Tampa Calling

The second man to walk on the surface of the moon meets the first man of bud in this Funny or Die clip.

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

By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival observed its 10th birthday earlier this month. The 3-day weekend event, held in the Palm Springs desert each spring, is generally considered (along with Bonnaroo in suburban Nashville) the preeminent music festival in the country.

Bilinda Butcher of My Bloody Valentine (credit: Mitch Perry)

The festival’s domain has been indie and dance music, but in recent years heavyweights like Roger Waters, Prince, and this year, Paul McCartney, have provided heft to the lineup, as well as some controversy.

But the 66-year-old McCartney wasn’t even the oldest performer on the bill this year. That would be 74-year-old Leonard Cohen, who played right before McCartney on the festival’s opening night. Read the rest of this entry »

Going to the parade, concerts, parties or anything connected to Gasparilla? Have a Twitter account? Then you are all set to join CL’s Parade of Tweeters, covering all the festivities of Tampa Bay’s pre-eminent annual buccaneer bacchanalia for those of us who are going to be stuck at work or at home in front of our laptops.

Here’s how:

1. Sign up for a free Twitter account (or use your existing account).
2. Have a blast at Gasparilla on Saturday and/or in the days leading up to the pirate invasion.
3. Send us a tweet when you see something interesting, funny, stupid, naked, comment-worthy, etc. Just use your telephone’s txt messaging capability to send a tweet, using Twitter’s 140-character limit. (You can also submit tweets via your computer if you are at a party or on the Bayshore with wireless access.)
4. Make sure you include the hashtag #gasparilla in your txt msg. For example: “Holy beads! I just saw Gayle Guyardo! #gasparilla”
5. Hit send on your cell phone. Your tweet will automatically appear on our Gasparilla page, cltampa.com/gasparilla, along with the rest of the CL Parade of Tweeters’ info and photos from the frivolity.
6. As if that wasn’t enough for your 15 Minutes of Fame, we’ll take the best and run them in our print edition the week after Gasparilla. And we’ll chose the very best to receive a free meal, from our Eats or Bites programs in the CL Deals section.
7. And while you’re in Twitter online, be sure to follow PoHo for political news tweets and cl_tampa for all our Creative Loafing breaking news in arts, music, food and the rest.

Sir Paul McCartney, the only lucid Beatle remaining alive, will appear on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central on Wednesday, 11:30 p.m. Either the most hilarious thing you will see all year or another sign that the apocalypse is upon us:

Paul McCartney to Appear on ‘The Colbert Report’ on Wednesday, January 28 at 11:30 P.M. ET/PT

NEW YORK, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Music legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician Paul McCartney will appear as a guest on COMEDY CENTRAL’s Emmy(R) and Peabody(R) Award-winning “The Colbert Report” on Wednesday, January 28 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT. McCartney’s appearance will be his first and only scheduled U.S. late-night appearance in support of the new album, Electric Arguments, released under The Fireman alias used by McCartney and producer/musician Youth. Read the rest of this entry »

From the “Just Fuckin’ Creepy” Dep’t. here at CL Music, John Lennon pimps free laptops for the Third World:

Undoubtedly, Japan’s premier Steely Dan tribute band:

Check over on PoHo blog for news about Creative Loafing filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court reorganization.

Neil is touring Germany right now ahead of a US tour that will feature openers Wilco and Death Cab, and here is a pretty good audience vid of the third new song he has debuted on the tour, “When Worlds Collide:”

(h/t to Thrasher’s Wheat)

Yes, he’s heavily medicated. But Beach Boys composer-genius Brian Wilson is pretty lucid when he talks about his new disc, That Lucky Old Sun, set for release on Sept. 2. This is from a piece on HuffPo, starting with a quote from Scott Bennett, a member of his band who wrote the lyrics for the tribute to LA and Cali:

“Yes, Brian had a rough time of it, with his mental health, but I would kill to have the kind of catalog he does, and tour everywhere with his brothers like he did,” says Bennett, who confirms that Wilson “is on a heavy dose of antidepressants.”

Regardless, Wilson has hit a creative stride in his life.

Inspiration comes at night when he sits down alone at his Yamaha synthesizer and grand piano in his purple-curtained music room.

“When I go to the keyboard, I feel holy, like an angel over my head. I feel very holy. When we did (the Beach Boys hit) ‘God Only Knows,’ I felt holy about that too. A godly something comes through me,” Wilson says, motioning with his hands. “I’m always thinking about melodies. The melodies come from my brain, and my keyboards. I play a really pleasant keyboard. It sounds so pleasant it makes me want to write melodies.”

I’ve heard a bootleg of the entire song cycle from the London premier last year and, for the most part, it is a great, creative work. It is no SMiLE, but it is probably the best thing he has done without his brothers, aside from maybe his first solo disc. Some of the songs are bridged by spoken-word segues written by SMiLE co-writer Van Dyke Parks. And I’ve heard the studio recording of the most amazing song on it, “Midnight’s Another Day.”

Finally, for those longing for a Beach Boys reunion (as if that could happen with Carl and Dennis gone), Wilson had this to say:

Questions about the Beach Boys’ current status get lukewarm response as well. Wilson, who also formed the band with cousin Mike Love and then-school friend Al Jardine, split with most of the group’s surviving members years ago amid legal squabbles. Love and later Beach Boys bandmate Bruce Johnston tour as the Beach Boys Band, while Jardine has his own Endless Summer Band. Wilson stresses the subject’s touchiness.

“We don’t want any publicity about me getting back with the Beach Boys, cause I don’t want to. They’re not my group anymore. That’s Mike and Bruce’s group now. I’m on my own, and I would rather do that than go back to the Beach Boys,” he says.

Bonus cuts:  That Lucky Old Sun available as a stream in Gannett news sites starting Aug. 22; a promo video for the disc with Brian re-entering Capitol Records, where he had all his biggest ’60s hits.

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):

It won’t be out until later this year, but Brian Wilson’s That Lucky Old Sun, an L.A.-in-the-late-’50s song cycle with some breathtaking tunes, already has a promo video. It is a good overview of the music, with some interviews and in-studio performances, including a bit of the stunning “Midnight’s Another Day.” It’s not embeddable but here’s the link.

Ruth Eckerd Hall says it has a few tix left for Monday’s SD show. Until then, a little “Kid Charlemagne” for ya:

Archer’s leading celeb, Bo Diddley, has passed away. NYT obit here.