Tampa Calling

I’ve been feeling like shit the past few days. Hunkered down at my apartment Friday and my parents’ place Saturday. Last night, I waited until everyone went to bed (my cousin and his wife were visiting from Pennsylvania) and then spent $1.99 of my folks’ hard-earned money on Cool Hand Luke (thanks ma and pa).

I laughed. I sniffled. I cheered the rugged individualism, the rebellion, the killer grin Luke flashed — even with a slug through his neck. Love that movie. On Saturday, in honor of the actor’s passing, I posted a list of my 10 favorite Newman flicks here at the Daily Loaf, along with clips of each selection.

“That old Luke smile”

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Here’s a look at my new Bar Tab logo and a snippet from my latest column. Were you one of the approximately 1,000 people who partied it up at CL’s Best of the Bay Awards Show at Tampa Theatre? Then perhaps you recall the flask I chugged on stage. Good times. From my current Bar Tab, which is now found in Bad Habits:

The original plan was for me to enter the stage with a whiskey bottle filled with iced tea — and, once at the podium, chug, chug, chug. But I balked. Didn’t want to be accused of engaging in any bullshit. Instead, I stumbled to the podium and grasped it with both hands as if to steady myself. It was, at least in part, acting — I think. I asked the audience to give me a moment and then flashed my flask. The longer I held it to my lips the louder the crowd roared — or at least that’s the sound I heard inside my mind. By the time I wiped my mouth on my sport coat sleeve, I was definitely loaded.

Click here to read entire column.

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It’s Thursday. Time to get stoked for the weekend. Here’s what we have for ya in the latest issue of CL (pictured). Plus, this just in, Anberlin at Vinyl Fever tonight at 8 p.m.

• Skipper’s 28th Anniversary bash wraps with Hat Trick Heroes, Tailgunner Joe & the Earls of Slander and more on Sunday.

• Bonerama, GreyMarket, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, King of Spain and more in Music Week.

• Jenny Lewis, Will Bernard, Sing it Loud and more records reviewed in Spins.

• Jeremy Gloff returns to 1987.

• David Gilmour live.

• Backspin with Valerie Carter.

• And don’t forget about my “Dear Dubya” feature.

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OK, it’s not genius. Hell, it’s not even that funny. But it’s kinda funny. And it’s a slow-ass day in the music world, y’know, with everyone worried about the United States of America becoming a Banana Republic and all.

“The Ballad of Sarah Palin”

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For my CL music feature this week I compiled a list of the Top 10 protest songs inspired by the Bush administration.

See, folks, there’s an upside to everything. Bright Eyes, Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam are among the artists that made the tally.

Here’s the story, titled “Dear Dubya” in the print edition that’s hitting newsstands today.

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Clay Aiken has finally confirmed what the whole world has suspected ever since he crooned his way through American Idol in 2003. I think even my 80something-year-old Italian grandma saw this one coming. From People.com:

Following the Aug. 8 birth of his son Parker, singer Clay Aiken is following through on a promise he made to himself as a new dad: to publicly acknowledge that he’s gay.

“It was the first decision I made as a father,” Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. “I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn’t raised that way, and I’m not going to raise a child to do that.”

Aiken is a “proud Southern Baptist.” It will be interesting to see how all his Right Wing pals take to his, y’know, gayness.

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Who: Blitzen Trapper

Seven-word description: Frisky folk rock for the indie set.

Should appeal to fans of: Benji Hughes, Beck, Bob Dylan

Who’s the guy who sings and plays harmonica like Dylan?  Guitarist/singer Eric Earley. He wrote all the songs for Furr, Blitzen Trapper’s debut full-length for Sub Pop.

Breakout CD: Furr.

Release date/label: Sept. 23/Sub Pop.

Listen to the title track here.

“Wild Mountain Nation” (title track from Blizten Trapper’s  self-released 2007 album)

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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees has been announced. I know, to many people out there, the RR HOF has all the relevance of a dinosaur exhibit. To others, it’s still fun to debate who deserves entrance. Here’s the list of nine. Five make it.

(By the way, as I type this, I’m watching the Today Show being shot at the University of Tampa. The roly poly again Al Roker is trying to get to the bottom of a Cuban Sandwich. Funny stuff.)

From Smoking Section:

The nine artists on the RR HOF ballot are:

Jeff Beck

Wanda Jackson

Bobby Womack

The Stooges

War

Metallica

Run-D.M.C

Chic

Little Anthony and the Imperials

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On his best-known material outside the film world, Randy Newman managed to largely cloak biting satire in hummable melodies and sing along choruses resulting in first-class bait and switches, the finest being “I Love L.A.” The song is a fixture at Los Angeles sports arenas despite including such lines as “Look at that bum over there, man/ He’s down on his knees.”

On Harps and Angels, Newman’s first proper album in nearly a decade, the acerbic singer/songwriter makes no effort to placate casual listeners, keeping the focus on the mostly misanthropic lyrics, which are more spoken than sung. Laidback, New Orleans piano and minimal orchestration accompany the singer. Newman, the fellow responsible for the atheist anthem “God’s Song,” starts the disc by second guessing his non-belief in the humorous title track.

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People who suffer from acute anxiety are often stalked in dreamland by a faceless marauder. The victim awakens breathing hard, clutching sheets wet with their own cold perspiration. Metallica brilliantly chronicles these perils in “All Nightmare Long,” the 8-minute linchpin of the metal gods’ spectacular comeback album Death Magentic.

It’s similar in theme to “Enter Sandman,” from the band’s 1991 self-titled commercial breakthrough; however, “All Nightmare Long’s” sonic thrust recalls the heavy artillery majesty found on the band’s 1980s thrash classics Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. On “All Nightmare Long,” a slow, foreboding intro hastily gives way to a bunker-busting assault of thwack, thwack, thwack. Then James Hetfield’s beastly growl surfaces, sounding as authoritative and dangerous as it did decades ago. Unlike the majority of today’s metal frontmen, Hetfield makes his declarations decipherable, with the pulverizing rhythm pausing as he drills home a decisive chorus like: “Feel us breathe upon your face/Feel us shift, every move we trace/Hunt you down without mercy/ Hunt you down all nightmare long.”

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Anyone seriously interested in the music of the late Frank Zappa is aware of his widow, Gail Zappa.

With unprecedented tenacity, she guards the rights to her husband’s official recordings.

Gail also lords over his meticulously recorded and videotaped live shows, plus the sheet music that would allow internationally respected Zappa tribute bands like Tampa Bay’s Bogus Pomp to better honor the great guitarist/composer’s work. In a rare interview, Gail discussed the rationale behind her rigid ways with the Los Angeles Times:

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It’s Friday and I’m still recovering from our Best of the Bay soiree. Yeah, the hangovers hurt more than they used to — and the recovery time is twice what it was in my early 20s.

Anyway, time to prep for the weekend.What show will you be attending? Soulfound? Black Kids? The Dark Romantics? Brad Paisley? How about the Shackeltons (pictured) tonight at the Skipperdome? Or John Prine? Here’s what’s shaking:

• Read my interview with alternarockers Soulfound, which are gearing up for a Saturday CD release bash at Gasoline Alley.

• The Dark Romantics sex up New World Brewery.

• Black Kids, Brad Paisley, Shackeltons, John Prine, Donna the Buffalo and more in Music Week.

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