Tampa Calling

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”

Five years ago, any music industry conference would feature hours of discussion about how to get your compact disc into the hands of DJs on FM radio, or tips on how to press and package a CD that wouldn’t get buried on the desk of an A&R executive at some major label. A lot has happened in five years. On Saturday, June 13 and 14, Hillsborough Community College and The Artist and Writers Group hosted the Second Annual Homemade Music Symposium in Ybor City, and in the combined 18-plus hours of discussion, commercial FM radio was not mentioned one time.

Instead, Saturday’s daytime programming included panels and workshops like “Alternative Media Promotion,” “Marketing, Touring and Band Management” and “How to Get the Most Out of a Studio Session.” Panelists included bloggers (Bryan Childs, Ninebullets.net), social networking specialists (Julia Gorzka, Brand Tampa) and local media (Lee Courtney, WMNF; Curtis Ross, Tampa Tribune; Julie Garisto, St. Pete Times as well as Creative Loafing’s Leilani Polk). Mr. Courtney was the only radio personality in attendance. (Tampa’s 88.5 FM is a community station that still allows their DJs to play CDs – they even sometimes play records.).

The Homemade Music Symposium’s goal is to educate nascent and struggling musicians in the ways and means of the music business and industry trends. It also included out-of-town industry folk and special keynote speakers – this year, it was Tunecore’s Peter Wells and Tony Michaelides, a local author from Manchester, UK, who’s colleagues and contemporaries include Factory Records’ Tony Wilson, David Bowie, U2 and The Stone Roses.

Conference attendees were mostly solo singer-songwriter types, with a sprinkling of MCs, publishers and managers as well as other local bloggers and marketers looking to get involved in the music scene or learn about new media. There was a lot of talk (maybe too much) about Twitter and Facebook, and of course the familiar geographical gripe of how Florida is difficult to tour/break out of, because there are no surrounding states (The closest top 10 market is Atlanta). A good portion of the crowd was visibly older, some dressed in flowery shirts and flip flops, and plenty of eyes glazed over when the topics inevitably circled back to “Tweeting” and social networks.

Sorely missing from the panel of experts, especially on the panel labeled “Area Record Labels and Artist Managers,” were representatives from the handful of local Tampa imprints, namely ADD, New Granada and 24 Hour Service Station (Geri X, Win Win Winter and The Beauvilles). 24 Hour owner Marshall Dickson stated that he would definitely be involved next year, but that this time around he just had “too much on his plate.” The only current label owner in attendance was Ivan Pena, who runs Mohawk Bomb Records (Soulfound, Ascending to Avalon and Rise of Saturn). Pena seemed optimistic about the Tampa Bay music scene, and about the fast-changing online industry, but insisted that artists need to tour incessantly and start treating their band like a business or risk failure.

The “Music Critics” panel, unfortunately the last session of the day, seemed to be the most pessimistic. One girl in the crowd asked for suggestions on how to become a music writer. The entire panel discouraged her. It may be in fashion for music writers to be moody and begrudging, but one would think their passion for music could somehow keep their chins up, not to mention grateful that they still have jobs in the age of Rotten Tomatoes and aggregated, user-generated reviews at Amazon.com.

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Attention Unsigned Bands: July 5 is Deadline for Mohawk Bomb Records‘ No Lip Vol. 3 Compilation. Please submit your best song through Sonicbids. Time Left to Submit: 4d , 3h, 25m

Based in Clearwater, Mohawk Bomb Records is a new kind of records music label, focused on sharing all music with the World using online marketing, social media networks and mobile technologies. To see the entire Mohawk Bomb Records’ discography…

RT on Twitter: @mohawkbomb Deadline 2 Submit 4 No Lip 3 Comp Jul 5. Time Left: 4d , 3h, 25m http://tinyurl.com/maj92g #tampamusic #727music

Courtney Love is nuts. (Newsflash, right?) Years of drug abuse will do that to a person. She uses the Internet predominantly to bicker with Ryan Adams and wonder aloud, “What happened to all that Nirvana money!?”

Sometimes, she covers both topics simultaneously! She either hasn’t quite grasped or doesn’t give a shit about Twitter’s 140-character limit, opting instead for stream-of-consciousness commentary and storytelling sometimes interrupted mid-word. And she’s still close pals with lone original Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan.

Love has worked intermittently on her second solo album Nobody’s Daughter over the past three years. Because of various false starts and Internet leaks, the disc is three producers and four studios deep. Now it seems Nobody’s Daughter won’t even be a Courtney Love solo album. Courtney has taken a page from Corgan’s playbook and resurrected a dormant, yet familiar name.

Hole. Read the rest of this entry »

Twitter may be the hottest thing in social networking at the moment, but count NIN mastermind Trent Reznor as a recent convert to the naysayers.

According to Rolling Stone, Reznor “recently contributed a post to the official NIN.com message board in which he confesses his disappointment in the overall negativity of online communities, writing, ‘We’re in a world where the mainstream social networks want any and all people to boost user numbers for the big selloff and are not concerned with the quality of experience..’”

Read more

The mid-90’s Britpop feud between Oasis and Blur has become the stuff of legend. Noel Gallagher once famously hoped Blur frontman Damon Albarn would “catch AIDS and die” (he since recanted, blaming drugs for the outburst).  Surprisingly, he’s 100% behind the current Blur reunion: “I’m right into the Blur reunion, ’cause it’ll finish off the Kaiser Chiefs and put them to bed. There’s nothing worse than a shit Blur. And at least the original shit Blur are back to finish off all these other shit Blurs. I’m bang into the Blur reunion.”

From an old reunion to a possible new one: Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor no longer thinks very highly about former friend and collaborator Marilyn Manson.  Reznor calls Manson “a malicious guy and will step on anybody’s face to succeed and cross any line of decency … Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he’s become a dopey clown. He used to be the smartest guy in the room.  And as a fan of his talents, I hope he gets his shit together.”

