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

The Dimes at St. Cupcake from The Penny Jam on Vimeo.

The Penny Jam is a video series out of Portland that features artists in unique locales…so when asked where we’d like to shoot, we naturally chose a cupcake shop. A huge thanks to Portland’s beloved St. Cupcake for letting us in the doors…and for sparing a few cupcakes…and to Scott Carver and The Penny Jam Team for inviting us and for the great film work -

“Abigail, Don’t Be Long” is one of the songs slated to appear on our upcoming record, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry”, due out this fall. You can also find an early demo of this song here…

Here’s hoping you have a great week -

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

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

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