"Sibilance" is nothing if not loyal to our adoring public, so when they say, "jump," we say, "Who do you want us to call about that?" Recently, we got an inquiry about what was going on with the 6gig boys. So we got on the horn. Walt Craven says he’s knee-deep in a new project with drummer Shane Kinney (Broken Clown), Nick Lambert, and "Shifty, our bass player from Rhode Island," called Lost on Liftoff (Check out the Craven artwork on the starter page, www.lostonliftoff.com).

Craven says they recorded a few songs over at Big Sound with Jon Wyman last month ("Sibilance" have our greedy little hands on "40 Miles" and "Maybe You’re Right") and that the writing is coming so fast and easy that they’ve already got plans to get back in the studio soon. They haven’t played out yet, but Craven says they’ll "maybe play a couple shows out of town first, to try to work the kinks out," and though they "kind of told ourselves we’d be playing out by June, that’s not really realistic — so maybe July."

As for the music, it’s big radio rock, full of hooks and great choruses, from what we’ve heard. As you should expect, though, the songs are finely textured, and Craven’s voice is its standard vacillation between vulnerable and powerhouse. "It rocks," Craven assures us. "It’s not unlike 6gig. It falls somewhere between 6gig and [Craven’s late-’90s] Goud’s Thumb." Possibly most surprisingly, Craven says he’s "ditched all my pedals" and is going for a stripped-down guitar sound, "just guitar and amp," which leads to a very clean presentation (though Craven can still move up the fretboard in a heartbeat), bright and poppy. "I don’t know if you want to call it pop," Craven jokes, "but we’re not going to be ashamed to throw in the radio hook."

And if you thought Craven throwing out the fretboard was big news, "Sibilance" now has word that 6gig bassist Weave is putting together a three-piece that he’s going to front and play guitar for. They don’t have a name yet, but Weave has picked up Tom Abercrombie from the late Hot Dogs for bass duties, and Topsham crony Rick has returned from away to play drums.

"I’ve never heard Weave sing before," says Craven, "so I’m looking forward to hearing that."

As for drummer Jason Stewart, he surely got more phone calls than he knew what to do with as soon as the word broke of 6gig’s breakup. Lately, we’ve seen him mixing it up with Beat Mechanic Paul Bosse doing some intense guerilla drumming on the streets of Portland. And Craven says guitarist Steve Marquis is doing lots of writing in his own right, and wouldn’t be surprised to see him back out playing soon.

Likely, Lost on Liftoff will be the first band to deliver product to the thirsty masses, but Craven says early plans for an introductory EP may be put on hold because the writing just keeps getting better and better.

"This is the band we’ve always wanted to be in."