Were you at the Free Street Taverna for their weeklong Battle of the Bands back in February, but can’t really remember what happened? Yeah, the Free Street will do that to ya. No worries, this weekend they’ll be releasing a Battle of the Bands compilation double-disc set (we told you this would be happening), which features 22 tracks by 21 bands — winner Confusatron get the bonus cut. We haven’t heard the whole thing, but the three-track pre-release sounds pretty damn good, and is an indication of the crazy variety you’ll encounter here: it moves from a languid and harmonica-filled "45" from Dominic and the Lucid to Eric Green and the Frozen Swamp Choppers doing a boozy, bluesy, crunchy "Hot All Day" to Loki’s quick-vocaled modern rock funk of "Beloved." All of it has been expertly recorded by local live-engineer-wizard Pete Nenortas and sounds pretty great, even the drunk yelling, "you guys are awesome."

Still not clued into the Beat Mechanic? Well, he’s Paul Bosse, and you can catch him doing his crazy percussion-with-everyday-object thing at SPACE this weekend, or you can buy his DVD. That’s right, This Is a DVD is now available at Bull Moose and is a great document of Bosse’s live performance (for those of you who are scared of "nightclubs"). What Bosse does takes great precision and feel for music — in less talented hands, this could be noise at its worst. But Bosse is expert at culling melody from the unlikeliest sources.

Unfortunately, word came in too late to preview the show, but Lost on Liftoff, a new rock project featuring Walt Craven and Shane Kinney, among others, played their first show on July 22. They picked a pretty neutral out-of-town venue: the Hogstrough Saloon, in Manchester, New Hampshire. If you made it, report in to "Sibilance" to tell us all about it. We’ll try to be on top of their first show in Portland.

A-Frame and Mike Clouds have their sophomore record all ready to roll already. Just a few short months after the release of Life on a Barstool, the MC + DJ pair expect to drop Life with a Hangover — the logical extension — by mid-August.

Tim Reid, a local songwriter currently putting together a project called the Toys, says he’ll be starting up Art Before Industry Records — ABI Records, for short. "Basically, it’s going to be an artist co-op," he says, where members pool money and resources for recording time, equipment, etc. The Toys record will be the first release.

Wondering how Dead Season are doing? While they work on their full-length release, they were psyched to open for none other than Quiet Riot, at the Crosswords in Ellsworth, July 26. No word on whether the bands joined together for an encore of "Cum on Feel the Noise."

Be on the lookout for the debut full-length from Project Dark, a collaboration between local hip-hop types Moshe and KGB. Here’s how Moshe describes it: "The songs flow into each other like there’s no distinct start/stop point, only to leave a grey hazy transition. Though both members of Project Dark are known for their ‘hip-hop’ roots and familiar sound, Project Dark itself steers more towards a smokey, dark bar soundtrack. Touching on controversial subjects and content, but never lacking taste and maturity, Project Dark is certainly going to be the next cult classic, for the album’s plot plays out like a movie, and the forthcoming video for the track, ‘Guilty Sting,’ will captivate even the judgmental." We’re sold.