Tampa Calling

Tonight, May 31, 2009, Phish returns to the road and kicks off the first leg of their summer tour at Fenway Park, home field of the Boston Red Sox and the oldest of all current MLB stadiums. Phish, the band that inspired this ongoing column (and changed the lives of me and everyone who reads this thing and plenty of others who don’t), will hit the stage at 6:55 p.m. and fill upwards of 30,000 fans (including my good friend AAAlex) with joyous satisfaction. (Screenshots of the first-night-back video — with Fenway’s organist playing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” then cracking his knuckles and launching into “Tweezer” while various appropos shots of the stadium flash by — after the jump.) The rest of us will watch from the sidelines, checking the regularly updated From the Road setlists, watching various #Phish Tweets from the show (my own not from the show here), and eagerly awaiting our own upcoming Phish adventures.

With a new spat of Phish shows to be reported on, Phish Saves America (PSA) is officially off hiatus. Not that it was ever really on hiatus, but I’ve admittedly took a bit of a break since Hampton, letting all the little Phish news bites fall through the cracks while I set some things in order. (Translation: I’ve been busy.) But the upcoming weeks will find both me and Tampa Calling contributor B.Treotch (also of Coventryblog.com) at several different upcoming Phish shows, which means plenty of coverage. B.Treotch will be at Asheville (maybe?) and Knoxville, and will serve as Creative Loafing’s on-site reporter at Bonnaroo with various Tweets and whatever else we can manage at the Tennessee fest, and a post-fest wrap with all the media we can manage. I will be road-tripping up to Knoxville in an RV with some Bonnaroo-bound friends and other taggers-on next Tuesday (look out for plenty of Tweeting and a post), then I’ll be hitting the last three shows (in Indiana and Wisconsin, respectively) the following weekend. The Gorge will follow in August if my husband and I can juggle the finances as planned.

But for now, let’s start with something fun — a “What If” of sit-ins that has Phish performing with a select roster of other Bonnaroo artists.

Phish Sit-Ins I’d Like to See at Bonnaroo: Read the rest of this entry »

I am dating a guitarist. Original, I know.

The point is, though, that I have a unique inside vision to the woes that local bands endure. Joel, my boyfriend, is in the band Dreadful Memories (who freakin’ rock by the way — check them out). They work so hard, I mean really. Whenever Joel and I both have a day off, it’s hardly spent together because he needs to get to practice. All the members of the band have at least one part time job, some of them have two and all of them struggle to make ends meet.

I have bought more than my fair share of tickets to their shows, just to make sure they sell enough to be able to play. They’ve dealt with producers and agencies that seem to care only about profit rather than actually helping local bands make it. They struggle to have enough time for the band and the rest of their lives. They deal with the struggles of everyday life while trying to win the right to their dreams day after day. It just seems like they can’t get a break.

For example; drummers suck. Read the rest of this entry »

While there has been no “official” confirmation from the band, I thought the dead website & canceled dates were pretty telling so I asked a couple of local promoters. I’ve heard it from enough people now that I feel pretty comfortable saying it’s true, the Summerbirds in the Cellar have broken up.

No big blowout or anything. Just decided that this particular project was done.

The local music scene will be worse without SITC, best of luck to them in their future endeavors.

Summerbirds in the Cellar – Wicked World video: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve come to terms recently that I like to be rushed when I write. I usually wait till the very last moment to start doing all my writing. Drafts? Pfft. Who needs those? I shoot from the hip. When my iPod plays the five songs that are to be used for an issue I immediately try to tie them all together in some kind of basic theme or idea.

Something to make it interesting and make you, the reader, keep reading. For this issue however, a lightning storm went off over my head. I guess it was only a matter of time considering the incessant rain we’ve been getting here in ol’ sunny Florida. Sunshine State my ass. Read the rest of this entry »

Tito Puente
Dance Mania
(RCA/Legacy)

Mainstream America’s embracement of Latin music really took hold in the latter half of the 1950s with the “mambo craze.” Despite its faddish overtones and eventual disintegration into novelty (”Mambo Italiano”), this particular craze inspired some terrific music, none better than Tito Puente’s Dance Mania, which in 2000 was named one of the 25 “most significant albums” of the 20th century by the New York Times.