Lots of news on the Flaming Lips, The Cult, STP, Moz, and more after the jump!

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Vinyl Fever is part of a coalition of about 30 other stores like ours all across the country. It has improved the kind of attention we get from record labels (like all the free samplers and 7″ers we get on such a regular basis, and more access to bands for in-stores). The best part of it is that we share ideas amongst ourselves without concern about sharing secrets, like there’d be if we were actual competitors. With all the hoopla that has taken place in the music industry the past 10 years, it has been quite a saving grace and we’ve made some great friends with some of the best damn record stores in the U.S.

What I love most about this alliance is when the conversations and ideas move beyond music industry junk and into a more universal realm.

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For the last few months I’ve been thinking about ways I could utilize my twitter account to capture my immediate feelings about things before they have the ability to be filtered and clouded by time and/or sobriety. Then along came the Katy Perry show and I decided I wanted to go, not because I am a fan of her music (though I know her two hits), but because I thought it would be a fun show. More on that later. Somewhere along the timeline from finding out I had a press pass for the show to actually getting to the show, I decided it would be the perfect candidate for testing the “live blogging via twitter” idea out at the show. Here are those tweets:

Tweets, Review & Video after the jump

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In this post I will impart the 6 things to keep in mind when making a flyer for a show or event. It may seem simple and trivial, but a good flyer/poster will give people all the information they need to make up their mind to come to your show or not.

The purpose for the flyer/poster is to entice people who don’t know your band or the other bands playing to come check you out. You are asking them to take their leisure time and hard-earned money and spend a fraction of it with you. Also, the flyer needs to communicate to your fans and provide them an incentive to return to your concert. Here’s what 10 year of making flyers has taught me:

1) Highlight the date – The most important element is the time element. “When is the show?” is the most important question in your potential concert-goers mind. Also, the time the show starts is a nugget of information to never omit.

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It’s 40 degrees outside, drizzling non-stop and Austin has just become ground zero for every hipster with an iPhone.

It’s 10 a.m. and registration at the Austin Convention Center has just begun. Already the lines are starting to form down the surrounding hallways and escalators and the entire building is buzzing with people camped on the floor in clusters around the power outlets, charging their laptops and digging through their goodie bags.

The South by Southwest Conference kicks off today with the Interactive portion of the workshops. With sessions titled “User-Generated Content: A State of the Union,” and “Championing Social Media to the Man,” these first few days have drawn the new media elite, journalists, programmers, game developers and authors. In short, I am surrounded by every living geek in the world, all chomping at the bit to learn something new about content management, the new killer app (other than Twitter) and how to finally put the term “Web 2.0″ to rest.

I’m seated next to Jemima Kiss of the Guardian UK, as the UGC workshop begins. Before moderator Chris Tolles can even introduce the panel, someone interrupts him, saying, “Can you please let us know the hash tag you’d like us to use for Twittering this workshop?”
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I realized this morning that I only have three more nights in my own bed before I fly to Austin for the annual South by Southwest music conference.

I will be covering the event (the showcases, awards, conferences and parties) for CL and starting Friday night (if everything goes according to plan) you’ll be able to read my daily blog right here at Tampa Calling.

In true New Media Douchebag fashion, in addition to the blog, I’ll be Tweeting (@jorantampa, #sxsw) and shooting as much video as I can. So tweet up, bitches, cuz I’m going to be giving the play-by-play on everything from Quincy Jones‘ keynote speech to the PJ Harvey/John Parrish set at Stubb’s, not to mention David Yow’s set with The Dicks at the Austin Music Awards. You can be jealous now. Peep the whole schedule here. 

I’ll also be attending daytime conferences with names like “Bloggers are Now in Control” and “Social Networks for the Anti-Social.” Riveting stuff, I know. What’s more, I also scored a badge for the Interactive portion of the conference where I’ll get to attend workshops with the CEOs of companies like Opera and FriendFeed.

But I’m sure all you care about is me getting wasted with the dude from The Proclaimers or seeing pictures of Juliette Lewis. All in good time, my friends.

But seriously, if there’s something you’d like me to catch – leave a comment. And keep checking the blog for the daily updates starting Friday.

Going to the parade, concerts, parties or anything connected to Gasparilla? Have a Twitter account? Then you are all set to join CL’s Parade of Tweeters, covering all the festivities of Tampa Bay’s pre-eminent annual buccaneer bacchanalia for those of us who are going to be stuck at work or at home in front of our laptops.

Here’s how:

1. Sign up for a free Twitter account (or use your existing account).
2. Have a blast at Gasparilla on Saturday and/or in the days leading up to the pirate invasion.
3. Send us a tweet when you see something interesting, funny, stupid, naked, comment-worthy, etc. Just use your telephone’s txt messaging capability to send a tweet, using Twitter’s 140-character limit. (You can also submit tweets via your computer if you are at a party or on the Bayshore with wireless access.)
4. Make sure you include the hashtag #gasparilla in your txt msg. For example: “Holy beads! I just saw Gayle Guyardo! #gasparilla”
5. Hit send on your cell phone. Your tweet will automatically appear on our Gasparilla page, cltampa.com/gasparilla, along with the rest of the CL Parade of Tweeters’ info and photos from the frivolity.
6. As if that wasn’t enough for your 15 Minutes of Fame, we’ll take the best and run them in our print edition the week after Gasparilla. And we’ll chose the very best to receive a free meal, from our Eats or Bites programs in the CL Deals section.
7. And while you’re in Twitter online, be sure to follow PoHo for political news tweets and cl_tampa for all our Creative Loafing breaking news in arts, music, food and the rest.