Tampa Calling

Holy. Crap. Talk about getting one in right under the wire. No matter. We’re here. It’s still July and the podcast is live, so let’s talk about it.

This month’s podcast is divided into two halves. The first half is all about new music. In that section we have a song from the upcoming Lucero CD, 1372 Overton Park, as well as a phenomenal cover of Lucero’s “Better Than This” by ninebullets.net faves, The Fox Hunt. Incidentally, the new Lucero album is currently up for preorder. If you do preorder it, not only will you get the physical CD a few weeks prior to the “official” release date, you’ll also immediately get to download a six-song preview of the album (from whence the song on this podcast came). While we’re on the preorder tip, there’s also a song on the podcast from the new Chris Knight album, Trailer Tapes II. Like the new Lucero, Chris’ album is up for preorder, but if you preorder it now you’ll get to download a digital copy of the whole album immediately.

The second half of the podcast features bands from this year’s Deep Blues Festival, which I plan on posting a complete recap of next week. I featured American Relay in this segment who, unfortunately, played their last show ever at the fest. I believe they have a new album coming out, but there will be no tour to support it. Also featured is Davina and The Vagabonds. I had high hopes for this band and they lived up to every one. Matter of fact, during their set I tweeted the following: “Davina and the Vagabonds. Music you should fuck to“. I also decided to include Woodsbossman, Tom VandenAvond. He looks like he could be Scott H. Biram’s little brother and he writes some fine, fine music.

I closed this month’s Podcast with a track from Gainesville’s The Takers. Their new album has finally been released and you can get it at all your favorite digital outlets, plus you can read about the album here.

And that does it. Another month comes to pass. I am pretty happy with this month’s podcast and I think y’all will like it. Do me a favor, though. If you listen and you enjoy the show, please tell other people about it. The website’s stats have been increasing this month, but the podcast’s stats have been in decline. I am gonna try to do more advertising of the show this month, but nothing beats word of mouth.

Thanks, everyone. ~Autopsy IV (twitter: @autopsy4)

TRACK LISTING AND PLAYER BENEATH THE CUT
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NOTE: I originally posted this on ninebullets.net last month. Eilen will be on the Cuban Club Cantina stage at Tropical Heatwave tomorrow. Her set time is 7:45 to 8:45. She gets the ninebullets.net seal of approval.

When I started ninebullets.net I really didn’t listen to too many woman singers. It wasn’t a conscious decision, really, just how it played out. Eilen Jewell was one of the singers who helped break that habit with her 2008 effort, Letters From Sinners And Strangers.

When I read on songs:illinois that she was changing her sound on Sea Of Tears I got a little worried. Why mess with a good thing, I wondered. Her last CD was perfect for damned near every mood and occasion.

With great trepidation I put the new one in my car stereo. Read the rest of this entry »

Since Drag The River “broke up,” it stood to reason that guitarist/singer Jon Snodgrass and singer Chad Price would be releasing solo efforts. Chad is supposed to have one coming out by the end of 2009, and while I wouldn’t put the notion of another Drag The River album completely to bed, Mr. Snodgrass was the first to strike with Visitor’s Band.

Over the course of 2008, Jon managed to book studio time on both coasts and places in between to record Visitor’s Band. He also managed to pull in a few collaborators like Chad Rex, Joey Erg, Chris Pierce and ninebullets.net faves, Two Cow Garage. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of our upcoming Urban Explorer’s Handbook, we mapped out the Bay area’s own Internet community and spotlighted a variety of blogs and websites that cover local arts, news, politics, film, music and food. Here is a profile I wrote about Bryan Childs, a Tampa Calling contributor and the man behind ninebullets.net.

Bryan Childs, aka Autopsy IV, isn’t trying to be a music writer or a critic or even a go-to source for music news and information. But the 35-year-old electrical designer has single-handedly become all three. The St. Petersburg-based owner and operator of ninebullets.net brings so much knowledge and raw talent to the table that Creative Loafing recruited him as a contributor to our own music blog, Tampa Calling, last year.

Via ninebullets.net, Childs shines a light on Americana, bluegrass, newgrass, psychobilly, alt-country, folk, deep blues and any other genre with a downhome, rootsy feel, though you’re as likely to find posts about Tori Amos or Slayer as you will Old Crow Medicine Show and The Black Keys. His site includes interviews, MP3s, live show previews and reviews, commentary on CDs and DVDs, music news, and posts about Childs’ own whisky-soaked adventures. He also has a few guest bloggers to help spread the flavor.

