• ERIC BETTENCOURT continues to create buzz with his debut full-length, Fine Old World, released last month. Adding to spots on WCSH's 207 and CHARLIE GAYLORD's Greetings from Area Code 207 is an inclusion on iTunes's January "Indie Spotlight" compilation, a 20-song mix consumers can buy for $19.80. Bettencourt finds himself alongside indie songwriter heavyweights like ANDREW BIRD, JOSE GONZALEZ, BON IVER, NEKO CASE, and ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS. Apparently, the inclusion came as a surprise to Bettencourt.
• RETTA CHOATE will release her latest CD, Daddy's Mill, with a show March 14 at Bowdoin College in Thorne Dining Hall. It's the Farmington native's second disc, a follow up to 2003's Milkglass Flame, and continues in her vein of acoustic folk/pop.
• Producer/DJ/record exec MOSHE continues to make news. His second solo album, Thinning the Herd, has been picked up by the Russian label 2-99, based in Moscow, and will be out later this year. It features any number of guest appearances from vocalists far and wide. Russia is represented by GEORGE KORG; Germany by DJ BIZKID and AUDIO88; Canada by EPIC, IRA LEE, TOUCH, and GENEVA.B; and the local contingent includes DILLY DILLY, A-FRAME, BRZOWSKI, NOMAR SLEVIK, SYN THE SHAMAN, the ROCKET, and KRISTINA KENTIGIAN (formerly of ILL NATURAL). But that's not all for Moshe. He's also got a team-up in the works with SHAWN SAINDON of HISS & CHAMBERS. The full-length release is planned for the end of the year, roughly 10 songs, somewhat along the lines of the remix album that Moshe's MILLED PAVEMENT label released for Hiss & Chambers last year. It'll be dark and slow and goth and synthy, that's for sure.
