In three short years, the Reax/ThxMgmtHot Dog Show has established itself as a must-attend event of the summer, providing a great opportunity to see a diverse group of bands, catch up with old friends, make some new ones, and of course, witness a hot dog-eating contest. This year, the Hot Dog Show took place on Friday, July 3, at Crowbar. I arrived just in time to see the first female victory in the hot dog eating contest (sorry – I didn’t catch her name!), which was followed by an animated performance by Bealsville/Plant City-based Shunda K of Yo Majesty! Bringing the evening to a dance party conclusion was Sunbears! (Jacksonville).
To get the downlow on Pontiak, check out Eric Snider’s interview with the brothers who make up this band. Live, Pontiak delivers a constantly evolving performance, its members switching instruments (who doesn’t love the impact of double drum sets?) and keeping even the most jaded scenester interested. These mistral brothers are a talented family garnering positive media attention from sources as diverse as Pitchfork and Wired. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Meagan Bemis on May. 31, 2009, at 4:00 pm
I am dating a guitarist. Original, I know.
The point is, though, that I have a unique inside vision to the woes that local bands endure. Joel, my boyfriend, is in the band Dreadful Memories (who freakin’ rock by the way — check them out). They work so hard, I mean really. Whenever Joel and I both have a day off, it’s hardly spent together because he needs to get to practice. All the members of the band have at least one part time job, some of them have two and all of them struggle to make ends meet.
I have bought more than my fair share of tickets to their shows, just to make sure they sell enough to be able to play. They’ve dealt with producers and agencies that seem to care only about profit rather than actually helping local bands make it. They struggle to have enough time for the band and the rest of their lives. They deal with the struggles of everyday life while trying to win the right to their dreams day after day. It just seems like they can’t get a break.
Homemade Music Symposium - This a mini-SXSW in Ybor City. That’s what we are going for. We say we have the talent. Now, let’s see the support.
The second annual symposium is offered free of charge to all Tampa Bay area musicians and the general public. The numerous seminars and workshops are focused on the business of music making and will provide area musicians assistance on how to nurture and develop careers in the modern commercial environment. Woven through the two-day schedule are a number of special live performances and showcases.
What: Homemade Music Symposium
When: June 13-14, 2009
Where: HCC-Performing Arts Building-Ybor City Campus, located at the corner of Palm Avenue and 14th Street.
Cost: Conference is free to the public. We will soon have information on a multi-venue wristband for the Night Showcases.
Audience: Panels geared towards musicians and music business issues, Night Showcases for all! (18+).
Showcase Info: Mohawk Bomb Records is hosting a showcase on June 13 at Crowbar (1812 N. 17th St., Ybor City, FL 33605) featuring Mohawk Bomb Records bands and choice local talent.
Leilani joins Stephen and Joran in the studio to welcome Jim Morey and his band as they perform two tracks live and talk about their strange brand of Neo-ragtime, NOLA jazz, stumblin’ roots rock.
Yes, they brought in a monkey, and yes, we got it on video.
Download the MP3s of Gypsy Wind and Wishing Well after the break.
It was a long time coming for session number six, but well worth it, as Clearwater-based hard rockers Soulfound join Joran and Stephen in the studio to talk about playing locally and nationally, recording and playing together for a decade and their decision to go on hiatus. They also bring their amps and put them to good use. MP3s of Temper Temper, Occupation and Looking For Me can be downloaded below the jump, along with pics.
Promoters can be very effective in breaking new bands and creating a music scene. A promoter is a person that contacts venues, sets up shows and assembles a bill of bands that he thinks will draw lots of patrons to the venue. Successful ones are usually well-connected, popular and fair to the core bands they work with.
I have seen many blossoming promoters in town that get bad reps because they mistreat bands and venues. It is really easy to get burned and banned from clubs, so here I offer up some hard-learned tips.
Who: Rise of Saturn, Drew Street Mary, Ascending to Avalon with special guests Stalling Dawn.
