Tampa Calling

My cover story/feature on local hip-hop collective Umbrella Corporation has been nominated for A Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ Griot Drum Award. Here’s what we call the “lede,” aka the opening salvo, in the journalism biz. I labored over it much longer than I care to admit:

Heavy beats slam through the room like war drums. The crowded nightclub is thick with cigarette smoke, booze, a trace of weed — and adrenaline. Here at Full Moon Saloon in Ybor City, well past midnight on a Wednesday, local emcees are engaged in rap battles — face-to-face put-downs built on improvised rhymes. Umbrella Corporation, a Tampa hip-hop collective that’s changing the landscape of the 813 underground, calls the venue home. Tonight their artists dominate the congested stage.

Click here to read entire story “United Front.”

Umbrella Corporation’s Aych and Wade Tatangelo on Media Talk

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Creedence Clearwater Revival released a most impressive run of six sizzling roots rock albums between the span of 1968 to 1970 (hear that, Axl?). Chief revivalist John Fogerty appropriated the sounds of the swampland — although he grew up in California — and crafted a distinctive, brand of Americana resulting in a slew of hit singles (and imitators).

For years, most fans were content to enjoy the radio staples on collections like Chronicles Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

Diehards - wanting to devour all seven, gloriously hard-chugging minutes of “Ramble Tamble” purchased classic full-lengths like Cosmo’s Factory (pictured). To celebrate the bands’ 40th anniversary, CCR’s label has finally reissued the vintage six and salted ‘em with tasty bonus tracks, fresh liner notes and Digi-Paks that remain faithful to the original vinyl covers Dad rolled his first doobie on.

“Proud Mary,” Creedence Clearwater Revival

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This just in from our friends at the Skipperdome:

Tonight’s show with The Juke Joint Duo, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin Malcolm, has been canceled; Cedric’s grandmother passed away so Cedric is heading back to Mississippi to be with his family. Our thoughts and prayers go out them during this difficult time.

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What do you do when your hipster-approved punk band ascends from relative obscurity to widespread commercial success? If you’re Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel, whose Gainesville band blew up with last year’s excellent full-length New Wave — and its catchy party-girl-grown-old hit single “Thrash Unreal” — you return to your folk roots and issue the ass stomping, street cred bolstering, solo EP Heart Burns, which we first reported here.

Over mostly strident acoustic guitar strumming, the bear-voiced singer bellows about familiar themes like the casualties of war, cramming words like “xenophobia” and “ennobled” into pop songs — making it sound nearly as natural as rhyming “moon” and “spoon.” No small feat.

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Southern singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier brings her touching, slightly twangy, confessional tales to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s cozy Jaeb Theatre tonight for an 8 p.m. gig.

Read more about Gauthier (pronounced “Go-Shay”) in Upcoming Concerts.

Listen to her perform “Mercy Now” and try to keep your eyes dry. I fight back a many tear every time I here her perform it. Every time.

“Mercy Now,” Mary Gauthier

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It has been another rowdy weekend and I haven’t even made it over to Buck’s place yet for a Sunday afternoon cookout. Yesterday, I attended Ribfest, which runs through today, among several other places serving alcohol in St. Petersburg, and was thoroughly impressed by the sights and sounds being offered by country newcomer Natalie Stovall. Here’s what I wrote in my new Bar Tab column posted on the Daily Loaf:

By the time Kristin wanted to venture out for some kettle corn, new country hottie, singing and fiddling sensation Natalie Stovall had taken the stage. The blond Tennessee babe blew the audience away with appealingly poppy twang originals and ace covers of “Fancy” and “Orange Blossom Special.” Her adorable accent and the way she worked a pair of painted-on jeans made her performance extra memorable. In fact, I was so mesmerized by Natalie’s corn-fed fineness I didn’t notice the humongous dark cloud rolling in like that alien spaceship in Independence Day.

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Bar Tab: Ribfest, Ex-Mormon reunions and Crown Royal

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Editor’s note: Autopsy IV is the owner of the music blog ninebullets.net. He lives in a nondescript house in Southeast St. Petersburg with his wife and two bulldogs. He can regularly be found with a whiskey in hand at a multitude of Downtown watering holes and music venues. When sober, he is better at Guitar Hero than any self-respecting 35 year old should be.