Puente, a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican heritage, was a brilliant percussionist (especially on timbales), composer and arranger, all of which are on display in this two-CD expanded edition that includes the original album and 1960’s Dance Mania Vol. 2 (both with bonus tracks).

Check out CL’s one-stop music site.

Read the rest of this entry »

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan is recovering from a cancer scare! First hospitalized for gastrointestinal issues on May 12, Gahan couldn’t shake what his people thought was just a nasty stomach flu (I think swine flu was ruled out early on). It’s a good thing Detective John Kimble wasn’t around, because it was definitely a toomah!

From the band’s website:

On May 12th, lead singer Dave Gahan suffered a severe bout of gastroenteritis, leading to his hospitalization and the cancellation of the Athens concert. While in hospital, further medical tests revealed a low-grade malignant tumour in Dave’s bladder, which has since been successfully removed. At doctors’ orders Dave Gahan must take a break until June 8th, to ensure that he makes a full recovery. The Leipzig show on June 8 will be the first concert following Dave’s recovery.

All told, Depeche Mode cancelled or postponed 15 shows in the four weeks Gahan will spend out of commission.

How will this affect their September 4 show at the Ford Amp? Read the rest of this entry »

Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood sent out a recent e-mail that contained lots of interesting information I thought I’d pass along:

• Patterson’s second solo album, Murdering Oscar (and other love songs), is available for pre-order. One of the pre-order packages includes an autographed, 180-gram vinyl album, a digital download, and a signed and numbered giclée of the album artwork (by Wes Freed).
• Summer dates are scarce but Patterson hopes to take his merry band of Screwtopians (David Barbe, Will Johnson, Scott Danbom, John Neff and Brad Morgan) on a coast-to-coast tour sometime later this year. (PATTERSON! YOU GUYS REMEMBER WHERE FLORIDA IS?????) Read the rest of this entry »

Kate Earl … you may or may not have heard of her, but she is putting out an EP June 9 on Universal Republic/Casablanca Music. She is a very thoughtful and hardworking LA-by-way-of-Alaska artist. Some have compared her to Lily Allen, but her sound leans more towards artists such as Cat Power, and Feist. You can hear her entire EP at KateEarl.com.

She also has loads of video blogs that she titles “Life Of Kate“, where you can get to know more about the adorable Filipino Alaskan.

Also check out this live, stripped down video of her single “Melody.” Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Log came. Bob Log saw. Bob Log asked us to shit down his leg.

To say that Bob Log kicked ass this past Sunday, May 24, is an illustration of words not doing a show justice.

To say you missed a fantastic show is less a declaration and more of me pointing and laughing at you, the lazy masses of the Tampa/St. Pete music scene.

So yeah, Bob Log came and, in typical fashion, Tampa/St. Pete didn’t.

You Suck.

Bob Log fucking ruled.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’m gonna let James’ photos do the rest of the talking since all I wanna talk about is how shitty the Bay area’s music scene is and how sick I am of making excuses for it … It rained. Gasparilla is 278 days away, etc. etc. etc. But before I go, lemme ask you, Tampa, lemme ask you St. Pete: Why is it Orlando’s music scene can be so damned good and ours so freaking shitty? Read the rest of this entry »

Bass playing maverick Les Claypool — whose co-headlining tour with Matisyahu stops at Jannus Landing this upcoming Monday, June 1 — is currently celebrating the release of his second and most recent solo release, Of Fungi and Foe. This high quality slice of avant rock bizarrity is inspired by two soundtrack projects Claypool worked on last year, one for the Wii video game, Mushroom Men, about an ongoing civil war between Earth’s small population of formerly regular fungi who, along with various other native flora and fauna, gained sentience from a comet that crashed to Earth); and the other for the forthcoming horror flick, Pig Hunt, described as “a guy’s weekend of hunting gone wrong in the backwoods of Northern California, set amidst the chaos of marijuana, meth, rednecks, and a killer cult that worships a legendary 3,000 pound wild boar called ‘The Ripper.’”

