We’re thrilled to announce the release of our new record, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry”, with a local CD release show scheduled for Saturday, November 14th at Mississippi Studios here in Portland and an official national release to follow. The record will feature 12 songs, each with their own ties to historic Boston, MA (hometown of our own Pierre Kaiser) -

We’ll be playing two shows at Mississippi Studios that Saturday (Nov. 14th), with a special all ages acoustic show in the evening and a full show (with some very special guest appearances) later that night – tickets for both shows are available on the Mississippi Studios site…

CD release shows are also on the books for Seattle, Eugene and Ashland as well – just click the shows link for more info.  We can’t wait to get the new record out to you – in the meantime, you can find several demos and acoustic versions of songs from the upcoming record here on the site (see the new music player towards the top)…

Hope to see you all soon -

Johnny

Looking through all the blog posts and demos over the past few months, I realized that I hadn’t ever post a version of the song that started all this historic Boston madness…so here it is in it’s finished form. We actually decided to keep the original acoustic and vocal tracks from the demo on this one, adding a few little pieces here and there to round out the arrangement – Ehren’s old world sounding lap steel solo for example…feel free to download or stream the song from the link below:

The Dimes – Boston (Trimountaine) click to listen

We’re also hoping to have the final album artwork done in the coming weeks and I’ll make sure to post a picture of the album cover and the final track listing once we have it. Until then, enjoy the song and keep in touch…

Have a great week and we’ll see you soon -

Johnny

It’s a great thing when radio stations support their local music scenes – KINK FM here in Portland has been incredibly supportive over the years, and they’ve just released their 2nd annual “Local Music Sampler” which includes one of our songs, “Save me, Clara“, along with tunes from 19 other Portland artists.  Most of the songs KINK features on this sampler have also been getting a bit of airplay here in town from the kind folks at the radio station.  They tell me the CD samplers are available free of charge at KINK events this summer…

And speaking of KINK FM events, we’re going to be playing two KINK sponsored shows this week – we’ll be in Pioneer Square tomorrow (Thursday) for the KINK FM Noon Tunes show, playing a lunch hour set in downtown Portland.  We’ve had the opportunity to take part in this concert series for the past couple of years and it’s always a good time.  Then Friday afternoon my good friend Ehren Ebbage and I will be teaming up for a duo-acoustic show on the Portland Spirit for the KINK Escape Cruise music series.  We’re playing the afternoon cruise from 3pm to 5pm and will be playing some new tunes and some old favorites. Maybe an early exit from work on Friday is in order?

I hope you’re having a good week and hope to see you soon -

Johnny

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

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 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

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