Tampa Calling

Concert Review
Tom Petty w/Steve Winwood
Wed., July 16, St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa

Tom Petty could have probably done his current arena tour with a no-name opener but instead opted for Steve Winwood, a rock ’n’ roll veteran with a history-making resume that includes stints in the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith, plus a successful solo career in the 1980s. Maybe we’d been better off with an up-and-comer, though.

7:35 Update: Winwood finds his faith

Winwood, on organ and lead vocals, takes the stage and promptly leads his band through a tedious jazz-rock workout laced with extended flute runs. The next number is the Spencer Davis Group hit “I’m a Man” but it’s stretched out into another meandering yawn that’s just slightly more vibrant than the opener. Winwood’s backing unit includes two percussionists and a flute/sax player that render each song a fusion-style bore. Things finally improve at 7:50 when Winwood offers a heartfelt reading of the Blind Faith classic “Can’t Find My Way Home,” which benefits from the slow-burning sax playing coursing through the sweet, familiar melody.

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I’ve somehow gone my entire life without seeing Tom Petty. That will change tonight and I’m stoked. I’ll be live blogging from the St. Pete Times Forum so check back for updates. In the meantime, here it is, the 10 songs that I consider his greatest contributions to the rock canon. Yeah, I’m mostly a hits guy with Petty. Although “Breakdown” has always annoyed me. Not sure why.

Top 10: Tom Petty songs

1. “American Girl”

2. “Southern Accents”

3. “Refugee”

4. “I Won’t Back Down”

5. “You Took My Breath Away” (Traveling Wilburys)

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Smashing Pumpkins have added two shows to their current tiny tour and miraculously, one of those is right here in the Bay area at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets for the Wednesday, August 20 show — which are $39 and $49 — go on sale at 10 a.m. this Friday, July 18; we suggest nabbing a pair ASAP as the show will most assuredly sell out.

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The singer/songwriter’s new disc will be titled Red Letter Year and issued on her own Righteous Babe label Sept. 20 30, reports Billboard.com. DiFranco alluded to the album when I interviewed her for an April cover story.

What projects do you have planned for the future?

In a couple days I’m going to go in the studio with the band, and we’re going to put a new record together. I’m also slowly recording [an album of] music for infants. I want to make something ambient to soothe infants — instrumental, very ambient. I started working on it when I was spending months with my infant. I sort of became aware that I wanted to make a record I wish I had to soothe her and help her sleep. I figure since I’ve made so much music over the years to wake people up, it was about time to make something to put them to sleep.

Click here to read my entire DiFranco interview.

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Tampa Bay’s best band, Have Gun, Will Travel, recently had its song “Blessing and a Curse” featured on National Public Radio’s Second Stage program. “I can’t think of a better name for a country-folk band…” intones NPR host Robin Hilton at the top of the segment. “They’re from Florida. Their music has a great energy to it with some infectious, sing along choruses and refrains.”

Here’s where you can download Hilton’s glowing introduction and HGWT’s “Blessing and a Curse.”

From NPR.org:

Have Gun, Will Travel’s Matthew Burke.

NPR.org, July 11, 2008 - Tampa Bay-based alt-country group Have Gun, Will Travel began as the solo project of lead singer and songwriter Matthew Burke, but has since become a full band. Burke put out HGWT’s self-titled debut release on his own in 2006. For the band’s sophomore release, Casting Shadows Tall as Trees, he’s assembled a group of six players, including his brother, Daniel Burke on bass. Casting Shadows is steeped in the country twinges of lap steel, harmonica, banjo, strings, and acoustic guitars. The record’s true strength is its artful tributes to classic westerns, tying the album stylistically and thematically to the wild-west in all its gun-blazing glory..

• Click here to view the new HGWT page on NPR.org in its entirety.

• Click here to read my HGWT feature story that ran in April, and here for a concert review of the band’s CD release party at Crowbar.

• Click here to enjoy more songs from HGWT’s excellent full-length debut Casting Shadows Tall As Giants.

• HGWT performs Sat., July 19 at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa as part of WMNF’s 3rd Annual Americana Fest.

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Seeing Sounds
N.E.R.D.
Interscope
On the third album by the Neptunes’ more rock-oriented side project N.E.R.D. — think Parliament vs. Funkadelic — Pharell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay serve up a sonic spread that’s groove-rich in an old-school funk way, yet frenzied enough to appeal to the ADHD set. Fuzz guitar, deep space synths, booty bass, found sounds and computer creations form an intoxicating party vibe. Problem is, like on previous N.E.R.D. discs, lowest-common-denominator lyrics delivered in flat raps and pedestrian singing are all over the place — making you wish this outing was instrumental only. 2.5 stars

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Tampa Bay-based Mohawk Bomb Records just issued its debut disc, an impressive compilation dubbed No Lip Vol. 1. The 13-track CD features bands running the rock gamut: alternative, indie, punk, emo, power pop, garage, screamo and Goth. Five of the acts are local: Soulfound, Adrift, Anareta, Knowing Stu and Drew Street Mary, all of which contribute winning numbers. The rest of the bands are from across the country and Canada, with the scrappy garage rockers Pirate Love calling Norway home.