The first single to get video treatment, “Red State Girl,” has the sort of weirdo feel you’d expect, with its players in freaky masks (are they presidents, or no-name cartoonish politicos?). Anyway, because I can’t embed the video, all I can do is show you a screen shot (see below) and offer you a link to the actual YouTube vid — click here to check it out.

The owner of one of St. Petersburg’s favorite concert venues, Jannus Landing, is in the Pinellas County Jail after state agents busted him on charges he didn’t pay sales taxes he collected at the concert site, which has hosted shows for the likes of Katy Perry and Conor Oberst in the past year. The venue is supposed to host a free show for The Hold Steady on Thursday.

The Times reports:

John C. Bodziak, the owner and president of Jannus Landing Courtyard, was arrested by state agents today on charges that he failed to pay $208,418 in sales tax from one of Tampa Bay’s most popular concert venues.

According to the Florida Department of Revenue, Bodziak collected sales tax from patrons of Jannus Landing at 220 First Avenue N, but didn’t send the state its share over various periods from June 2004 to July 2007. Investigators say Bodziak kept more than $200,000 meant for Florida’s coffers.

Cross-posted from the Daily Loaf

Another band not coming to a town near you, Chicago experimental post-prog rock-n-jazz quartet Tortoise has announced a tour that makes stops in Greece, Japan, France and Belgium, hits nine US cities over the course of three months, and never once ventures further south than Austin. The band is set to release their latest album and first in more than five years, Beacons of Ancestorship, on June 23 via Thrill Jockey, and will supposedly announce another string of U.S. dates in the fall. Here’s hoping for a Florida run. Or at least a stop anywhere in the state.

Check out the video for their new single, “Prepare Your Coffin” and current tour dates: Read the rest of this entry »

Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams has told Rock Sound that naming the songs on the band’s upcoming third album might be an easy process:

”We only have a few song titles confirmed at the moment,” she admitted recently. ”I was looking through my journal the other day and wondering if we are going to keep a lot of the working titles we have been using while writing. I know a lot of people have grown used to novel length song titles that are pages long but that has never really been our thing, I think we might keep the song names as they are at the moment and not change a thing!”

Following that comment Williams stated that ‘Ignorance’, ‘The Only Exception’, ‘Brick By Boring Brick’, ‘Misguided Ghosts’ and ‘Feeling Sorry’ are the only confirmed track titles thus far.

Paramore have been playing new song ‘Ignorance’ live recently (video below).

Currently on the road opening for No Doubt, Paramore is one of the better/lasting acts to come out of the Warped Tour in the last 5 years. This third as-yet-untitled release may solidify their status or doom them to overhyped limbo. The Tennessee-based band pop-punk band found breakthrough success on their 2007 album “Riot!”. Read the rest of this entry »

A few Fridays ago, I had the pleasure of seeing the Ghetto Love Sugar reunion. The band — a local experimental jazz jam outfit that enjoyed its heydey several years ago and played their last show in ‘03 — re-banded for a single show when drummer/percussionist Jon Priest returned to town for a weekend of performing. Priest (now a resident of Boone, N.C.) sat in in with pretty much every band he helped shape over the course of his many years that Friday night: Middle Rhythm Session, GLS, the funk-jazz foursome Infinite Groove Orchestra, and reggae masters Rocksteady@8.

That night, Priest told me he was going to play “until I can’t play no more.” And he did. The GLS set was, IMO, one of the most spirited parts of the night, though IGO pretty much KILLED it. (If you haven’t seen IGO perform, sans Priest, they play Yeoman’s Road Pub every first Friday of the month.) Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post some video from that night that a local music lover sent me, but just didn’t get the chance until today. Here’s two, parts one and four, the latter featuring GLS playing a smokin’ cover of The Beatles’ “Within You, Without You” from the May 8 show. Read the rest of this entry »

As an addendum to my recent column, “Traveling to see music without losing your money (or your mind),” I’ve put together this small group of shows and fests that provide some good selections for music-motivated travel. If you haven’t already made travel plans this summer, here are some of your best bets.

Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio
Saturday, June 13, The Tabernacle, Atlanta
If you wanna go, get your tickets now — it’s a Saturday night co-headlining bill featuring of two of Brooklyn’s most hip and beloved bands, both with recent albums — Grizzly’s just-released Veckatimest, TVOTR’s fantastic Dear Science from last year — so the show will most definitely sell out. I would be at this show, front row, if I wasn’t just returning from a music-motivated vacation that same Thursday.

The Decemberists (pictured) with Andrew Bird and Blind Pilot
July 18-19, Edgefield, Portland, Oregon
The chamber rock quintet only comes as close as Atlanta and plays that date on Wednesday, June 3 — not at all convenient for a road trip unless you plan on taking that week off. But the tour also includes this appealing Saturday-Sunday run in Portland, and with whistling singer/songwriter Andrew Bird, and Portland’s own indie pop duo, Blind Pilot. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the first wave of rock legends has passed that used-to-be retirement age of 65, a new crop of important artists is closing in on 60. Over the last few months, it surprised me to discover just how many prominent rockers were 59. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, to name a handful.

I got curious if this was a particularly good age for rockers. Rather than telling you how many rock artists are 59 at this very moment, I did a search and unearthed which ones were born in 1950, the height of the post-WWII baby boom. Quite a few, as it turns out. Here’s a chronological list of pop artists born in 1950. A pretty good year. The list is extensive but not all-inclusive:

January 9, 1950, David Johanson (New York Dolls, Buster Poindexter)
January 5, 1950, Chris Stein, (Blondie)
January 21, 1950, Billy Ocean
January 23, 1950, Danny Federici (E Street Band)

January 23, 1950, Pat Simmons (Doobie Brothers)

February 6, 1950, Natalie Cole
February 12, 1950, Steve Hackett (Genesis)
February 20, 1950, Walter Becker (Steely Dan)
March 2, 1950, Karen Carpenter (The Carpenters)
March 4, 1950, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)
March 21, 1950, Roger Hodgson (Supertramp)
March 26, 1950, Teddy Pendergrass
March 27, 1950, Tony Banks (Genesis) Read the rest of this entry »

VINYL:

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Smoking Acid EP

Elvis Costello – Secret Profane & Sugarcane
Features a strong collection of country and bluegrass session musicians; produced by T Bone Burnett. Vinyl has two bonus tracks not on the CD. Compact Disc out NEXT week.

Karen Dalton – It’s So Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You The Best
The 1969 re-issue of her Capitol Records debut, including two Neil compositions alongside material by Tim Hardin, Leadbelly and Eddie Floyd/Booker T. Jones. One of the great, overlooked talents of the New York folk scene of the early ’60s, no less than Bob Dylan and Nick Cave have called her an influence.

Steve Earle – Townes

Eminem – Relapse

Faust – So Far
9.6 Pitchfork rating;
9.9 Brian Repetto rating

Holly Golightly reissues

• Down Gina’s at 3
• Painted On

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
2-LP and booklet

Method Man & Redman - Blackout 2 Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Wednesday, May 27: The Dead (rerun, April 23)
Thursday, May 28: The Killers (May 11)
Friday, May 29: Wynton Marsalis (May 13)

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Tuesday, May 26: Dwight Yoakam
Wednesday, May 27: Sarah McLachlan
Thursday, May 28: Prince
Friday, May 29: James Taylor

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Friday, May 29: Erin McCarley (rerun, April 20)

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC
Tuesday, May 26: Keane
Wednesday, May 27: The-Dream
Thursday, May 28: Rodney Atkins

(Video of Tori Amos and the rest of the schedule on Leno after the jump)
Read the rest of this entry »

What’s probably the coolest electronic show of the summer is going down tonight at the Crowbar in Ybor. Soft Rock Renegades, CL’s Best of the Bay winner for Best DJ Night, are celebrating their one-year anniversary with live performances from two well-respected electronic artists — The Juan Maclean (DFA/NYC) and The Field (Kompakt/Sweden).

