Tampa Calling

Screeching guitars over a rapid backbeat pierce 50 ears trying to hear 25 stilted conversations. A foot-long needle shoots directly through the beckoning orifices, winds around the ear canals and connects directly with the center of each half of the brain. A throbbing begins at the base of the skull as imaginary brain fluid leaks out of each ear. Each face contorts into wrinkled disgust and the faces move closer together.

“Music is my life!” screams one bearded-with-glasses 20-something into the ear of a young girl with hair framing her face, brown tank top, cut-off jean shorts and several colored tattoos spattered across each arm. Clouds of cigarette smoke linger between them and slowly rise to the tar-stained ceiling. From the other end of the bar, the shapes and cartoons on her arms aren’t distinguishable, but I’m convinced they’re more than just blobs of ink. ”Have you ever heard the first Bad Brains album?” he continues to yell, ”It’s so raw, I can’t get enough of it!”

The band falls into a repetitive pattern of chunky chords, fast, pounding, tribal drums and hollering vocals. A few words sneak out of the mix, “MAKE…APPOINTMENT…TIME…MIND…EXCUSE!” Fuzzed mumbling fills the spaces between the recognizable words.

“I’m so glad you like them, too! Did you go see them at State a few months ago? They were great. I was there for Propaghandi, though!” the girl hollers back.

“What!? I can’t hear a fucking thing with this shit music!” Read more “Psychotic Pulp: Rock ‘n’ Roll as Literature, Vol. 1″ »

On paper, Dethklok should be unbearably lame. Fake bands from cartoons bring to mind tripe like Jem or Josie & The Pussycats. But somehow, Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small got it right. Dethklok is more than just a “brutal” caricature. Judging by how Small crams in references to obscure bands and invites big names from the metal underground such as George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher and the members of Exodus to provide guest voices on most episodes, Small clearly gives a shit about metal. The Berklee College of Music grad not only voices many of the characters and writes much of the music, he also sings and plays guitar.

The Dethalbum should have also been unbearably lame. Songs from the TV show’s first season had to stand on their own without silly ultraviolent imagery. At best, Dethklok should be paint-by-numbers metal, and their songs little more than novelty throwaways. But behind every silly concept like “Murmaider” (homicidal sea-creatures) or “Awaken” (resurrecting demons) hides a pretty awesome metal song. In fact, Small’s Berklee pedigree and heavy metal fanboy roots create a competent, if not expertly-crafted pastiche of the best aspects of death, thrash, and traditional heavy metal.

The Deathalbum was one of my favorite releases of 2007. Now, Small and his cartoon band will try again. Read more “Dethklok to release The Dethalbum II in September.” »

Jackson Browne settles his copyright case with the Republican Party, which played his 1977 hit, “Running on Empty” without permission in a McCain campaign ad that aired on TV and the Internet.

Pop Matters writer Charles A. Hohman offers a lengthy, media-packed analysis of Born in the U.S.A in honor of its 25th anniversary: “Sex in the U.S.A.: Male Sexuality in Springsteen’s American Dream.”

A new covers album of songs by New Zealand indie great and recent stroke victim Chris Knox features a rather respectable line up — Guided by Voices, the Mountain Goats, Jay Reatard, Yo La Tengo and Lambchop, among many others.

In answer to Animal Collective’s getting the go-ahead from the Grateful Dead for the experimental band to sample the jam grandfathers’ song, Blender offers up “Grateful Dead songs ready for sampling, and the artists that should sample them.”

YouTube and Warner Music still can’t agree about liscensing fees.

Chris Brown (pictured) makes a public apology for the assault on Rihanna last month.

Google “gypsy punk” and most of the dozen or so results relate back to Gogol Bordello. Search the band specifically and you’ll find more than a million pages that mention it. While Gogol’s Ukraine-born visionary/composer Eugene Hütz isn’t interested in taking credit for spearheading a whole new movement in American music, his band’s influence is undeniable.

Gogol grew from NYC’s underground music scene, just as much a melting pot as the city itself. Hütz immersed himself in it and assembled a motley crew of talented, multi-ethnic musicians to create his gypsy punk orchestra and make his vision of infusing East-European culture into Western music a reality.

The nine-member band represents seven nationalities all told. Their sound combines gypsy and Slavic music traditions with punk rock, dub reggae, metal, rap and even some funk and grooves, and the lyrics are delivered in English sprinkled with Spanish, Ukrainian and Italian verses. Since 1999, they have released four LPs; the most recent, 2007’s critically acclaimed Super Taranta!, fully launched Gogol into the international spotlight.

