REAX #33

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06

CONTENTS ISSUE 33

GUILTY SOUNDCHECK 08

INTRODUCTION

CALL & RESPONSE 10

READER MAIL

SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING 11 12 14

DEAR GLOFFY STEP BY STEP YOUR BAND BLOWS

SOUNDBITES 16 18 20

BRIDGE & TUNNEL LYMBYC SYSTYM TIGERCITY HARVEST OF HOPE FESTIVAL

REAX INTERVIEWS 25 26 28 30 32

RA RA RIOT PROPAGANDHI A.C. NEWMAN GIRL TALK CHUCK D. OF PUBLIC ENEMY

SOAPBOX 34 36 38 39 42 43

UPCOMING RELEASES PRODUCT PLACEMENT BOOK / DVD REVIEW MUSIC REVIEWS VIDEO GAME REVIEW HANDS ON W/ SHAWN KYLE

YOU ARE HERE TAMPA

Sales Associates Emily LaDuca emily@reaxmusic.com

Queen Finnie Cook finniec@reaxmusic.com

Alicia Zorrilla alicia@reaxmusic.com

Editor Scott Harrell scott@reaxmusic.com

A LOCAL GUIDE

44 45 46 47

HOTSPOTS ARTIST SPOTLIGHT ALBUM SPOTLIGHTS TAMPA BAY EVENTS

52 53 55

HOTSPOTS ARTIST SPOTLIGHT / EVENTS EVENT SPOTLIGHT

56 57 58

HOTSPOTS ARTIST / EVENT SPOTLIGHTS GAINESVILLE EVENTS

60 61

HOTSPOTS / SPOTLIGHTS NORTHEAST FLA EVENTS

Shawn Kyle shawn@reaxmusic.com Beau Crum (Jacksonville) beau@reaxmusic.com

Art Director Mike Delach delach@cookwaremedia.com

Chris Anderson (Orlando) chris.anderson @reaxmusic.com

Head Writer Michael Rabinowitz miker@reaxmusic.com

Brad Register (Orlando) brad@reaxmusic.com

Illustration Noah Deledda noah.deledda@gmail.com

SPECIAL FEATURE 21

Publisher Joel Cook jcook@reaxmusic.com

Photography Tony Landa landa@reaxmusic.com General Manager Marshall Dickson marshall@reaxmusic.com Circulation Manager Scott Jensen scottj@reaxmusic.com Intern Andrew Pellegrino

Ryan McLaughlin (Gainesville) ryanm@reaxmusic.com Contributors Timothy Asher Joe D’Acunto Mike DeLancett Brandon Dunlap Jason Ferguson Chris Gaughan Jeremy Gloff Jack Gregory Justine Griffin Robert J. Hilson Colin Kincaid Joel Mora Ryan Patrick Hooper John Prinzo Susie Orr Lance Robson Trevor Roppolo Susie Ulrey Amy Vanschaik Carrie Waite Cover Photo Courtesy of Smallman Records REAX Music Magazine P.O. Box 5809 Tampa, FL 33675 Phone: 813.247.6975 www.reaxmusic.com www.myspace.com/reax

Reax Magazine is published monthly and is available through Florida businesses, music venues, restaurants, independent record stores, outdoor boxes, and F.Y.E. stores. Reax is also available nationally at over 160 record stores. Go to reaxmusic.com for a full list.

ORLANDO

GAINESVILLE

JACKSONVILLE

PAGE 6 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

Advertisers warrant and represent the descriptions of their products advertised are true in all respects. Reax Magazine assumes no responsibility for claims made by advertisers. All letters and their contents sent to Reax Magazine become the sole property of Cookware Media, LLC. Use or duplication of material used in this publication is prohibited without approved written consent from Cookware Media, LLC.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC Magazine • PAGE 7

08

SOUNDCHECK INTRODUCTION ISSUE 33

I’M SURE FOR SOME PEOPLE, THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE IS STILL KIND OF A VAGUE, FELT-ATA-DISTANCE THING.

Y

ou watch TV and you go ‘wow, that sucks,’ then you look in your pocket and there’s enough money there for a couple of beers on Liter Night, and you’re pretty sure your paycheck’s coming at the end of the week, and it’s kind of a weird cognitive dissonance.

Here at REAX, it hits a little closer to home.

We’re dependent upon advertising revenue to keep the mag running, and there’s not a hell of a lot of ad dollars out there these days. But we’re still able to put the larger implications to the backs of our minds, put our heads down, and get to work. And somehow - knock knock - the mag gets finished, mostly because the small handful of full-time employees here aren’t in it for the money. They work insane hours for far less than they’re worth.

PAGE 8 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

cancellation of South Florida music festival Langerado - the day before we were going to press with a Langerado-themed issue - happens, and it makes everything all the more real, somehow. No, we’re not auto workers whose jobs have suddenly disappeared, or newspaper journalists whose entire industry has somehow found itself teetering on a fulcrum between adaptation and obsolescence, and I would never make the comparison. I’m just saying that when a seven-year-old world-renowned pop-music festival in a hip, worldly town like Miami can’t sell enough tickets to pay for itself, it sends ripples through the entire scene. You feel it, and you wonder if you’re on the cusp of the next thing, or just the stubborn final gasps of the last one.

But still, by and large, when we look in our pockets, there’s often enough money there for a couple of beers on Liter Night.

Here’s hoping we’re on the right track, that we’re on our way to creating something lasting, something based on community and creativity and dialogue rather than trends and money.

Then something like this week’s sudden

- Scott Harrell

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 9

10

CALL & RESPONSE READER MAIL ISSUE 33

CONTRIBUTORS

SEND FEEDBACK TO REAX@REAXMUSIC.COM FROM REAXMUSIC.COM Semi-Heated Sarcastic Exchange of The Month, RE: “Your Band Blows - Crystal Castles: The ‘80s Sucked Then, And They Suck Now”

by Scott Jenson “Really....

Please REAX, stop posting obscure articles from ‘writers’ who cannot write. In the opening of this article, Jenson compares the music of the “’80s” to Crystal Castles.

I’m not sure of Jensons age, but he doesn’t look old enough to have really heard/studied ‘80s music, generally speaking. To limit the ‘80s to only “badly produced, ridiculous music, fashion and visual art” is to say his own mother was [a] horribly raised cum bag that produced an offspring. ‘Dear Joel Cook, please use the photo of me chugging a great big ol’ bottle of Jameson.’ Do your work kid, you are not a selfproclaimed dedicated history buff.

You’ll be a fart in the wind at the rate you’re spewing out opinions and limited-knowledge outbursts. Or in your words, quit trying to ‘outcool’ your friends. Outcool, now that sounds ‘80s as fuck you nerd. It’s great you have a platform for your opinion, but at least make an attempt at saying something other than complete bullshit.

Out of all the ways you could compare and contrast Crystal Castles to the hacks of the ‘80s, this is a sub-par job. Fuck man, if you don’t like the band/group, don’t talk about them. But I suppose this is the only way you might get someone to read your comments, I’m sure everyone else around you knows your M.O. by now.

Eat my shorts” Reader, January 14 “Dear Really ...

Thank you so much for your feedback. It’s an honor and a pleasure to know that my articles are well received and enjoyed by the readers of REAX. However, I do have a few minor disagreements with some of the things you said in response.

Without attacking your obvious lack of understanding of the cyclical nature of music or your inability

to recognize when trends recycle, I would like to point out that you were unable to make even a single point while attempting to rebut my article. Since you failed to give any indication of your own qualifications in the sticky art of classifying and evaluating music, and did not even sign your comment, I have no indication of your breadth of music knowledge, otherwise I would most likely call you an ignorant fanboy. But I can’t speak for your background and so have no basis upon which to evaluate your opinions.

I can, however, let you know that I was born in 1977 (thank you for the kind words about by youthful appearance, btw) and so am old enough to remember when MTV actually played videos and people ran around with big hair wearing skinny ties. My horribly raised cum bag mother (not sure what the fuck that means, nice grammar) was a recording artist who dragged me as a baby on tour with her from the age of one until I was around six years old. So I was heavily immersed in music at a young age, 10 years of which was during the ‘80s. As I matured I learned to play six instruments, as varied as the cornet, bass guitar, drums and piano.

At the age of 17 I dropped out of high school to go on tour with my band, who was at the time signed to a development deal with a large punk indie label. After my performing career ended I went back to school and I now hold two degrees, one in Mass Communication with heavy sociology coursework and the other a Bachelors of Fine Arts. During and since my college years I have worked in a class A recording studio and been credited as a producer on a few projects, spent time working in the A&R department of a major record label, and have been fortunate enough to work with REAX in several capacities. My point in telling all of this to you is that I want you to understand that I’m not some unread and unstudied hack with an opinion who just happened to get a platform upon which to spew out opinions and limited-knowledge outbursts, but am in fact someone who grew up in music and has chosen to be as informed as possible about my career choice. I’m sure that in whatever capacity you make your living you make understanding the nature of the profession a top priority, whether it is the background of the cheese that you spread on the pizzas or the history of the development of

PAGE 10 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

the many ways to arrange groceries in bags.

I will close by saying that the next time that you choose to attack someone’s opinion you should: A. Find out what their background is and its applicability to the topic. B. Try to limit personal attacks unless they are warranted or, at the very least, witty because they make you seem ignorant and do not further your position. Or C. Try to make a point, any point at all.

And by the way, did you realize that the name of my column is Your Band Blows? Talking about bands that aren’t worth merit is what I do, at least read the whole page next time before you trash the article.

PS - Jameson is a wonderful drink that tastes like liquid Jesus” Jenson, January 14 Comment on “Step By Step: How To Ruin A Horror Movie” by Scott Harrell: “Seriously, one of the best articles I’ve seen written in quite some time.

It’s about time someone spouts honestly about popular trends and doesn’t just jump on-board because it’s the ‘cool,’ ‘in’ thing to do. Also, the sarcastic stylization is priceless.

This was actually the first issue of REAX that I’ve seen and I really enjoyed the high sarcasm riddled throughout the entire publication, that’s my kind of reading! Excellent work for Tampa.

Where the hell do I sign up to be a writer?”

Kelly, January 15

CORRECTIONS There were a few factual errors in our review last month of Orlando act Kingsbury’s new EP Lie to Me. The band’s previous full-length is The Great Compromise rather than The Compromise, and guitarist/ keyboardist Bruce Reed handles the male vocals on all tracks; he and guest vocalist Alexis Hamlin-Vogler sing on “Holy War,” not bassist Mark Freeman and guitarist Samantha Christine. We regret the mistakes, and owe them a beer. Lie to Me is available as a free download from kingsburymusic.net.

Over the course of 16 years, Scott has seen the music industry from the eyes of a performer, label scout, promotions rep, recording engineer and journalist.

Drawing from such a wide array of perspectives, this selfdescribed music nazi (and former military intelligence operative) has a unique view on the machinations of how music is made, bought, marketed and consumed and has no problem throwing his views in the faces of people that may or may not want to hear it. If you catch him in the right mood he’ll tell you without a doubt what the perfect rock song is, and how it’s scientific fact and undebatable. Outside of music related activities, Scott’s hobbies include cooking, Irish whiskey and converting lesbians to straight girls.

SCOTT JENSON

Florida has musical gems that need an opportunity to shine, and I hope to bring those out to light. Traveling back and forth from my hometown of Miami to go to school at the University of Florida gives me about 350 miles of great music to discover and share. I’ll never leave my Latin flavor behind, but I’m always waiting to be surprised by new sounds.

JOEL MORA

Susie is a Tampa native, born and raised.

True story: when she was 13, there was a measles outbreak in Hillsborough County and she had to get a precautionary vaccination.

Little did she know that her future husband, also a Tampa native, was the reason she had to get vaccinated.

Not romantic at all - just trivial and weird. Oh yeah, she also writes for REAX.

SUSIE ULREY

DEAR GLOFFY SEE SOMETHING...

ISSUE 33

Words: Jeremy Gloff Photo: Courtesy of REAX

The time has come to pay tribute to the girls who made Prince’s music good: Wendy and Lisa.

These former members of The Revolution now have a gig scoring Heroes. In their spare time they have independently released a new album, White Flags Of Winter Chimneys. More info at wendyandlisa.com.

music of MC5. In their song “Salt & Cherries,” Wendy sings of “putting the music of the MC5 on as you’re knocking on my door.” If their night turns out to suck, not only will Wendy lose her lover, she may lose mental ownership of one of her favorite bands!!! Of course, much as new love comes, new songs eventually will come too. Doesn’t that suck though? You will never be able to love The Cure the same way again.

11 TATTOOS & PIERCING

DEAR GLOFFY, Here’s one for you. I live with my

DEAR GLOFFY, Breakups suck. I’ve recently gone

through one and I’ve realized something: it’s easy to divide the possessions. It’s easy to find friends who will take your side. I’ve even managed to cut ties with him and to start anew. But who gets the songs in the breakup? There are a few songs I really really love(d), and now that he and I are no longer together, I feel like the songs are his now too, and I hate it! I had no problem getting back my necklace from his house … but how on earth will I ever get The Cure and Jason Mraz back?

Signed, Without Man or Music

DEAR WITHOUT MAN, Honey the water is tainted!!! Once a

song is possessed by the ghost of a bad relationship there is no way to win the song back! BE CAREFUL WHO YOU SHARE YOUR MUSIC WITH!!! Maybe people think you should wait a few dates before sex.

More importantly, WAIT A LOT OF DATES BEFORE YOU SHARE YOUR MUSIC!!! Let’s hope Wendy and Lisa aren’t too invested in the

girlfriend, and over the summer she asked if her distant cousin could move into the spare bedroom in our apartment. I was game - cheaper rent. Unbeknownst to me was the trauma this would cause. Point blank: her cousin’s room smells.

I can smell her room all the way at the end of the hallway! Me and my girl kind of laugh about it … but at the end of the day, it’s a bit embarrassing when we have guests over. Not to mention we have to walk by her cousin’s room to get to ours. It’s the chamber of death! Help.

Signed, Would Almost Rather Pay More Rent

DEAR ALMOST, Gloffy has smelled it all in his day.

Smelly friends. Smelly roommates.

Smelly lovers (that’s a story in itself … and it makes me gag just thinking about it, honaaay).

Smelling bad is never acceptable.

It’s downright rude. Pity that clean people like us get put in the uncomfortable position of making the smelly-kins aware that they are polluting the room. In Wendy and Lisa’s song “Beginning At The End,” Lisa proclaims “until we meet again … I will hold my breath.” As romantic and whimsical as that sounds, perhaps Lisa just got stuck sharing an airplane seat with your girlfriend’s cousin. People seem to always write to me about people who smell bad. Is everyone just dirty these days?

Write to Dear Gloffy at deargloffy@gmail.com or log onto jeremygloff.com

www.atomictattoos.com FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 11

12

SEE SOMETHING... STEP BY STEP ISSUE 33

STEP GO CAMPING

BY STEP

I

grew up in a family that was fairly into The Great Outdoors, in places like Utah and Alabama and Appalachia.

Then the music and the drugs kicked in. My last true camping experience occurred in 1991. It involved a bunch of dudes from a band called Tasty Greens, illegal trespass on property owned by Florida Power, several cases of Busch Light, multiple gator tracks, and a couple of arrests due to outstanding warrants.

But I never lost my attraction to the romantic idea of getting away from it all, and a series of last-call conversations with REAX correspondent Timothy Asher about maybe, eventually getting away from it all culminated in an overnight refresher course in navigating The Great Outdoors at Hillsborough River State Park’s “primitive campground.” We had a manly blast on the coldest night of the year thus far, and reintroduced ourselves to those rules of camping that never change, no matter how much we do.

To wit: Keep an eye on the weather, and know your limits. We knew it was gonna be cold. When camping in Florida, knowing it’s gonna be cold is like knowing where a sorority is gonna be having its Secret Topless Car Wash Fundraiser. No bugs, no humidity. Yeah, it got a little rough around 2 a.m. when we had to take a leak and our faces felt like HandsomeSicles(tm), but that sure beats curing sweat-cheese in your nethers. Seriously, though, rain is a deal-breaker. Know what’s going on.

Make a list of the crap you need.

This is the part where Asher takes the piss, because he’s the kind of guy who subscribes to Backpacker magazine, or whatever, but still made us backtrack an hour out of our way because he’d forgotten a bunch of stuff - camp stove, pots, his inflatable back support. Could we have gotten on without ‘em? Sure. I seriously enjoyed the fake coffee in the morning, though. Also, both of us forgot a deck of cards, so we had to spend a lot of time glossing over the homoerotic subtext without poker to smooth the awkward conversational lapses.

Bring booze, but remember it ain’t a party. Medicinal booze, not hey-let’spiss-on-the-guy-who’s-reading-Gravity’s Rainbow-in-his-bag booze. Getting drunk and showing your ass in the woods just proves that you don’t have the sack to get drunk and show your ass in town. In the context of camping, liquor serves less as a social lubricant than as a fantastical sleeping potion to help you forget that a 200-year-old tree is rabbit-punching your coccyx all night long. Which reminds me ...

Sleep on the ground, in a tent. With all due respect to my drummer and my wife, sleeping in an RV and sleeping in a cabin do not qualify as camping.

PAGE 12 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

Sleeping in an RV means “being on tour,” and sleeping in a cabin means “trying to get tender with your significant other while you’re thinking about all the other people within earshot, and she’s thinking of spiders.” Not the same thing. Sleeping bags, and something to keep dew and bird shit off your face while you’re sleeping.

That’s camping. Also, it’s really cool to listen to an animal wandering around within feet of you, knowing only millimeters of synthetic fiber stand between you and possible evisceration.

Hike in, hike out. Look around. Can you see your car? Yes? Then you’re not camping, you’re hosting a cookout/ tailgate party that went beyond time constraints and the ability to drive away.

Picnic tables, public bathrooms, running water and dozens of other people - and their kids - do not a rustic, contemplative experience make. Not to get all granola, but there’s a reason why some people feel the urge to turn their back on civilization for a little while.

Know how to start a fire. If you know or care to learn nothing else about taking care of yourself in The Great Outdoors, at the very least, make sure you can build, light, tend and douse a controllable fire. Doesn’t matter if it’s rubbing two sticks or setting some toilet paper aflame with one of those longnosed grill lighters; I bought a tricky little magnesium igniter for our trip, and it was neat as hell, but after about fifteen minutes I gave up and reached for the Bic and the cotton ball soaked in gasoline.

Accept the fact that you’re gonna poop like a critter. But for God’s sake, use those opposable thumbs to bury your shame. Which brings us to a final point: Pick up your goddamned trash.

Again, I’m no hippie, but nothing kills the anticipation of getting away from it all like arriving at a spot two miles into the woods to find empty beer cans, half-melted Tic Tac boxes and knots of TP. If you want somewhere to go after dark and drink and litter, use the alley behind my house like all the other irresponsible cretins that drive me to walk two miles into the woods to get away from them in the first place.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC Magazine • PAGE 13

14

SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING YOUR BAND BLOWS ISSUE 33

THE BLOWIE AWARDS 2009, A NEW YEAR FOR TERRIBLE MUSIC. With the proliferation of DIY methods of producing and distributing recorded material, this year promises to be one of the worst in history. The start of a new year also brings the close of the year gone by, and awards shows “honoring” the “best” music of the preceding 12 months. I’ve always found it humorous and distressing that a group of people can come together and judge what was the best of any art form to come out of a particular period of time. In the case of the Grammys, the voting parties are people within the industry that stand to profit from the eventual bump in sales that results from an artist or a song receiving an award. It’s an incestuous, antiquated system that has no validity, and really makes no sense in today’s industry.

Aside from the few relevant and original artists like MIA and Kings of Leon that get thrown a bone, the majority of nominees have done nothing to drive music culture in any way. So in honor of this dinosauric daisy chain of a backslapping session, I’ve decided to put out my own list of awards: The Blowies. All of the “winners” had to have been released in 2008, and charted in a big way on one of Billboard’s 3,678 lists … and they had to have distinguished themselves among their peers as glowing examples of what happens when bad music becomes popular.

WORST POP SINGLE OF THE YEAR

(single track by an artist, duo or group) LADY GAGA, “JUST DANCE” This syrupy piece of crap sounds like just another ridiculous dance song meant to be played at “da club” so hootchies can get their dance on while being ogled by douchebags waiting in the wings to pull a little roofie-and-grind action on their unsuspecting asses. Ironically, the lyrical content has Lady Gaga so shitfaced that she’s lost her keys and phone in a club that she doesn’t even know the name of, with her shirt on inside-out. It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the majority of the girls that will be listening to and enjoying this song will eventually find themselves in the predicament that she’s describing. I love irony, but the inevitable situation bound to be caused by this song, if it already hasn’t, is that girls will take “Just Dance” as a validation that it’s cool to get so wasted that you’re fucking lost and losing all of your valuables. What’s next, a song about the STD that you got after blacking out and gettin’ down with a group of predatory bros?

WORST RAP SINGLE OF THE YEAR

(single track by an artist, duo or group) KEVIN RUDOLF FEAT. LIL WAYNE, “LET IT ROCK” Really, all I need to do to trash this song is quote some lyrics. “Because when I arrive I bring the fire/Make you come alive, I can take you higher/What is this, forgot/I must now remind you/ let it rock let it rock …” I’m a huge fan of Weezy, and it really crushes my heart to know that he was involved with this steaming pile of hippopotamus dung.

The fact that someone who completely changed the rap game and released one of the best rap albums of the year did a guest spot on what amounts to a bad house version of “Eye of the Tiger” makes me physically ill. With all of the lyrical skill that Lil Wayne possesses, he couldn’t come up with a better chorus? Dr. Carter, the medical board is rescinding your certification.

WORST METAL SINGLE OF THE YEAR

(single track by an artist, duo or group) DISTURBED, “INDESTRUCTIBLE” Will someone please tell these guys that the ‘90s are over, and that they’ve been writing the same song for the past decade?

OK, we get it. You bark like a monkey over drop-tuned guitars. At least when you were whining about how sick you were and that your mommy beat you, you were connecting with every angsty kid with low self-esteem that couldn’t resolve their issues through therapy and had to listen to your crappy nu-metal rehash over and over to feel better about themselves. But now that you’re throwing down some pseudosocial commentary about soldiering, you’re just embarrassing yourself and any military members who are probably listening to this as they go out to kill. Please overdose and die and stop creating fodder for kids to gear up for war to.

WORST ROCK SINGLE OF THE YEAR

(single track by an artist, duo or group) NICKELBACK, “SOMETHING IN YOUR MOUTH” Nickelback, the masters of the formatted rock song, gifted us this year with yet another track about strippers. As if this topic hadn’t been beat to death in the ‘90s by much more relevant groups like Motley Crue (God, I can’t believe I just called the Crue relevant, shoot me). “Something in Your Mouth” sounds like just another attempt by the rumored-to-be-closeted

PAGE 14 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

Chad Kroeger to inject some hetero swagger into his music. You’re trying too hard, and frankly, at this point a song about fur play with a male partner would be more compelling than this offering. No thanks. At least it finally got “How You Remind Me” out of my head.

WORST R&B SINGLE OF THE YEAR

(single track by an artist, duo or group) NE-YO, “CLOSER” Everything about this song is just wrong.

From the hokey intro and played-out techno beat to Brown’s repetitive stale chorus, there is so much to hate. I’m sure that Jerry Wexler, the man who coined the term R&B to replace the outdated moniker of Race Music, is rolling around in his gold coffin to know that his words are being used to describe this bit of aural dookie. R&B has gone through many changes since its inception as a genre, from jazz to soul to funk, and it really is a travesty of the highest order that a poppy pseudo-love song like this can wear the title. Rhythm and Blues has become Retch and Barf in my eyes (and ears) if this poorly constructed vehicle for a third-rate singer can be classified as such. Turn the lights off in this place, raise the gun to your mouth (closer … closer) and paint the walls with your brains Chris.