The Juan Maclean are touring in support of their new album, The Future Will Come. You can expect a full-on live show, somewhat reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem (and not just because Nancy Whang is also in the band). With The Field it’ll be a little different as Axel Willner creates huge soundscapes via a minimalist approach from behind his set-up. The Field just released a new album, Yesterday and Today, though hopefully, Willner won’t forget about material from the standout 2007 release, From Here We Go Sublime.

As always, the price is right for Tuesday nights at Crowbar: $5 liters, $10 cover, all ages kids; showtime is 9 p.m.

Check out a David Lynch/The Field video mash-up after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Vinyl Fever is not only open today, but hosts a Memorial Day listening party of Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear’s third and latest album (due out tomorrow, May 26). In honor of the listening occasion, the store also offers a sale of used CDs and records, and gives away lithos with the purchase of new Green Day, Tori Amos and/or Grizzly Bear albums. Buy enough music stuff and put it all in a Record Store Day tote (while supplies last). The listening party begins at 2 p.m. Regular store hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m.. Vinly Fever is located at 4110 Henderson Blvd., Tampa.

On that note, I’d just like to say that David Letterman has jumped the shark. Grizzly Bear’s appearance last week got bumped for — get this — GM’s Bob Lutz, who talked so much that there wasn’t time for a string quartet-assisted Bear to perform “Ready, Able.” Yeah, bumped for Lutz, and I watched the whole damn episode, and boring Lutz (who gave away a car or some such bullshit) just to find out I’d wasted an hour (well, less than an hour as I DVR’d it and fast-forwarded through the commercials and Letterman’s routine). So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s the Bear on Letterman from last July playing “Two Weeks.” Read the rest of this entry »

I missed her the last time she came to town, but you can bet I’ll make sure to catch Texas-based songstress Izzy Cox (aka the “Murder Ballad Queen”) this time around. Cox croons in a clear, honeyed soprano that slinks and slides against voodoobilly jazz, bouncy Western swing and honky tonkin’ blues. Her songs reflect a perverse sense of humor and feature a colorful cast of hard-bitten women, from a hoodoovoodoo type of girl who likes switchblades and Colt 45, to a mad woman in the Number Nine Ward with voices in her head telling her she’s dead, to “Belle Gunness,” an old folk tune about one of America’s most notorious female serial killers.

Thurs., May 28, 9 p.m., The Garage, St. Petersburg, $6 in advance/$8 day of show.

Akron/Family
Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Last year, America’s indifferent masses finally acknowledged the country’s desperate need for change and elected a leader who not only represented change but inspired confidence, re-affirmed those freedoms we held so dear, and gave us back our sense of patriotism without making us feel ashamed of it. The dark times aren’t over, but we’ve filled ourselves with enough hope to get by.

You get the idea that Akron/Family is feeling the same sense of re-claimed patriotism before even hearing their new album. The cover of Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (Dead Oceans) features the American flag, its star-spangled square replaced by a tie-dye swirl of white on faded navy, its broad stripes wrinkled and gaping in spots. But it still hangs proud and defiant, if a bit worse for wear. (Video and rating after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Magic & Fur is a London-based sextet made up of Chris Wilde, Gary Legend, Gavin Ellis, Julian Simon, Artur Dyjecinski, and Dom Ryan. This week, the band launched their debut single, “Christine,” and in the midst of the celebration madness, Chris found some time to talk with me about who in the heck Christine is, what’s in store for the band in the future, Leonard Cohen and, of course, prescription drugs. Read the rest of this entry »

New from No Clear Records: a schizophrenic compilation colliding different genres of the underground and crapping them together in one easy to swallow CD-R. No Clear, No Eyes Volume 2 spirals around themes of frustration, loneliness and salvation through the lenses of punk, no wave, garage, folk, experimental, noise, comedy, avant garde, rock ‘n’ roll and more without batting an eye. All thought up, recorded and executed right here in Florida (mostly Tampa Bay, though other acts hail from Gainesville and Melbourne), this compilation accurately depicts the underbelly of Florida culture that more and more people are seeking out as mainstream alternatives to their cultural intake.