Many of Gogol’s songs (including “Wonderlust King, below”) are about living a roving, responsibility-free lifestyle, though various other topics are touched upon, from the absurdly catchy “Start Wearing Purple,” about letting loose and being silly, to “American Wedding,” which pokes fun at our country’s stuffy wedding traditions (“Where is the vodka, where’s marinated herring? / Where is the supply that gonna last three days?”), to the hilarious God vs. Science debate in “Supertheory of Supereverything.”

http://cltampa.com/content/Wonderlust_King.mp3

Everyone contributes vocals to the boisterous, colorful music, like violin virtuoso Sergey Ryabtsev, capable of some of the fastest and most furious fiddle playing I’ve ever witnessed; accordion player Yuri Lemeshev, who also moonlights with the studio band on Late Night with Conan O’Brien; and attractive lady entertainers and pandemonium makers Pamela Jintana Racine and Elizabeth Sun, who alternately sing, dance, and play marching band-style percussion throughout the live shows.

Hütz is the captivating and unpredictable center of it all. He sings lead, plays forceful acoustic guitar, and, usually shirtless with sweat dripping from his thick handlebar mustache, marches back and forth encouraging playful unruliness and leading spirited singalongs. He pilots the vigorous musical spectacle and keeps both his band and the audience as amped-up as he is.

Leilani: So, tell me about the role you play in the band as ringleader. How much of your songwriting goes into what happens on stage?

Eugene: I think it’s quite obvious (laughs robustly) that I write all the songs. (VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMP) Read more “CL Interview: Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello (audio + video)” »

(All photos by elawgrrl)

This past Saturday night, the Cuban Club Bandshell played host to a long awaited and twice-delayed show by the Avett Brothers. Once for the birth of Scott Avett’s daughter, the other due to a scheduling conflict as the North Carolina foursome opened for the Dave Mathews Band earlier in the summer. Accordingly, fans packed into the charmingly-neglected Cuban Club awaiting a trademark, knock-you-on-your-ass Avett Brothers’ performance — and they delivered.

The Avetts opened with a track from their upcoming release, I and Love and You (September 29, American Recordings) — “Laundry Room,” an entrancing song with a refrain I still can’t get out of my head. Then the band traversed through their entire catalog, with highlights that included “Distraction #74,” “Gimmeakiss,” “I and Love and You” and “Shame.”

As NPR’s Bob Boilen recently pointed out, Scott Avett sings as if he swallowed an amplifier. The long-haired, banjo thrashing hillbilly yells love songs at the top of his lungs. It’s a sweaty mess, but still ends up being captivating, raw and beautiful. The younger (and only other brother), Seth Avett, plays George to Scott’s John, Paul and Ringo, as the older Avett will sometimes take to the drum kit and keyboard. Often when drums are interspersed within a set, the music lacks punch and suffers inconsistencies — but the energy of Avetts made up for it. Not to mention the brothers, along with Bob Crawford on upright and electric bass and Joe Kwon on cello, pound the hell out of the back of their respective instruments. (Setlist and more after the jump…) Read more “Concert review: The Avett Brothers at the Cuban Club (pics + setlist)” »

Less than a year after their last appearance at Clearwater’s stately Ruth Eckerd Hall, New York-based blues rockers The Black Crowes return for another round on Wednesday, October 7, with Truth & Salvage Co. to open. Tickets are $40.50 and $68, and sales begin at noon this Friday, July 24.

The tour will come after the release of the band’s eighth studio effort, Before the Frost…Until the Freeze, a different sort of double album out September 1. The first album, Before the Frost…, features 11 new unreleased Crowes’ studio songs distributed via the band’s own Silver Arrow label and Megaforce Records. The second album, …Until The Freeze, includes 8 original Crowes’ songs and a cover of Stephen Stills’ classic “So Many Times,” and it’s given away via a download code included with Before The Frost… Limited-edition vinyl copies of Before The Frost…Until The Freeze with all 20 tracks will also be available.

VINYL:

Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction
Collectible red vinyl reissue of the Southern California-based band’s Atlantic Records 1994 debut album (and eighth of their career). Mastered from the original analog tapes, featuring guest riffs from the MC5’s Wayne Kramer.

Bikini Kill – New Radio 7”
Re-issue featuring feminist punk anthem “Rebel Girl” and produced by Joan Jett. Still relevant.

Billy Childish – Archive From 1959: The Billy Childish Story 3xLP
This 51-track collection offers a look at the more rock & roll aspects of Childish’s career.

Discovery – LP LP+MP3
Now available on vinyl.

DJ Premier – Instrumental World Vol. 39 3XLP
Here, he has compiled 40 DJ Premier produced instrumentals. Hits from the likes of Gangstarr, Nas, Big L, Jay-Z, Lord Finnesse, Notorious B.I.G and many more. Perfect for DJs!