WORST RECORD OF THE YEAR

(single track by an artist, duo or group, not genre specific) BRITNEY SPEARS, “WOMANIZER” 2008 was the year of the comeback for this one. After years of popping out babies and self-destructing, this once wildly popular pop princess returned with a new album that made all of the garbage that she’s released in the past sound like the voices of a heavenly choir in comparison. At her best, Britney was the perfect pop construction of post-adolescent sex appeal, well-structured songs that peaked with semi-interesting hooks, and danceable beats. Currently, it would seem that Ms. Spears is working out her issues with men and the superstar life via boring, repetitive tracks that showcase her love of AutoTune over instrumentals that would only be danceable to a 12year-old on half a vial of ketamine. I hope that she spends the next year counting the money made from this vacuous piece of garbage instead of continuing to make narcissistic, masturbatory albums chronicling her descent into obscurity.

WORST ALBUM OF THE YEAR

(long-play album by an artist, duo or group, not genre specific) BEYONCE, I AM … SASHA FIERCE Ever since the Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines debacle of the late ‘90s, I’ve been waiting for another mega-successful artist to try and reinvent him- or herself when they run out of viable material. So I was jubilant when I heard about Beyonce’s attempt to remake her current image as a strong sassy black woman into a completely new concept image of a strong … sassy … black woman.

I wonder if she really understands what it means to reinvent yourself. It doesn’t mean just changing your name and recycling the same format that you’ve been using for years. Maybe it was that Beyonce was thinking more along the lines of a Diddy (P Diddy, Puff Daddy, Diddley Doo or whatever he’s calling himself these days) reinvention than a true Bowie-style change where your personality, stage show and overall concept are transformed into something completely different. Please just get your career over with and pose for Playboy, or just go live on Jay-Z’s boat in the middle of the Mediterranean somewhere, you’re no longer relevant to anything except urban Miss Independent clones and your own gigantic ego.

WORST NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR (artist, duo or group) JONAS BROTHERS There’s really not much I can say that can hack away any more at these guys’ credibility. “But they play their own instruments,” you say? Last time I checked, every “band” that wasn’t created in an office plays its own instruments. “But they write their own songs,” you say? If you honestly believe that a 14-year-old has enough pop sensibility to write hit records, then you are probably one of those people that still believes that the Monkees wrote “Daydream Believer” and that the Partridge Family was really a family AND a band.

“But they’re sooooooo cute,” you say? I’ll give them that. Cute enough to sell albums to both 14-year-old girls and 50-year-old pedophiles, and that’s their gimmick. Other than that, the only thing they have going for them is some of the most repugnant pop music created in decades. Look for them to be in contention for the Blowie for Worst Record of 2009.

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FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 15

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SOUNDBITES ISSUE 33

BRIDGE & TUNNEL COMMUNITY CONSCIOUS

Words: Molly Hays Photo: Orlando Perez

FUNERAL HOMES ARE CREEPY, STALE AND AWFULLY DRAB. RECORDS MADE AT FUNERAL HOMES, ODDLY, ARE NOT. AT LEAST THAT’S THE CASE FOR NEW YORK’S BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. THE BAND RECORDED THEIR FIRST FULL-LENGTH, EAST/WEST, AT A FUNERAL HOME IN LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

W

hen the funeral home closed, the band began recording.

“We would see the sunrise pretty much every day,” remembers frontman Jeff Cunningham. “We were recording and going to bed when the sun was out and the funeral home would begin to be active again. It’s a pretty interesting environment.”

Bridge and Tunnel thus became nocturnal, recording in rooms set up for wakes and living in quarters with a morbid décor.

Somehow, though, Cunningham found the mortuary homey and comforting.

“Luckily we were recording through most of

the night, so, the times I feel when it might get really spooky we moved past by just having to work very fast,” he says.

Though recorded in a place where emphasis is placed on the past, East/West focuses prominently on the present. Bridge and Tunnel have penned a record full of life and social consciousness. Their punk and indie roots act as crests and troughs that alternate and combine. In “Wartime Souvenirs,” Cunningham shouts lines like “If time has exhausted us/then fuck us all,” and “It shouldn’t take an election/to remind us that there’s a war on.” Still, they’re optimistic, at least superficially; “The core of the apple is rotten/but somehow the skin still shines,” Cunningham bellows on “Call

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to the Comptroller’s Office.” “[New York City is] a very fast-paced environment, and I feel like that kind of translates into the attitudes of the folks in our band, the things that we struggle with,” says the singer/guitarist.

Connecting the personal to the political is something the band struggles with.

They want to be self-aware, and to better understand how they fit into a problem and how they can build a solution, all the while leaving the soapboxes and pulpits at home.

That’s why they’re excited to play the Harvest of Hope fest in March.

“I’m really interested to see the education

aspect of it, and how people will hopefully become a little more aware from being at the music festival,” Cunningham says. “I’m happy there can be three days that have a central underlying issue.”

Bridge and Tunnel also made an appearance at Fest 7, during which Cunningham spent more time prioritizing seeing friends over seeing bands. To him, the social and community aspects of bandom are central; when Bridge and Tunnel watch a band, they feel they can become invested in the people, because they can care and relate.

“I don’t see them as entertainers,” he says.

“I see them as people sharing something in a different kind of environment than some bullshit rock show. I feel like without the sense of community, we would just be really bad entertainers,” And Bridge and Tunnel do not associate with entertainers. For them, everything else in the industry is secondary to the people involved, from the bands to the listeners to the kids in the neighborhood where they live. Their network defines them.

Bridge and Tunnel will tour the eastern U.S. in March - including their sets at the Harvest of Hope Festival at St. Johns County Fairgrounds in Elkton March 6 & 7 before heading to Europe in April.

MYSPACE.COM/BRIDGEANDTUNNELMUSIC

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SOUNDBITES ISSUE 33

evidence in the cliche’s favor, but adds that some European indie fans are as enamored of cliquey subgenres as their Stateside peers.

“I would say people [over there] are still into categorization,” he says.

“However – how do I say this? People are more open-minded about music, especially stuff within the Words: Scott Harrell realm of what we’re doing, Photo: Amanda Longtain instrumentals. A lot of our songs are kind of slow, and AT FIRST LISTEN, THE ALTERNATELY MEDITATIVE & OCEANIC INSTRUMENTALPOST-ROCK not very danceable per se.

OF LYMBYC SYSTEM DOESN’T SOUND PARTICULARLY SUITED TO LIVE PERFORMANCE. We’re more dreamy, and I ITS RELIANCE ON LAYERED TRACKS, MANY OF THEM PROCESSED OR COMPLETELY ELECTRONICALLY RENDERED, IN ADDITION TO LIVE INSTRUMENTATION SEEMS MORE LIKE could see that the people A HEADPHONE OR CHILLOUT-TENT THING. AND HOW WOULD BROTHERS MIKE AND JARED were more prone to get into BELL RECREATE ALL THOSE SOUNDS LIVE, WITHOUT MULTIPLE PRE-RECORDED SOUNDS that frame of mind, where AND AN HOUR OR SO OF INTENT, HEAD-BENT WORK, BARELY ACKNOWLEDGING THE in the U.S., maybe your first AUDIENCE? time through a city, less of the audience would be as focused on that type ike Bell asserts that sharing a big house and recording at high those who make such volumes out in Arizona are behind them, of thing. assumptions have another and he’s waiting to catch a flight back home “I would say that our experience in Japan, thing coming. to Austin. The pair have just returned from in the summer of ‘07, that’s where I really their first tour of Europe, an experience saw the walls being busted down between “I think people are sort of surprised,” he they found both educational (audiences in says. “One part of it is seeing two human mainland Europe act differently than those genres. I hung out with kids that were as into Squarepusher as they were into beings moving around – we both get into in the U.K.) and satisfying (free breakfasts Medeski, Martin & Wood, bands like that. it while we’re playing, even though we’re every morning!).

I thought that was cool, because I could sitting behind instruments. And it’s loud. As immediately tell there was less stigma much as it can be, it’s like an in-your-face When asked if there’s any truth to the kind of show.” widespread assumption that foreign attached to being less cool for listening to certain types of music.” audiences are always more open-minded, Bell is on the phone in Brooklyn, where attentive and appreciative than America’s While the Bell brothers themselves make a his brother still resides; the days of them hipper club-circuit crowds, Bell cites

KILLING CATEGORIES (AND KILLING IT LIVE)

M

PAGE 18 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

wantonly unclassifiable sort of noise, their general process – that architectural layering of sounds both organic and electronically wrought – has occasionally drawn criticism from indie-rock purists; the argument seems to be that the hundreds of acts like Lymbyc Systym are somehow less “real” or “raw” or “artistic” than three or four guys who sweat out their tunes through guitar amps in a garage, that the methodology is somehow less natural, and therefore less worthy of serious merit. But it’s a perception that Mike Bell says is disappearing, likely as due to the quality of the music produced as to the ever-increasing proliferation of digital technology.

“Definitely, it’s been broken down,” he says.

“I guess now because of the existence of these technologies, and everybody and their mother having a laptop with recording software, it’s become more of an acceptable thing.

“But at the same time, people have gotten so good at home recording that you can’t even tell. So I would say that those stigmas don’t exist anymore. And specifically for Lymbyc Systym, I don’t think it’s ever held us back from certain pursuits or anything.”

Lymbyc Systym perform at the Harvest of Hope Festival at St. Johns County Fairgrounds in Elkton, Florida, March 6-8.

MYSPACE.COM/THELYMBYCSYSTYM

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 19

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SOUNDBITES ISSUE 33

FOURTRACKING It may be a bit before fans get to hear Tigercity’s forthcoming full-length in its entirety, but Gillim is willing to shed a little light on some of his favorite tracks.

FINDING THE RHYTHMS WHEN YOU THINK OF THE CURRENTLY HIP CONVERGENCE OF INDIE ROCK AND DANCE MUSIC, THERE ARE PROBABLY A FEW ASSOCIATIONS THAT SPRING IMMEDIATELY TO MIND. YOU MIGHT THINK OF JAGGED, ANGULAR POST-PUNK, OR OF GLITCHY STUDIO-APARTMENT LAPTOP GROOVES, OR OF EASY-PICKINS RETRO-’80S SYNTH SOUNDS. BUT RARELY DO YOU THINK OF LUSH, EVOCATIVE NEW ROMANTIC LAYERS OF MELODY, OR THE KIND OF FUNKY STACCATO GUITAR LINES MORE AT HOME ON A CLASSIC MICHAEL JACKSON LP THAN COMING THROUGH THE QUESTIONABLE PA DOWN AT THE LOCAL BELOVED LIVE DIVE.

S

omehow, though, the guys in Tigercity thought of ‘em.

“It’s really just how it happened,” says Bill Gillim, vocalist and guitarist for the quartet. “It wasn’t like, ‘what can we do that’ll be different?’ It was honestly just a combination of all our influences. [Bassist/ keyboardist/vocalist Joel Ford] wanted to do dance music, and I was in a dance-y sort of post-punk rock band, but our influences range pretty widely. When we got together, we were particularly obsessed with Daft Punk, Chic, Prince - it just came out as a synthesis of what we like.”

Gillim, Ford and a mutual friend laid the groundwork for Tigercity’s deceptively mellow yet groove-inspiring style in Northampton, Massachusetts with what began as a recording project. A move to Brooklyn and the addition of drummer Aynsley Powell and guitarist Andrew Brady triggered an evolution from studio tinkerers to full-fledged performing outfit, however, and Tigercity quickly became one of the borough’s most consistent draws - despite the band’s preference for subtly rhythmic

beds of melody over arty noise, and what some might’ve seen as a reaction against the city’s hipper, less classic sounds.

“I would say it’s a personal reaction, not something against other bands,” Gillim says. “The kind of more angular shit was something I was really doing in the band before this - Wire, Gang of Four, The Wipers, shit like that. And for me personally, it was getting into those bands, and then discovering the roots of those bands, listening to the Bee Gees and [dance-music pioneer] Larry Levan, getting into older disco and R&B and dance shit. I think it was a reaction personally, based on my tastes and what I’d already done. But that’s just speaking for me.”

Buoyed by Gillim’s broad, expressive vocal range, Ford’s airy synths, Brady’s sharp but slinky guitars and Powell’s crisp, deft rhythms, last year’s EP Pretend Not to Love - released Stateside without any label support - quickly became a surprise hipster favorite. It also had the side effect of associating Tigercity with the ongoing, synth-laden ‘80s resurgence, but while

PAGE 20 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

elements of that era unarguably find their way into the foursome’s style, the pieces are put together in a way that’s startlingly unique for a New Millennium pop-rock act. Gillim says the lumping-in doesn’t really bother him, and is pretty much unavoidable in any case, but assures fans that Tigercity’s next effort, their first proper full-length, moves the band beyond ‘80s comparisons. Unfortunately, supporters may have to wait until at least mid-summer to hear it; while the group has garnered an astounding amount of attention for an unsigned act, Gillim and his cohorts are currently fielding offers from U.S. labels.

“We’re all still broke,” he says with a laugh.

“We’ve accomplished a certain amount, but everybody’s like, ‘you’re doing it,’ and I’m like, ‘hey, you wanna buy me dinner?’”

Tigercity on tour in Florida: February 27 - TSI, Jacksonville February 28 - Crowbar, Ybor City March 3 - Will’s Pub, Orlando

MYSPACE.COM/TIGERCITY

“JAMES IHA”

“That one’s gonna get the most questions … he was producing a record by some friends of ours, we met him through that and our old publicist, and hung out with him a bunch. He stopped by the studio and we were working on that song, and the title just comes from that - we just called it that like, ‘oh, it’s the James Iha song.’ I don’t think he was super into it.”

“FAKE GOLD”

“That’ll probably be one of those ones that stand out a bit. I don’t know what to say about it … some people say it sounds like Journey, which is amazing. It’s just a ridiculously upbeat, anthemic rock song, kind of a send-up of the entire vision of New York that we were trying to portray or trying to live, this glamorous fantasy life that doesn’t exist - at least not for us.”

“ANCIENT LOVER”

“It’s probably my current favorite track. It’s a little darker. It’s got a different feel, the keyboard shit that Joel and Andrew worked on is amazing, and Andrew’s guitar playing is ridiculous.”

“MALLORY”

“The live version [on the band’s Myspace page] we did for a radio show in the U.K. It was put together by Ben Watt, who runs our U.K. label. We recorded it at our friend Francis’ studio. The [album] version is a little more raw, darker. It sounds better. I think the live stuff for that session came out well, but the album [tracks] are way better.”

BEERS, PEERS & EARS:

AUSTIN LUCAS

A

little over 11 years ago, the Harvest of Hope Foundation was formed in Gainesville, Florida with the aim of providing emergency and educational aid to the region’s migrant workers. Since then, HoH has distributed more than half a million dollars for vehicle repair, medical aid, food, clothing, funeral expenses, tuition, and more. But that’s not a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things, and most migrant workers are just a broken ankle or worn-out fuel pump from destitution today, and never mind the future.

This year, REAX and No Idea Records have partnered with the foundation to put together a massive three-day music festival in order to raise both awareness of and funds for HoH’s mission. And, well, it’s looking pretty freakin’ sick, with an absolutely insane lineup of acts running the gamut from hardcore to underground dance in a multi-stage format. Bad Brains.

Propagandhi. Against Me!. The National.

Girl Talk. Bouncing Souls. Lucero. Strike Anywhere. The Faint. Less Than Jake. And

Photo: Jana Miller

This Indiana farm boy is the real deal - a singer-songwriter who’s got the soil in his soul, and for whom music is a family affair. Lucas’ voice lends his bluegrass-tinged Americana a timeless feel you don’t get from most of the hipster favorites currently playing cowboy; hear it on his new album Somebody Loves You, out now on Suburban Home Records. that’s barely scratching the surface of an extremely depthy pool of talent. This is one of the biggest indie-centric gigs to hit the state, EVER, and it helps out a very worthy cause to boot.

(Plus, with the sudden cancellation of Florida’s other national-scale annual festival, Langerado, music fans should be looking for a less expensive yet equally entertaining alternative.)

So peruse our comprehensive look at some of the festival’s most anticipated acts, get your tickets early, and get all bonershivery for the kind of weekend’s worth of music you’ll still be talking about when you and your buddies are trying to one-up each other around the card table at the retirement home.

The Harvest of Hope Festival runs March 6-8 at St. Johns County Fairgrounds in Elkton. Three-day passes are a measly $39.50, and camping is available. For more information, go to harvestofhopefest.com.

AGAINST ME! These Gainesville boys towed the punk-dogma line for years, touring and making a name for themselves on hometown imprint No Idea. They’ve moved on to the major (label) leagues, and have morphed their earlier twang-punk leanings a bit, into a more straightforward approach. If Myspace is still a gauge of a band’s popularity, I’d say Against Me! is holding steady, with 5,503,558 profile views as I write this.

Florida bands don’t often make that kind of impression - my heart swells with pride!

AVERKIOU Sweet, swirly, high-volume shoegaze, with more than enough old-school Husker Du and Guided by Voices influence to keep it amped high above mellow. This band has been one of Gainesville’s best kept secrets for a couple of years now, but with a new 12” in the pipe and a slew of shows all over the place, hopefully they’ll take their rightful place amid the current high-quality college-rock resurgence.

BAD BRAINS

Photo: Courtesy of Bad Brains

Bad Brains! Bad Brains! Bad Brains! The most innovative and influential act in firstwave hardcore is coming to Florida for a few gigs, including a hype-inducing Harvest of Hope set. Forget the new album, which is fine, and forget the history, which is impeccable, and forget the inspiration, which continues to this day - just know you’re gonna get several chances to see ‘em, and avail yourself of each and every one.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 21

FAKE PROBLEMS

Photo: Linda Farren

They’ve undergone a pretty wild evolution from bizarre folk-electro experiment to eclectic, gritty rock band, but the boys from Naples have emerged as a credible road-dogging outfit with verve, originality and a new album out on Sideonedummy called It’s Great To Be Alive.

GRAND BUFFET THE BOUNCING SOULS

Photo: Tom Spader

From their days releasing records on their own Chunksaah imprint through their tenure as Warped Tour headliners to their current status as elder statesmen of the contemporary punk scene, The Bouncing Souls have always released just plain great tunes that sound better and last longer than most three-chord songs should or will. They’re currently experimenting with a new-media distribution plan by offering one new song for every month of ‘09 as a 99-cent download on their Myspace page, but we’re confident that no matter how much the musical landscape changes, the Souls won’t - at least, not too much.

A prankster-rap spectacle that’s been a favorite with fans of the below-the-radar club scene for years. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Lord Grunge and Grape-A-Don long ago perfected the sort of entertainingly ironic character that hipsters have been in love with for the last little while, but what raises them above shtick is the fact that they’re actually very, very good at what they do.

JOHN VANDERSLICE

Photo: Autumn DeWilde

Cult-beloved and perennially underexposed, San Francisco’s John Vanderslice plies a smart but cool style of modern singer-songwriter rock that incorporates both classic pop and folk touches with an uneasy obsession with technology and an oldschool orchestral attitude toward arrangement and recording. Every one of his six studio full-lengths is mesmerizing, thought-provoking and utterly unique.

DEVOTCHKA

Photo: Gary Issacs

How this Colorado-bred group hasn’t parlayed the constant rise of Americana cool not to mention the success of culture-blending outfits like Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly and Calexico - into underground superstardom is completely beyond reason.

Their grab-bag of influences, from gypsy music and Spaghetti Western soundtracks to Vaudeville and cabaret sounds, is eclectic without ever sacrificing an earnest feel. They’ve gotta be the next Next Big Thing, so experience their entertaining and evocative live set before your friends can talk of nothing else.

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KEVIN SECONDS The legendary frontman for Cali-scene forbears 7 Seconds has long dabbled in solo material (remember that split with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba?). His solo output veers wildly from acoustic folk to semi-dancy futuro-pop, and it seems like he’s always down for a collaboration with anyone whose work he admires. We’re expecting a raw, gutsy solo set for HoH, but you never know - he could come out with a bunch of sequencers and set the dance party on fire.

MURS KOOL KEITH

Photo: Courtesy of The Windish Agency

Who’s the weirdest, wildest, naughtiest, most schizophrenic MC in underground hip-hop? It’s Kool Keith - whom you might otherwise know as Black Elvis, or Dr. Octagon, or Dr. Dooom. From free-flowing philosophy to the nastiest of sex raps, Keith has always been more than ahead of the curve; in fact, he’s always just sort of seemed completely unaware there was such a thing as the curve, much less any kind of formula besides whatever his warped, facile mind kicks out.

LESS THAN JAKE You know ‘em, you love ‘em, you can’t wait to see what kind of hijinks they’re gonna get up to on stage next time around. Gainesville’s own fun-punk-ska success story Less Than Jake is always a home-state favorite, and we’re sure a whole lot of the HoH throng will be made up of their die-hard fans.

Gifted MC Murs spent ten years toiling in the fields of underground West Coast hip-hop before people really began to take notice. Beginning with ‘03’s The End of the Beginning, Murs balanced “backpack” skills and ingenuity with mainstream polish and ambition; eventually, the majors took notice, and Warner Bros. signed the rapper and put out last year’s attention-getting Murs for President, which features appearances by the likes of will.I.am and Snoop.

THE NATIONAL They’ve operated largely under the radar for the last eight years or so, but this Brooklyn-by-way-of-Ohio outfit has picked up some die-hard fans along the way, most likely because they’re one of the most original and cinematic acts currently working under the vague indie-rock assignation. The band’s last three albums, Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, Alligator and The Boxer populated the upper reaches of tons of Top Ten lists for the years in which they were released.

NINJA GUN LUCERO

Photo: Courtesy of Liberty & Lament

Alt-country favorites Lucero, complete with unofficial indie-scene heartthrob Ben Nichols (courtesy of a swooning fan/girlfriend of mine), make a stop at Harvest of Hope on a string of Florida dates in March. Can’t make it to St. Johns County?

No worries - they’re bookending their scheduled festival visit with dates in Tampa (March 6) and Orlando (March 10).

Photo: Jana Miller

Hailing from Valdosta, GA, twang-punk quartet Ninja Gun is one of those bands whose smart yet primal style has seen them more or less adopted by the Gainesville scene. Equally punk and country, funny and earnest, thoughtful and stoned, the four-piece has been on the road pretty much perpetually since its latest full-length Restless Rubes came out last June.

NONE MORE BLACK THE MAE SHI This rising L.A. act represents a perfect storm of both the electro/dance and wiry/ angular/experimental ends of the post-rock spectrum; they’re spazzy and unhinged, yet also somewhat groovy in places. It’s garage-y and postmodern, and you can tell just by listening to ‘em that the live set is something not to be missed.

Jason from the legendary Kid Dynamite tried to stay away from the scene, but he couldn’t, and his None More Black project has been purveying fine, anthemic rock ‘n’ roll off and on since the turn of the millennium. Last year saw the band step back from the grind, and part ways with drummer Jason Shavelson. But Richard Horsebites (New Mexican Disaster Squad, Gatorface) has stepped in for this highly anticipated one-off set.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 23

THIS BIKE IS A PIPE BOMB Pensacola folk-punk outfit This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb got their twangy, socially active shit together long before the latest round of hardcore kids picked up acoustic guitars, and grew themselves a loyal cult following in the process.

TIM BARRY The former frontman for East Coast blue-collar punk-poets Avail has emerged as a potent singer-songwriter in his own right, continuing the band’s tradition of highly charged Americana (albeit in slightly quieter form) on releases like ‘06’s Rivanna Junction and last year’s Manchester.