Rise of Saturn: Formed by members of Soulfound and WeakSauce, this Incubus-meets-Gnarls Barkely funky sextet is playing their first show. Demo recording coming soon.
Drew Street Mary: A sing-along, power pop band from Satefy Harbor, DSM’s Beatles-meet-Seville sound is sure to keep you humming the songs for days. Their song “Barfly” was recently featured on the No Lip Vol. 2 compilation.
Ascending to Avalon: This new post-grunge quartet is sure to fly with fans of Open Hand, Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin. Their song “Salvation” was featured on the No Lip Vol. 2 compilation.
Stalling Dawn: This Tampa-based rock band has a new record out and is opening for Third Eye Blind this weekend. They are a head-banging blend of Thrice and Killswitch Engage.
What: Mohawk Bomb Records Showcase. Mohawk Bomb Records is a Clearwater-based music label, production house and ad agency, focused on sharing new music with the World, finding new ways to make our artists known. and adopting technology advances to provide better distribution.
Root/Cause: A Birthday Party for the Garden!
Saturday February 28th, 7:30 pm, 1013 MLK Street S.
Join the Bartlett Park Community Garden for a night of music, food and art under the stars. Twigs and Leaves Native Florida Plant Nursery hosts this landmark celebration.Sat, Feb 28th 7:30pm
Twigs & Leaves
1013 MLK Street South, St. Pete
MUSIC: Nessie (10:45-11:30) The Sheaks (9:45-10:30)
The Turncoat (8:45-9:30)
Pink Orange Red (7:45-8:30)
ART: (silent auction)
Chad Cardoza, Alana Tomasso, Hugh T. Williams, Hunter Oswald, Zen Glass and more
Attitude is an important component to keep in check as your band starts to have some pull. Acting like a whiny diva is a surefire way to get yourself banned from venues, overlooked by promoters and despised by local media. If you are an unsigned or independent act, you have no place thinking that you are better than anyone else by making other’s lives annoying. Just because you have some catchy tunes and your friends like them doesn’t mean jack squat.
People in the music business have enough ego on their own and will not want to put up with yours, unless you truly are God’s gift to music and are selling lots and lots of records. If you are hassle to deal with or have too many demands, chances are they won’t want to work with you. The rule of thumb is: unless you have something that they need, don’t act like it. If your band brings 400 people to a show, then you have grounds to demand from the venue. If your band brings 10, you don’t. So don’t be a jerk about no sound check, bad on stage sound or crappy pay outs.
Tampa Bay musician Insecticide Lobotomy (IL) performs and creates noise by manipulating and combining a series of effect pedals and processors. Turning knobs on and off while adjusting oscillation, frequency, pitch and rhythm of the different effects, musicians like IL create a soundscape of squeals, clicks, drones and caustic noise. Certainly not unique in technique or attitude, IL serves as a great example of the growing noise community. Also, he crafts noise very eloquently compared to some of his contemporaries, while not being too sophisticated to bash it out with the best of ’em.
Basically performances like the Youtube video up above pose intrinsic questions about the very natures of music and expression themselves. Is this music? What is music? Who cares?…
Artists are always looking for “what people think” about their music. This really translates to “tell me something positive so I don’t freak out”. If this is the intended purpose, why ask in the first place? I had a band send in a demo and ask me to tell them what I thought of it. After listening to it 2 or 3 times, I crafted a long email pointing out what I thought were the strengths and points to work on, plus asked for some clarification on certain things, as I was interested but not sold. I never heard back from them.
Homemade Music Symposium - This a mini-SXSW in Ybor City. That’s what we are going for. We say we have the talent. Now, let’s see the support.
It was a long time coming for session number six, but well worth it, as Clearwater-based hard rockers 
Promoters can be very effective in breaking new bands and creating a music scene. A promoter is a person that contacts venues, sets up shows and assembles a bill of bands that he thinks will draw lots of patrons to the venue. Successful ones are usually well-connected, popular and fair to the core bands they work with.