I Roy – Original Deejay At King Tubby’s
A collection of some of his greatest works to date. I Roy (born Roy Reid) worked as an accountant for the government in the mid-60s, during this time he saw DJing as more of a hobby. Due to the rise in popularity of DJs in the late-60s he established and operated Turbo Sonic Sound. He then started to take the business more seriously and went on to record a string of hits with various producers of the time. Bunny Lee, one of Jamaica’s finest producers, produced some of I Roy’s most popular tracks, which we have right here on one big album. All tracks recorded and mixed at King Tubby’s Studio.

Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine
Magnolia Electric Co.’s fifth full-length, Josephine, is a concept album that pays tribute to the life and spirit of fallen bassist Evan Farrell. It contains some of the strongest songs Jason Molina has written. He’s approached the universal loneliness before, but never in such a focused, directed manner.

Modest Mouse – Perpetual Motion Machine 7”
Limited edition — b/w “History Sticks To Your Feet.”

Fats Navarro – Fats Blows
Trumpeter Fats Navarro is largely considered one of the lost geniuses of the bop movement. Read more “New releases: Vinyl, CDs, DVDs and more out July 21″ »

Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, revealed the details of his illness today via a video broadcast with fellow member fellow band member Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) on the Beastie Boys’ website. Yauch has a form of cancer that attacks his Parotid gland, though the good news is that it’s only located in one area, it’s treatable, and the treatment will not not affect his voice. Yauch also apologized to fans who were looking forward to their upcoming shows and he seemed sincerely sad about it, though that probably has more to do with his health than anything else. An update on Yauch’s condition and the band’s cancelled shows is expected soon; the Beasties will also postponed the release of their eighth studio album, Hot Sauce Committee, originally due to drop in September.

See the video announcement after the jump. Read more “Beastie Boys cancel tour due to Adam Yauch’s cancer scare” »

Last Thursday, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to land on the Moon, NASA came out with the embarrassing news that it had somehow, over the years, managed to record over America’s most important historical footage of said trip to the Moon’s surface. You know, the famous footage of Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the one that all those conspiracy theorists say is faked Wag the Dog style? Yeah, that footage.

(Apparently, in the 1970s and ’80s, NASA had a shortage of tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them, including ones documenting the historical event.)

Luckily, NASA’s news came with a Hollywood saves-the-day solution: those crafty preservationists who restored Casablanca are digitally sharpening and cleaning up grainy footage of the moon landing taken from four sources NASA scrounged from around the world. The results are said to be better than what TV viewers witnessed on July 20, 1969, and according to senior NASA engineer Dick Nafzger, “There’s nothing being created; there’s nothing being manufactured.”

In honor of NASA’s royal fuck-up, I’ve made up a playlist of songs dedicated to the moon. There are a great deal more than 10, and some are rather obvious, but headlines are better with nice round numbers … interesting how many of these songs were produced in the ’70s. I guess a mission to the moon will inspire some songs, huh? Read more “Top 10 Songs for the Moon; or, Songs to Make up for NASA’s Loss of the Apollo 11 Footage (with video!)” »

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
Monday, July 20: Spinnerette (the alt rock foursome featuring Brody Dalle and Tony Bevilacqua, both formerly of The Distillers; the band just released their self-titled debut in June)
Tuesday, July 21: the Flatlanders
Wednesday, July 22: Diane Birch
Thursday, July 23: Ginuwine (pictured) with Missy Elliott (They’ll likely perform “Get Involved,” the second single from Ginuwine’s latest album, A Man’s Thoughts. The song also features Timbaland — he produced it — but he’s not scheduled to appear.)
Friday, July 24: Judy Collins Read more “Late night music, July 20-25: Ginuwine, Demi Lovato, and more (+ video of Grizzly Bear on Letterman)” »

Good news for every independent musician in the World. MTV (owners of the Rock Band franchise) just announced its own new distribution platform through the immensely popular musician-simulation game Rock Band.

The Rock Band Network is a revolutionary system that will allow bands, studios and record labels to create and sell playable game content from their master recordings using the same professional tools used by Rock Band developers. Rock Band Network, currently in closed beta, should launch to the public in August (with in-game sales later in the year).

MTV has infused Rock Band Network with professional utilities to enable a community of music makers to get their work to the masses and profit by it. Paul DeGooyer, a senior VP with MTV games, tells Billboard that “We’re talking about a set of serious professional tools to allow people on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny with respect to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store.”

Read more “Make Your Own Rock Band Music: MTV Announces Rock Band Network” »

Gainesville’s dreadlocked singer-songwriter Chris McCarty, a local fave who hits the Skipperdome every eight weeks or so, brings his soulful acoustic groove-pop back to town, this time performing at Push Ultra Lounge for a “Ralley Florida” concert. The charitable event is held to raise awareness and funds for the statewide, grassroots “Share a Little Sunshine Tampa Bay (SALS)” viral marketing campaign to infuse much-needed revenue into Florida’s economy.