RA RA RIOT

Photo: Courtesy of Ra Ra Riot

It doesn’t take much for a smile to form after listening to indie pop-rock group Ra Ra Riot. It could be lead singer Wesley Miles’ crooning, or the uplifting sounds of cellist Alexandra Lawn and violinist Rebecca Zeller. But don’t let the strings fool you - they’re called Ra Ra Riot for a reason. After forming in 2006, these Syracuse, N.Y. natives gained a following for their live shows that eventually landed them a record deal. They are now touring on their first album The Rhumb Line. Check out Michael Rabinowitz’s interview with the band in this issue.

SMOKE OR FIRE This northeastern quartet plies straight-up no-frills punk that’s equal parts catchy and raw; there’s an urgency that recalls the best, most substantial pop-punk bands, but there’s muscle here too, under the rad harmonies, and they know their Americanmusic roots as well. Their last proper record was ‘07’s Fat Wreck release The Sinking Ship, and by Harvest of Hope will have just finished a skills-tightening tour opening up for NOFX.

STRIKE ANYWHERE

Photo: Courtesy of Strike Anywhere

Politically virulent Richmond melodic-hardcore act Strike Anywhere mixes the personal and the sociological with a scathing, energetic buzzsaw noise and plenty of melody. The group has been around since the late ‘90s, and draws influence from every era of culturally aware punk while influencing a ton of young, proactive groups itself.

PAGE 24 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

THE TIM VERSION

Photo: Courtesy of The Tim Version

Well, derf. Florida loves its rowdy Tampa homeboys, and the Version’s smart, twangy, heartfelt take on punk rock has endeared them to a scene that lives for its, erm, smart, twangy, heartfelt takes on rock. If you’ve never seen this band go on at two a.m. on a Tuesday, put their socks over the mics to lessen the shocks and then kill it, then you, my friend, have missed a hell of a Monday night.

WHISKEY & CO.

Photo: Courtesy of No Idea Records

Thank God this awesome Gainesville true-country project is back to playing shows more often; for a while there, singer Kim Helm and her gifted pack of boozed-up miscreants were on hiatus more often than they were off. But a tour with Lucero seems to have rekindled their collective love for strumming mournful tales of liquor and love gone bad, and it’s the original-music fans of Florida who benefit.

REAX INTERVIEWS

RA RA RIOT CLASSICAL GOES POP Words: Michael Rabinowitz • Photo: Sarah Cass

P

op orchestra acts, deriving from an academic background, rarely garner expedited mainstream success without inviting questions of pretentiousness or irony. (See Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend.)

Too many performers, too many instruments, too many cooks seem counterintuitive to the fluffy nature of pop music.

But for Ra Ra Riot, composed of former University of Syracuse music students, the balancing of string sections (cello and violin) with your standard Fender Strat inside a tight song structure, accommodating the shortest of attention spans is as effortless as the melodies they produce in the collection of layered pop synched to perfection on their debut LP for Barsuk Records, The Rhumb Line.

“I think our music is kind of a throwback to what pop music used to be,” explains Alexandra Lawn, Ra Ra Riot’s cellist.

“There are two different kinds of pop music.

We are more on the scale of U2, music that sounds good and is fun, more of an organic approach to pop music.”

Lawn, who was just “flopping around” college a year ago, learned her craft through the ranks of Montessori school, came to Syracuse to get serious about

music ... business, that is, when she met the group’s guitarist, Milo Benacci in class.

From the beginning the ensemble was supposed to be fun, a hobby shared by musicians, but most importantly, fans of music. Maybe that is why Ra Ra Riot’s songs carry a frivolity and innocence that focuses on melodies reminiscent of the Beach Boys and, more currently, The Shins.

Take the track “Next Year,” with lyrics that reference Harper Lee’s literary classic about the loss of innocence, To Kill A Mockingbird. The potential for dry literary analysis is huge, but the entire sextet (including Lawn and fellow violinist, Rebecca Zeller) raises the song to an upbeat, danceable effort, that captures the childhood foolishness of the book’s protagonist, Scout Finch.

The whole “School of Rock” thing was not even in Lawn’s plans when she first matriculated to the University.

“When I went to high school,” she admits, “things got serious and I was going to do the Conservatory thing, and then last minute I decided I didn’t want to do that and I went to a liberal arts school and studied music business instead.”

So, when a Ra Ra Riot caught fire at CMJ in 2007, entrancing both music critics and the often fickle nature of the independent

music blogosphere, the response was a surreal experience for Lawn and her band mates. After all, Ra Ra Riot was just supposed to be fun, not a job.

“It was really blatantly in my face after we played CMJ,” explains Lawn. “We played five shows there. We were still a different band. We were coming into our own a lot.

We had a really good reception. It was surprising, since here were some industry people, who are seeing hundreds of bands at CMJ, and they are paying attention to us. Maybe we can turn this into a career.

We are having fun and why not? It was our first taste of this whole underground indie scene.”

Since the origins of Ra Ra Riot were purely organic, there was never any intention to succeed, or drive to become the next “it” band.

“We were never like that,” she says. “We came together to have fun. Over a lot of time, we’ve grown into the band we are now. Everything has been extremely organic and nothing has been pushed or rushed. None of us were like ‘let’s start a band and get signed, we are going to be on this label, and tour here.’ We worked hard and things kept falling in our lap. But we only did that because we were having fun and loving what we were doing.”

But for Ra Ra Riot’s final product, the trick

is brevity. Keeping each track as light as cotton candy requires Lawn to put some of her conservatory dreams in check.

“It really comes from the music that inspires us and influences us,” she says. “We are just writing music that we like and we think sounds good. There are plenty of people out there that can do new and experimental things and whatnot, but that is not what we are going for, at least right now.”

So for Lawn, whose solo cellist performances are put aside for the grander plan of ensemble pop music, what would be a greater accomplishment: performing Brahms with Yo-Yo Ma or the band performing at the Grammy Awards?

“I’d do the Grammys because I know it would mean more to everyone else than just me,” she modestly offers. “I think I would enjoy having everyone as excited as I was.”

Unless, of course they can reschedule the Grammys - then she’d do both.

“Exactly!” she chuckles.

Ra Ra Riot plays the Harvest of Hope Festival at St. Johns County Fairgrounds in Elkton March 6-8.

MYSPACE.COM/RARARIOT

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 25

REAX INTERVIEWS

PROPAGANDHI POLITICS WITH PERSONALITY Words: Timothy Asher • Photo: Courtesy of Fat Wreck Chords

W

ith huge changes in the landscape of world politics, it seems only right that Canada’s premier rabblerousers, Propagandhi, are set to unleash their fifth full-length album, titled Supporting Caste. Even though it’s been four years since their critically acclaimed powerhouse Potemkin City Limits, don’t expect the music, or the message, to be any less raucous.

“I mean, there’s more depth and dimension now that we have a fourth band member [Dave Guillas, guitar] contributing music to it,” says vocalist/guitarist Chris Hannah.

“But I’d say overall, yeah, faster, heavier is always the goal.”

As the play on words in the title suggests, Supporting Caste is full of the same socially conscious and politically minded topics as when Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky formed the band over two decades ago.

Or not.

“I guess it depends on what people’s definition of political is,” Hannah says. “I think some people read lyrics and find some of the songs more ‘political,’ and some think the songs are less political, but to me, the overarching themes of the record are about people searching for meaning in society that don’t offer us much, and the

ramifications of what those searches mean for larger society. I think that’s a very highly political question, in terms of people finding meaning through patriotism or religion or race, so to me the record is as political as any record we’ve put out. But to others it might not seem that way.”

That meaning has never had a better opportunity to be heard than now.

Information and music have never been so easily accessible, although Hannah sees the digital music revolution as a new spin on an old record: “It’s sort of a new version of what was happening in the early ‘80s, when I was into the young speed metal scene. Bands like Metallica and whatever, they had [early demo] No Life ‘Til Leather and we were dubbing them and sending them across the country. I’m sure you’ve heard this argument before, especially in relation to Metallica, it was a different version of peerto-peer file sharing, that was the early ‘80s version of it. So in that sense, I don’t mind it.

“But everybody who comes from a previous era is going to lament the loss of younger people being able to seek out and discover these things the hard way. There’s no point in that, its just nostalgia.

“I think it’s just the instant gratification, on the scale of what you can share probably

PAGE 26 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

makes things seem more throwaway to the older generation. But the younger generation doesn’t know that yet.”

Propagandhi are going to give people plenty of opportunity to seek them out over the next year. They’ve already lined up a February trip to Australia and New Zealand, then a Stateside east coast tour, followed by a European jaunt. After that, Hannah says they plan to tackle the American midwest and west coast.

“There’s more touring on our schedule than has ever occurred in our entire existence.

Lots of touring,” laughs Hannah. “I’m stoked to a degree. Nobody in the band is really a huge fan of touring culture, but we’re all friends and we like being around each other and we’re really excited about these songs so hopefully we’ll be able to sustain the morale that’s in the band right now.”

One of the shows the band is playing will be Harvest of Hope Fest (March 6-8 in St. Augustine), where the proceeds will benefit the Harvest of Hope Foundation to help provide emergency relief, social services an educational support to migrant farmworkers and their families. Of course, activism is nothing new to the band.

“I think we’re just four guys in a band and the things we’re interested in, things we care about, people call those things activism, they call them politics,” Hannah

muses. “I don’t identify with being a political person or being identified as being an activist, but the things we do get ourselves wrapped up in are called those things.”

Some of the things they get wrapped up in are various community efforts for their hometown of Winnipeg: Sage House (which helps people get out of the sex trade on the streets); the Sea Shepherds Society; and Grassy Narrows, which stands up for the rights of Canada’s First Nation people.

Beyond that, bassist Todd Kowalski keeps a day job working at a Needs Center, where he helps recent refuges to Winnipeg.

“Sending money to organizations obviously isn’t the be-all, end-all of activism,” says Hannah. “It’s actually getting our hands dirty, and working with groups like that directly. It’s something we try to incorporate into what now seems to be our life’s work.”

Supporting Caste is due out March 10 on G7 Welcoming Committee/Smallman Records.

Propagandhi on tour in Florida: March 5 - State Theatre, St. Petersburg March 6 - Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale March 7 - Harvest of Hope Festival, St. John’s County Fairgrounds, Elkton

PROPAGANDHI.COM

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 27

REAX INTERVIEWS

ALL IN HIS HEAD: AN INTERVIEW WITH

A.C. NEWMAN Words: Scott Harrell • Photo: Caleb Buyers

AS A SOLO ARTIST AND THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, ALLAN CARL NEWMAN HAS ACHIEVED A CULTISH SORT OF CELEBRITY UNIQUELY FOCUSED ON HIS MUSIC RATHER THAN HIMSELF. AS MATADOR RECORDS RELEASES HIS AMAZING SOPHOMORE SOLO FULL-LENGTH GET GUILTY, NEWMAN TALKS WITH REAX ABOUT HIS SONGWRITING PROCESS, WHETHER OR NOT HE’S SOME SORT OF ENIGMA, AND WHY THE PORNOGRAPHERS NEVER SEEM TO MAKE IT DOWN TO FLORIDA. REAX: You aren’t really thought of as a touring artist. Do you like being on the road?

A.C. Newman: It’s fun, you know? I also like being at home these days. When you tour, it makes you like being at home.

Sometimes being at home feels like a vacation. But I like it, it’s cool playing in front of people. It’s a pretty easy job.

REAX: A lot of fans down here complain that you don’t come down to Florida or the southeast enough. Is it a logistical thing, or do you not think there’s enough of a draw?

ACN: It’s just logistical, actually. We don’t tour that much, so you know, we have to have a standard group of places that we hit. Somehow, making that drop down to Florida is hard for us to do. We’ve played there, but only twice. Plus, you know, everybody’s afraid of Miami, nobody wants to get killed.

REAX: People like to form impressions of the musicians they listen to, to feel like they know ‘em. But you’ve gotten this sort of reputation of being harder to know through your music, that you’re kind of an enigma.

PAGE 28 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

Have you made a conscious effort to stay out of the way of the music, and let the music speak for itself?

ACN: I guess so. I don’t know. I’ve never wanted to cultivate an image for myself and be Carlos D. or something. The music always has been far more important than anything else. I never really thought of myself as any kind of enigma. I always thought [New Pornographers and Destroyer member] Dan Bejar was the enigma. But even then, that’s a kind of persona, you know? I guess that’s the paradox. Being an enigma is having a persona.

REAX: What’s your songwriting process like? Do you sit down and say, ‘I’ve written all the songs for the New Pornographers album, now I’ve gotta write songs for my solo album’?

ACN: These days, there’s not that much difference. Although right now, I’m writing for the Pornographers record, and it’s the fist time in a few years where I’ve found myself consciously writing for that. For years, I’ve just been making records, just to see what happens, figuring that’s the best way to keep it fresh, not pigeonhole yourself with, ‘oh, we have to sound like

this.’ The moment I start thinking we have to sound a certain way, it would become very repetitive, you know?

REAX: Do you know when you write a song that it’s a New Pornographers tune or an A.C. Newman tune?

ACN: Sometimes I think I know. When I was making Get Guilty, there was one song I started that I thought had to be a New Pornographers song, and I kept working on it, and I thought it just had to be the first song on the next New Pornographers record. But, I don’t know, sometimes you start making a record, and it all changes.

Like when we were making Twin Cinema, the final song, “Stacked Crooked,” I thought it was going to be the first song, like “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” from Fables of the Reconstruction by R.E.M., because it’s just such a weird song to start an album with. But when we started sequencing the record, it just didn’t work. It was just much better as the last song. Which is a just long way of saying, it can all change.

REAX: To me, the new album has a bit more of a classicist sound to it. There are these new sounds, and your lyrics, which have always been unique, but there’s also almost sort of a Phil Spector, girl-group feel.

ACN: That’s true. There’s one song, “The Palace at 4 A.M.,” in my mind, that song is almost a Phil Spector pastiche, the way it begins is almost like “The Locomotion” or something. Not necessarily, it’s just got that kind of drive. That’s what really worked for me. And it’s also got a vocal that sounds more like the Beach Boys than anything I’ve ever done. People always throw the Beach Boys around as a comparison, but that’s the only time when making an album when I thought, ‘I kind of sound like Carl Wilson there.’ But that’s OK, it’s cool to sound like the Beach Boys every once in a while.

REAX: Do you do that when you’re recording? If you hear something that sounds too obviously like something else, do you change it?

ACN: Yeah, definitely. Like when I’m putting together harmony vocals, and it starts sounding too much like Crosby, Stills & Nash, I have to backpedal. But it’s a dangerous thing, when you start to put a lot of vocals on something, you get dangerously close to that chasm. There are a few things you try to avoid. I never want to sound too much like The Beatles, or anything that’s too obvious of a touchstone.

There’s instruments, like the sitar, that have too much baggage attached to them. You put on a sitar, it automatically sounds like the ‘60s. I like things that hint at something else, but you can’t quite place it.

REAX: There’s a lot of that to your solo stuff, and to New Pornographers. It sounds familiar at times, but you just can’t just go, ‘oh, that’s ELO,’ or whatever. You can’t put your finger on it.

ACN: Sometimes, it’s more conceptual than anything. And sometimes it’s just

in my head. One song on the record, “Thunderbolts,” in my head it had kind of a Motown thing. And I don’t know if it does, but the kind of groove of it, I thought, ‘this is like a Four Tops ballad or something.’ But I also know I can’t find that Four Tops ballad that I’m referencing, it’s all in my head.

But that’s part of the game, I guess. I’ve always said that. I’ve never really tried to be original. I just assume that everything I’m doing, I’m going to take my influences and they’re going to get warped in my head. It’s going to get filtered through me trying to do it. So, so far so good.

REAX: Do you pay much attention to what else is going on in music, or pop culture in general? Are you aware of other stuff to the point that you have to shut yourself off, put yourself in a bubble to do your thing?

ACN: I think I’m always influenced by well, there are other indie-rock bands, or whatever you call them, that I really love, and that always influences me. Some bands, you think, ‘we should sound more like them,’ but some bands, you just want to keep up with ‘em, you know? You listen to Animal Collective or TV on The Radio or The National and anybody else that’s amazing, and you go, ‘shit, these guys are great.’ And that has an influence. You think you’ve gotta keep up with the Joneses, you know? And so many influences sneak in, it’s hard to keep track. When we first started playing together, I was really into Neutral Milk Hotel and Belle & Sebastian, and I don’t know if anybody could tell if they were an influence on us, but I think they were.

REAX: Yeah, I would never think that. I don’t hear it.

ACN: I don’t hear it either. But I remember when I was arranging songs for the first record, on some very basic level, I was listening to their records and thought about how their song structures were melodically very complex, and I took some of that. But it was at such a basic level, I don’t think it shows up. I could’ve been influenced in the same way by Neil Diamond, because he does the same thing.

REAX: When you consider what else out there is referred to as pop music, does it bother you when that term is applied to your music?

ACN: The kind of classic pop music has switched over and become indie rock, you know? There are bands like The Shins, who are really really popular now, who are playing a very classic sort of pop. But nobody calls it pop music, you know? They call it indie rock.

AC Newman kicks off his North American tour February 20 at The Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver. Get Guilty is out now on Matador.

MYSPACE.COM/ACNEWMAN

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 29

REAX INTERVIEWS out and doing all these crazy things. It is a concert. It is a celebration, but it’s also a legitimate performance. A lot of people [going to shows now] are people who have seen hip-hop or turntablists throughout their whole lives as a legitimate art form and a valid performance. I think the idea of someone playing with computers or electronics is not crazy or progressive anymore. It’s almost normal, especially for kids who might see Girl Talk as their first concert. The landscape is changing, and I’m excited to see where the bar is for electronic performance ten years from now.

BEATS BY THE GAGGLE Words: Ryan Patrick Hooper • Photo: Andrew Strasser

G

irl Talk can be found in the bathrooms of lavish nightclubs, where dames, dimes and damsels gather in gaggles to unleash pounds of scattered thought and ramblings of rumors in a piercing wave of high-pitched, coke-nosed nonsense. If one didn’t know any better, one might guess that Gregg Gillis’ inspiration is derived from such a scene - scattered thoughts representing his electrically eclectic catalog of samples, songs and beats, ramblings of rumors representing the long legs of legal trouble he has somehow avoided and that Friday-night eight-ball equivalent to the type of energy Gillis is able to cultivate with nothing more than a few laptops.

But what do we really know about this “musician,” whose success was not an instant brew, but rather a slow drip into the mainstream consciousness? Yes, he hails from Pittsburgh, a former biomedical engineer by day and beat maestro by night that eventually abandoned the nineto-five grind when his third release, Night Ripper, sucker-punched the hipsters into submission. Since his rise to the top of the DJ pyramid (a deal sealed when Time Magazine recognized Girl Talk’s fourth release, Feed The Animals, as a top-ten album of 2008), Gillis has become top billing at the hottest of summer festivals and regularly performs in front of 2,000 patrons plus. Regardless of the abundant admiration, the press has only stuck to the basic evidence of a complex case. REAX decided to finally burn the envelope, throw out the jury and lay down a fresh verdict.

Ladies and gentlemen, Greg Gillis, the man behind Girl Talk, unedited and just as raw as the explosive, collective dynamite he calls a show: REAX: From the average dude to the international DJ superstar, in what ways have you utilized your leverage, your cash and power in the music scene?

GG: Bringing other bands along for the ride … has been a big one. A big thing about why this has worked out well for me is because I really haven’t stopped doing things my way. My shows, regardless of how big they are, are very similar in style to when it was shows with only 15 people.

When the project started to catch a little success, I got a lot of offers from more mainstream bands. It was the type of thing where I didn’t want to play in DJ booths or clubs. I want to play with bands. I’m trying to get people to open their minds to new music, play in a lot of diverse line-ups and get my friends involved. For a minute, I was turning down more shows than I was taking, and then things caught on in terms of this being a legitimate performance and it being acceptable at rock ‘n’ roll venues.

No one is really questioning it now. It’s been a steady two years, and along with that, I can call the shots in terms of who I can bring along or what the show can be like. As this gets bigger, I want to keep developing. Simultaneously, I don’t think I should change in any major way.

REAX: Do you ever worry that you may get to a point where you lose the sweaty intimacy that your shows are known for? Is

PAGE 30 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

there a fear that you will jump off and lose that connection with that crowd?

GG: It’s already developed into something new. I still feel that there is an intimacy there, but it’s a lot different than it was four years ago. A year ago, it was venues packed with 600 or less people. Two years ago, it was even less. Now, at least in the US, most shows [draw] in between one to two thousand people. It’s not a basement show anymore, and even though it is just me on the stage, it’s evolved into something else. I was worried about that changing a few years ago when I started playing festivals, [but] when you have that many people celebrating, it totally transcends intimacy and becomes a massive party. I’m happy to keep it growing, or to watch it shrink to the exact same position.

REAX: On that note, what is there to be said about connecting with an audience through electronic music, a laptop and sampled songs?

GG: I know I’m a little removed from my music compared to a traditional musician who writes his own music and his own melodies. But simultaneously, I want to make transforming music and I want to make something that has its own identity.

It’s funny to me. If you had a time machine from the ‘70s and you fast-forward to ‘08 as a rock ‘n’ roll fan and went to see a Girl Talk show, it would absolutely seem like crazy future music, you know? Two laptops, one individual human being yet people are going off like it’s a rock show - people are screaming, dancing, cheering, making

REAX: You are extremely well covered in the press, but there seems to be only a few facts that are constantly regurgitated.

You’ve remained anonymous while soaked in limelight - an interesting concept.

GG: It’s very insane for me - all of this coverage, all the attention, all these people coming out to the shows. Simultaneously, like you’re saying, I think I have stayed pretty anonymous and not on purpose.

My face is out there always. I’m the only guy performing, but for some reason, even when I walk the streets before the shows and I’m right outside the venue or at a bar after the show, people rarely recognize me. On the last tour, I would go out and interview the crowd standing outside of the venues and people who would have no idea who I was and I would be asking questions about myself. People would know what high school I went to, my parents’ names and the names of all the albums, but would never recognize me. I don’t know how that has developed, but when I do get recognized, it’s exciting for me. [Laughs] I get pumped about it, but it rarely goes down. I mean, I haven’t changed too much except for dealing with the pressures of the shows and appealing to this much larger audience, but that’s the basic development of any artist.

I feel very lucky about whatever happens, but I definitely don’t feel like a celebrity especially considering how few people say hello to me.

REAX: Is it safe to say your ego has stayed in check?

GG: I see a lot of bands coming out nowadays under the power of marketing and the Internet. Lots of people are on the covers of magazines before the first album comes out. I mean, I think that’s awesome, but I can’t imagine dealing with how surreal that would be. Something that has been cool for me and kept me grounded is that I had those six years of no one really giving a damn.

Girl Talk in Florida: March 3 - Sluggo’s, Pensacola March 4 - The Venue, Gainesville March 5 - The Moon, Tallahassee March 6 - Harvest of Hope Festival, St. Johns County Fairgrounds, Elkton March 7 - Club Firestone, Orlando

MYSPACE.COM/GIRLTALK

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 31

REAX INTERVIEWS

PAGE 32 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

Words: Ryan Patrick Hooper • Photos: Sarah Edwards

WHEN AN INTERVIEW WITH CHUCK D FALLS INTO YOUR LAP, DO YOU REALLY HAVE A CHOICE TO DISCUSS ANYTHING OTHER THAN POLITICS? PUBLIC ENEMY’S RISE IN THE LATE ‘80S AS A POLITICALLY CONSCIOUS RAP GROUP THAT FILTERED THE FEARS, AMBITIONS AND ANGER OF THE UNSUNG BLACK POPULATION OVER SOME OF THE THICKEST, MOST INFECTIOUS BEATS IN THE GAME ALL WHILE FOSTERING THE CAREER OF THE “BEST HYPE MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS,” FLAVA FLAV - DEMANDS IT. SINCE THEN, FLAVA FLAV HAS BECOME A REALITY-TELEVISION TRAIN WRECK, WHILE CHUCK D STAYS SANE AND SENSIBLE, AN OUTSPOKEN ACTIVIST WHOSE LEGEND AND PERSONA ARE OFTEN LARGER THAN THE MAN HIMSELF CAN ACCOUNT FOR. REAX: What are some of your greatest expectations for Obama, and what are some of your greatest fears?