Tonight, Friday, May 22, 2009, Cafe Bohemia hosts a compilation release show for this seminal Florida mix featuring live music from some of Tampa Bay’s most exciting weirdos. 937 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 6 or 7 p.m. start time (it’ll go all night). (Follow the jump for track listing.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Willie Heath Neal plays country music. That’s what I’d call it, that’s what he calls it. But if you listen to popular country radio, you’d disagree. You’d call his songs “alt-country rockabilly” or “cowpunk” or “outlaw country” or “hillbilly” or “psychobilly.” Really, there seem to be endless ways to describe the man’s music by tacking “billy” onto the end of a word. But what really matters as we hash it all out is that he knows how to write a good song. That’s all I care about, and that is exactly what matters when you’re in Ybor City on a rainy Tuesday night at Crowbar to see Willie and his gang play. I don’t ordinarily listen to country music (I adore The Old 97’s, but here again, they don’t seem to count), so I had no idea what I was getting into, but I loved every minute of it. Read the rest of this entry »

The Silent Years are releasing a new EP, Let Go, on July 14 and it’s a must have.

Check out the first single from Let Go, “Madame Shocking” here.

Click here to read the Merry Andrews review of the album.

To purchase Let Go from iTunes, click here.

To purchase it from Amazon, click here.

*Special thanks to SideCho Media for the “Madame Shocking” mp3.

For those as far out of the loop as myself, Street Sweeper Social Club is The Coup’s Boots Riley and RATM/AudioSlave guitarist/Nightwatchman, Tom Morello. They’re currently filling the opening slot on the Jane’s Addiction / NIN tour. (Pictured below playing the May 9 show at Ford Amphitheatre; photo taken by Phil Bardi.)

I saw Boots last year while he was out on the road with Galactic and he totally stole the show. The idea of him collaborating with Tom Morello has me extremely excited. Unfortunately, the three tracks of theirs that my buddy supplied me with last night have done little more than disappoint.

None the less, last Sunday, Boots and Trent Reznor shared the stage and mic duties on a cover of MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” and I think it turned out pretty awesome.

(VIDEO AFTER THE CUT THAT I’VE PLACED HERE TO INCREASE THE “CLICK COUNT” ON THIS POST)

Read the rest of this entry »

BOB LOG III PLAYS THE GARAGE IN DOWNTOWN ST. PETERSBURG ON SUNDAY, MAY 24.

A lot of people don’t know who Bob Log III is. Those that have seen him will never forget him.

My first Bob Log III experience came at the Deep Blues Festival ‘08. He played with Possessed By Paul James and Scott H. Biram at a few night shows, so I managed to catch him a few times outside the festival and once actually at the festival. The first time I saw him, I was convinced it was Scott H. Biram in disguise, but then I walked up to the bar for a drink and Biram was sitting there. Suddenly I wondered, Who the fuck was this man on the stage in a full-faced helmet and full-body cannonball man suit? As the show wore on, he had women sitting on his lap, women with their tits in his drinks and by the end of the weekend, he had a devoted fan in myself.

(MORE OF THE BOB LOG-APALOOZA AND MP3s AFTER THE JUMP)

Read the rest of this entry »

Having proclaimed 1959 “Jazz’s Greatest Year,” Sony Legacy will release three multi-disc, expanded-edition sets marking 50th anniversaries next Tuesday, May 26: Dave Brubeck’s Time Out, Charles Mingus’ Ah Um/Mingus Dynasty and Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain. The label stole some of its own thunder by last year releasing the landmark album of ‘59, Miles’ Kind of Blue in several lavish editions.

This troika of diverse albums certainly belongs in any discussion of jazz classics. Personally, I find Sketches of Spain the least satisfying of Miles’ four orchestral collaborations with arranger/conductor Gil Evans. Its neo-classical centerpiece, the 16-and-half-minute “Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio),” kind of crawls along through atmospheric movement after atmospheric movement.

Overall, the album includes tons of gorgeous horn textures, but never finds much rhythmic traction, and Miles’ trumpet work sounds a bit unfocused outside of a swing setting. An extra disc of outtake does not provide much in the way of revelations.