Ever since The White Stripes hit the scene, there has been no shortage of two man (or woman) bands out there releasing CDs. Hell, there’s been no shortage of coverage for them on this here Web site, either. And while there are more two man bands out there than you can shake a stick at, I promise you there are none, and by none I mean ZERO, that are quite like the Black Diamond Heavies, which perform Tue. Nov. 18 at Dave’s Aqua Lounge in St. Petersburg. The Black Diamond Heavies are not for the uninitiated…Nay, the Black Diamond Heavies are for people who are ready to feel sin and salvation through the low end of a B3, with a tumbler full of whiskey and Van Cambell’s growl as a drinking partner. I’d been kicking around various ways to describe BDH’s sound and then I saw it spelled out perfectly on a CMJ review of Someone Else’s Class as such, “humid tone over heated tunes.” A perfect description for a gutturally raw and fantastic band.

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Get your live music fix at our newly expanded Upcoming Concerts (formerly “Music Week”), which has the hottest (and even the not so hot) shows of the next seven days listed and blurbed.

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Nude women have always been a favorite thing of mine. Writing this blog post here about how jiggle joints are recession proof got me thinking about the almighty pole, and the hotties who gleefully swing from it in all their naked glory. I haven’t frequented a strip club in over a year. That’s far too long of a titty bar break. Another one of my pals needs to have a bachelor party, soon, so I have an excuse to soak up some awesomely X-rated Tampa nightlife.

Top 10 stripper songs

1. You Can Leave Your Hat On, Randy Newman/Joe Cocker
2. Stripper, Lords of Acid
3. Girls, Girls, Girls, Motley Crue
4. Pop That Pussy, 2 Live Crew
5. Nude, Radiohead
6. Live Nude Cabaret, Jackson Browne
7. Nude Night, Chemical Brothers
8. Clothes Off!, Gym Class Heroes
9. Club Action, Yo Majesty
10. Cajun Stripper, Belton Richard & The Musical Aces

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She Silverstein, who died on Key West in 1999, is best known for classic children books like Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic and my personal, tear-inducing fave, The Giving Tree, which was made into this animated movie, read by Silverstein. But he also wrote screenplays, and hilarious raunch in the form of short fiction and poetry for Playboy — and penned tunes. Excellent ones. His credits include Johnny Cash’s father-son fight classic “A Boy Named Sue,” Loretta Lynn’s mothers-have-it-hard gem “One’s on the Way,” the pub sing along sensation “The Unicorn,” which was a huge hit for the Irish Rovers and Dr. Hook’s signature tune “The Cover of the Rolling Stone.”

My Silverstein faves? “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,” which Marianne Faithful covered, Willie Nelson’s “A Couple More Years” and Silverstein’s own recordings of “I Got Stoned and I Missed it,” “Stacey Brown Got Two” and “Polly in a Porny,” all from his 1969 underground classic  Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball. Another landmark album is the superb 1973 country stoner collection of Silverstein numbers Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies. So it’s fitting that Bare Sr. and his son, the highly talented Bare Jr., who a few years back told me how much Silverstein meant to him as a songwriting mentor, are helming what will likely be the tribute album of ‘09. Anything involving My Morning Jacket, Black Horses, Emmylou Harris, Dr. Dog, Andrew Bird and George Jones has to kick ass. Here’s the PR release:

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Editor’s note: Fresh review from our live music hound B. Treotch.

Right from the show opener — “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise,” the lead track from Phosphorescent’s 2007 highly ethereal album Pride — it was evident the band’s live sound would be a departure from their studio-created sonics. Offering almost entirely different interpretations from the album cuts, the band was welcomed by the crowd at New World Brewery, even though many attendees were perhaps expecting something more mellow and intimate. Phosphorescent managed to hold on to the intimacy, while still adding energy to their songs, peaking with “My Dove, My Lamb,” “Wolves,” and a cover of George Jones’ classic “If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will).”

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This weekend, I am practicing restraint and missing not one but two awesome Florida festivals in favor of plunging my backed-up toilet of duties. Three if you count RibFest — but despite the fact that I could walk to it from my house, the lineup is so unappealing I can’t even manage to drum-up excitement over all that mouth-watering barbeque all in one place. But I digress.

Tonight marks the start of the Anti-Pop Music Festival in downtown Orlando, a four-day celebration of alternative indie music. This evening’s schedule is ripe with the possibility of greatness. Singer/songwriter/former Soul Coughing force-of-nature Mike Doughty and Cali singer/songwriter Matt Costa headline a show at Plaza Theatre, goodtime tongue-in-cheek rockers Black Lips perform over at The Social, and sweet-voiced acousti-folkman Jay Brannan makes tender melodies at the Gibson Showroom. Other weekend highlights that haven’t or aren’t already making stops in Tampa include Los Angeles rap artist Murs, Brooklyn electro-pop all-girrl threesome Au Revoir Simone (pictured, photo by Imma Varandela), and Mississippi bluesman Ben Prestage. Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters frontman Mark Kozelek plays a solo set as well.

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