If you’re interested in doing your part, visit the SALS website (at VisitFlorida.com). Once there, upload some sort of video about Florida’s greatness, then send it out to encourage friends, family and loved ones to vacation here. Every person who sends or receives an invite will be registered to win one of 12 Florida getaways. As an added bonus, every person who sends an invitation and brings the printed online confirmation to the concert gets in for free. The show takes place Friday, July 24, at 9 p.m.; regular admission is $5 at the door.

Here’s a video 1-2 punch that’s tough to beat.

Tuesday night, Wilco appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, with special guest vocalist Feist, to perform “You And I.”

The next day, 66-year-old ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his band played a 22-minute concert on the roof of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater. They flew through “Coming Up,” “Band on the Run,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Helter Skelter,” and “Back in the USSR,” and sounded tight as f!@#, in this author’s opinion.

Videos after the jump: Read more “Paul McCartney, Wilco and Feist on Letterman (video)” »

When Billy Corgan first announced his intention to resurrect The Smashing Pumpkins, longtime fans crossed out the names of uninvolved former members (except Jimmy Chamberlain) one by one. We knew there would be no James Iha (now in that silly supergroup Tinted Windows) and no D’Arcy Wretzky (right). Only now do we finally hear what’s up with the silvery-haired bassist! D’Arcy randomly called Chicago alt-rock station Q101 to let us know she left the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle behind in favor of passing her days on a horse farm in rural Michigan. Oh, and she loves Silversun Pickups, who don’t at all sound like The Smashing Pumpkins.

Last month, I reported on Courtney Love and her similar intention to resurrect Hole with minimal involvement from former bandmates. Former Hole guitarist and co-conspirator Eric Erlandson took time out from Buddhism and marketing vegan food for a Spin Q&A. When asked about his feelings on Hole’s return, he responded:

We have a contract. She signed a contract with me when we decided to break up the band, which was like 2002 or something, so I really don’t have a comment on it except that I know my part in that band. The way I look at it, there is no Hole without me. [Laughs] To put it blunt. Just on a business level… I’m open to discussions regarding the real Hole, and if she has a solo album together, I think that’s great.

What did Mrs. Cobain have to say about this? Find out after the jump! Read more “CL Sound Bites: Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Leonard Cohen, and more” »

For years, the annual Warped Tour has been more or less a knucklehead boys club on wheels — with music in between — but in recent years more female-dominated bands have been cracking the lineup. Count among them Meg & Dia, the two easy-on-the-eyes, Utah-bred sisters Frampton (no relation to Peter) — Meg, 23, and Dia, 21 — and their three male bandmates.

The group has been on three Warped jaunts, including this year’s.

Meg & Dia is supporting its first major label release, Here, Here and Here (released April 21 on Sire), an accomplished collection of confessional and sometimes confrontational (and irrepressibly catchy) modern rock that takes more stylistic liberties than most bands in the pop-punk/emo realm.

Dia (foreground in photo), who sings lead and splits songwriting duties with Meg and the other band members, called from the tour bus and proved to be a lively, open interviewee. Here’s an edited version of our conversation.

What are the good parts and the bad parts about Warped?

(Coughs) Well one of the bad parts is getting sick and not being able to get better. We don’t have a hotel, a place to take a hot bath. I’ve been cleaning out my nose with a netti pot. I’d give anything for a hotel right now, a quiet room. Yesterday I had a crazy fever.

Video after the jump.

Meg & Dia play the Warped Tour on Sun. July 26 at Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg. Read more “CL Interview: Dia of Meg & Dia” »

This time, instead of opening for of Montreal, brother-and-sister indie pop duo The Fiery Furnaces bring their own headlining tour back to town. No Clubs Presents the band at Orpheum Saturday, August 22; tickets are $13 in advance and can be purchased at Daddy Kool ($15 day of show). Here’s the full Fiery Furnaces release/bio:

Eleanor was constantly ridiculed in the crudest and least interesting manner by her brother Matthew. He, for his part, had to suffer such things as her coming in the room, and various other affronts, for instance talking, or watching the TV show she wanted, or putting on a record she might like to hear. Read more “Concert announcement: The Fiery Furnaces” »

As I said with my last post about Nerdapalooza, I wasn’t really familiar with the whole genre (or its fan base) until mere weeks before attending the festival, but I had a short list of people I wanted to see as Trevor and I shoved off from St. Petersburg last Saturday morning.

Now, I’m typing this a little under 24 hours after getting home from the festival. Showered, rested, and fed, I’m still not sure how I want to cover it. There were plenty of disappointments, such as Kabuto The Python (the #1 thing I wanted to see) not thinking to try the rapping with a mask thing out before stepping out onto a stage, which resulted in Kabuto the Mime. There was The Protomen’s set so mired in feedback that you would have thought they brought it along as a special guest. Then there was the most frustrating part of all, the festival’s complete and utter inability to stay anywhere close to the schedule (more on that later).