“Mohawk Bomb Records is a new kind of indie label, trying to figure out how to outmaneuver the current music industry business model without having to drain our artists souls,” reads the letter sent to CL by label founder/Soulfound singer/bassist Ivan Pena. “We are driven to succeed on our own terms and bring new texture to the bland pourage that is the pop music sonicscape. We believe in 1) open communication 2) transparent accounting 3) using technology to drive music distribution and 4) reinvesting in our bands.”

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A little ’60s diversion for us on a busy Tuesday morning, here’s Joe Cocker’s breakout performance at Woodstock, with subtitles in English (sort of):

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Perusing the headlines today makes me wanna hit the Xanax bottle and crawl back in bed with a fantasy novel. How can you read “Scramble led to mortgage plan rescue (NYT),” “Ailing sentiment hits dollar and global stocks (FT.com),”  “Dollar slumps to record low against euro on U.S. sector woes (Forbesm.com)” and not feel a hangman’s knot in your stomach?

How does one cope? Well, besides thoroughly self-medicating yourself with drugs and escapist novels, the only other option is good music, and, in my case, blogging and writing. So let’s get past the gloom and doom and have a little fun — if you can call it that — with songs that speak to our country’s current economic woes.

 Top 10: Songs about the economy

1. “Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man),” Randy Newman

2. “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” Bruce Springsteen

3. “No Depression,” The Carter Family/Uncle Tupelo

4. “Working Man Blues,” Merle Haggard

5. “Storm of Worry,” Sonny Landreth

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Here are some more pics from the Vans Warped Tour that went down Friday, July 11, at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg:

Headline making Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy. Too bad his girl, Katy Perry, was a no-show Friday.

Gym Class Heroes flag/hype man Marc DeJesus (left) and bassist Eric Roberts offer a one-finger salute in honor of the asshole who led to McCoy’s arrest.

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Gainesville-based punk band Against Me! delivered a gloriously powerful performance Friday at the Vans Warped Tour, Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg. Against Me! lead singer Tom Gabel (pictured, left) was raised in Naples and the audience included friends and family in addition to thousands of fans. (The publicist told me they expected 14,000 concertgoers. I’d say 10,000 of them are enrolled at local high schools. Yep, I felt old).

That said, I had a blast watching Against Me!’s intense, precision-attack, 40-minute set and was also impressed by Gym Class Heroes and The Dollyrots. Incidentally, Katy Perry was a no-show. The publicist on site said she had to be back in New York but wouldn’t say why. Gym Class Heroes dudes didn’t offer any reason, either.

Posted below are my Against Me! pics, including this one of Gabel taking a break from lifting weights backstage pre-show to pose with the Loaf. I’ll be posting photos of Gym Class Heroes, The Dollyrots and We The Kings later in the day.

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The Vans Warped Tour arrives in Vinoy Park today and I’m stoked, went out this morning and purchased sunscreen and everything. I already interviewed Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel for this week’s Creative Loafing cover story and might be speaking to a couple other acts today, in addition to watching ‘em perform. The plan is to put up a blog post late this afternoon and then more coverage in the evening and/or tomorrow morning.

Anybody attending? Other than Against Me!, Gym Class Heroes, Katy Perry, and Bradenton’s We the Kings, what other cats do you recommend I check out?

Click here for more on Against Me!

Click here for today’s complete Vans Warped Tour roster.

Click here for the official Van Warped Tour page dedicated to today’s gig (includes directions to Vinoy Park, ticket buying info, etc.)

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Last night a Ruth Eckerd Hall, sitting at her piano on a stage decked out to look like a living room, songwriting legend Carole King came across as a pretty hip, sweetheart of a grandma. She pronounced proudly that she’s 66 years old.

When King exhorted everyone to sing along to the chorus of “Natural Woman,” she raved to the audience, “You guys are great!”

No we weren’t. (Although I did feel liberated crooning, “You make me feel like a natural woman.”)

After awhile, I was half expecting Carole to break out the chicken soup.

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After reading the numerous comments on Eric Snider’s controversial Dave Matthews Band post I decided to visit the Ford Amphitheatre yesterday to check out DMB. Maybe magic would occur and I’d be converted. I hoped th