Tampa Calling

Pedals on our Pirate Ships finally sailed into Tampa on July 21! Which explains how I found myself out late on a Tuesday work night at Transitions Art Gallery to see Pedals on our Pirate Ships (Richmond), The Wild (Atlanta) and Regular Size People Fight (Tampa).

Pedals on our Pirate Ships

My friend Jeff made me some mix CDs last winter and the song that immediately caught my attention was “Peter Pan Syndrome,” with its chorus “Will you be my Wendy? Will you be my Tinkerbell? / Don’t be silly you can be my Tiger Lily still” and lines like “We don’t have goals but we have lots of fun” and “but secretly we all miss our mothers, we seek security in the arms of lovers.” When I couldn’t get the song out of my head, I looked up the band with a peculiar name, Pedals on our Pirate Ships, listened to the rest of the songs posted on their Myspace page, and was hooked.

Hailing from Richmond, VA, these folk punk rockers play extremely fun and catchy tunes with just a tinge of introspection. In “Reinventing Bryan Adams” Matt belts out “Why do they call it goodbye, doesn’t feel so good to me, why don’t we call a spade a spade, say what we really mean… look me in the eye and say loving you is fucking killing me” At the show, a small but enthusiastic crowd sang along at the top of their lungs to the crowd favorites, including “Peter Pan Syndrome” and “Night of the Living Wage.” Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it that I start too many blogs lamenting about why it is that there are no shows (that I want to see, at least) for days/week/months and then there are several competing shows the same night …

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Though a naturally occurring gas, radon in the building world can be a big problem.  Luckily in the music world, recurrent Radon means rejoicing.  Radon version 1.0 was a stalwart of the Florida scene in the ’90s.  Since reforming they have put out a new album on No Idea Records and have been out playing shows in support. Sadly, this was my first time catching them since the reformation. On Saturday, December 27, Transitions Art Gallery was packed to welcome Radon back to Tampa and enjoy the opening acts. Alas, I only managed to catch Lemuria briefly before Radon took the stage.

Lemuria

Lemuria might just be my new favorite band of the minute. Hailing from Buffalo, NY, the trio creates an irresistible indie pop akin to [insert references to '90s indie bands here] but with their own unique twist.  In summary, Lemuria is just plain fun.

Lemuria = Sheena Ozzella – Guitar / Vocals, Alexander Kerns – Drums / Vocals & Jason Draper – Bass

Clapping along to Lemuria

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