But this isn’t meant to be a diatribe from some outsider coming in to point at the nerds and talk about how shitty their convention was. And as I drove home, I reflected on some of the cool shit we saw. The first band we caught, Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew, were quite entertaining both sonically and visually as they took the stage in complete pirate garb. Kabuto aside, the rest of the Scrub Club showcase was phenomenal. As a “crew” they seem to embrace a “hiphop first, nerd second” approach to their music and stage show that really appealed to me.

Then there was the out of left field “holy shit I am gonna talk about that for months” set by Schaffer The Darklord. I’d listened to his material on Myspace in preparation for the festival and was lukewarm to it at best. However, live … live is where it was at. Those lazy beats and rhyme delivery were pushed aside for an uptempo, high energy tight stage show that captivated the entire room. Watching him on stage I kept thinking, this dude is like nerdcore’s version of Col. J.D. Wilkes (for those who don’t know, read about JD here). I don’t think there is any doubt that Schaffer stole the entire festival with his shortened performance. Read more “The Rock Report: Nerdapalooza, Orlando (with audio and video)” »

It’s been three years since Soviet-American songstress Regina Spektor first enchanted us with the soul-pop perfection of Begin to Hope and proved herself a storyteller with a keen sense of detail and drama, a confident singer with a broad vocal range — from high and pure to low and sensual — and a poet with a unique use of words and an alluring inflection, not as if English were her second language, but as if she’s established a whole new charming style of speaking.

The follow-up and Spektor’s fifth studio album doesn’t quite attain the catchy ease of its predecessor, but far (Sire Records) carries its own abundance of appeal.

In the bouncy opening track, “The Calculation,” Spektor playfully ponders the mathematical equation of love and the surprising fury of its burn while in “Folding Chair,” she enjoys a casual day at the beach with her sweetheart and daydreams of domestic bliss (“Let’s get a silver bullet trailer, and have a baby boy / I’ll safety pin his clothes all cool and you’ll graffiti up his toys”). “The Wallet” shows her way of making the mundane seem remarkable with a touching ballad about finding someone’s lost wallet, and she combines quiet, abstract contemplation with grandiose stretches of piano and rhythmic flourishes in the melancholy yet somehow uplifting “Eet.” (Video after the jump) Read more “CD Review: Regina Spektor, far (with video)” »

Drew Danburry prefers his family’s brownie recipe over cookies, plays pranks on his friends while they are pooping, disagrees with capitalism, favors ankle socks to tube socks, and could not care less about what is going on in the lives of Britney Spears or Brangelina.

Drew has toured with Someone Still Loves you Boris Yeltsin, Lydia, The Robot Ate Me, Aubrey Debauchery, Harry and the Potters, TaughtMe, and many others. Additionally, he just recently wrapped up a solo acoustic tour. I spoke with Drew about this tour, the downside of being a “nice guy,” his engagement to his long-term girlfriend, Lynette, signing to Emergency Umbrella Records, and his future plans. Read more “Indie 101: Drew Danburry.” »

To begin by beating a dead horse: Modern Radio sucks! We’re lucky in the Tampa Bay area with WMNF, but even this leftist station leans toward mainstream boomer culture rather than underground or avant garde sounds. And who can blame them? Fiscal feasability dictates the output of modern media (d’uh).

In a pinch, I tend to listen to right wing radio for a good, healthy gut laugh, because it’s better than being depressed by cheesy mediocrity! Bottom line: Radio is for the masses. Lowest common denominator pandering pervades every aspect of post-modern living. From the huge conglomerates to the indies, companies and not-for-profits don’t have faith in our ability to think, contemplate and make our own decisions. This is not special knowledge that I’ve tapped into / I do not have any extra intelligence not available to the rest of you. You are all well aware of the hoodwink that modern media attempts to pull over on us every day. It/s like that “Everybody Knows” song by Leonard Cohen (he supercedes boomer culture, right?). Read more “No Clear Radio: New podcast for local music and beyond” »

Some of you might be surprised that music isn’t my primary motivation for going to this weekend’s fifth annual Pitchfork Music Festival, but seriously, folks … that’s the god’s honest truth. I mean, I’m definitely hyped about going and checking out a handful of the bands playing there, but what has me most excited is a get-together with a group of old friends who’ll be congregating in Chi-town for the fest. A motley crew to say the absolute least. Let’s just hope none of us get arrested this weekend – unlike that other Chicago adventure that ended with my boy getting thrown in the pokey for public nudity! Three-plus days chock full o’ friends, libations, hot dogs (not really, well, kinda … I’ve never been to Hot Dougs!) and music … it just can’t come soon enough! Read more “Travels with Jack: Pitchfork Music Festival ‘09″ »

I think it is safe to say that we are all “RIOT”ed out.

