Tampa Calling

Though a naturally occurring gas, radon in the building world can be a big problem.  Luckily in the music world, recurrent Radon means rejoicing.  Radon version 1.0 was a stalwart of the Florida scene in the ’90s.  Since reforming they have put out a new album on No Idea Records and have been out playing shows in support. Sadly, this was my first time catching them since the reformation. On Saturday, December 27, Transitions Art Gallery was packed to welcome Radon back to Tampa and enjoy the opening acts. Alas, I only managed to catch Lemuria briefly before Radon took the stage.

Lemuria

Lemuria might just be my new favorite band of the minute. Hailing from Buffalo, NY, the trio creates an irresistible indie pop akin to [insert references to '90s indie bands here] but with their own unique twist.  In summary, Lemuria is just plain fun.

Lemuria = Sheena Ozzella - Guitar / Vocals, Alexander Kerns - Drums / Vocals & Jason Draper - Bass

Clapping along to Lemuria

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Have Gun, Will Travel performing at New World Brewery Sat., Dec. 27.

After the Radon show , I skedaddled over to New World Brewery just in time to catch Have Gun, Will Travel in another fine Thx Mgmt-hosted bill. HGWT is consistently one of my favorite live acts because they continue to innovate each time I see them with fresh improvisations on their material and inevitably a new song or two. (more…)

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In Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day or St. Stephen’s Day, when everyone commonly gathered together and celebrated in various ways. (When I lived in Dublin, Ireland, I got to see Mummers perform on the post-holiday holiday.)  Sadly, in Tampa, we don’t have Mummers but thanks to THX MGMT, we were treated to a great night of local music featuring Geri X, Rec Center, Sons of Hippies, and The Actomatics. (more…)

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Hankshaw & Friends

The annual New Granada Christmas Show at New World Brewery featuring King of Spain, Davey von Bohlen, Hankshaw and Jarvik 7 was a splendid night of reunions with a grand soundtrack.  The show has a reputation for unique elements (including in past years the reunions of Scrog, Pohgoh and appearances by elusive bands like The Blackwoods Orchestra) and it’s a place to meet up with friends from near and far.

King of Spain… (more…)

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An otherwise ordinary Monday evening was transformed into a fantastic inferno of colors, costumes and characters at The Ritz featuring Of Montreal, Fiery Furnaces, and Fire Zuave. It was impressive how many people were in attendance given the competition with the Bucs game and it being a Monday.  Proof positive that the Tampa area has a plethora of indie music fans.

See photos after the break. Click here for Leilani’s in-depth review and killer video.
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After several days of family togetherness and gorging on Thanksgiving leftovers, Saturday evening at New World Brewery was a welcome respite brought to us by THX Mgmt.  The show featured a diverse group of Florida bands: Beardsley,  Incredible Crisis, Zillionaire, and Sunbears! I got there a bit late after being distracted playing trucks with my friend’s three year old so I missed Beardsley… but I did manage to capture the rest of the bands.

Incredible Crisis

This was my first time seeing this band and I look forward to seeing them again in the future.

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Let’s face it - Gainesville always does things a bit differently.  So it is no wonder that the celebration of Festivus (aka Fest 7) Gainesville style is actually the amalgamation of more than 250 bands over 3 days in 8 venues throughout Hogtown wrangled by Tony Weinbender (of No Idea Records) and friends.   In its seventh year, Fest has grown up to become a destination for people from all over the world to see the best in independent music.  Special thanks to Tony for continuing to put this event together each year.

Over the weekend (10.31.08 - 11.2.08), I managed to see a myriad of music genres and capture no less than 26 bands: A Wilhelm Scream, American Cheeseburger, Ampere, Asshole Parade, Atom & His Package, Bouncing Souls (pictured above), Bridge and Tunnel, Building The State, Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves, City of Ships, Coalesce, Dillinger Four, Foundation, Have Gun, Will Travel, Japanther, The Menzingers, Paint it Black, Red Clay River, Rehasher, Strike Anywhere, The Takers, Tim Version, Triclops!, The Wading Girl, Whiskey & Co and Young Widows. Tampa Bay was well represented with lots of hometown heroes making it on the Fest schedule especially the Kiss of Death Records and ADD Records bands.

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Thursday was a busy night for the Tampa music scene with pre-Gainesville Fest shows taking place at New World Brewery, Crowbar, Transitions Art Gallery at SPOT and The Springs Theater… it was tough to choose just one show but Drag The River, Two Cow Garage, Nessie and Brahm Bones at New World Brewery won out.

Drag the River

Two Cow Garage

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Editor’s note: Pictures and text by Nicole Kibert.

Palantine’s Melee CD release party at New World Brewery in Ybor City on Sat., Oct. 18, proved a bit frightening (see haunting Halloween decorations).  Luckily, the evening did not turn into an actual melee, affray or fracas. Rather, it was a night filled with some of the best rock Tampa Bay has to offer.

The Gleaming Amoebas opened the show (sadly I missed their set - I heard they were good and really how could a band that mixes flamenco and indie rock not be?).

Next up, The Semis (Billy Summer, Matt Simmons, Don Butler and Cristian). The foursome delivered a high-energy set of rad hair metal and winningly dirty power pop!

As Palantine (live: Vinnie Cosentino, Brian Johnson and Jeff Fox) took the stage, people gathered around in expectation of a catchy, melodic-yet-guitar-heavy set.  As their MySpace suggests, the band is best enjoyed at full volume, and this act showed they were well worth the effort to make it out on a drizzling Saturday evening, even while the Tampa Bay Rays battled in the playoffs.

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A unique collaborative event transpired at the Orpheum to ring out September in style – an honest to goodness full on revival awakening the masses to the not so secret Americana wave. The Revival Tour featuring Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tim Barry (Avail; pictured left) along with friends Todd Beene (Glossary), Jon Gaunt (Whiskey & Co), Austin Lucas, Bob Lucas (Austin’s dad), and Digger Barnes proves that hardcore kids can evolve while staying true to hardcore ideals. Back in the 90s going to shows at The Stone Lounge, and later 403 Chaos, along with the Hardback in Gainesville and many other venues up and down the eastern seaboard, I often wondered what would happen to all us hardcore kids as we got older. Local music fans already knew it was possible having witnessed the successful evolution of The Chase Theory to Have Gun, Will Travel. The Revival Tour reaffirms that transition while enabling us to hear new music discussing the issues of our day – war, economic crisis, etc. from a critical vantage. In traditional revival fashion, once the music started it kept on rolling as the musicians tag teamed in and out through each others sets until the final farewells rang out.

During Tim Barry’s set, a microphone outage, provided a glimpse back to the hardcore days:

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Finale of Jeremy Gloff’s Rockopera for the release of “1987″

SoundFX: Live occurred Saturday evening at Crowbar featuring Jeremy Gloff, Giddy-Up, Helicopter! and Venus in Furs with inimitable sounds of the Crate Brothers and DJ Brian Oblivion. Jeremy Gloff celebrated the release of 1987 in what can only be accurately described as pop operatic format depicting the import of the 1980s on young Jeremy. For more sound stills of an all around pretty furry weekend, click to see the SoundFX Weekend Photo Collection.

Giddy-Up, Helicopter!

Venus in Furs

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