I recently stumbled on a rough demo of the song “Damrell’s Fire” that I thought you guys might like to hear.  The (finished) song will be featured on our upcoming album, The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry, due out later this summer. Click the link below to hear the rough demo…

The Dimes - Damrells Fire EARLY DEMO (click to listen)

A little background info: In the winter of 1871, Boston fire cheif John Damrell was in Chicago surveying the damage of the greatest fire the United States had ever seen. He was convinced that unless they took immediate action, Boston would soon face the same fate…and, unfortunately, he was right.  A terrible fire broke out in the old financial district of Boston, and the combination of the buildings being so close together and their wooden roofs made for a perfect storm…one could say the flames were “jumping roof to roof like they were running from a robbery”.  But Damrell’s actions and the changes that were made in the year before the Great Boston Fire may have saved the historic town - the firefighters in Boston were able to stop the fire before it spread through the entire city.  Along with these old photos from the aftermath of the fire, I also found a link to a letter that John Damrell wrote to the widow of a fallen firefighter - this letter, along with a ton of cool info, is on a website for a documentary about John Damrell called “Damrell’s Fire”. Catchy title, no? (Click here to read the letter.)

Have a great week y’all - see you soon,

Johnny

PS - to hear a more recent demo of the song, check the right column of the website - there’s a few new tunes to download including “Damrell’s Fire”…

In the spring of 1775, British troops were stationed in Boston and the ports had been closed in the wake of the infamous Boston Tea Party.  On the night of April 18th, word spread across Boston that the British were on the move, crossing the Charles River on their way to Lexington to arrest two Patriots, John Hancock and Sam Adams, and to seize the weapons depot in nearby Concord.  Dr. Joseph Warren instructed two men, William Dawes and Paul Revere, to ride north from Boston to Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams of the British plan - history has since forgotten poor Mr. Dawes, but the “midnight ride of Paul Revere” has become the stuff of legend…

“Paul Revere” was one of the first of the “Boston” songs and it’s a fun one to play.  In so many ways this song shows a band in transition - it has elements of the “Silent Generation” sound, especially in the chorus and guitar work, but it also has little hints of the sound and style that would become “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry“.  We had a couple of folks ask us about the song last weekend in Seattle, so I figured I’d post the demo this week - just click the link below to stream it (or right click on a PC, control click on a Mac to download it) -

The Dimes - Paul Revere DEMO (click to listen)

Have a great rest of the week and weekend and keep in touch -

Johnny

(NOTE: if you can’t see the above video, click here)

Hey all - here’s the second of two video blogs from our acoustic rehearsal a few weeks back. Many thanks to our friend Ryan for the camera work on these… (in case you missed it, free to check out the Liberator video blog here).  Both songs will be on our upcoming album, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry“, which is due out later in the summer.

I hope your week is going well so far - it’s been a nice one here in Portland, though the sun seems to have left us again today. But it’s supposed to be a great weekend, and one that we’re all looking forward to in the Dimes camp - we’ll be opening for the always fantastic Clumsy Lovers at the Doug Fir Lounge here in Portland on Friday night, and again at the newly reopened Crocodile in Seattle on Saturday night. I’m also excited to say our dear friend Ehren Ebbage will be rejoining us with his lap steel for these shows after a few months on the road. These are going to be fun shows for sure…

Have a great rest of the week y’all - we’ll see you soon -

Johnny

I started working on “Clara” a little over a year ago, and at one point was working on a sort of stripped down acoustic version, one that was a bit simpler than the version of the song that will appear on the new album.  I thought y’all might like to hear it - just click the link below to listen or download the acoustic demo -

The Dimes - Save Me, Clara (Acoustic Demo)

The lyrics of this one are inspired by a woman named Clara Barton - Clara was a nurse in the Cival War and was often called the “Angel of the Battlefield”. She later went on to found the American Red Cross after working with the International Committee of the Red Cross overseas during and after the Franco-Prussian War - in fact, she was awarded the Iron Cross of Merit by then German Emperor William I in 1873. Ah, Clara…