Chuck D: He automatically brings the world to a focal point, and brings the world together in understanding that there is a new, open point of view coming from the United States. Most Americans can’t feel that because this is actually resonated from the outside. In the last two months, I was already in 16 countries. Anywhere I went, there happened to be Obama fever. I’m not sure how you can sell that to an American, but the magnitude of that was immense.

The greatest fear is of course that people will expect him to actually be a miracle worker, and instead [he’ll] turn on them in the first six months. I said this - no matter who got in there, I was saying that whoever the next president is going to be, he will have to clean up for two years before they actually get a chance to do their job. I think that Barack Obama is not only going to clean up, but I also think he will motivate and do some creative things in the first two years as well. The greatest fear with any American is lack of patience. Americans have very little patience for a lot of things, so maybe that will change.

REAX: It’s interesting to see that a couple of days after Obama gets sworn in, he signs an order to have Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp closed within a year.

CD: People were asking me about the differences between John McCain and Barack Obama. Barack Obama gives you a feeling that the day after Election Day, he is going to go to work. The day after Inauguration, he went to work and was very proactive in his decision-making. I don’t know when McCain would actually get around to rolling up his sleeves. He is a different age. He paces himself different.

He is a different person, and he was looking at the world and country different. That’s the big difference between the two. As far as what I get from the outside looking in, I got the feeling that McCain was a nice man and actually in the wrong position being

with the conservatives and the Republican party, who were trying to make him into something he wasn’t.

REAX: Obama transcends race with his policies. It’s very easy to follow what he believes in and what he wants to do no matter who you are. But within the black population, do you think there is a blind trust simply because he is a black politician instead of truly looking at what he represents?

CD: Of course there is a blind trust in great instances because it’s unprecedented. Do you think it was blind trust that America put a white male in the Oval Office every other time, and that most Americans would place a blind trust into the white American male?

I think black people have a tendency to fall under most of the traits that Americans fell under the last 200 years. Is it right? No. Is it actually an aspect of maybe a condition that was caused that the situation we’ve been living in? Yeah. We’ve got to get past that, you know? Eventually, the feel for the black presidency will be normalized when you have a second black president. Women have to get over that similar hump as well.

It’s a shame that it’s taken this long before we realize that we have a hurtle to cross in American politics, but that blind trust is there only because of the conditions.

REAX: How would you describe these conditions?

CD: By conditions, I mean the conditions that were caused by this country to always not expect that it would not be a person of any other color making the decisions of the country. If you want to talk about the situation of the United States now, it’s quite evident. There is lots of desperation, you dig? I don’t expect Obama to throw the Hail Mary touchdown pass in the first quarter, you know what I mean? The economic situation has been shellshocked and ransacked over the last eight years.

And really, you’ve got a 15- or 20-year downslide just in the aspect of American greed playing into this. American greed

has been one of the major factors of all this trouble. The balancing of banking and capitalism is really important. It’s a balancing of the species and also the environment. Once one thing goes out of whack, it can set off a whole different level of conditions. A couple of banks go by the wayside and you’ve got financial chaos happening like a bang effect theory, you know what I’m saying? Your roof has 18 holes in it, so one bucket is not going to stop the rain from hitting the floor.

REAX: Do you think his policies are going to be as impressive as his campaign?

CD: No, because it will be stretched over a long period of time. Over a long period of time, a lot of this will wear off and some sort of normalcy will set in. Obama’s skill is to continue the balancing act over a long period of time. I’m pretty sure he is waiting for a lot of this to die down so he can go to work silently in many cases. He is also going to be the President of the United States, so eyes are going to be on him for every step of the matter. But he is well conditioned for the job. He knows what he asked for, and there are going to be more people answering questions about him, then he’ll be answering himself. [Laughs] People are asking me questions like I’m running!

REAX: That’s a massive compliment, wouldn’t you say?

CD: It is in a way. In another way, it fills the paper. [Laughs] Also, we have to be realistic in understanding that only he knows what he’s going to be able to do, you know?

REAX: I understand the idea of fodder filling up the page, but at the same time, speculating over the outcome of Obama’s first term with Chuck D is a lot more entertaining than overhearing two Average Joes discuss the same topics a few booths over in a crowded diner.

CD: It gets a little bit like the sports pages.

As soon as the season is over, they ask

people who is going to win next year.

Damn! The season just ended! But I guess you have to fill that time or you don’t have a show, you know?

HE’S THE GREATEST HYPE MAN EVER

“He invented the goddamn role, man!” says Chuck. “He has invented his own style, dress and code.”

HE’S GOT THE CHARISMA

“You can’t take your eyes off him. He’ll suck the fame out of any room. I don’t care who it is! You might even put President Obama next to him, and Flava Flav will capture peoples’ attention.”

HE’S INFLUENTIAL

“T-Pain and Soulja Boy have definitely taken a page out of Flava Flav’s book without them even knowing it.”

HE’S A PERFECT CANDIDATE FOR THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HALL OF FAME “As far as Public Enemy goes, he’ll be right there, probably leading the whole damn thing.”

HE’S, YOU KNOW, ACTUALLY LIKE THAT

“What you see is what you get. There is no person closer to what you see on television than Flava. He is totally in his own world … ”

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 33

34

SOAPBOX UPCOMING RELEASES ISSUE 33

UPCOMING RELEASES ARTIST

ARTIST

LABEL

FEBRUARY 03

NARNACK

A Day To Remember Ben Kweller Bricolage Chris Cornell Heartless Bastards Jim White Junior Boys Ladyfinger (NE) Mike Bones Mono Phosphorescent Sabertooth Soundtrack of Our Lives The Appleseed Cast The Strange Boys The Von Bondies Two Tongues Yeasayer Zero Boys Zero Boys Zombi

TELEFON TEL AVIV IMMOLATE YOURSELF BPITCH CONTROL

Victory ATO Slumberland Interscope Fat Possum Luka Bop Domino Saddle Creek The Social Registry

Homesick Changing Horses Bricolage Scream The Mountain A Little Cross To Bear Hazel 12” Dusk A Fool for Everyone One Step More And You Die / New York Soundtracks To Willie Old Days & The Island Communion Sagarmatha And Girls Club Love, Hate and Then There’s You Two Tongues All Hour Cymbals (vinyl) History Of Vicious Circle Spirit Animal

Temporary Res. Dead Oceans Arena Rock Yep Roc The Militia Group In The Red Majordomo Vagrant We Are Free Secretly Canadian Secretly Canadian Relapse

Maia Hirasawa Mi Ami Morrissey Mountains N.A.S.A. Odawas Psapp Realpeople Sabbatoge Soundsystem Sholi Sin Fang Bous Sleeper Southeast Engine Sylvain Chauveau Telepathe The Drones The Vibrarians These Are Powers Thrice Throw Me The Statue Thursday Tombs Vetiver William Elliott Whitmore

PROJECT ARTS & CRAFTS

Adam Lipman Ben Lee Boston Spaceships Cage & Aviary Lily Allen Malajube Woolfy

BLACK LIPS 200 MILLION THOUSAND VICE

Pan American Gentleman Reg Laura Barrett

White Bird Release Jet Black Victory Garden

Abe Vigoda Alela Diane Asobi Seksu Beirut Death …

Fake Problems Faunts Final Gun Outfit Henry’s Funeral Shoe Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Loren Connors M. Ward

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS

ALPINISMS (VINYL) GHOSTLY INT.

Kranky Arts & Crafts Paper Bag

NEKO CASE MIDDLE CYCLONE ANTI-

SAY HI OOHS AND AAHS BARSUK

NONESUCH

Shrimper New West Gbv. Inc Death From Abroad Regal Dare to Care Rong DFA

The Decemberists Svarte Greiner Bosque Brown Buried Inside Grandmaster Flash Laura Gibson Marissa Nadler U2 Who Made Who

Hazards of Love Kappe Baby Spoils of Failure The Bridge: Concept of a Culture Beasts of Seasons Little Hells No Line on the Horizon The Plot

Capitol Type Burnt Toast Vinyl Relapse Strut Records Hush Kemado Interscope Gomma

MARCH 10

FEBRUARY 17

BLANK.WAV

Thrive Quarterstick Lost Highway Thrill Jockey AntiJagjaguwar Domino Pompeii Volcom Quarterstick Morr Music Mush Misra Type IAMSOUND ATP K Records Dead Oceans Vagrant Secretly Canadian Epitaph Relapse Sub Pop Anti-

MARCH 03

DAN AUERBACH KEEP IT HID

From Your Mouth To God’s Ear The Rebirth of Venus Planets are Blasted Television Train 12” It’s Not Me, It’s You Labyrinthes (Whatever/ Whatever Mixes) Oh Missy

BROKEN SPINDLES KISS/KICK

Though, I’m Just Me Watersports Years of Refusal Choral The Spirit of Apollo The Blue Depths The Camel’s Back Holland The Boto Machine Gun Sholi Clangour Behind Every Mask From the Forest to the Sea The Black Book of Capitolism Dance Mother Havilah Red Light All Aboard Future The Alchemy Indexes: I-IV Purpleface Common Existence Winter Hours Tight Knit Animals In the Dark

FEBRUARY 23

FEBRUARY 10

CHARLES SPEARIN THE HAPPINESS

LABEL

FEBRUARY 17 CONTINUED

ALBUM

IRAN DISSOLVER

ALBUM

MINUS THE BEAR ACOUSTICS 12” SUICIDE SQUEEZE

Reviver To Be Still Hush March of the Zapotec EP For the Whole World To See It’s Great To Be Alive Feel.Love.Thinking.Of Reading All the Right Signals Wrong Dim Light Everything’s Fore Sale Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit The Curse of Midnight Mary Hold Time

PAGE 34 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

PPM Records Rough Trade Polyvinyl Pompeii Drag City Side One Dummy Friendly Fire No Quarter PPM Records Bomp/Alive Lightning Rod Rec. Family Vineyard Merge

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI THAT BEEP POLYVINYL

Abstract Rude Arboretum Bell Orchestre BLK JKS Condo Fucks DM Stith Elvis Perkins in Dearland Extra Golden From Monument to Masses Swan Lake The Mummies Thermals Tim Hecker

Dear Abby Song of the Pearl As Seen Through Windows Mystery EP Fuckbook Heavy Ghost Elivs Perkins in Dearland Thank You Very Quickly On Little Known Frequencies Enemy Mine Play Their Own Records Now We Can See 7” An Imaginary Country

HANDSOME FURS FACE CONTROL SUB POP

Rhymesayers Thrill Jockey Arts & Crafts Secretly Canadian Matador Asthmatic Kitty 4AD Thrill Jockey Dim Mak Jagjaguwar Estrus Kill Rock Stars Kranky

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SOAPBOX PRODUCT PLACEMENT ISSUE 33

PRODUCT

BACON WATCH

PLACEMENT ELECTRO-HARMONIX VOICE BOX Whether you’re into lush, layered vocal harmonies or exploring the outer realms of processor-generated noise, the Voice Box harmony generator-slash-vocoder has you covered. While it’s being pimped generally for its abilities to both build two- to four-part harmonies right from your own single vocal and convert your voice into some awesomely cheesy ‘80s-synth robotics, we all know there are practically no limits to the experimentation one can get up to by plugging in other instruments and going to town on the options. The company behind the classic Big Muff scores again.

$214.50, EHX.COM

MAC DOCK ICON THROW PILLOWS

That’s it. A watch with bacon on its face, and a strap that kind of looks like really fatty bacon. Bacon bacon bacon.

$29.95, MCPHEE.COM

DVR REMOTE IPHONE APP. It’s happened to all of us a million times. We rush out of the house late for work, hung over from the previous night’s boozy channel-surfing, and totally forget that we meant to set the TiVo to record Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. (We haven’t been using the TiVo much lately, because we’re mad at it; we asked to record Tombstone, and since then it’s recorded everything with either a horse or a mustache in it.) We won’t be near our computer all day, since today’s a road day.

No Ozone. No Turbo. No Ice-T! We’re screwed ... or are we? With an iPhone, the DVR Remote app and a wi-fi hotspot, our problems are history.

We’ll be watching those misunderstood kids save their neighborhood recreation center tonight for sure.

$3, ITUNES.COM On the scale of Mac superfandom, these plushies split the difference between more than one sticker on the car, and a tattoo of the Apple logo taking a bite out of Bill Gates’ ripe, delicious head. OS, iChat, iPhoto, iTunes, Dashboard. It’s a nice little assortment that tells visitors to your pad that you’re all tech and shit, but that doesn’t mean you’re above leaving the workstation to cuddle up and ... oh, hell, we don’t know exactly what they’ll tell visitors to your pad.

We just know they’re cooler than, like, stuffed animals or real cats.

And if you get the whole set, every member of your favorite ska band will have something to rest their head on when they crash at your house. (Yeah, like you’re gonna let gross-headed band dudes lay down on ‘em.)

$29 EACH OR $149 SET, THROWBOY.COM

PAGE 36 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

Retro gaming in gorgeous, made-to-order contemporary furniture. These slick tables are pricey, but come packed with games and a buttload more, depending on your tastes. They’re powered by a dual-core Intel processor and run Windows XP, so you can load up your iTunes jukebox on it, browse the web with a built-in wi-fi adaptor, watch movies through your finest clear disposable dinnerware on the DVD drive - the sky’s the limit.

If you simply can’t afford one, we highly recommend e-mailing the link to your dealer.

$2999 AND UP, SURFACE-TENSION. NET

PRODUCT PLACEMENT SOAPBOX ISSUE 33

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THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN DVD/BLU-RAY It’s available February 17. It’s adapted from one of Clive Barker’s best and most chilling early short stories. It’s about a struggling photographer’s obsession with the city in which he lives, and the horrifying glimpses he catches of what may be going on beneath it. It’s helmed by Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura, who lends the film a surreal, slightly dreamlike quality that strikes a disturbing balance between domestic and J-horror. It stars Vinnie Jones, that British dude from Snatch who got into it with some American mooks in a South Dakota bar a few months back. It’s good, good stuff.

$19.99, AMAZON.COM

I-TURTLE ACTIVE SPEAKER Once upon a time, being a speaker was enough. Then came digital music players, and suddenly speakers had to do something, like move or light up or at least look like a cartoon character people might remember with an ironic sense of enjoyment.

Well, the I-Turtle doesn’t look like any specific cartoon turtle, but it does move its head and various other appendages along with your music, and lights in its shell flash along to the rhythms. Of course, it can do that stuff when not functioning as a speaker, when it hears music coming out of other, less reptilian speakers, but there’s nothing Digital Age about that, and its sleek, vaguely Apple-onian look is thus wasted.

$19.99, HASBROTOYSHOP. COM

LED PITCHER Sixty ounces - that’s almost a quart! - of wholly unnecessary beverage coolness. Replaceable batteries allow the 5 LED bulbs in the pitcher’s base to spin-flash, blink and just kind of give your favorite pitcher-drink a sort of uppity ominous glow. The pitcher itself comes in multiple colors, so consider at length exactly which will mix best with the natural hue of beer, or margaritas, or martinis, or whatever you care about enough to do more than drink it out of the can/bottle/artery.

Bonus points for the creative use of dry ice.

$10.85, WOWCOOLSTUFF.COM

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • PAGE 37

38

SOAPBOX BOOK REVIEW / DVD REVIEW ISSUE 33

BOOK REVIEW

DVD REVIEW

BY DR. PAUL OFFIT

UNRATED

AUTISM’S FALSE PROPHETS

I

don’t get out as much during these busy days of residency but I did make it down to Art Basel in Miami.

Accompanying us was a videographerphotographer couple with one-yearold in tow. As an expectant father, the conversation turned towards my likely annoying questions regarding clothing, diet, social life impacts, and health care related to the infant. I was amazed at the diligence to organic foods, “natural” cleaning products, and an apparent distrust of biomedicine expressed by a refusal for many routine childhood vaccinations.

A few weeks later, another couple I know outside of medicine mentioned to me that they had recently left their kid’s doctor.

The parents felt the pediatrician was overly critical of their decision to forgo a flu shot for the three-year-old child. As an afterthought, the dad said, “we don’t believe in it.” I still have no idea what that means, even if I do understand some of the arguments for why a parent might not allow that particular vaccine. There is a movement in which mostly liberal, middleto upper-middle-class (and usually white) parents seem to reject scientific reasoning in exchange for membership within an expensive cultural brand of Whole Foods shopping and alternative therapies.

Unfortunately, much of the information available to the mainstream is wrapped in junky, non-peer-reviewed and inexpert publications such as Jenny McCarthy’s new book on “treating” autism (no worries though, the much sexier Amanda Peet has made modern medicine her celebrity cause du jour).

This is why Paul Offit’s timely work, Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure is such a critical addition to the story of vaccines. The author reminds us that everyone is entitled to their own opinion – but also that some opinions are better than others. Dr. Offit, famous in the world of infectious disease as the inventor of the new and safe Rotavirus immunization, explores the history of how autism and vaccinations became linked by a fraudulent physician named Andrew Wakefield more than ten years ago. Dr. Wakefield posited that the mercury in vaccines caused damage to the intestine,

allowing the live virus vaccine for measles to inflame the gut and eventually attack the brain. False Prophets systematically examines the personal case against Wakefield and heavily criticizes the media for elevating poorly done (or even grossly negligent) studies into the public conscious. Offit rejects any type of government-Big Pharma conspiracy to hide a vaccine-autism link, demonstrating, instead, a very well-funded anti-vaccine group backed by personal injury lawyers with large war chests.

I am not a cheerleader for pharmaceutical companies, nor am I blind to the fact that some of our accepted treatments in medicine have caused unintended harm with the evidence for serious side effects of the oral live Polio and old Rotavirus vaccinations. But more importantly, I recognize that a combination of sewage systems, clean water and immunizations has likely saved more lives - and added more quality years to life - than all other aspects of medicine combined.

I want patients to take charge of their medical care, but am concerned with the public’s inability to separate out the trash due to the media’s refusal to disseminate the whole story. Offit’s book provides a window to real data through an accessible narrative. Any parent out there who has rejected, or is planning to refuse, the CDC immunization schedule needs to read this book prior to making a decision. And any parent that is contemplating “treatment” of their child’s autism by following the advice of a Playboy model (McCarthy) certainly needs this book stat.

(COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS) - Jason Wilson, MD

FURTHER READING: Sears, Robert (2007).

The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decisions for Your Child.

(LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY)

THE CURRENT CDC VACCINATION SCHEDULE: cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/ child-schedule.htm

PAGE 38 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

HOODOO FOR VOODOO

I

t’s no secret that the overwhelming majority of independently produced films - and we’re talking independent as in “some friends, some actors and no money,” rather than “costing less than $10 million and marketed by a hip studio” - are unwatchably bad.

The odds are stacked against ‘em from the get-go. They’re generally made by people with a limited amount of experience, with extremely restricted access to funds, to time, to equipment. To produce a nobudget movie that’s even mediocre is something of a feat.

gonna need a bigger goat”) are kneecapped by poor timing. Brunilda Zekthi handles one of the leads, Danielle, well, Kian O’Grady provides solid and entertaining comedy as trip chaperone John, and veteran Linnea Quigley - whom die-hard gore-hounds may remember as the naked punk chick Trash in Return of the Living Dead - shines in a small voodoo-priestess role. Most everyone else is, erm, a little green to be putting in such heavy screen time.

There are a few other problems with the movie, but they’re pretty much par for the D.I.Y.-film course: So, relatively speaking, the folks at uneven sound mix, a less-thanOrlando’s Abyssmal Entertainment stellar opening credit sequence, deserve credit for achieving exactly a few questionable instances of that - mediocrity - with the horror flick editing and pacing. (A brief cameo Hoodoo for Voodoo.

by Troma Films founder Lloyd Kaufman as a Mardi Gras crackhead The story, involving a group of seems particularly tacked on.) On radio-station contest winners who the plus side, there’s at least one are picked off after traveling to a smart, somewhat shocking murder small-town tourist trap outside of scene, and some wholly, wonderfully New Orleans, is a classic. And writer/ gratuitous girl-on-girl action. director Steven Shea knows how to frame a shot. Despite the generally All in all, Hoodoo for Voodoo isn’t inexpensive look, the scenes are great. In the context of the uber-indie well composed, and Shea manages filmmaking universe, though, it’s an to work in a surprising number of above-average effort, and one that locations. In the areas of writing showcases some serious directorial and acting, however, Hoodoo potential in Shea. It’ll be interesting falls well short of the mark. The to see what he can do with a stronger dialogue is, by and large, awful, a script and cast. fact that’s consistently highlighted by the players’ deliveries; even (2008, ABYSSMAL ENT.) the occasional good lines (“We’re - Scott Harrell

MUSIC REVIEWS SOAPBOX ISSUE 33

39

DELICIOUS PRETTY GOOD OK AT BEST UGH INEDIBLE

TITUS ANDRONICUS

THE AIRING OF GRIEVANCES You know, for all their purported nihilistic philosophy and erudite literary references, this Jersey ďŹ vesome’s music is, more than anything else, bristling, joyfully raw fun. A rowdy combination of Los Desaparecidos, Guided by Voices and the sort of unsung local bands I like to think are always playing in Ireland’s hipper dank pubs and cellars, The Airing of Grievances is as perfect a balance of smart and dumb - as well as melodic and wildly stung-nerve noisy - as we’ve heard in a while. Filled with singalong blasts, deceptively simple riffage and a communal sort of righteous outrage that translates more as release than true violent fury, this nine-song dissertation on barroom sociology (originally released last April on Troubleman Unlimited) is guaranteed to get the blood pumping and the beers owing.

(XL) - Scott Harrell

LONGWAVE

SECRETS ARE SINISTER Longwave tends to y under the radar, which is often the case of many great bands courted by major labels and dropped by the side of the road when more lucrative opportunities present themselves.

It’s a shame, too. This is their fourth album, and by far their strongest. It’s so big in its scope - the sound and feel of it take up all of the air in the room when you crank it. They do draw inevitable comparisons to U2 and Coldplay, but there is an integrity to their music that is lost in the publicity ďŹ restorms of the aforementioned bands. Check it out.

(ORIGINAL SIGNAL) - Susie Ulrey

THE KICKBACKS EVEN THE BLUES

In the past 50 years or so, rock ‘n’ roll has given us many different styles, avors and shiny objects to get distracted by. As years pass and new bands either make their mark or ďŹ zzle out, imitations of a time, sound, or particular band crowd our airwaves, and are usually a shitty impression of the real

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thing. Unfortunately, this is one of those times.

The Kickbacks pick right up where the Gin Blossoms left off in the hope of another Top 40 hit. There were moments when I thought, ‘OK this isn’t so bad,’ but a lack of any lyrical originality, or an interesting twist on an old idea, left me wishing for the end.

(NOT LAME) - Jack Gregory

THOM YORKE

THE ERASER RMXS The beat-challenged white man’s attempt to appeal to cool urban people, the remix album already exists as something of a superuous curiosity, but gains an added aura of WTF?-ness whenever someone as supremely talented as Thom Yorke indulges in its futile pursuits. It is safe to say that each and every one of these nine edits resurfaces inferior to its predecessor, but The Bug’s adaptation of “Harrowdown Hillâ€? takes the butcher-job crown as it (for lack of a better term) erases the track’s devastating electric guitar coda.