In 2007, Paramore proved itself as a band not to be reckoned with, putting out single after single, and continually making it to the top of the charts with songs like “Misery Business,” “Crush Crush Crush” and “Decode,” which hit the radio and moved into the homes and iPods of teens all over the world.

If you’re a Paramore fan, I have some good news. The band released a new single, “Ignorance,” on July 6. The song is more of a push towards punk-rock than previous Paramore albums. Frontwoman Hayley Williams recently told a journalist from Entertainment Weekly’s Music Mix blog, “the album is really soley based on friendship and betrayal, losing people you thought would be there forever, and then maybe either finding them again or not finding them again.”

These ideas are more than apparent in “Ignorance.” The new single illustrates a more confident Paramore, perhaps due to their recent flush of fame. Could this tune be aimed at ex-band members or maybe even ex-boyfriends? We may not ever know, but listening to it brings us closer to Hayley, in a way. “Ignorance” is spunky and catchy — watch out, it could get stuck in your head for weeks after listening. The single is available on iTunes or at Paramore’s official website. The new album, Brand New Eyes, will hit stores September 29. You can pre-order it now, also on their website. (Check out the new single performed live after the jump.)

Read more “New single by Paramore: “Ignorance”” »

It was not all that long ago that a self-imposed eight-year hiatus by an R&B singer was tantamount to quitting the game. Labels wouldn’t have it; fans would forget.

Singer Maxwell’s retreat for most of the decade into “pedestrian life” has done nothing to hurt his career. BLACKSummer’snight, his first release since 2001’s Now just entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1 with sales of 316,000.

Maxwell’s re-arrival happens at a precipitous time, amid a listless modern soul scene where hardly anyone can resist the Auto-Tune button. We’ll call BLACKSummer’snight a solid return, especially welcome considering contemporary R&B’s current state of affairs.

The 36-year-old Brooklyn-bred artist is a genuine singer in the classic mold of a Marvin Gaye. His stock-in-trade is smoldering restraint, but he can grasp for the rasp and turn up the passion when called for.

Read more “Review: Maxwell’s BLACKSummer’snight” »

I distributed the following memo to the Tampa Creative Loafing staff this afternoon.

In the face of declining print revenues and an according shift of resources to web-first production, Creative Loafing is restructuring its editorial staff. Unfortunately, these adjustments have made it necessary to eliminate the position of senior editor held by CL veteran Eric Snider.
There is no question that CL will be a different place without Eric. He has made a major contribution to the company as a writer and editor, and his style, his street smarts, his charismatic presence and journalistic expertise have added immeasurably to CL in print, online, and in our day-to-day lives.
We will miss having Eric as part of the staff, both as a journalist and a friend. He will continue at CL full-time through the end of this week; after that, we hope to continue working with him on individual projects.
Sharry Smith, Publisher
David Warner, Editor

Nothing much else to say except that the recession sucks, that this was an extremely painful decision, and that it brings to four the number of layoffs we have had to make this year from an already small edit staff. And yet, in spite of everything, I’m still optimistic about the future of this company.

But Eric will be missed.

As I type this review, the memories of an unbelievable show put on by The Lonely H linger in my mind and make my heart soar. I’ve always sworn that I was born in the wrong era, and these guys give me hope that great throwback music can be found in this day and age.

To start the show, lead singer Mark Fredson gave us an important tidbit of information: “This is Eric’s first show with out a mustache. He’s had it since high school.”

Eric admitted, “I feel naked.” On that note, the audience was given a clue about the general vibe put off by these dudes: super laid back.

Hailing all the way from the rainy town of Port Angeles, Wash., The Lonely H takes us back to the classic sounds of American blues rock ala The Eagles, Tom Petty, and the Stones. This foursome has been all over the country (NY, IL, NB, MS, and more) in a crappy old van “with no AC!” When prompted, they said that “a European tour would be ideal. Like Spain or Prague.” They call themselves a “denim rock” band. What exactly is denim rock? Well, I had to ask…

Read more “Concert Review: The Lonely H at New World Brewery” »

This just in from the Bruce Springsteen newsite: The Boss had added 25 dates to his current U.S. tour, including a stop at Tampa’s Ford Amphitheatre on Sept. 12; tickets go on sale July 24. Here’s the complete details, with the fluffery (gushing quotes from European press) edited out:

Bruce Springsteen & The Legendary E Street Band have added 25 new US concert dates to their 2009 ‘Workin’ On a Dream’ tour. Springsteen has now sold over 1.5 million concert tickets in 2009 alone, with the new dates expected to push that number over the two million mark. (Video of the band performing “The River” at 2009’s Glastonbury and complete schedule of tour dates after the jump. Read more “Bruce Springsteen adds new dates to U.S. Tour, including Tampa stop (video)” »

Brought straight to your desktops by Lee at Vinyl Fever.