Childs has no professional experience writing or playing music, though he dabbled in both while growing up in Plant City. His formative years were spent exploring the Bay area’s goth industrial music scene, where he became a regular at The Castle and joined its online community message board, Underground Tampa.

Then he discovered the Drive-By Truckers. “I heard them and I was done,” Childs says of his love-at-first-listen awakening. Soon enough, he was digging up more alterna-twang artists and contacting local radio DJs for recommendations. Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: This excellent, lengthy, informative, investigative, and, yes, controversial post arrives via our man Autopys IV (pictured) over at ninebullets.net.

Like many other blogs and web sites on the internet, I wrote about the sudden closing of Miles of Music with a tone of sadness. As I said at the time, I always felt better about myself after buying cds from M.O.M. and had even grown to view their notoriously slow shipping as an endearing trait. As many posts on ninebullets tend to do, my eulogy to M.O.M. slid off the front page with little more than a few other people chiming in to express their sadness about the closing.

Then a week or so after the initial posting a funny thing started to happen. Bands started commenting on the post and, like me, they weren’t too happy about M.O.M.’s closing but, unlike me, they weren’t exactly mourning it. Then as a week turned into a couple of weeks, and then into a month, the comments and emails went from a slight trickle to an unignorable stream. It finally became apparent to me that M.O.M.’s business practices as of late may not have all been above board and that there was definitely an underside to this story that nobody was telling. With that in mind I took it upon myself to start talking to these artists with the intent of telling their story.

As the stories started to file in I started feeling worse and worse about having ever spent any money at Miles of Music and started to feel as angry as these bands I was talking to. Wanting answers, I did some basic internet sleuthing to uncover Jeff’s (Mile of Music’s founder) email address and reached out to him. To Jeff’s defense, he was quick to respond and very up front about what happened with Miles of Music from its inception all the way up to its sudden closing. As we continued to exchange emails my anger gave way to understanding.

Did Jeff make some mistakes? Yes. Are the bands catching it in the ass? Yes. Was this Jeff’s intent? No. Is he laughing all the way to the bank? Pretty much the exact opposite.

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Editor’s note: Among Autopsy IV’s many talents is opining on the awesomely crappy reality TV show “Rock of Love.” Here’s his latest slice of sidesplitting commentary. To catch up on his marvelous skewering, go to ninebullets.net.

Okay. I asked if people were interested in me doing these and then never actually started. I have a decent excuse…I promise. See, my in-laws came in from Honduras and we weren’t watching the show…but! we were recording them and over the weekend I got caught up and I’m ready to start writing about this collection of skanks in earnest now.

When I woke up this morning I knew someone had mentioned the Brandi twins and their porn careers on the latest “Charm School” edition. You depraved fuckers had quadrupled the amount of traffic I would normally have by 7:30 in the morning….all Googling for their pron tapes. To that I gotta ask; Are you fucking serious? Do you really wanna see some dude’s spooge running down Brandi M.’s face before you’ve had your morning coffee? Do you really wanna see Brandi C.’s cobbled up axe wound before breakfast?

No, you don’t…I’ve seen ‘em both…it was horrible. Now, if Jessica wants to pose topless..then we’re onto something.

The commandment on this week’s episode was “Thou Shalt Rock Thy Body”. You can imagine the disappointment when a house full of whores, strippers and porn queens learned that “rocking thy body” had nothing to do with bodily fluids.

The girls go out to the courtyard to see a collection of booths featuring top shelf whiskey, tequila, cigars, cheese and wine. The girls get to cycle around to each booth trying the wares while the attendants try desperately to explain how to enjoy the items. This really reminded me of my dog. See, I can be eating something so delicious, so decadent and I’ll (as I’m often wont to do) give some to the dog…only, she doesn’t even chew it. One swallow, it’s gone. That’s the way these girls are with the booze. Top shelf whiskey slammed like it’s Old Crow or something. I’d venture that some of the bottles of wine cost more than these hags’ rent, while their only basis for comparison is Boones Farm Strawberry wine. Dallas eventually bores with the wine and cheese offerings and starts to make a run at the local sausage selection (sorry babe, The Pick-Up Artist comes on in the next hour).

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