Elsewhere, Various’ “Analyze� rendition kills any sense of rhythm with stuttering drum machine percussion and layers of reverb.

Yorke includes two versions of “Black Swan,â€? which would seem laughably unjustiďŹ ed if not for the chorus’ eloquent summation of Rmxs: “This is f----d up/ f----d up.â€?

(XL) - Robert Hilson

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MEGAPUSS SURFING

If Gordon Lightfoot, Dean and Gene Ween, Barry Gibb and those chunky lovers Tenacious D got together and had love twins, and said twins made a record, it would be this record. There are a lot more â&#x20AC;&#x153;ifsâ&#x20AC;? than meet the eye in that sentence, but with good reason - SurďŹ ng is topical, perverse and really fucking confusing. Where most of the melodies are â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;70s A.M. Gold-style airy, the crux of Megapussâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; genius is their rich nonsense story development. If I had to guess, I would say these boys are a product of too many mindaltered nights spent listening to Zappaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Only in It for The Money on a loop. However, there is so much more meat on this bone; SurďŹ ng is not a collection of silly songs but an exploration in humor and a pretty goddamned magniďŹ cent one at that. Top tracks on this masterpiece include, but are not limited to, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Duck People, Duck Manâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gun on His Hip and a Rose on His Chest.â&#x20AC;?

(ADA/VAPOR) - Jack Gregory

FEBRUARY 2009 â&#x20AC;˘ REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE â&#x20AC;˘ PAGE 39

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SOAPBOX MUSIC REVIEWS ISSUE 33

GIL MANTERA’S PARTY DREAM DREAMSCAPE

Saying that this is the Party Dream’s most listenable album to date really isn’t saying much at all – the group is built around the anything-goes absurdity of its live shows, after all, and the CDs have always been little more than trinkets to sell along the way, tide fans over between trips to town and help them remember the absolutely weird and wonderful time they had the last time the Party Dream hit a local venue. But here, a slicker and more well thought-out version of the band’s retro synth-pop actually stands on its own, showcasing both stronger writing chops and edgy undertones of dreamy contemporary acts such as Secret Machines (not to mention some serious gay-club energy). Tracks like “Get Sirius,” the lengthy, hypnotic “Eyes of Blue” and infectious single “Waking Vision” aren’t breathtakingly original, but they do entertain on their own merits, even without the onstage hijinks. People might just find themselves putting Dreamscape on repeatedly at home, and not even pining for a wack-o live stage show as it plays.

(PSYCHIC DOG) - Colin Kincaid

+/-

XS ON THEIR EYES There must be some good genes in the Baluyut family pool. James Baluyut, singer/ guitarist for +/-, was also in Versus (long gone iconic indie rock gem) with his brother Richard. Xs On Their Eyes is the kind of album that I listen to and with every track I find myself thinking, ‘Ooh, this one is great,’ and then, in a blink, the last track has played and I’m eager to start it all over again. It’s pop goodness - layers of harmonies, horns, complicated beats and melodies that are so good, I’m just as satisfied to hum along and not be as concerned with learning the words as I usually am. This album, simply put, is fantastic.

(ABSOLUTELY KOSHER) - Susie Ulrey

NO BUNNY

LOVE VISIONS Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! More appropriately, what the fuck have my ears been assaulted with? This is the type of thing that most critics love because it’s so “avant garde,” or, my favorite, “so stupid it’s amazing.” My love of ridiculous noise and exciting new music has taken me on some strange journeys, but this, friends, has no

artistic value. It’s a fucking awful homage to the Ramones, not to mention a disgrace to everything rock ‘n’ roll stands for. The songs are the same old three chords, about love lost and a bunch of other shit that matters to nobody. This is a style of music that was amazing when barely a handful of bands did it well 30 or more years ago. No Bunny is all imitation, with none of the balls and rebellion.

I am sure that the undergarment- and rabbit mask-wearing No Bunny will revel in this terrible review of what some might call art. I, for one, hate it.

(1234 GO) - Jack Gregory

THE WHITE BITCH

THE WHITE BITCH’S PREY DRIVE Formerly Tampabased musician Michael Patrick Welch has spent the better half of a decade now reinventing himself in New Orleans as The White Bitch (a name given to him by the more outspoken young students at his teaching job), and his first full-length release under that moniker finds him immersed in an eccentric blend of funk, electronica and fuzzed-out indie-rock guitar.

Overt hooks are in short supply, but the way Welch fearlessly blends his diverse influences and affections is endlessly entertaining, assuming one can find room in one’s heart and ears for his frequent vocal excursions into upper-register falsetto. Intriguing guitar lines and glitch-hop accessorizing work best on “What Is Natural?”, “Attn. 2,” and “P.L.U.R.,” while “I Can’t Find My Way Around” stands out on the strength of its slinky, organic disco-sex vibe. As a whole, it’s a mixed bag, but Welch’s originality and earnest commitment to the material deserve repeated listens.

(SELF-TITLED) - Scott Harrell

THE BOXER REBELLION UNION

Not sure how it came to pass, but somewhere along the line, the lads from The Boxer Rebellion must have screwed over the karma police.

How else does one explain the band’s conspicuous absence in the British arena rock pantheon? Belted from the pipes of Chris Martin, each one of these well-polished, epic-chorused jewels would readily spring from the lips of preppy scenesters from London to L.A. As it stands, you’ve probably never heard of TBR, and the beacon of knowledge that is Allmusic.com doesn’t bother rating their albums. Too bad, because in the race among self-proclaimed heirs to the U2 throne, the stakes are high and the competitors are few. With competently written, none-too-engaging acoustic nuggets like “Soviets,” these guys should be at least as well positioned as, say, Snow Patrol. So in a toast to justice, here’s hoping Union makes the band undeserving world-beaters in the how-did-they-get-this-big? vein of Coldplay.

(THE BOXER REBELLION) - Robert J. Hilson

PAGE 40 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

BENJY FERREE

COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME BOBBY DEE BOBBY DEE New Pornographers’ most psyched-out fuzz-rock moments just not quite John Lennon-esque enough for you?

Ever wonder what the funnest, grittiest Beatle might release if brought back to life and given six months’ worth of New Millennium garage-pop to listen to? Methinks Benjy Ferree gets a lot closer to that than Ben Folds, Ben Lee or Ben Kweller have, or will. After a couple of eccentric, oddly moody opening tunes, Ferree settles into some marvelous guitar- and rhythm-driven fare that splits the difference between warm, weird rawness and ambitious hooks and harmonies - Electric Light Orchestra is a fairly conspicuous touchstone, though the spiky, edgy guitar and bass tones are often probably a little too dirty for Jeff Lynne’s sensibilities.

What Come Back To The Five And Dime calls to mind more than anything else is the Fab Four’s finest, most gristly “Helter Skelter” moments, as well as the occasional mellower Double Fantasy homage.

(DOMINO) - Colin Kincaid

AUSTIN LUCAS

SOMEBODY LOVES YOU This Indiana singer-songwriter caused quite a stir during last year’s acoustic Revival Tour, holding his own against betterknown frontmen from the likes of Lucero and Avail, and this full-length effort fully showcases the skills on display during Lucas’ mesmerizing live sets. While the lack of a rhythm section sometimes leads these tunes to sound deceptively similar, in truth Lucas moves fluidly between Americana, country and bluegrass, bringing his own distinct personality and liquid, mournful voice to each.

Fiddle, lap-steel and gorgeous female backing vocals come and go, making what could have been an overly maudlin outing emotionally diverse enough to enjoy all the way through.

Everything’s great, though “Singing Man,” “Shoulders,” “Precious Little Heart” and closing rave-up “Farewell” stand out as even better than simply great.

(SUBURBAN HOME) - Colin Kincaid

SARAH RABDAU & SELF-EMPLOYED ASSASSINS

SELF TITLED

There are a lot of familiar characteristics to Sarah RabDAU’s brand of quasiethereal pop/ ambient mash-up; the bio mentions esoteric acts like

This Mortal Coil, Bjork and Cocteau Twins, but the influence of far more mainstream ladies like Fiona Apple and Sarah McLachlan is just as conspicuous here, if not more so.

Not that it’s a bad thing. RabDAU’s penchant for atmospheric electronics, strings and vocal effects is nicely grounded by her melodies and classically pop-derived structures, making for a well-balanced batch of tunes that’s neither too boring nor too obtuse, but rather just right.

Sweeping dynamics, jaunty piano lines and clever choices of sound give the material a fairly original signature, while at the same time offsetting her often buzz-killing lyrics her lines are often bewildered, anguished or victimized, yet the music keeps the whole affair from becoming too much of a bummer, without sacrificing a worthy semblance of substance.

(SAY IT WITH SCISSORS) - Colin Kincaid

LATE OF THE PIER

FANTASY BLACK CHANNEL Worlds collide in Castle Donington, U.K. Devo grows up a punk band; disco hones its chops at CBGB; black leather sprouts sequins. Late of the Pier wears the side effects. A four-piece from the British Isles, the young new wave act shows off all manner of mish-mashed influences, piecing together a sound that filters the ‘80s choice bits through a laptop, distorts them to hell, and discards everything else. This cut-and-paste style makes room for swirling synths, Nintendobleep percussion, even Sabbath-lite riff-rock (“Heartbeat”), but these secondary players all feed off the band’s bread and butter: the almighty groove, which achieves a heightened state in the form of the menacing electroblast “Whitesnake.” It’s a song that unlocks imaginative, other-dimension scenarios - twosteppers take over Studio 54; The Madge learns guitar; hipsters love power chords. Like any good fantasy, the possibilities are endless.

(EMI) - Robert J. Hilson

THURSDAY

COMMON EXISTENCE Depending on your perspective, the men of New Jersey’s Thursday are either envelope-pushing posthardcore geniuses, or the spiritual godfathers of endless reams of mediocre soundalike journal-angst. Either way, however, they’ve always been both ahead of the curve and miles better than those that even now endeavor to ape their steez, and the group’s first full-length for Epitaph is as good as anything they’ve ever released. From the cacophonous get-go of “Resuscitation of a Dead Man,” the musicians, and inimitably expressive vocalist Geoff Rickly in particular, lay waste to any notions that the screamo scene has passed them by.

Mellower moments like “Time’s Arrow” and “Love Has Led Us Astray” seem much more like natural evolution than conscious attempts

MUSIC REVIEWS SOAPBOX ISSUE 33

at crossover appeal, and at its gnashing best, as in “Unintended Long Term Effects” and “Subway Funeral,” Common Existence conjures the kind of muscular, yearning chaos that only At The Drive-In - and Thursday, of course - ever seemed capable of carrying off.

(EPITAPH) - Scott Harrell

WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE

ANIMALS IN THE DARK “Well it’s a goddamned shame what’s going down/ how we got to this I don’t now,” wails William Elliott Whitmore in the first five seconds of his fourth proper full-length - and first for cred- and iconoclastheavy label ANTI- - and the listener feels every ounce of lament the statement is meant to convey. That’s nothing new; Whitmore has always been a movingly expressive singer (hell, he may be the most soulful Caucasian male vocalist currently making music). Even when he breaks into a “we don’t need no water/let the motherfucker burn” refrain in opener “Mutiny,” it’s serious and mournful and beautiful. What makes Animals In The Dark his best effort to date isn’t Whitmore’s excellent singing, it’s what he’s singing, and what he’s singing over. Here, he often wanders beyond his safe home base of guitar and banjo folk familiarity, to glorious full-band arrangements and tunes, like the standout “There’s Hope For You,” that occasionally approach full-on Muscle Shoals-style soul. Yet he never sacrifices that gospel/slave-song/ Southern gothic vibe that sounds as old and well-used as the dirt of his Iowa farm.

(ANTI-) - Scott Harrell

GLASVEGAS GLASVEGAS

Glasvegas takes its name from hometown Glasgow and Sin City, USA, which means that the Scottish quartet has an uncanny knack for haphazardly conjoining words and musical trends. To the surprise of no one, the NME crowd has anointed these Clash lookalikes London’s latest and greatest craze du jour as This Month’s Beatles manage a sound that pillages from most every English musical movement of the last 30-odd years. Shoegaze grandeur?

Check. Ringing Edge-styled guitars? Check.

The Smiths’ melodrama? Oh yeah, it’s there, most shamelessly in the form of “Lonesome Swan,” a hackneyed rip of “I Know It’s Over” with a guitar line set to the latter song’s “why are you alone tonight?” melody. Particularly grotesque is the Joe Strummer knock-off “Stabbed” that repeats ad nauseam, “I’m gonna get stabbed.” To quote Akadafuzz of YouTube text comment fame: “sooner rather than later please!” Great pun, Fuzz - easy and obvious, in keeping with the theme.

(COLUMBIA) - Robert J. Hilson

41

JOEY CAPE BRIDGE

When you think of Joey Cape, he of Lagwagon, Bad Astronaut and Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies fame, the word “melancholy” probably doesn’t pop into your head. But with Bridge, Cape has delivered a set of 12 acoustic songs with a voice more powerful and melodic without a band behind it. “Canoe” has a slight Spanish guitar feel with low keyboards in the background, giving it the feel it should be playing during the end credits of an Oscar-worthy film. The final track, “Home,” does something a little different by becoming plugged-in and finishing the record on an upbeat note. “The Ramones Are Dead,” however, is the standout track, lamenting how the digital industry has taken the fun out of going out and discovering new bands and rare records. While five of these songs were included on Lagwagon’s last release, I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon, it seems appropriate they were included here. After all, they were written acoustically prior to being brought to the band, so it’s interesting to hear them in their original form. Completists can think of them as extremely polished demos or super-hidden tracks, but either way, it’s worth a listen.

(SUBURBAN HOME) - Timothy Asher

VARIOUS ARTISTS

THE ROOTS OF HIP HOP No insanely killer breakbeats. No dirty blaxploitation funk.

No ahead-of-its-time Herbie Hancock.

Nope, this latest in a fairly long line of comps attempting to establish lines of connection between hip-hop and the blackmusic styles that came before it reaches way back, to the swaggering country, Delta blues and proto-jazz of the 1930s through the ‘50s. At 26 tracks, this release is an engaging listen, and offers an interesting cross-section of African-American sounds from eras that generally don’t get their due among contemporary listeners. Aside from the philosophical and situational similarities - and one entertaining spoken word piece by the largely forgotten ButterBean - however, rap fans are going to find little here that links in any tangible way with the last quarter-century of urban music. Sure, these tunes were made by oppressed groups of people, under the radar, as a way to both describe and escape from their environments. And, of course, white folks found a way to make money from them. But sonically and stylistically speaking, it’s quite a stretch to relate the actual music showcased here to hip-hop.

(HARTE) - Scott Harrell

MORE REVIEWS AT REAXMUSIC.COM

www.mojotampa.com | 813.971.9717

2558 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa

Located next to the University Mall, in the S.T. Mikael: In Harmony same plaza as Sounds Chipotle Mexican Grill & Quiznos Subliminal

Heavily mind bending album. After an eleven year silence, this second myspace.com/mojobooksandmusic volume of tunes, recorded with members of Dungen, marks the return of the mysterious and legendary Swedish psychedelic multi instrumentalist. Loud.

Very loud. Prepare for tales of mythical beasts, the treasures inside sunbeams, galactic pilgrimages, archaic amulets, and mushroom cults.

William Seward Burroughs: Break Through in Grey Room Sub Rosa Records Mid 1960s cut up tape machine recordings. Fifteen tracks. Monologues from the familiar sonorous gravel voice performed in various places, in London, Paris, Tangier, hoped to, as he said, “let the future leak out.” Also included, some Joujouka music recorded by Burroughs in 1973 while he was with Ornette Coleman in the hills of Morocco.

Captain Beefheart: Dustsucker Ozit Records Hear the Captain’s own unreleased tapes of Bat Chain Puller studio sessions from 1976, before he rerecorded most for the Shiny Beast album two years later. Includes seven bonus tracks. Green vinyl!

Sonic Youth: Dirty Box Goofin Records Back in Stock! Four LPs. Thirty five tracks: the original fifteen off the 1992 release, plus twenty unreleased songs of b sides, demos, covers, and outtakes. And as the opening chords of ‘100%’ grasps your attention, try to meditate on where the summer of 1992 ranks in your personal hierarchy of summers, during the final months of Bush One’s presidency.

The Groundhogs: Scratching the Surface & Blues Obituary Sundazed Records Often forgotten late 1960s British garage blues band finally receives the long deserved reissue treatment with the rerelease of their first two albums. This is unlike their early 70s power trio days; these two albums, more in common with Butterfield Blues Band, contain longer tracks designed to capture the desperation tunes of John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Williams, and the Bihari Bros.

www.mojotampa.com | 813.971.9717

2558 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa

Located next to the University Mall, in the same plaza as Chipotle Mexican Grill & Quiznos

myspace.com/mojobooksandmusic

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SOAPBOX VIDEO GAME REVIEW ISSUE 33

GAME REVIEW SKATE 2:

GLEAMING THE NOOB

T

ony Hawk has long been synonymous with yearly skateboard video game exploits. And until EA Black Box’s Skate ollied onto retail shelves in 2007, there was really no competition.

Now, it seems, with the Birdman taking the year off to regroup, Skate is the new king of the half-pipe and slayer of virtual shredders’ thumbs.

aim is to subject your skater to really painful bails - will all keep you busy for a while.

The most obvious - and perhaps the most welcome - new addition to Skate 2 (besides skitching a la Michael J. Fox!) is the fact that your board is no longer attached to your feet. The controls once on foot are pretty wonky, and you won’t use it that often, but it comes in handy when climbing Skate 2 begins with your character being up a flight of stairs or getting yourself out of released from prison for … being too gnarly an annoying spot. While on foot, you can or something - it’s not important. While also move objects around, like ramps or you’ve been inside, San Vanelona has rails, to make custom spots which you can changed. Mongocorp has rebuilt the once then upload to EA Nation for the world to skater-friendly metropolis, and turned it into play. You can also download your friends’ a “No Skating” zone. Now this doesn’t mean or other players’ created spots and try to that there’s no place to skate, it just means beat their scores for some sweet bragging that there are many security douches to try rights. Along with some great multiplayer, and stop you. this “Create-a-Spot” feature really adds replayability to San Van with a seemingly After trying hard to make your avatar look limitless number of self-realized creations. like you in the character editor, you realize that you can’t and move on to Slappy’s Ignoring the awful soundtrack, Skate 2 is Skate Park. There, you’ll reunite with some hands-down the best skating game ever old friends from the first game and get made. Building off of the momentum from some leads for your new mission. And your the first game, the Skate franchise shows mission is: to take back the city and make no signs of slowing down. That said, I wish it a safe haven for skaters by doing tricks it would slow down just a little bit. It’s no and straight-up shredding (an epic quest, I surprise that EA loves yearly exploits, but know). more time in development would have fixed some of the game’s technical problems, During your campaign, you’ll meet many and made a big difference. Where it stands, top pros to skate with, and start gaining Skate 2 should have been called Skate back your street-cred. Get coverage, earn Addendum. With few innovations and only sponsorships, own challenges and enter marginal refinement, the world may have contests ranging in difficulty from easy to been content to wait another year for a true agonizing. The challenges are basically the sequel. same as the first game, with some new stuff REVIEWED ON XBOX 360 sprinkled in for good measure. Events like Own the Spot, S.K.A.T.E., Jam, Death Race - Trevor Roppolo and the new, silly Hall of Meat - where the

PAGE 42 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

HANDS ON PRODUCT REVIEW SOAPBOX ISSUE 33

43

A half-hour into a good binge on this booze, you will wonder how Janis Joplin could have been done in by it ... “this is harmless, it tastes too sweet,” you think to yourself. Eight hours later, you know exactly why and how she exited stage left. So basically what I am saying is never again. wildturkeybourbon.com Despite popular beliefs, Jimmy Page used a Telecaster guitar and a Supro amp to record the majority of Led Zeppelin I. And despite these vintage Chicago instrument amps’ historical significance and collector’s value, not many new design spins have been based off of them, in contrast to the endless copies of Fender and Marshall’s ‘60s amp designs. The Model 24, made by independent designer and amp builder Ken Watts via his Watts Tube Audio company, is a nod to the traditional tight and rocking sound of the original Supro design using 6973 tubes, but in reality takes the original amp and goes further in cleaning up the design. With a single 12” speaker it’s loud enough to gig with and offers enough versatility to record with. A must for anyone that is searching for a unique guitar tone that is at once vintage and new at the same time. Order it as a kit and D.I.Y. or order it completely built. wattstubeaudio.com

Hand-built is seemingly the way to go again. The new guitar effects pedals by HAO are no exception. The Sole Pressure pedal was designed by Japanese electrical engineer and vintage-gear buff Toshi Torii to copy the distortion sound of the legendary tweed 1959 Fender Bassman amp on the verge of meltdown. An original ‘59 Bassman can fetch as much as $8,000. This pedal succeeds in spades; no matter how you turn the knobs, it sounds amazing. This is a step above boutique, and at a very reasonable price.

Product tested at the Green Shift Music Store greenshiftmusic.com

With a high-dollar price tag usually hover-ing around $200 and a store and image that just seems to try a little too hard, Lucky Jeans redeem themselves by being MADE IN USA. Shouldn’t it be illegal for blue jeans to NOT be made in the USA? Isn’t there a saying like “as American as blue jeans and apple pie”? Maybe I have a soft spot in my heart for these jeans, given that the first time that I saw the embroidered “Lucky You” tag that they hide between the button fly and the inside of the jean was during high school when I was a young and impressionable sophomore, and she was a cigarette-smoking punk rock-loving senior. I took the tag as a sign. Lucky me indeed.

Sometimes I think that I have the most enviable position at REAX. I get to try out things that either help rock ‘n’ roll happen, or end the lives of rock ‘n’ rollers and come out of it always relatively unscathed. Unfortunately that is not the case with the Triumph T-100. The gentleman at the Triumph dealership would not let me ride it. I asked him why not and he asked for my motorcycle license. I told him it was in the mail. So he made me a deal. I could start it.

Sit on it. Putter around the lot in first on it. I said deal. And in all truth, if I had test ridden it, I probably would not be alive, or in any condition to write this, because I would have made it go fast enough to explode. This motorcycle begs to be ridden hard. At the end of the 1960s the Bonneville was the fastest motorcycle, and the new versions at, 865cc, easily do the ‘ton’ of 100mph. And while all the Japanese sport bikes have in the recent years easily surpassed this modern classic on the race track, nothing I have seen looks quite as good as the Triumph T-100. It whispers in your ear of your own impending doom like the siren to the sailor. I thanked the guy for his common sense at potentially saving my life when I handed him back the keys. triumph.co.uk/

luckybrand.com

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 43

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YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY

HOTSPOTS: VENUES/BARS ARTPOOL A unique take on the gallery space that

JANNUS LANDING Consistently voted one of the best places

includes a boutique along with regular shows and events with which the entire community can get involved.

919 1st Ave. N., St. Petersburg artpoolrules.com

in the Bay area to see a show, it’s an open-air concert hall housed within an historic city block.

16 2nd St. N., St. Petersburg jannuslandingconcerts.com

THE BRASS MUG Where just about every band in town cut

KELLY’S PUB A comparatively new hangout that helps

its teeth, this North Tampa strip-mall bar is near USF, and specializes in punk and metal.

1441 E. Fletcher Ave. #101, Tampa myspace.com/brassmug

CROWBAR A live room with excellent sound and a

fully stocked beer garden stand out amid Ybor’s dance clubs and hipster retail, attracting everything from well-known touring indie-rock acts to local metal legends.