I hope you have a great week and if you get a chance, forward the song on to a friend or two…maybe they’ll like it and you’ll be the cool friend who turns them on to all that underground indie music : )

Johnny

This was one of the first songs written for the “Boston” record, and it’s still one of my personal favorites. The Liberator was an abolitionist newspaper from the mid-1800s published by a man named William Lloyd Garrison, who was himself a prominent abolitionist and activist.  Published during the years leading up to the American Civil War, The Liberator grew in circulation and popularity and gave a voice to those who some wanted to keep silent, at a time when slavery still plagued this country and a black man couldn’t even cast a vote.  That said, it was especially cool to get to play this song at a benefit show for the Artist Mentorship Program on November 7th of last year - 3 days after a black man was elected President of the United States.  It wasn’t about politics - it was about an incredible moment in the history of this country - and it was about time.  I think William Lloyd Garrison would have loved that moment, too.

“Liberator” is on our current EP, “New England” (available over on the right), and will be on our new album, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry”, due out this summer.  You can also find it on our Myspace and Facebook pages - stop by and say hi!

Have a great week and if you live on the west coast, check those tour dates…we may be headed to a town near you -

Johnny

This weekend marks the start of our short West Coast Tour (see the next blog down for dates!) and we kick things off with a show in Seattle at the Comet Tavern. It’s a special show in it’s own right, being a KEXP Presents show, and oh how we love KEXP.  They’re great people and huge supporters of independent music - they’ve been very kind and supportive to us and we’re always happy to take part in KEXP events.  It should be a great time and what a great way to start the tour…

I’m ready for the road trip, as it’s been quite the busy few weeks here at home…I’ve been a good little history student during the days, and continuing to work on mixing and tweaking the new album at night (gotta love the last minute vocal takes :)  But I’m excited (and relieved) to say that I sent the final mixes off to mastering last night, and we should have the finished album in hand by the end of the week…well, the music anyway…then we get to play with album art…

Speaking of art…I also had the chance to spend a few hours at the Portland Art Museum last week. A friend of mine told me that the Museum has one of Childe Hassam’s “Isle Of Shoals” paintings, which is mentioned in the song “Celia’s Garden“…and he was right…though it’s not the “Isle Of Shoals” painting mentioned in the song. As it turns out, Hassam painted several different works he titled “Isle Of Shoals” (the one mentioned in “Celia’s Garden” is “Poppies, Isle Of Shoals”).  The Portland Art Museum actually has several other paintings by Childe Hassam on display as well. Incredible stuff.  If you’re in the Portland area, or if you visit the city sometime soon, it’s definitely worth checking out.  They also have works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, and a handful of others I’m sure you’ve heard of.

I hope you’re having a great week and if you’re in Seattle this Friday night, come out and say hi -

Johnny

For those that stop by our Myspace or Facebook pages from time to time, you may have noticed some upcoming tour dates and cities have been posted recently. We’ll be jumping in the van and hitting the road here in a couple of weeks for a West Coast tour from Seattle to San Diego, and we just got final word on most of the dates and locations from the lovely gents at Pet Marmoset. We thought it wise to post the updated tour dates here on the blog…just in case you were wondering…

4/11/09 - Cherry City Music Festival, Salem OR  |  3pm

4/17/09 - Comet Tavern (KEXP Event), Seattle WA  |  9pm

4/23/09 - Alex’s, Ashland OR  |  9pm

4/24/09 - Monterey Live!, Monterey CA  |  8pm

4/25/09 - Kaleidoscope Festival, Long Beach CA  |  2pm

4/25/09 - The Soda Bar, San Diego CA  |  9pm

4/26/09 - University of San Diego, San Diego CA  |  7pm

4/27/09 - Zoey’s Cafe, Ventura CA  |  7pm

4/28/09 - The Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles CA  |  10pm