VINYL:

AA Bondy – American Hearts
Their latest (2008) release, now available on vinyl.

Amon Duul II – Yeti
“Yeti” was the second album by Amon Duul II and is quite a musical achievement. This is a double LP set and contains some of Amon Duul’s most impressive work – delivering their thick, full-fledged, multi-layered sound with dense instrumentation and a certain epic vastness. This is Krautrock in the full depth of its power: huge, towering, dark and completely devoid of any happy optimism, but still bound full of energy. An essential bit of the psych/prog era. Released with the original artwork.

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Deluxe reissue features the original album remastered and a bonus disc of 12 rarities, live tracks and B-sides.

David Bowie – Man Who Sold The World
David Bowie – Pinups
High-end Simply Vinyl label pressings.

The Clash – The Clash
The Clash – Give ‘Em Enough Rope
The Clash – Combat Rock
High-end Simply Vinyl label pressings.

The Dead Weather – Horehound
The latest musical adventure by Jack White epitomizes the alt-rock ethic: do the music you love, do it yourself, and do it fast. The Dead Weather brings together lead singer Alison Mosshart (half of the London-based lo-fi post-punk duo The Kills), Queens Of The Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita, The Raconteurs’ bassist Jack Lawrence, and White on drums and vocals.

Iggy & The Stooges – More Power
Digitally remastered collection of rare studio recordings from the Raw Power era.

Son Volt – American Central Dust
Now available on vinyl. Read more “New CDs, LPs and DVDs out July 14″ »

It is finally confirmed. Phish is not lame and did not drop all the most obvious hints about the location of the upcoming “Save the Date” fest so we could figure it out with little or no detective work. They led us all down a false trail, encouraging speculation and spreading rumors so thick and detailed that pretty much everybody and their brothers were convinced that the fest would be held at the Coachella site in Indio, California, also a city known for its date farms. (By date, I mean the fruit.) The rumors seemed so solid that hundreds (including a CL staffer, not myself), booked rooms in the Indio area.

Throughout the past several weeks, to hype up the forthcoming festival set to occur in a mystery location Oct. 30-Nov. 1, Phish anchored their homepage with an interactive pic of the United States, with various flash disasters — swarms of hungry ants, gods blowing storms in from the heavens, even Mike riding doomfully across the country on his Segway — to remove the possibilities state by state. California was still on the map up until today, when it was hijacked by four hot air balloons, casting all previous speculation into the dirt.

My original theory, since Nevada is still on the map, that Phish has decided to take over Vegoose and will either be the headliner on a bill of bands, or the sole band. Vegose is a Halloweentime fest. I guess only time will tell — but you heard the theory here first!

Stay tuned for a complete Phish Saves America wrap of the first leg of the summer fest, with pics and video.

WMNF’s 4th Annual Americana Fest at Skipper’s Smokehouse went off without a hitch this past Saturday, July 11, a hand clappin’, boot stompin’ good time that showcased the vast array of talent in Florida’s Americana scene.

Have Gun, Will Travel

Originally masterminded by Ted Lukas, Americana Fest is all grown up. This year featured ten outstanding Florida Americana bands: Ted Lukas & the Misled, Will Quinlan & the Diviners, Have Gun, Will Travel, Thomas Wynn & the Believers, Nervous Turkey, Black Finger, Roppongi’s Ace, Mike Dunn & the Kings of New England, Matt Butcher and The Nine Volts plus a national headliner: Blue Mountain. Read more “Photo Review: WMNF’s Americana Fest at Skipper’s Smokehouse” »

“Don’t stop, believing — hold on to the feeyayaling!”

“‘Cause I can’t fight this feeling anymore, I’ve forgotten what I started fighting for! And if I have to crawl upon the floor, come crashing through your door, baby, I cant fight this feeling anymore!”

“Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me!” (Think of Cartman singing it. Makes it twice as great.)

All right, enough of that. Just wanted to introduce two concert announcements I received over the weekend about two upcoming shows featuring ’70s classic rock bands known for their epic power balladry.

Journey (the current incarnation pictured at right, in case you didn’t recognize) stops at the Amway Arena in Orlando Wed., Sept. 23, with Night Ranger to open. Tickets are $126, $66 and $36, and go on sale this Sat., July 18 at 10 a.m.

And the “Cant Stop Rockin’ Tour 2009″ with REO Speedwagon and Styx (also featuring special guest opener Night Ranger) play a pavilion only Ford Amphitheatre Fri., Oct. 30. The reserved seat tickets are $59.50, $39.50, $29.50 and $19.50, with four-packs available for $60. Sales this Sat., July 18 at 10 a.m.