1812 N. 17th St., Ybor crowbarlive.com

CZAR Home to some of the best parties of

2008, CZAR’s three rooms of goodness have a lot to offer music and vodka lovers alike. PULP on Friday night is a must, see hipsters dance the night away in style. Don’t forget the ice shots!

1420 E. 70th Ave., Tampa czarybor.com

EMERALD BAR Cross the bay to St. Pete and visit the

local music scene’s favorite dive, where original art adorns the walls and any sort of band or DJ imaginable might take the non-stage.

550 Central Ave., St. Petersburg myspace.com/emeraldbar

FUMA BELLA The smallest bar in America, so it

has been said by the locals. Friendly bartenders that know how to make a damn good drink. This place is perfect for a small group who wants to sit and chat, or someone traveling solo who wants to meet some legitimately cool Tampa folk.

1318 E Eighth Ave., Tampa 813-248-6130

THE GARAGE Formerly heavy on the metal and

industrial, this medium-sized venue is gaining new respect amid the scene for everything from movie nights to a wider variety of shows and its Skateboard Industry Night parties.

662 Central Ave., St. Petersburg myspace.com/garagepromotions

GASPAR’S GROTTO Gaspar’s is for the everyday pirate

looking for a good time. You can find live music, food, and tons of booty.

1805 E. 7th Ave., Tampa gasparsgrotto.com

legendary Tampa bar The Hub keep downtown Tampa happening after dark.

206 N. Morgan St., Tampa myspace.com/kellyspubtampa

NEW WORLD BREWERY A killer beer selection and eclectic,

culture-friendly musical slate make this Ybor City bar-and-patio a local-scene favorite.

1313 E. 8th Ave., Ybor myspace.com/newworldbrewery

ORPHEUM A long-running favorite for national and

local indie shows, as well as hipster-filled dance nights.

1902 Ave. Republica De Cuba, Ybor 813-248-9500

THE PEGASUS LOUNGE Another close-to-USF live-music watering hole that often caters to heavier sounds.

10008 N. 30th St., Tampa pegasusniteclub.com

RESERVOIR BAR The Finest Hole-in-the-Wall in Town!

1518 E. 7th Ave., Ybor resbar.com

THE RITZ The venue formerly known as The

Masquerade (and before that, er, The Ritz) is back in action. Live music is only part of what’s going on there these days.

1503 Seventh Ave., Ybor theritzybor.com

THE STATE THEATRE A longtime tour stop for rising punk, rock

and alt-country bands, you can catch acts as disparate as Shooter Jennings and The Hush Sound in this converted movie palace.

687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg statetheatreconcerts.com

TRANSITIONS ART GALLERY It’s the SPoT’s edgy, all-ages-friendly exhibition/performance space.

4215 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa transitionsartgallery.com

UPTOWN BAR Amiable little dive that features an

always-eclectic lineup of local shows, from DJs to hardcore.

658 Central Ave., St. Petersburg 727-463-0567

PAGE 44 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL ALL PRO PERCUSSION Everything from wood blocks to the new

Roland V-Drum electric kits, without the annoying 8th-graders butchering Avenged Sevenfold over in the guitar section.

10101 E. Adamo Dr., Tampa 813-341-DRUM allpropercussion.com

MOJO BOOKS & MUSIC This place has it all when it comes to music retail. Used CDs and Vinyl of course, but don’t forget about the huge selection of used books. Located in the heart of USF country. Hit it up son.

2558 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa 813-971-9717 mojotampa.com

SEMINOLE MUSIC & SOUND Another one of the few music-gear

independents still in operation. And they’ve been at it for 25 years.

10720 74th Ave. N., Suite F, Seminole 727-391-3892 seminolemusic.com

STEVIE B’S TOTAL GUITAR Let’s just say they know their shit, from vintage instruments to the latest tech.

650 Central Ave., St. Petersburg 727-822-3304 30111 U.S. HWY 19 N., Clearwater 727-785-9106

VINYL FEVER Again, there are plenty of great indie record/ CD shops in the area, but Vinyl Fever has been the gold standard for years.

4110 Henderson Blvd., Tampa 813-289-8399 vinylfevertampa.com

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE MOSI ATOMIC TATTOOS (Museum of Science & Industry) There are, seriously, too many great tattoo shops (including Monique’s and Mean Machine, to name a couple more) and artists in the area to list, but Atomic has long been reputable in the area, and has locations in just about every Tampa Bay neighborhood, so there you go. atomictattoos.com

Interesting, out-of-the-box kind of stuff like experiencing what 74 mph hurricane force winds feel like, or flying a virtual reality fighter jet. Check the website for exhibit info. MOSI also has an IMAX Dome theatre.

4801 E. Fowler Ave.Tampa, Florida 813-987-6100 mosi.org

BENTLEY SALON RED LETTER 1 Redken-authorized, forward-thinking salon RedLetter1 is a flash-free, 100% custom that emphasizes education for aspiring stylists.

3228 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa 813-877-9801 myspace.com/bentleysalon

CANOE ESCAPE, INC. Not really feeling all of the hustle and

bustle? Forget about traffic and drunk football fans for a moment and think about canoeing or kayaking down the Hillsborough River - but you need to reserve your spot early so call in advance. Oh, and yes you will see alligators. Have fun kids!

9335 E. Fowler Ave., Thonotosassa 813-986-2067 canoeescape.com

FLYING FISH BIKES A full-service shop for both recreational and serious riders.

2409 S. MacDill Ave., Tampa 813-839-0410

MAD PADDLERS KAYAK & SURF SHOP

Equipment and lessons for beginners and die-hards alike.

8808 Rocky Creek Dr., Tampa 813-243-5737 ospreybay.com

tattoo studio and art gallery located in historic Ybor City. Tattoos are currently made by Lucky Mathews, Jeff Srsic, Angelo Nales and Phil Holt. Hours are noon to 7, Tuesday through Saturday...other hours available by appointment only.

1818 N 15th Street. Ybor City 813-241-2435

SHARP HAIR Think you can’t get a hip coif north of

Central Avenue or, um, west of SoHo? Think again.

3701 State Road 580, Suite G, Oldsmar 813-855-2422

SKATEPARK OF TAMPA The legendary home of the Tampa Pro and Am comps.

4215 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa 813-382-3477 skateparkoftampa.com

WATTS TUBE AUDIO Musicians, stereo hobbyists and do-it-

yourself amplifier builders will all find something interesting.

2323 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N., St. Petersburg wattstubeaudio.com

A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT NERVOUS TURKEY

FATBOY LIKES TO ROLL (SELF RELEASED)

NERVOUS TURKEY SCARED OF NOTHIN’ Words: Shawn Kyle

B

y 2001, Ernie Locke was done. He left Kansas City, short on the heels of his band Tenderloin dissolving after their last record on Warner Bros., where they went all out to try and break through.

“We literally had a meeting with these guys, and asked them what they wanted from us,” he says. “They just looked at us and said, ‘we want a hit!’”

After an album recorded at Willie Nelson’s personal studio, followed by the breakup of his band, Locke met his future wife, and found a change of scenery appropriate.

He spent his first days in Florida tending to a herd of cattle on her family’s ranch. A longtime chef, he returned to cooking, and is even now in the final build-out stages of opening a folk art gourmet restaurant in the Seminole Heights district of Tampa. But music never lets a true musician give up, and gradually he started prowling the jam circuit, sitting in with various blues jams and bands that would have him.

piece with the larger-than-life Locke on his furious sounding harmonica or his ‘50s Les Paul Gold Top, backed by young-yetveteran drummer Aaron Fowler and Mark Cunningham on vintage Fender Rhodes electric piano and Hammond bass organ.

They could possibly be the best live band in the southeast, but Locke would never tell you this. He is warm and polite, and almost self-deprecating in his modesty despite his hefty resume, hefty build and an undeniable stage presence that has found him hanging out with the Ramones, playing with Willie Nelson, and touring with Wayne Kramer of The MC5.

scene in Kansas City. Shortly after, he and his band at the time were getting nods from Steve Albini in the press and opening for Bad Brains. He saw Sonic Youth in a barn of a room with about four people in it. Rock and roll changed his life.

It’s early afternoon, crisp and overcast, and we are riding in his blue lowered ‘49 Ford coupe. When we pull into the parking lot of a Tampa inner-city Spanish café, it drags the ground and attracts the attention of a few police officers picking the food from their teeth in the lot. Ernie smiles at their questions about the old car, tattoos visible on his arms.

“I literally wept when they came onstage,” he remembers. “Here are these little Australian fellows, rocking their lives out like no one else ever could. It reminded me again that rock and roll was not dead.”

“Low and slow is how I like ‘em,” he says.

By October 2006, he was fronting a new group called Nervous Turkey. It’s a three-

In 1983 he got involved with the punk

“Rock and roll is very powerful,” Locke says. “Around 1999, 2000 is when my old band fell apart, and the record labels were on the cusp of falling apart. I thought rock and roll was dead.”

And then, almost on a whim, he attended an AC/DC show in 2002.

And now he has Nervous Turkey, with Locke’s Howling Wolf-haunted vocals, world class harmonica playing, and one of the tightest rhythm sections around, hammering down the rhythm of countless soul and R&B 45s. They started modestly enough, playing seedy dives down by the

Former frontman for Warner Bros. recording artists Tenderloin, Ernie Locke leads his new group Nervous Turkey with Howling Wolf-haunted vocals, vicious harmonica playing and snarling lyrics. Traditional R&B tracks like “Rumble” and “Sittin’ on Top of The World” are mixed in with mean and burning originals such as the pulsating and hammond organdriven “Too Late for Romance.” This may very well be the best live trio in the southeast, with young but veteran drummer Aaron Fowler and Hammond/Fender Rhodes player Mark Cunningham providing as much solidarity as Booker T and The MG’s rhythm section did. Often though in the process of recording, inexperienced producers can shave all the hair off of a great live band, and that is what apparently happened here, presenting the group a bit too clean-cut to match their live ferocity. Worth the listen, but also worth looking forward to a live album and their next tour. - Shawn Kyle port and dangerous rural redneck bars, and gradually worked their way into the club circuit. The live shows kept exploding; now, the group is slated to perform at the annual International Blues Competition on Memphis’ legendary Beale Street.

“I’ve earned a lot, but I’m also really lucky,” says Locke. “And I am not sorry for a single show or performance that I have ever been a part of.”

Nervous Turkey play the Clearwater Sea Blues Fest at Coachman Park on February 21.

MYSPACE.COM/NERVOUSTURKEYBAND

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YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY ISSUE 33

HOTSPOTS: EATS AGUILA SANDWICH SHOP We’re not gonna get into any beefs by calling it the best Cuban sandwich in town - but it might be the best Cuban sandwich in town.

3200 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa 813-876-4022

BURRITO BOARDER Healthy burritos, fish tacos and other Cali-Mex fusionables with a skaterfriendly vibe.

17 3rd St. North, St. Petersburg 727-209-0202

CAPPY’S PIZZA Arguably the best pizza on either side of

the bay. Casual, and as cheap as a lot of the delivery chains to boot.

4910 N. Florida Ave., Tampa 813-238-1516 3200 W. Bay to Bay Blvd., Tampa 813-835-0785 2900 1st Ave. N., St. Petersburg 727-321-3020

COLUMBIA RESTAURANT Traditional Cuban cuisine surrounded by

impressive historical atmosphere. This is the original location of this FL staple, founded in 1904, and just the building alone is reason enough to visit. Watch out for high dinner prices, unless you really want to see the Flamenco dancers (wink wink).

2117 East 7th Ave., Ybor 813-248-4961

DAVE’S Where the St. Pete scene meets the

morning after for big, cheap breakfasts.

Cash only.

2339 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N., St. Petersburg 727-895-6057

ELWeird, TACONAZO (TACO BUS) mostly lunch-only hours, but indisputably awesome cheap and authentic eats.

913 E. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa 813-232-5889

FRANKIES Started in Connecticut in 1933, these

are some pretty swell cheeseburgers and dogs - think old fashioned fast food.

Some of the fried delectables include onion rings, sweet potato fries and fried cauliflower or broccoli.

909 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa (813) 425-3647

GRASSROOT ORGANIC Reviewers call its vegan- and vegetarianfriendly menu “creative” and “tasty.”

2702 N. Florida Ave., Tampa 813-221-7668

LA CREPERIA CAFE A menu that boasts perfect options for

breakfast, lunch or dinner. Best known for their extensive list of crepes of which you may want to consider something on the sweet side with nutella and a rich cup of european coffee. Bonjour!

1729 E. 7th Ave., Ybor 813-248-9700

MELLOW MUSHROOM One of the most heavily praised pizza

chains in existence anywhere. And did we mention the plethora of awesome beers?

11955 Sheldon Road, Tampa 813-926-3600 10959 Causeway Blvd., Brandon 813-685-1122

NICKO’S The last classic steel-exterior diner in the area, with the classic eclectic breakfast, lunch and dinner menu to match 4603 N. Florida Ave., Tampa 813-234-9301

SMOKE BARBECUE AND GRILL Some of the best ribs in Tampa and the

side dishes to along with ‘em. Do not leave without trying the mac ‘n’ cheese.

901 W. Platt St., Tampa 813-254-7070

HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES IFThis&hipONLY IF St. Pete boutique has some cool/

quirky/vintage fashions, particularly for the ladies.

4336 4th St. N., St. Petersburg 727-528-9490

SUNSHINE THRIFT You can generally always find something

cool here, even when the other thrifts in the area are picked clean.

4304 S. Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa 813-831-4377

SQUARESVILLE URBAN OUTFITTERS A longtime local favorite for vintage clothes, You know the deal. not to mention kitschy home furnishings.

508 S. Howard Ave., Tampa 813-259-9944

1600 E. 8th Ave., Centro Ybor, Ybor 813-242-8472 urbanoutfitters.com

PAGE 46 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

ALBUM SPOTLIGHT ROPPONGI’S ACE INTO THE NIGHT (SELF RELEASED)

Southern rock without being country, Americana without being old, and rock and roll without being a knockoff of the 1950s, the new record from Roppongi’s Ace is an excellent release. Loose and raucous tracks run in and out of the nine memorable songs on this disc, and takes like “MULINAX!” and “Can’t Take it With You” sound barely rehearsed, recorded live, twangy and by the seat of the pants with instrumental jams included. With what seems to be no regard to making it “short enough for radio play,” this kind of attitude is missing in what so many people are still calling Americana music. Luckily, singer/guitarist Alex Spoto and drummer Max Norton are either too young to know the Nashville standards, or too high on loud guitars and pounding drums to care. For this, we are glad.

- Shawn Kyle

ALBUM SPOTLIGHT SELECT START <3 (SELF RELEASED)

Select Start has at long last grown into their own neon Nike high-tops. This Tampa-bred synth-pop band, known for their bouncy tween-filled shows, recently released this syrupy gem of an EP. While their previous efforts have been solid but uninspired, <3 manages to capture and embody the youthful exuberance that is vital to the genre, while incorporating enough maturity to structure some fantastic pop songs. Standout track “A Playlist Killed the Mixtape” is a perfectly crafted tale of lost love that manages to tear at your heartstrings while making your ass shake uncontrollably. While there are traces of bands like Panic at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Hellogoodbye (thanks to some nifty AutoTune use) in some of their music, Select Start manages to create something all their own. If you’ve ever lost someone, wanted someone or just wanted to dance with someone you will connect with <3. Highly recommended. - Scott Jenson

ALBUM SPOTLIGHT THE

HIP ABDUCTION

MOVE (SELF RELEASED)

What if Dave Matthews Band was a genuine musical endeavor? Well, they’re not, and for that reason they should probably take a page from Florida’s The Hip Abduction. Tropicalia and jazz influences mingle with energetic drumming and quick-witted local references that make The Hip Abduction all the more enjoyable.

It’s very easy for bands who attempt to replicate the much-pretended but rarely achieved “world” sound to fall into unlistenable cacophony, but The Hip Abduction successfully avoids that danger. Though billed as highly influenced by global music, The Hip Abduction’s Move is most definitively Caribbean in its flavor and tempos. The band’s name indicates the desire and tendency of the music to get you grooving, and it’s something that’s hard to resist. Check them and their newest album out. - Chris Gaughan

A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

TAMPA BAY EVENTS FRI FEBRUARY 06 Agnostic Front, The Mongoloids State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $13/15 Time: 7 p.m.

Dukes of Hillsborough, VaginaSore Jr., Porch Fire Emerald Bar, St. Petersburg Cost: $3 Time: 10 p.m.

Dread Clampett Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $7/10 Time: 8 p.m.

Earth Bombs Mars Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Mehkago NT, Swallowed Up, Learn Nothing, Big Rats, Helldistort Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m.

Outbreak, 2 Face, The Ruthless Design, Suggestion Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Paleface, Tailgunner Joe & The Earls of Slander, Dish, Lauris Vidal & His Warm Guns New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

Perpetual Groove, eFFex Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $15 Time: 9 p.m.

Reverend Deadeye Dave’s Aqua Lounge, St. Petersburg Time: 9 p.m.

Valencia, Houston Calls, Artist vs. Poet Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $8/10 Time: 7 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 07 Cutthroat Shamrock Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

DILLAgent Evening: A Musical Benefit Feat. Laws, Eyeznpowa, Da Goldminerz Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $5 Dukes Of Hillsborough, Safety, Spirits Down, Steady State, Moose Masseuse Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m.

Foreshadow, Autumn’s Pain, The Dawn’s Early Light Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Gasparilla Party Feat. Rancid Polecats (EARLY SHOW) Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 2 p.m.

Gumbo Boogie Band Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m.

Jennifer O’Connor, Haley Bonar, Geri X New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $8 Time: 9 p.m.

Rockit To Russia (Ramones Tribute) The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $25 Time: 7 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 08 Berry Oakley Jr., Duane Betts, Electric Sunshine, 27 Miles Yeoman’s Road, Davis Islands Cost: $7/10 Time: 10 p.m.

Christopher Cross Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa Cost: $51.65 Time: 7 p.m.

Exposure Feat. 20 Original Acts State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $12/14 Time: 11 a.m.

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IEN Oblique & Sector9studios Present Lexine vs. Cellmod, DJ Brian Matson (Negative Format) Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

Together We Fall, My Heart Divine, Project Mayhem X, The Desperate, Radical Sam, Hand of Perdition Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Pat DiNizio (The Smithereens), Thrash Jazz, Autumn’s Pain, New Parallel State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $12/15 Time: 7 p.m.

WMNF Presents Caribbean Fest Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $10/13 Time: 4 p.m.

Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky, Ninety Minute Reflex, Legions, Horde Of Moloch, Promise Me Hell Brass Mug, Tampa Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

MON FEBRUARY 09 Jettison Never Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

TUE FEBRUARY 10 Foxy Shazam, The AKA’s, Dr. Manhattan Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

Megalodon Booking Presents Catelpsy, Thick As Blood, Too Pure To Die, Oceano, Weight Of The World, Strengthen What Remains Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $6/12 Time: 6 p.m.

Reckless Kelly, Sons of Bill Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $12/15 Time: 8 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 11 Millionaires, Cash Cash, I Set My Friends on Fire Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $13/15 Time: 6:30 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 12 Big Head Todd & The Monsters Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $19.99/22 Time: 7 p.m.

M.A.C. 1.0 Feat. DJ Suess, Positive Response, Stavros The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 9 p.m.

Motionless In White, My Hero Is Me, The Hottness, Of Machines, Of Angeline, Woah, 1924!

Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

Parlor Mob, BLORR New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m.

Roadside, 10th Concession, Amber Lynn Nichol, Locker Room Bullies, Chief Demographic Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

The Basiqs Album Listening Party Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m.

The Stick Martin Show Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 13 Bloody Valentine ‘80s Prom Feat. The A+ Team, Jeremy Gloff Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

Buffalo Strange, Christie Lenee, The Hip Abduction Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $8 Time: 8 p.m.

EZ Swank, The L&M Band New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m.

False Demise, Despite Distance, Kalus, Four Souls, Thrash Attack Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Gipsy Kings Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa Cost: $45 Time: 8 p.m.

The Dive Bar Stalkers, The Vodkanauts, Skull & Bone Band The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

The Muse Art/Music/BodyArt Show ARTpool, St. Petersburg Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 14 Berlin Airlift, Trenchbox, Hollowbody Hellraisers, Sop Choppy, Fetish Dancers Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Gasparilla Post-Party Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m.

Kenneth Bryan Dave’s Aqua Lounge, St. Petersburg Time: 9 p.m.

Select Start, School Boy Humor, Stages & Stereos, Inertia!

Fastest Kid Alive Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $8 Time: 6 p.m.

Six Feet Under State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $15 Time: 7 p.m.

The Georgia Satellites, The Dive Bar Stalkers Cuban Club, Ybor City Time: 8 p.m.

The Roy Sites Band Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

The Souljahs of Sublime (Marley/Sublime Tribute) The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

WMNF Presents The Blind Boys of Alabama, Gary Brown Blues Band Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $25 Time: 8 p.m.

Yonder Mountain String Band Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $19.99/25 Time: 7 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 15 Christie Lenee Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: FREE Time: 2 p.m.

Makeshift, Stereosix, Another Tragic Case, Hippodrome, First Class Liar, Together We Fall Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 18 J.D. Souther, April Smith State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $25/30 Time: 7 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 19 Down With Paul Riser & The Renegade Thugs, Mortimer Nova, Amber Lynn Nichol Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Dr. Dog, Drug Rug, Win Win Winter Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $12 Time: 9 p.m.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 47

48

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY ISSUE 33

TAMPA BAY EVENTS FRI FEBRUARY 20

SUN FEBRUARY 22

Blair Crimmins & The Hookers Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance, Moonalice Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 5 p.m.

Dubconscious Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $7/10 Time: 8 p.m.

Food Not Bombs Benefit Feat. Ghost Mice, Fatal, Criminal Culture, Deserter, Blast And The Detergents, Crows Foot Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

G Love & Special Sauce, Eric Hutchinson Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $25 Time: 7 p.m.

Graves, Blood for Lube, Actions Speak Louder, No Big Deal, Weight of the World, With Increase Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Greymarket, Palantine, Spellbinder, Lush Progress, Magic Shoppe State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $12 Time: 7 p.m.

Liverbaby, E-merge, Foreshadow, DJ Shard The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

Military Junior, Spy for Hire Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 8 p.m.

Pine Box Boys Dave’s Aqua Lounge, St. Petersburg Time: 9 p.m.

Thomas Wynn & The Believers, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Takers, Lauris Vidal & His Warm Guns, Experimental Pilot New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 21 Automatic Loveletter, A Cursive Memory, The Friday Night Boys Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $11/12 Time: 6 p.m.

Citizen Cope Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $21.50/24 Time: 8 p.m.

DJ Gabe Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Local Lockdown Feat. Deshrived, Bad Sara, Killer Without A Cause, Mail Order Brides State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

Oceana, Regret And Forgive Again, Patriarchs, The Scarlet Farewell, Set The Sights, Twisted Affliction, Aperture Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 5 p.m.

Rachel Goodrich, Pemberley, The Jean Marie, The Wedding Party New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

Subnoxiouz, Lokey, Cid Vorheez, Smite, Screaming At The Silence Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Pontiak, Kingsbury Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m.

Slightly Stoopid, The Supervillains Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $25 Time: 7 p.m.

TUE FEBRUARY 24 Freight Train Annie’s Girlie Show No. 7 Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m.

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, Poetry ‘N’ Lotion, This Is An Adventure Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $9 Time: 8 p.m.

Missy Higgins & Justin Nozuka, Lenka State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $25 Time: 7 p.m.

Signficant Records Presents A Benefit To Fight Cancer Feat. A Call To Preserve, New Bruises, Gator Bait, Ramsey, Learn Nothing, Change Of Ideas, Go Rydell, Losing Vision, Strengthen What Remains, Reveal Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 5 p.m.

The 2009 Saints And Sinners Tour Feat. Hollywood Undead, Senses Fail, Haste The Day, Brokencyde Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $20 Time: 6 p.m.

