Just returned from an European tour, you’d think the members of Cerberus Shoal would want to relax a bit, enjoy the Maine summer. Well, they’re enjoying it — enough to form another band. Threads is the newest project from the Shoal’s Caleb Mulkerin, Colleen Kinsella, and Chriss Sutherland, who’ve taken up with Micah Blue Smaldone (getting back to his bass-playing days). Apparently, "Threads spin an introspectively eerie tale with plenty of melody, harmony, and original strings." You can check out what that means when they play with Louisville, Kentucky’s SAPAT, a Sun Ra-influenced outfit, on August 9 at SPACE.

Speaking of Cerberus Shoal, old-school Shoal members (now in Tarpigh) Tom Kovacevic and Eric LaPerna have teamed up with Michael Gallant and Madeleine Hanna to form Alhan, a new ensemble that will be playing classical Middle Eastern fare. To be more precise, we’re talking "classical and popular Arabic and Ottoman music" here. That would be non-Western-scale-type stuff, played on things called nays, riqqs, tars, and darbukas. If that’s not interesting, we don’t know what is. They play July 28 at the Center for Cultural Exchange.

Frank Hopkins has been busy. Head honcho of Sweet Dream Recordings (a quasi-label/studio) and a singer/songwriter in his own right, Hopkins somewhat recently returned to Portland from a country-wide tour and has been recording Michael Hirsch’s next album, already titled Puppies of the Victorian Era. Plus, he’s been working with David Ames Paradis on his first full-length and says he’s starting EPs with both Gabrielle Raymond and Hopkins’ Subject Bias bandmate Katrina Abramo.

Who would have thought the Maine hip-hop event of the year would have been on the western shores of Lake Sebago? Yet, there it was, this past weekend, the wedding of Sontiago and jdwalker, Portland hip-hoppers who go back to the old Stone Coast days. The ceremony itself fittingly featured a bit of spoken word (and much Kleenex), though was surprisingly fairly traditional, even featuring a reading from The Prophet. Jd was attended by Moshe and Gabe FM, among others, and many in the hip-hop scene were in attendance and looking sharp. Bread weathered the hot temperatures in a slick blue corduroy jacket. Nomar Slevik was outfitted in a pin-striped suit anchored by a white shirt with blue piping. Former 6gig bassist Weave was looking downright preppy in a blue blazer before changing into something more comfortable for the reception, while Five Above frontgal Andi Fawcett looked plenty comfortable in a red tank and skirt. Also making the rounds were SPACE honchos Nat May and Todd Bernard and photographer Tanja Alexia Hollander. Whew! The "Sibilance" staff had trouble keeping up with such Portland celebrity.

Looking for some sweet urban jazz? Stick to the Monument Square area during the week. On Tuesdays at Shays, the Hot Club of Portland do the Django Reinhardt thing, fronted by Bryan Killough, who’s transcribed much of Reinhardt’s original performances. Then, on Thursdays, be sure not to miss the David Wells Trio at Meritage, featuring Wells on tenor sax, along with guitarist Tony Gaboury and drummer Steve Grover. Grover reports they’re doing "Dewey Redman, Ornette (Coleman), Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, and a few of my tunes, in addition to an array of . . . Monk tunes, and other jazz standards."