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
Monday, July 13: Kelly Clarkson (Pictured, to promote her new album, All I Ever Wanted)
Tuesday, July 14: Wilco with Feist (who will perform their collaboration from Wilco the Album, “You and I.”)
Wednesday, July 15: Paul McCartney (hopefully he’s be yakking and playing)
Thursday, July 16: Grizzly Bear (to make up for their non-appearance a few months ago, when they got bumped because GM’s Bob Lutz went over. Will likely play something from Veckatimest.)
Friday, July 17: Metric

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, July 13: The cast of Hair (all the way from Broadway, NYC)
Tuesday, July 14: Sugar Ray (Why, oh why, did this shitty ass band have to come back? Wasn’t it bad enough they gave Mark McGrath a job over there at Extra!?)
Wednesday, July 15: Kris Allen (American Idol)
Thursday, July 16: Daughtry
Friday, July 17: Demi Lovato Read more “Late Night Music, July 13-18: Kelly Clarkson, Grizzly Bear, Jonas Brothers and more.” »

It’s been many weeks since I’ve made it out to a show in Tampa. I blame travels, nonspecific busyness and a lack of excitable summer concerts in the Tampa Bay area. It took Georgia’s Perpetual Groove (pictured, photo by Phil Bardi) — a band I’ve always somehow managed to miss even though they play the area frequently — to get me out of the house.

By the time the four-piece (drums, bass, guitar, synth/keys) took the stage just after 10 pm on Friday, July 10, a few hundred of Tampa’s finest heady brahs and chicks in sundresses crowded Ybor’s Crowbar Friday night. PGroove’s first set held true to their name — flowing from one disco rock groove to the next. It worked for most of the set, but I grew bored, craving more interplay, energy and stronger melodies. Read more “Concert review: Perpetual Groove at Crowbar (video!)” »

You’d imagine Dignan’s music is conceived somewhere cold and snowy grey and stunning in its starkness, a place for thinking meaningful thoughts and contemplating life’s everlasting mysteries.

Not a Texas town located a mere five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and boasting a significant Hispanic community. (Dignan photo by Taylor Pool)

“There’s not much of that in the music,” bassist and Dignan co-founder Devin Garcia tells me via phone a few weeks ago while the band was enjoying some down time in Cincinnati before a show later that night. “A lot of times, people are almost surprised about that.”

The atmospheric chamber pop has a distinctive psyche-folk feel in the same vein as Grizzly Bear. The multi-layered vocals are delivered in gentle and mellifluous intones or passionate cries, and are backed by wordless chorales and tasteful washes of sound with small textural details added for affect — glock chimes, guitar reverb, tambourine jingles, hand-claps, accordion notes, whistling.

Dignan is named after the charming ne’er-do-well in Wes Anderson’s first film, Bottle Rocket, and had its start when high school-aged Andy Pena met Garcia in church and became fast friends while tooling around in the church’s music room, where they spent many a late night experimenting with various instruments and taking full advantage of the empty performance space. Soon enough, Pena was playing guitar, Garcia electric bass and the duo were recruiting other young musicians to join them. Eventually, they settled into the current lineup with keyboardist and harmonizing vocalist Heidi Plueger, drummer Trey Perez, and David Palomo, who sings and plays accordion, glock and keys. Read more “CL Interview: Dignan, a hot new (unsigned) Texas act plays Crowbar next Friday (video)” »

After two confusing Tweets from Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry — one alerting fans to the re-scheduling of Aerosmith’s Florida dates, the next saying the show could potentially still take place — I finally received word that the show has indeed been postponed.

Here’s the official Ford Amp statement:

(July 10, 2009)  Aerosmith has postponed their scheduled show for July 11th at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL due to an artist injury.   A rescheduled date will be announced soon.     Tickets purchased for the Ford Amphitheatre concert will be honored at the rescheduled date.     For additional tour and ticket information, please visit www.livenation.com or www.aeroforceone.com.

Here’s Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry’s Tweets:

“Tampa Fort Lauderdale both rescheduled in Oct. Sorry for the let down. Better Steven recovers fully than halfway n strains his leg again”

“Billie n I misunderstood looks like we r keeping fingers crossed 4 Tampa n Lauderdale shows.Sorry.Lost in Translation”

Don’t let her goofy personality and head full of dreads fool you. Emily Turnage is a young musician with huge potential. “I think I’ve been playing since I was about 14,” she told me in a recent conversation. A Saint Petersburg native, this flower child finds her peace through the strings of her guitar.

Her love of guitar paved her way to joining band after band, never giving up on her dream. “I want to have 30,000 people sing my songs with me.”

Raw talent flows through her veins. She has never taken a guitar lesson in her life. “I taught me-self!” she exclaimed with a laugh.

Emily took inspiration from the music around her. “My best friend Jacob is an excellent musician and whenever he played I just fell in love with it. Hayley Williams [Paramore] influences me as well.”

Read more “Local Music Spotlight: Emily Turnage (with video)” »