The SubCity Take Action Tour Feat. Cute Is What We Aim For, Meg & Dia, Breathe Carolina, Every Avenue, Anarbor State Theatre, ST. Petersburg Cost: $18 Time: 6:30 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 26

MON MARCH 02

Brass Bed New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

Husky Brunette Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Framing Hanley State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $12 Time: 7 p.m.

History, The Holy Slow Train, Mouse Fire New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m.

Junkie Rush, Almost Kings The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

Ludo, The Providence, Sing It Loud, This Morning Light Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $14 Time: 6 p.m.

Malcolm Holcombe Dave’s Aqua Lounge, St. Petersburg Time: 9 p.m.

Paranoia Dance Party!, Angry Banana, The Duppies, One Way Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $6 Time: 7 p.m.

Spam Allstars, The Hip Abduction, Cope Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $15 Time: 9 p.m.

The Vodkanauts, T-Blue Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

The Flat Tires, The Downshifters The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 28 Mandy Patinkin Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa Cost: $25.50 Time: 8 p.m.

One Night Stan, The Longjohns, Johnny Cakes & The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

PAGE 48 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

Jesse McCartney The Ritz, Ybor City Cost: $21 Time: 6:30 p.m.

Morrissey Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $35/39 Time: 7 p.m.

THU MARCH 05 Bad Brains, Propagandhi State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $26 Time: 7 p.m.

Badfish (Sublime Tribute) The Ritz, Ybor City Cost: $16/19 Time: 7 p.m.

Calafran, Amber Lynn Nichol Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Beyond Filth, The Greys, Apocalyptic Prophecy, The Whiteowls Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

10th Concession, Bloody Drunken Mutts, Surly Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

WED MARCH 04

Tigercity, Relo Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

SUN MARCH 01

FRI FEBRUARY 27

Lovedrug Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

Billy Joel & Elton John St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa Cost: $54.25-179.75 Time: 7:30 p.m.

WMNF Presents Loudon Wainwright III, Kathleen Edwards Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

Chief Demographic, Boon, Green Sunshine Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

TUE MARCH 03

The Subdudes Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $17/20 Time: 8 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 25

The Absence Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 8 p.m.

WMNF Presents The Sixth Annual Rockabilly Ruckus Feat. Wanda Jackson & Rosie Flores, Rocket 88, Charlie Vegas, Slip & The Spinouts, Ho Daddys Midnight Bowlers League Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $25 Time: 4 p.m.

Sarge & The Aeromen Kelly’s Pub, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Time: 7 p.m.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $10/12 Time: 7 p.m.

Wednesday 13 The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC Magazine • PAGE 49

PAGE 50 • REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2009

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC Magazine • PAGE 51

52

YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

AND A GUIDE TO ORLANDO CENTRAL FL

HOTSPOTS: VENUES/BARS THE AKA LOUNGE A nightlife chameleon, where hip-hop, funk DJs and ‘80s nights rage alongside local-band lineups.

68 East Pine St., Orlando myspace.com/akalounge

BACKBOOTH Great room and beer selection, a favorite scene hangout with an eclectic lineup of local and touring acts.

37 West Pine St., Orlando backbooth.com

BAR-B-Q BAR Not really a venue, per se, but it’s a great bar and it’s jammed between The Social and the Independent, so you’re gonna end up taking your business out in the old-school photo booth at some point.

64 N. Orange Ave., Orlando

BLACK BOX COLLECTIVE It’s like a community center for cool kids, activists, anarchists and free thinkers live music, workshops, art shows, etc.

630 W. Central Blvd., Orlando myspace.com/theblackboxcollective

CLUB FIRESTONE It’s actually a converted Firestone

building. Great club, heavy on DJ/dance stuff but hosts trendy-cool touring bands as well.

578 North Orange Ave., Orlando clubfirestone.com

THE DUNGEON Often unknown to out-of-towners, this

warehouse space caters to the extreme metal underground.

6440 North Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando myspace.com/dungeonorlando

HARD ROCK LIVE Big, stylish room where you’ll see up-andcoming nationals for the last time before

they hit arenas opening for someone even bigger, and the area’s top-drawing regional acts.

6050 Universal Blvd., Orlando hardrock.com

THE HAVEN Another Winter Park destination, this one specializing in metal and the heavier end of the alternative spectrum.

6700 Aloma Ave., Winter Park thehavenrocks.com

HOUSE OF BLUES Lots of perennially cool nationals and big local draws.

1490 East Buena Vista Dr., Orlando hob.com

INDEPENDENT BAR All sorts of hipsterific DJ and dance

nights - Wave Pop Wednesdays seem to be a particular favorite - and occasional shows in the downtown space that used to house Barbarella.

70 N. Orange Ave., Orlando independentbar.com

THE SOCIAL Pretty much Orlando’s default live indierock room, but they do more, too.

54 North Orange Ave., Orlando thesocial.org

REDLIGHT REDLIGHT

The favored killer-beer purveyor is now open at its new location.

745 Bennett Rd., Winter Park myspace.com/theredlightredlight

WILL’S PUB One of O-Town’s favorite venues/hang-

outs. The new location opened up back in November, and is already making up for lost time. Good beer, good friends and good entertainment are the house rules.

1040 N. Mills Ave., Orlando 407-898-5070 myspace.com/willspub

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL DISCOUNT MUSIC CENTER DMC continues to hold off the big-box

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HEAVEN Your place for vinyl - the round kind that

IKEA Yes, those of us over on the west coast

THE GUITAR DEN This place specializes in used and vintage

are dying of jealousy. Cheap, neat-looking furniture and a food court? It’s worth it just for the walk-around.

4092 Eastgate Dr., Orlando ikea-usa.com

guitars, amps and replacement parts. An impersonal big-box retailer it ain’t; just check out the info and disclaimers on their website, and you’ll know they’re on it.

5515 S. Orange Ave., Orlando 407-855-1333

PARK AVE. CDS They support the local scene, promote

ÜBERBOT An awesome collectible-design shop - art,

music-store chains, maybe because it’s so big its damn self.

3301 Gardenia Ave., Orlando 407-423-4171 discountmusic.com

shows and even host in-stores.

2916 Corrine Dr., Orlando 407-447-PARK UCF Student Union, Orlando 407-282-1616 parkavecds.com

BOOM-ART

BY ROGERS STUDIO Custom pop illustrations that are

GALACTIC G SKATE SHOP This downtown skate shop has been

DEVOTION TATTOOS They’ve got a love for the whole history

REDEFINE A combination art gallery/clothing boutique

simultaneously modern and nostalgic; yes, they’ll paint anything - a chair, a door, a bench, whatever.

1821 North Orange Ave., Orlando 407-895-0280 rainfall.com/crafts/boom-art/

and culture of tattooing; old-school photos and hand-painted flash by world-renowned artists are on display. Word has it Devotion is tough to beat when it comes to classic American and Asian body art.

1010 N. Mills Ave., Orlando 407-894-7888 devotiontattoos.com

204 S. Semoran Blvd., Orlando 407-306-0611 drums2go.com

DEJA VU VINTAGE CLOTHING Deja Vu Vintage Clothing

PINK HEART BOUTIQUE Recently featured in Lucky Magazine, this

THE F.I.R.S.T. SCHOOL The Florida Institute of Recording, Sound

HIPKAT This boutique carries some hard-to-find

STATIC Rock ‘n’ roll fashion covering pretty much

INTERNATIONAL FOOD CLUB A multi-lingual staff can help you peruse

Specializes in vintage looks.

1825 North Orange Ave., Orlando 407-898-3609

brands, and wholeheartedly supports local music. Check their Myspace page for deals and discounts.

Orlando Fashion Square Mall 3201 E. Colonial Dr., Orlando 407-897-7035

shop offers scads of accessories as well as image consulting.

4825 New Broad St., Orlando 407-228-6013

every inch of the territory that implies.

240 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park 407-478-1083 myspace.com/staticwinterpark

PAGE 52 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

figures, designer toys, basically Cool Geek Utopia.

480 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park 407-788-UBER uberbotonline.com

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE

DRUMS2GO Everything percussion, and indie to boot.

HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES

makes noises.

1814 North Orange Ave., Orlando 407-896-1952 rock-n-rollheaven.com

and Technology. There you go: educations in recording, film/video, digital media.

3315 Maggie Blvd., Suite 100, Orlando 407-316-8310

foods, spices and teas from around the world.

4300 L B McLeod Rd., Orlando 321-281-4300

around for nearly 12 years, and boasts one of the biggest inventories of gear and peripherals around.

334 E. Harvard St., Orlando 407-895-0410 myspace.com/galacticg

that’s a new part of the emerging arts district in downtown Orlando.

213 N. Magnolia Ave., Orlando www.myspace.com/redefineboutique

RON JON SURF SHOP Sure, the original location long ago

graduated from surf touchstone to tourist trap. But at least you know where to get stuff to send to your friends back home.

5160 International Dr., Orlando 407-481-2555 ronjons.com

VANS SKATEPARK A sick concrete bowl, along with all

the vert, mini-ramps and street-course obstacles you’d expect.

5220 International Dr., Orlando 407-351-3881 vans.com/vans/skateparks

A GUIDE TO ORLANDO & CENTRAL FLORIDA YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

ORLANDO EVENTS FRI FEBRUARY 06

THU FEBRUARY 12

Pato Banton & The Mystic Roots Band, Hor!zen, DJ Diesel The Social, Orlando Cost: $12/14 Time: 9 p.m.

Craig Greenberg, Marc Soloman, Jayson May AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

Soilwork, Darkane, Daylight Dies, Swallow The Sunlight BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $15/17 Time: 7 p.m.

The B-52’s, Rocket 88 House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $39.50-93 Time: 7:30 p.m.

The Dealers Copper Rocket, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

Words: Susie Orr • Photo: Courtesy of XOXO

X

OXO might not be the most hardcore name off the block. And the band’s music isn’t, either. But who says nice guys have to finish last?

XOXO (now pronounced “X-O-X-O,” and no longer “Hugs and Kisses” after it received a pretty harsh diss by Orlando Weekly’s music columnist Bao Le-Huu) is a rapidly rising indie-rock band out of Orlando, formed through close friends and the power of Craigslist.

With a sugary synth-pop sound and catchy melodies combined with melodic guitar and somewhat melancholy lyrics, it’s sort of an early ‘90s college alt-rock sound (not the bad kind you want to forget, like Deep Blue Something, but rather the good kind, like Blind Melon or Polaris) mixed with contemporary shades of Motion City Soundtrack and PlayRadioPlay.

XOXO performed at 2008’s edition of buzzed Gainesville festival The Fest, and have since been playing shows throughout the Central Florida area. A cover of The Thermals’ “I Might Need You to Kill” was a well-performed pleasant surprise on the band’s setlist at a recent show at Bar-BQ Bar in Orlando; despite technical difficulties at the venue, the band’s sound was refreshing in the face of dozens of local Fall Out Boy wannabes.

Lead singer and guitarist Noah Kussack moved here from Tallahassee about two years ago, and met up with old friend and current bassist Kyle Raker and guitarist Andy Matchett. They had talked about playing together previously, and decided to take action. Raker brought drummer Beau Rothman into the mix, and Kussack met keyboardist Gregg Robinson through online-classifieds clearinghouse Craigslist.

Back in Tallahassee, Kussack was previously in Slow Dance, a rock band,

and an “instrumental pop black metal band” called the Blackest Knights of the Darkest Apocalypse. He has been playing instruments for over 12 years and is the primary composer and lyricist for XOXO. “It’s a combination of classic rock from my parents, punk rock from my friends and indie rock I found on my own,” says Kussack of his influences.

Songs like “Life in General” are poppy, catchy and even fun, but the lyrics contain a more sober tone.

XOXO is currently working on an album to be released on March 17, and are planning a St. Paddy’s release show with Inkwell, Slow Claw, and One Step for Landmines at hometown club Backbooth. They’re looking for a label, and will be touring the southeast from Florida through Texas until their dates at SXSW in Austin this March. XOXO’s live shows are not the most dramatic; in fact, although they sound excellent, Kussack and the rest of the band seem to have trouble making eye contact with the audience, almost in a shy or awkward way.

However, that does not mean their live show is anything to be missed.

“We try to focus more on the music, as opposed to theatrics,” Kussack says.

For a band that’s been together less than a year, there’s a lot of promise on display, and a future that Central Florida will be watching.

“We’re still a young band trying to find themselves,” says Robinson.

Upcoming XOXO shows: February 11 - BackBooth, Orlando February 12 - TBA, Melbourne March 4 - Will’s Pub, Orlando March 12 - The Kickstand, Gainesville

Days of the New Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $13 Time: 8 p.m.

Soundvine Collective Showcase Feat. Yorgurt Smoothness, Sterling Schroeder, Intl Auxiliary, Alias Punch BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 7 p.m.

The Lee Boys, KG & The Band The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $15-25 Time: 8 p.m.

XOXO

53

SAT FEBRUARY 07 Agnostic Front, The Mongoloids, The Attack, The Angst BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $13/15 Time: 7 p.m.

Cletus Axle, Apocalypse-A-Go-Go, The Kidney Stones, Vegan Butcher Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time; 9 p.m.

Jackal and Hyde Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 10 p.m.

Streetlight Manifesto (Early Show) Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 6 p.m.

Thomas Wynn & The Believers, Matt Butcher & The Revolvers, Heather Lee, Jordan Wynn The Social, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Valencia, Houston Calls, Artist vs. Poet, Terra Terra Terra, Hitman For A Heart Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $8/10 Time: 4 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 08 Crutch & The Giant, Junshi, Basements of Florida, Death Mites BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

Reckless Kelly, Sons of Bill The Social, Orlando Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

Slacktone, The Little Debbies, The Novarays Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

MON FEBRUARY 09

FRI FEBRUARY 13 A Scissors, Algarhythm, The Future of Films in Space Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Heart-Shaped Bruises Art Opening Feat. Nyahzul, Miriam Lorenzi, The Naysayer Will’s Pub, Orlando Time: 7 p.m.

Ismael Miranda House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $32.25-45 Time: 8:30 p.m.

Kill Cancer: A Punk Rock Benefit for the American Cancer Society Feat. The Attack, Cherry Spoiler, Green Hell, Sharkteeth The Social, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Late Night Cinema, Haloe Sound Central Station, Orlando Cost: $5/7 Time: 6 p.m.

Made of Hemp, A Palace in Persia, Mindrise BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6/8 Time: 7 p.m.

The Parlor Mob, Gasoline Heart Taste, Orlando Cost: $6/7 Time: 9 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 14 Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Joan Jones (Sun 60) House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $17.25-34.50 Time: 7 p.m.

Interlaken AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

Scotty Thompson Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 10 p.m.

The Postmarks, Brookville, John Ralston The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m.

Audition Night Feat. Generation Letter, Til Monday, Alma Alta, Idol’s End The Social, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 7 p.m.

Viernes BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 7 p.m.

TUE FEBRUARY 10

SUN FEBRUARY 15

Junior Bruce, Confused Little Girl, Midas in Reverse, Ronald Raygun BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 8 p.m.

Yonder Mountain String Band The Social, Orlando Cost: $20/25 Time: 8 p.m.

Millionaires, Cash Cash, I Set My Friends on Fire, Watchout! There’s Ghosts The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 6 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 11 Gipsy Kings Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $55-75 Time: 8 p.m.

The Jeff Todd Blues Band, Till Monday AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

The Royal, X.O.X.O., Relon Dondo, Blorr BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 8 p.m.

MON FEBRUARY 16 Escape The Fate, Black Tide, Burn Halo, Attack Attack Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 6 p.m.

TUE FEBRUARY 17 Gerry Williams Band, Peter Baldwin The Social, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 10 p.m.

Monster Battle of the Bands Feat. Burning In Silence, Vanda, Without Amusia, An Intro To Sunshine, Anyone’s Guess BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 53

54

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO ORLANDO & CENTRAL FLORIDA ISSUE 33

HOTSPOTS: EATS AUSTIN’S ORGANICS Organic Fairtrade beans, a surprising

JAX 5TH AVE. DELI & ALE Most older patrons are here for the beer,

array of light and/or vegetarian-friendly fare, and regular nighttime entertainment.

929 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park

but the sandwiches are hard to beat, too.

3400 Edgewater Dr., Orlando 407-999-8934

DRUNKEN MONKEY COFFEE Emily sez “free wi-fi, homemade

LAZY MOON PIZZA Pizza by the slice. Beer. Cheap combos

soups, Panini, wraps, quiche, vegan & vegetarian available, live art on Mondays, movie night on Sunday, music movie night on Tues.” Whew 444 N. Bumby Ave., Orlando

ETHOS VEGAN KITCHEN Orlando Weekly’s Best Vegan Restaurant of ‘08 sports an insanely deep menu, including pizza and brunch offerings.

1235 N. Orange Ave., Orlando

FIDDLER’S GREEN One of Winter Park’s favorite hangouts, with traditional Irish pub fare and live entertainment to match.

544 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park

FALAFEL CAFE Inexpensive Mediterranean radness.

12140 Collegiate Way, Orlando

of beer and pizza by the slice.

12269 University Blvd., Orlando 407-658-2396

THE PITA PIT Bridges the gap between fast and healthy. Also, they’re open late.

1 South Orange Ave., Orlando 12040 Collegiate Way, Orlando

STARDUST VIDEO & COFFEE So much more than a coffee shop. Full

menu for vegetarians & carnivores alike.

1842 E. Winter Park Rd., Orlando 407-623-3393

TASTE Healthy, fusion-y California-style tapas

and sometimes live music in College Pk. 717 W. Smith St., Orlando 407-835-0646

ORLANDO EVENTS WED FEBRUARY 18 Low, Sleazy McQueen The Social, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 8 p.m.

The Dealers, The Holden Boys BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 8 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 19 Brett Lieberman, My Summer Central Station, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 10 p.m.

Freezepop, Zombies! Organize!, I Kill PXLs, Videoboy AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 8 p.m.

Poverty Branch, Rachel Goodrich, The Jean Marie, Laiza Rodriguez BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m.

Rocksteady Soundsystem, Fishdicks & Harder Sauce The Social, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 20 Automatic Loveletter, A Cursive Memory, Friday Night Boys BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10/12 Time: 7 p.m.

Citizen Cope, Alice Smith House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $22.25-37.25 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Connextions, Forty-Four Down, Coletta, Last Ditch Effort, Hannan AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

Crossbreed Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 6 p.m.

Frontiers (Journey Tribute) The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m.

FunkUS, New Gravity Copper Rocket, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

Magadog, The Brentford Sound Taste, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 10 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 21 Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, Septic Flesh Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $22 Time: 7 p.m.

Dr. Dog, Drug Rug The Social, Orlando Cost: $12/14 Time: 9 p.m.

Hand To Hand, Paper Street Soap Company BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m.

Pontiak, Khann Bleeding Rainbow, Kingsbury Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

Silence The Ceremony, Repressed Dreams, Devoured By Pestilence, Torn Between Paths The Haven, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 5 p.m.

Sister Hazel, The Miggs House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $15.25-36.50 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Slightly Stoopid, Inner Circle Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $25 Time: 8 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 22 Soldier City Legends, Doubting Benefit, Sent by Ravens, Yearling Belsin The Social, Orlando Cost: $8/10 Time: 6 p.m.

PAGE 54 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

Tesla, The Leo Project House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $23.25-66.50 Time: 6 p.m.

Thomas Wynn & The Believers, Lauris Vidal & His Warm Guns, The Takers Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

MON FEBRUARY 23 … And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Funeral Party, Midnight Masses The Social, Orlando Cost: $12/15 Time: 8 p.m.

Fujiya & Miyagi, Project Jan, Project Jenny BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

TUE FEBRUARY 24 Monster Battle of the Bands Feat. Balien Grey, Alex Baugh & The Crazy Carls, Maitland, Werewolf in Wysteria!, 22 Blaac BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

The Revelations Feat. Tre Williams, DJ BMF, DJ Slack The Social, Orlando Cost: $10/12 Time: 9 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 25 Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore The Social, Orlando Cost: $8 Time: 8 p.m.

Monster Battle of the Bands Feat. Junior Doctor, Black Ship Sky, Dubious Vango, Mirror Pal, Poverty Branch BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

The Ragbirds Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 26 Bleeding Through, The Acacia Strain, As Blood Runs Black, Impending Doom The Social, Orlando Cost: $15/17 Time: 6 p.m.

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $10/12 Time: 9 p.m.

Ludo, Sing It Loud, The Providence, The Morning Light BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $12/14 Time: 7 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 27 The Belltowers, The Empyres Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

Troma MegaCon Kickoff Party Feat. Lloyd Kaufman, Awesome & The Asskickers, Architects of Fear BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 8 p.m.

Vanda, Brass Bed Taste, Orlando Cost: $6/7 Time: 9 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 28 Hannah’s Buddies Charity Classic Feat. John Bell & Friends House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $39.50 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Spam Allstars, The Gerry Williams Band The Social, Orlando Cost: $10/12 Time: 9 p.m.

The Kevin Maines Band CD Release Party Feat. Bop Gun, Kaleigh Baker BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $8/10 Time: 7 p.m.

SUN MARCH 01 Lovedrug The Social, Orlando Cost: $10/13 Time: 7 p.m.

A GUIDE TO ORLANDO YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

55

ORLANDO EVENTS Miami Invasion Feat. Fat Joe, Rick Ross, Ace Hood, DJ Khaled, + More Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $25-50 Time: 10 p.m.

Morrissey Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $45-85 Time: 8 p.m.

TYR, Alestorm, Suidakra, Empyrean BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $15/17 Time: 6:30 p.m.

MON MARCH 02 The SubCity Take Action Tour Feat. Cute Is What We Aim For, Med & Dia, Breathe Carolina, Every Avenue, Anarbor House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $15.75-18.75 Time: 6 p.m.

TUE MARCH 03 Tigercity Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $6/8 Time: 9 p.m.

WED MARCH 04 The Apprentice, X.O.X.O., Jason Choi Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

The Whitest Kids U Know BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10/12 Time: 8 p.m.

THU MARCH 05 How Dare You, The Casting Out, Anchor Arms, Modern Day Arcade BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5/7 Time: 7 p.m.

Jesse McCartney Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $27.50-35 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Rebelution, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad The Social, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 7 p.m.

Slippery Slopes, SuperAIDS Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

A NEW LOW

W

hen they emerged from the frozen plains of Minnesota in the early ‘90s, Low quickly became the philosophical godfathers of the so-called “slowcore” movement – a delicate, hypnotic offshoot of indie rock that was likely to get you scowled at for talking too loudly at the bar. The group put out six full-lengths’ worth of artfully crafted introspective tunes before reinventing themselves for 2005’s excellent, astonishingly bombastic Sub Pop release The Great Destroyer, a CD that broke violently with Low’s past and showcased them in their new role as a band capable of mastering pretty much any color of the rock-volume spectrum upon which they set their sights.

It’s been a long while since the group made it as far south as Orlando, so this show already has longtime fans buzzing and forwarding tunes to a generation of underground-music fans that might not be as familiar with Low’s catalog. This will undoubtedly be one of those memorable shows where you see a ton of folks you haven’t in forever, as well as a truly original and talented live act.

Low and Sleazy McQueen play Orlando’s Social on Wednesday, February 18. Tickets are $15; doors are at 8 p.m. 18 & up only, please.

MYSPACE.COM/LOW FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 55

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YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

A GUIDE TO GAINESVILLE

HOTSPOTS: VENUES/BARS 1982 All-ages friendly live-music hangout.

COMMON GROUNDS G-ville’s premier punk/indie-rock club.

919 W. University Ave., Gainesville myspace.com/1982_bar

210 S.W. 2nd Ave., Ste. A, G-ville commongroundslive.com

THE ATLANTIC Cozy, eclectic bar and performance

THE KICKSTAND This altruistic endeavor - more formally

space that usually does live music four nights a week.