Brubeck’s Time Out famously explores different rhythm signatures, and includes Brubeck’s signature tune “Take Five.” This disc is not on my list of favorites either, but I admire its chamber-like subtlety, Joe Morello’s simpatico drumming and Paul Desmond arid-toned alto sax. Read the rest of this entry »

More after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Saturday, May 23, Kelly’s Pub celebrates its final night as Kelly’s Pub. The downtown Tampa watering hole — which has been serving a wide range of brewskies and hosting original live music (local and otherwise) for the past two-and-a-half years — re-launches on Sunday as the Karma Bar & Cafe. But before then, Kelly’s stages a goodbye blowout with live music by Rob Osenton (frontman of The Junkyard Kings, and regular performer at the pub’s Wednesday nights open mics), and Orlando’s Stimulus Nimbus. The festivities kick off at around 9 p.m.; the cover is $3.

For more Summer Guide stories about how to spend your summer vacation (or to read about the memorable summer-related experiences of other CL staffers, freelancers and interns), click here; to check out some travel-worthy events taking place this summer, click here; picture below of me by Phil Bardi, taken at Langerado 2008.

My first time traveling to see music was February 2001, when A Perfect Circle’s Mer de Noms tour came to Florida and the easier access Orlando show sold out before I got tickets. At the time, I was barely three months into my 21st year, recently single, and so fiercely infatuated with APC that I went ahead and planned a road trip to see them in Ft. Lauderdale, convinced I could talk a few other adventurous friends into making the overnight jaunt with me.

Problem was, the three who joined me — two of my girlfriends and a hottie musician I was unsuccessfully courting — were unemployed, so the jaunt ended up being a 100-percent Leilani-sponsored affair. Worst of all, my crush turned out to be prudish, petulant and overall, a royal pain in the ass who, in less than 24 hours, had not only managed to alienate me, but made me lose interest in even continuing our friendship because I could no longer stand the sound of his voice.

Luckily, my feelings about music-motivated traveling weren’t affected since both the music and vacation parts were fabulous. But I learned much from the experience and the numerous experiences that followed. Here’s some wisdom I’ve gained over the years. Read the rest of this entry »

Just got a release announcing that The Hold Steady will return to the Bay area, this time playing a special, last minute show at Jannus Landing on Thursday, June 4. This one’s on Jim Beam’s tab, which means that the show is FREE. You hear that folks — a FREE Hold Steady show! Not a huge fan myself, but they’ve got alot of loyal fans here because of that “Killer Parties” song with the infamous lyrics, “If she says we partied then I’m pretty sure we partied / I really don’t remember / I remember we departed from our bodies / We woke up in Ybor City.” Tickets are very limited (it’s a free show after all), and are available to ages 21 and up only; sign up for the drawing to get in here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE UPDATES: The show at Jannus Landing was postponed, the date moved out to July 2 and the band will now be playing at The Ritz in Ybor City. Tickets that’ve been reserved/printed out/whatever the damn promo included will be honored.

WMNF’s 2009 Tropical Heatwave managed to be a scorcher in spite of torrential downpours. The best thing about Heatwave is the ability to see a wide variety of genres in one evening in close proximity. I managed to catch 10 bands this year on 5 stages: The Beauvilles, David Dondero, James Intveld, Johnny Cakes & The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso, Kinobe & Soul Beat Africa, Magadog, Modern Skirts, Will Quinlan & The Diviners, Roppongi’s Ace and Thomas Wynn & The Believers.

Read the rest of this entry »

CAUSE WE SEZ SO!

VINYL:

• Tori Amos – Abnormally Attracted, limited edition Tori litho w/ purchase (while supplies last)!

• Booker T – Potato Hole

• Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

• Les Claypool – Of Fungi and Foe

Leonard Cohen reissues:

• Live Songs
• New Skin For The Old Ceremony
  
• Songs From a Room
• Songs of Leonard Cohen
• Songs of Love & Hate

180 gram Sundazed reissues: Read the rest of this entry »