “Mary Dyer“, which was written just before this tour began. It’s only the last part of the song, but it’s an interesting video and a glimpse behind the curtain at what these on-airs are like - notice how we’re all crowded around the mic…good times. Thanks again to our friends at Santa Clara for having us on and for the video footage…

If you want to hear a full version of the song, scroll down a bit to the “Raising Mississippi” video - we’re performing “Mary Dyer” there as well. I hope you guys are having a good week! It’s been a cold one in P-town, but that’s what coffee’s for, right?

Johnny

Twenty-eight years ago today the world lost the most influential musician of our time in John Lennon…and we’ve missed him every day since. It’s no secret I’m a huge fan, both of his work with the Beatles and his solo stuff (I had the chance to cover “Watching the Wheels” recently) - I’ve also had the chance to be in New York on December 8th a few times, and it’s always an incredible thing to see: all the people, living life in peace, singing the songs of John Lennon in Central Park. It goes on for hours, well into the night, song after song, celebrating this man’s life and music. There’s so much love in those crowds, so many people from every walk of life, swaying arm in arm, singing together…and I think that’s exactly what John would have wanted.

Hey y’all - hope you’ve had a good week. It’s been a pretty mellow one here in P-town.  We had another solid recording session last night, and slowly but surely we’re starting to see the new record take shape. And speaking of the new record, here’s another song making it’s way towards the album. This is one of my personal favorites - I had a lot of fun with the lyrics and the imagery on this tune, and it’s full of strange bits of history. It’s a story set around the Great Boston Fire of 1872, which some say might have destroyed the entire city had it not been for Boston fire chief John Damrell. Check it out and let us know what you think…

The song is posted for you to listen to and/or download with the other demos, over towards the right…

Lithograph of Boston and the Great Fire of 1872 (Courtesy of the Boston Public Library)

-Johnny