4/29/09 - Cal State Univ - East Bay, Hayward CA  |  12pm

4/30/09 - Menlo College, Atherton CA  |  8pm

5/1/09 - The Hotel Utah, San Francisco CA  |  9pm

5/2/09 - Blue Lake Casino, Blue Lake CA  |  9pm

Some of the times may change (ever so slightly) as the dates draw closer, so if you live on the West Coast and are planning on coming out to one of the shows, please call ahead and find out from the venue what time the shows start - (see venue links above for more info). For the specific show locations on college campuses, your guess is as good as ours : )  We’ll post any additional info we get on the college shows…and for the folks in Seattle and Eugene, don’t forget we’ll be in town this weekend (Seattle on Friday, April 3rd and Eugene on Saturday, April 4th)…

We’re looking forward to the tour and we hope to see some of you this month!

Johnny

It was only a few short months ago that we were standing in the construction site for what would become the new Mississippi Studios, in a light rain (there was no roof at the time), singing “Lovely Mary Dyer” for a video series called “Razing Mississippi“. Now, this coming Friday night, we’ll be playing our first full show under the roof at the new and improved venue. We’re extremely excited about the show, and honored to be sharing the stage with two of the best songwriters in town: the incomparable Chris Robley (a good friend and incredible musician), and the genius behind one of our favorite bands, Dolorean, singer/songwriter Al James. For more info on the show, visit the Mississippi Studios website at http://www.mississippistudios.com.

We’re also extremely excited to annouce that we’ve finished recording our new record, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry”, and will be sending the album to mastering in a couple of weeks. We’ll be posting the track listing on the blog page soon, but for now, in honor of our first full show back at the beautiful Mississippi Studios, it seemed fitting to post one of the songs slated to be on the new album, “Lovely Mary Dyer”, for you to listen to, download, and share.  And, of course, feel free to go back and watch the video from this past November (just click the picture below) as well…the place looks a lot different now!

The Dimes - Lovely Mary Dyer (click to listen)

Hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend, and maybe we’ll see you on Friday night?

Johnny

For over 140 years the Charles Street jail was the last place a person would have wanted to stay the night, much less serve hard time. But over the years, old Charles Street had a number of famous “guests” spend more than a night or two, inlcuding former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, who remained Mayor while in prison, letting the “clerks and the jerks” run the city until his release. And a former conman called Frank Abagnale, who’s name you might recognize from the movie “Catch Me If You Can“, spent a few nights within the famous walls of the Charles Street Jail.

Those famous walls are still there (most of them), but the place is anything but a prison these days. Less than two years ago, after several years of renovation, the old jail reopened as The Liberty Hotel. The building is an amazing piece of historic architecture, and Boston, being the historic place that it is, doesn’t like to see beautiful old buildings torn down. There are many nods to the Liberty’s historic past, such as the hotel bar, called the “Clink“, and the hotel lobby, which looks like it could have been a movie set from “Jailhouse Rock“.

When I read a story, several months ago now, about the old jail’s reopening as a swanky hotel, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a song there - here’s the acoustic demo we’ve been working from for the record version. If and when we get the band to Boston, I’m looking forward to singing this one in the lobby…

The Dimes - Charles Street (Acoustic Demo)

Have a great week and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Johnny

Charles Street Jail, circa 1930

Hey folks - hope you’re having a good week. I found myself needing a break from all the doom and gloom economy talk, so I took to youtube and The Beatles…a favorite pastime of mine. I found a couple of cool videos from the “Let It Be” sessions - both are of the song “Two Of Us“, and the second video easily could have been the keeper take (the ending is a bit different, but it’s a great take)…that said, the first clip is a rehearsal version where they are trying a very early version of the song. I’m guessing Paul must have been watching the Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special before trying this version…

Have a great rest of the week and if you need more nostalgia to lighten the mood…there’s plenty more where these videos came from…just head to youtube and type in “The Beatles“…

If you’re still bored at work and need another excuse to surf the web, come check out our new page on Squidoo! Make sure and say hi if you stop by…

Johnny