15 N. Main St., Gainesville myspace.com/atlanticnights

BACKSTAGE LOUNGE Formerly Eddie C’s, the Backstage

known as The Gainesville Community Bicycle Project - promotes responsible bicycle use and ownership when not hosting the shows that help raise operating funds.

722 S. Main St., Gainesville thekickstand.org

caters to more mainstream rock and alt-rock tastes than some of the area’s more indie-centric nightspots.

1315 S. Main St., Gainesville myspace.com/backstagelounge

805 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-372-4890

BODYTECH TATTOO One of Gainesville’s biggest and most

MOTHER EARTH MARKET Organic groceries, holistic supplements,

FREERIDE SURF SHOP Named after the classic wave flick.

MODERN AGE TOBACCO & GIFT SHOP Your one-stop shop for things with dancing

community-conscious body-art enterprises for a decade.

306 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-376-4090 bodytechtattoo.com

420 N.W. 13th St., Gainesville freeridesurfshop.com

and a schedule of events and lectures held right on the premises.

521 N.W. 13th St., Gainesville 352-378-5244

teddy bears on them.

1035 N.W. 76th Blvd., Gainesville 352-332-5100

HOTSPOTS: EATS

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL RECYCLED BIKES Rent and roll.

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE

HEAR AGAIN CDS AND DVDS The sign says “Gainesville’s largest home of music and movies,” and that is correct.

818 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-373-1800

DRAGONFLY SUSHI Award-winning sushi. Their website

MAUDE’S CLASSIC CAFE Opinions vary wildly, but if you want

ELWeINDIO think yelp.com commenter Kasey S.

REGGAE SHACK Yup, just what you’d expect - everything

alone looks good enough to eat.

201 SE 2nd Ave., Gainesville 352-371-3359 dragonflysushi.com

says all that needs to be said about this G-ville standby: “Burritos are good, food is cheap, sauce is a must.”

407 NW 13th St., Gainesville 352-377-5828

FLACO’S CUBAN BAKERY More of a diner than bakery. Popular with vegetarians, and drunk folks who really want a meaty sandwich after hitting the bars.

200 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-371-2000

LEONARDO’S 706 This meeting-and-eating spot is well

known for its gourmet pizzas and Sunday brunch.

706 W. University Ave., Gainesville (352) 378-2001 leonardos706.com

to see/overhear what the hippies and hipsters in town are wearing/doing, this is the place.

101 S.E. 2nd Pl., Gainesville 352-336-9646

from jerk chicken and beef patties to curry, Caribbean salads and hell-yes passion fruit smoothies.

619 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-377-5464

SAIGON LEGEND Casual atmosphere, fairly cheap Asian food. People rave about their pho, a Vietnamese soup/staple.

1228 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-374-0934

THE TOP It’s been called the best restaurant in

town. Folks are critical of the service, but the full bar seems to help. Another hot brunch spot, as well.

30 N. Main St., Gainesville 352-337-1188

HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES AMERICAN APPAREL Derf. Aside from the newly opened

Orlando store, Gainesville is the only place in Florida north of the Miami area to get all the stuff you’ve seen on all the cool kids lately.

15 S.W. 1st Ave., Gainesville 352-372-2262 americanapparel.net

GOODWILL INDUSTRIES The thrifts in most college towns are

usually pretty picked over, but this is FL unintentionally ironic t-shirt heaven.

3520 S.W. 34th St., Gainesville 352-376-9041

PAGE 56 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

PERSONA VINTAGE CLOTHING & COSTUMES This joint has a reputation for great

threads and kitschy or unusual gifts.

201 S.E. 2nd Pl., Gainesville 352-372-0455

WOLFGANG A more upscale place that carries the

kinds of designers not usually found outside of bigger cities.

1127 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352-505-8123

A GUIDE TO GAINESVILLE YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

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EVENT SPOTLIGHT

FROM THE SUITS TO THE STAGE:

THE SEVENTH ANNUAL

GRABASS CHARLESTONS

UF MUSIC LAW CONFERENCE

Words: Timothy Asher • Photo: Courtesy of No Idea Records

“I cannot think of one negative thing to say about the Gainesville, Florida music scene,” says Grabass Charlestons bassist “Replay Dave” Drobach of his band’s beloved and ever more music-scene-famous hometown.

“I will say that being out of college for ten years, there is no way I can keep up with what’s going on for people that are in town for 6 months to a year, so it’s vibrant enough that I don’t claim to know what’s going on, but everything I see gets me excited. Like I’ll see flyers for bands I’ve never heard of, go and try to find them and normally like them. It’s a tiny town but there’s enough concentration of creative people that having a lot of bands just creates and fosters and it’s still exciting.”

new song ideas,” adds Drobach. “It’s not as if we have to play the same ten songs for three years at a time. Normally half the stuff we’re playing hasn’t been recorded yet.”

Guitarist PJ (“Peej”) Fancher agrees.

“Being from Gainesville, just that alone, sometime helps people have some interest where maybe they wouldn’t if you were from somewhere else just because there’s been a lot of good bands that have come out of here in the past ten years or so.”

“We don’t really have transportation,” explains Dave. “We’re a three-piece and we’re pretty easy to get along with, so when bands go out and there’s space for three people we’re good people to take out places. The van we had did take us to California three times, but now it doesn’t want to take us to California anymore. It’ll take us out to practice, that’s about it. We don’t trust it outside the county line.”

Along with singer/drummer Will Thomas, Grabass Charlestons have been a solid part of the Gainesville scene for eight and a half years, playing fast punk with gravelly vocals and tongue-in-cheek commentary.

They’ve also been doing it old school; instead of releasing a third full-length (their last was 2005’s Ask Mark Twain), they’ve instead been putting out a slew of seveninch records and splits, getting more music out faster.

“We kind of got away from the ‘going in and recording an album thing,’” says Fancher.

“We like doing it in spurts and releasing seven-inches.”

“It also helps that Will keeps turning out

“That keeps it fun for us. A lot of people have no idea what the hell we’re playing,” says Fancher, adding, “We have a Razorcake seven-inch coming out soon with The Arrivals from Chicago. So that’s what’s recorded and we have plans, hopefully in the next month, to record another five or six songs or so.”

Sadly, with the exception of a few shows here and there, Grabass Charlestons don’t have any tours planned.

“Yeah, we tag-along a lot. You can take us on a tag-along tour,” laughs Fancher.

“Or airplanes,” quips Dave. “We’re pretty good on airplanes, too.”

Grabass Charlestons play Gainesville’s The Atlantic (February 13 & 15) and 1982 (March 5) before appearing at the Harvest of Hope Festival at St. Johns County Fairgrounds in Elkton on March 8.

MYSPACE.COM/GRABASSCHARLESTONS

Words: Shawn Kyle

T

raditionally, lawyers get a bad rap, especially in the music industry.

The fact remains, however, that music law is a necessity, and knowing the ins and outs of the industry with regard to copyrights, contracts, and licensing requires a good understanding on the parts of the musicians, and, additionally, the services of a qualified music-industry attorney. Often, all of it can be confusing, especially for someone just getting involved in performing or recording music.

The Music Law Conference at The University of Florida’s Levin College of Law is hosting its 7th annual conference on February 20 and 21. In a unique departure from the smoke and mirrors that tends to plague the music industry, the Levin College of Law makes their conference open to all of the UF student population for free, and to the general public for a $20 admission fee, which includes the “Music Showcase” (read: opening-night party) at Gainesville’s Common Grounds music venue. This year’s conference will have a different scope and presentation than previous years, in line with the changing industry itself.

“Seven years ago when the conference started, it was the height of the CD as the product of the music industry, and people had no choice but to buy them,” says Sondra Randon, the conference’s Executive Director. “Now, there is more of an emphasis on the actual talent and the live performance. Now people can listen to anything for free via digital media, legally or illegally, and now people put more

emphasis on the talent or stage presence than the CD aggregate sales.”

Because of this, there will be panels on details of D.I.Y. touring and promotion for bands, with information useful to both the beginning musician and the veteran, hosted by a diverse group of speakers and panelists from various areas of the music industry. Even the title - “From the Suits to the Stage” - has a progressive meaning.

“We developed that title because we wanted to make 2009 different from the last two years,” Randon says. “We wanted to focus on the musician, the up-andcoming musician. This will help attending musicians understand how to get through the business to where they want to go, and also to help the music business people and attorneys to get to the point of understanding the musician better. They seem like two opposing entities, but they don’t have to be.”

The conference’s live music showcase will be at the Common Grounds on Friday, February 20, and feature The Duppies, Bang Bang Boom, Vernon and guests.

The Conference is scheduled for February 21 - Saturday - in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom at the University Levin College of Law. The conference and panel discussions, which will examine the music business, will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Confirmed panelists include numerous top-level entertainment lawyers, entertainment business executives, recording industry members and others.

LAW.UFL.EDU/MUSICLAWCONF

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YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO GAINESVILLE ISSUE 33

GAINESVILLE EVENTS FRI FEBRUARY 06

FRI FEBRUARY 13

Goldylocks, Stryke Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Kevin Batchelor & Cedric IM Brooks (Skatalites), Micah Shalom & The Babylonians, 3rd Stone Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

Micah Shalom & The Babylonians The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Moodhosa, Ampersand, Paxico Via Mexico Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 07 Anchor Arms The Kickstand, Gainesville Chris McCarty, Big Band Radio Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m.

Freightline, Pseudo Kids, Oh Archipelago 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Liquid Limbs, Hawks, The Blackest Knights, Giuseppe The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

Rock 104 Locals Only Showcase Feat. Atom Smash, The Picture Show, Crisis in Hollywood Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

The Shoddy Beatles, Richard Love, Elephants Market St. Pub, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 08 WGOT Bake Sale/Benefit Feat. G.L.O., Waylon Thornton & The Heavy Hands, Three Legged Dawg 1982, Gainesville Time: 6 p.m.

MON FEBRUARY 09 Temporary Taboo, Forsythe Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Victory Blvd., Dang We’re On Fire, Polaroid, Bo Coker 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 11 Favored Sons, Brave Citizens Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

The Andalusians, The Deep & Holy Sea, Savages Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

The Rooze, Used Blues 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 12 Jettison Never, Full Service, Eric Throne Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

V Fest 2009 Feat. Ghost Mice, Madelaine, Cassette, Baby Teef, Chelsea Carnes 1982, Gainesville Time: 8:30 p.m.

V Fest 2009 Feat. The Ones To Blame, No More, Sweet City Action, The Tin Heart Project Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Yonder Mountain String Band The Venue, Gainesville Cost: $20

Less Than Jake The Venue, Gainesville Cost: $18 Time: 8 p.m.

Orange Sky, Kings of Awesome, Lost in Chaos, Lynch The Martyr Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

V Fest 2009 Feat. Tony Grenades, Coming Undone, Chicken Luv, Shitty Candy, Saucy Yoda 1982, Gainesville Time: 8:30 p.m.

WGOT Anniversary Party Feat. Grabass Charlestons, The Damnrights, D.P., Bean$, Sarcastic The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 14

The Manor 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

The Takers, Lauris Vidal & His Warm Guns, Thomas Wynn & The Believers Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Unknown Avenger, Chaotic Theorem, Solkry Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 20 Pilly Wete, Coming Undone, Rug Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Rachel Goodrich, The Jean Marie, The Early Twenties, Greenland Is Melting The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

Select Start, Thee Armada, The Downtown Fiction, Tyler & Zane 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

UF Music Law Conference Showcase Feat. Bang Bang Boom, Duppies, uperfish, Vernon & Danny Perez Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $5/7 Time: 9 p.m.

A Lover’s Dance Party Feat. DJ Cam The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 21

Rock 104 Locals Only Showcase Feat. Gargamel!, Last Minute Stars Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Battle!, The Young Lives, Liquid Limbs, Dead Friends, Children’s Children The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

The Second Annual Lovers’ Rock Ball Feat. Savages, Mas Amas, Terror in Tiny Town Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Dose of Reality, Collateral Damage, Alex Perrin Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

V Fest 2009 Feat. Chupaskabra, The Neighbourhood Watch 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Shemspeed’s 40 Days & 40 Nights Tour Feat. Diwon, Y-Love, Dove Carpe Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: FREE Time: 9 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 15

Squeaky, Towers of Hanoi, Giuseppe 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Averkiou 12” Release Party Feat. Towers of Hanoi, Ninja Gun, Grabass Charlestons, Laserhead, Trail The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 5 p.m.

North Central Florida Blues Jam 1982, Gainesville Time: 7 p.m.

MON FEBRUARY 16 California, The Vettes, Mother’s Anthem Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

We Were Once Soldiers, Captain Fresh, Call It Conflict 1982, Gainesville Time: 7 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 18 Big Boat, Aloud, Just A Scientist 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Fellow Project, God’s Gift to Women The Kickstand, Gainesville The Burnin’ Smyrnans, Bo Coker Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

ZOSO (Led Zeppelin Tribute) Market St. Pub, Gainesville Cost: $8/10

THU FEBRUARY 19 Secret of Vessia, Tanks in Series, Nomenclature, Trumpswig 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Slightly Stoopid, Inner Circle The Venue, Gainesville Cost: $20 Time: 8 p.m.

PAGE 58 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

SUN FEBRUARY 22 So So Glos, Scum of the Earth, La Cara Oculta The Kickstand, Gainesville

Zack Deputy Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $7/9 Time: 9 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 27 All Request ‘80s Dance Party Feat. DJ Donna The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Badge, Wait Wait, Turn Thieves, Sons of Hippies The Kickstand, Gainesville Elephants, Savages, Lindsey Mills, White Elephant Gift Exchange, The Invisible Dolphin 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Hours Eastly, The Pull Out, Juniper Spring Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 28 Mixtape Vol. II Feat. Towers of Hanoi, Cassette, Sweet City Action, White Elephant Gift Exchange The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

Rock 104 Locals Only Showcase Feat. Soulfound, East Coast Connextion Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

The Duppies, Angry Banana, 20wt 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

Whiskey & Co., Towers of Hanoi, Children’s Children Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

SUN MARCH 01 Greg Ginn & The Taylor Texas Corrugators, Jambang 1982, Gainesville Time: 6 p.m.

Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 6 p.m.

The Flying Dutchmen, Isabella 1982, Gainesville Time: 6 p.m.

MON MARCH 02

MON FEBRUARY 23

Green Eyed Stare, Temporary Taboo, Michael J. Weiss Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Automatic Love Letter, A Cursive Memory 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

Backseat Goodbye, The Ready Set, Faster Faster Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Fat History Month The Kickstand, Gainesville

TUE FEBRUARY 24 T13C!, A Dangerous Summer, The Lives of Famous Men, Camryn 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 25 Nomenclature, Sonnet to Sleep Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Say When, Call It Conflict, Murphee K, Bo Coker 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 26 Shades of Grey, Quarter The Villain Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

WED MARCH 04 Dirty Money, Lost Hands Found Fingers 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Girl Talk, Grand Buffet, Hollywood Holt The Venue, Gainesville Cost: $16 The Leeside Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

THU MARCH 05 Averkiou, Bambara, Diet Cokeheads Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m.

Grabass Charlestons, Landmines, Cheap Girls, The Failure’s Union 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Weapon of Fate, Si Senorita, The Leeside Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC Magazine • PAGE 59

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YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

A GUIDE TO NE FLORIDA

HOTSPOTS: VENUES/BARS CLUB TSI Hipsteriffic “indie disco” and venue

LANDSHARK CAFE Surf, funk, hard rock, dance nights - this

that hosts hip-hop, touring bands, art exhibitions, and cool stuff in between.

333 East Bay St., Jacksonville clubtsi.com

watering hole on A1A seems to cater to a pretty diverse, unpretentious crowd.

1738 3rd St. N., Jacksonville Beach myspace.com/landsharkcafe

FREEBIRD LIVE The area’s most well-known concert

ST. AUGUSTINE AMPHITHEATRE This large outdoor shed hosts

venue. Lots of touring acts and bigger local stuff.

200 North 1st St., Jacksonville Beach freebirdlive.com

everything from new jam and indie sounds to classic country and rock.

1340 A1A South, St. Augustine staugamphitheatre.com

JACK RABBITS Another local legend of a spot geared

STEAMWORKS PUB Very cool music-conscious bar in

toward original music, with an alwayseclectic slate featuring both local and national acts.

1528 Hendricks Ave., Jacksonville jackrabbitsonline.com

Five Points. Plus, there’s a poster on their website advertising a Sparks drink special some night, so they’re automatically in.

822 Lomax St., Jacksonville myspace.com/steamworksjax

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL CARRIBBEAN CONNECTION One-stop shopping for music-culture

peripherals - shoes, shirts, tickets, tats and more.

1034 Park St., Jacksonville 777 S. 3 rd St., Jacksonville myspace.com/carribbeanconnectionjax

GROOVE CITY RECORD SHOP One of the southeast’s biggest vinyl

stockpiles, and one of its best kept secrets.

939 University Blvd. N., Jacksonville 904-743-1900 myspace.com/groovecitydjs

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE KONA SKATEPARK Did you know Jax is home to America’s

longest-surviving skatepark? Kona’s been around since ‘77.

8739 Kona Ave., Jacksonville konaskatepark.com

NICOTINE Tobacco, accessories and eccentric giftage.

1027 Park St., Jacksonville 904-354-0009 myspace.com/nicotine5pts

HOTSPOTS: EATS BURRITO GALLERY So much more than a burrito joint -

seafood, salads, live music, full liquor.

21 East Adams St., Jacksonville 904-598-2922

MANATEE CAFE Affordable vegetarian and vegan just a few miles northwest of downtown.

525 SR 16 #106, St. Augustine 904-826-0210 manateecafe.com

HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES ANOMALY Hip Five Points clothing store specializing

in introducing indie designers to the world.

1012 Park St., Jacksonville anomalyfivepoints.com

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

WOLFGANG A stylish boutique offering affordable

name-brand fashion action for both sexes.

1038 Park St., Jacksonville myspace.com/wolfgangboutique

PAGE 60 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • FEBRUARY 2009

BLORR

Performing with SUNBEARS! February 21, 2009 @ The Pearl

JACKSONVILLE, REAX; REAX, JACKSONVILLE

A

few of the REAX crew headed up to Jacksonville a couple of weeks back to see what was up, and what was up, as it turns out was love. They loved the scene, and got love in return, and now there’s just a whole meeting-asexy-new-person love vibe going on here.

So we’re formally announcing our intent to be adopted by the creative community, and kicking off the relationship to boot, by getting together and throwing a little shindig for everybody’s social and cultural edification.

Our wonderful local friends SUNBEARS!

are teaming up with favorite Jax hip-shakin’ style purveyors Bastard Lovechild Of Rock ‘n’ Roll - that’s BLORR to you guys, right?

- for a show at The Pearl on Saturday, February 21. Two hip, groundbreaking acts inside, and the return of Hip-Hop Hell on the patio, featuring Triclops I. and Kiddyzer.

That’s just our kind of genre-obliterating thing, and we can’t wait to meet everybody and try to sleaze beers off of you, so make sure you’re there.

The Pearl is located at 1101 N. Main St. Doors open at 9; the cover is $5 for 21 & up and $10 for under 21.

ALBUM SPOTLIGHT JAY MYZTROH

M3: MYZTROH’S MUSICAL MASTERBATION

(SELF RELEASED) This Jacksonville MC and multi-instrumentalist has crafted a mixed bag of funky soul, indie hip-hop and more that blurs genre lines, and manages to create the sort of lively, chatty vibe you get at a small club while the band is just starting to set up and unself-consciously dick around. Unfortunately, that loose feel works against the CD’s first few tracks, with odd instrumental lines overshadowing Myztroh’s cool, expressive voice. Lovely piano instrumental “The Beauty in Mystery” and moody rap track “Hard Situation,” provide a turning point, and there are several other above-average tracks. Overall, M3 shows a lot of eclectic promise, but Myztroh would do well to bite the bullet and edit his generally good ideas down a bit, and spend a little more time working on final mixes.

- Scott Harrell

A GUIDE TO NE FLORIDA YOU ARE HERE ISSUE 33

61

NE FLA EVENTS FRI FEBRUARY 06 Dar Williams, Joshua Radin, Jessie Harris Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15/20 Time: 8 p.m.

Thriving Ivory Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 07 Frontiers (Journey Tribute) Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m.

Matt Still LandShark Cafe, Jacksonville Time: 10 p.m.

Reckless Kelly, Sons of Bill, Williams & Merz Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 08 Art Garfunkel & The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine Cost: $23-53 Time: 5:30 p.m.

Pato Banton & The Mystic Roots Band, Bubbly Joe, Alex Baugh & The Crazy Caris Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15/20 Time: 8 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 11 Days of the New Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $15 Time: 8 p.m.

Yonder Mountain String Band Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $20 Time: 8 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 12 The Sophomore Attempt, Go Crash Audio, That Was Something Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 7 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 13 Brantley Gilbert, Williams & Merz Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10/13 Time: 8 p.m.

Capt, EO, BLORR Club TSI, Jacksonville 9 p.m.

Low Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $13/15 Time: 8 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 20 Big Sky Balooza Feat. Big Sky (Reunion) Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

The Dirty Gringoes LandShark Cafe, Jacksonville Time: 10 p.m.

Winter Freestyle Massacre Club TSI, Jacksonville Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

SAT FEBRUARY 21 Col. Bruce Hampton Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

Ghostwitch Family Band, The Embraced Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

SUNBEARS!, BLORR, DJ Ricky, + Hip Hop Hell on the Patio w/ Triclops I. & Kiddyzer The Pearl, Jacksonville Cost: $5/10 Time: 9 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 22 Jay Nash, Greg Laswell Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/13 Time: 8 p.m.

TUE FEBRUARY 24 Automatic Love Letter, A Cursive Memory, Friday Night Boys Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/13 Time: 7 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 25 Citizen Cope Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $22/25 Time: 8 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 25 Framing Hanley Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m.

Pontiak Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

Southern Fried Funk LandShark Cafe, Jacksonville Time: 10 p.m.

FRI FEBRUARY 27

SAT FEBRUARY 14

Collie Buddz, Scholars Word Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15/20 Time: 8 p.m.

Edwin McCain Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15/20 Time: 8 p.m.

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, Tigercity Club TSI, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Life Like The Movies, Blood On The Dance Floor, Esther Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

The Fritz LandShark Cafe, Jacksonville Time: 10 p.m.

SUN FEBRUARY 15

SAT FEBRUARY 28

Kevin Batchelor & Cedric Brooks (Skatalites) LandShark Cafe, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Lovedrug, Chasing Ghosts Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

WED FEBRUARY 18

Yankee Slickers, Chroma LandShark Cafe, Jacksonville Time: 10 p.m.

Seven Nations Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

Sister Hazel, The Benjy Davis Project Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $20 Time: 8 p.m.

THU FEBRUARY 19 G Love & Special Sauce, Eric Hutchinson Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $25 Time: 8 p.m.

SUN MARCH 01 This Providence, Sing It Loud, Cash Cash, Morning Light, Hands High Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/13 Time: 8 p.m.

TUE MARCH 03 Rebelution, Giant Panda Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $12.50/15 Time: 8 p.m.

FEBRUARY 2009 • REAX MUSIC MAgAzInE • PAGE 61

thxmgmt

www.thxmgmtlive.com

upcomingevents

2.12.09

* The Basiqs (Listening Party) w/ D’Visitors

9pm | $10 | 18&Up

@ Crowbar

1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

february&march ‘09

2.20.09

3.07.08

Have Gun, Will Travel, The Takers Lauris Vidal & His Warm Guns & Experimental Pilot

Alexander & The Grapes Just Call Me John & Special Guests TBA

* Thomas Wynn & The Believers

9pm | $7 | 21&Up

9pm | $6 | 21&Up

1313 8th Ave E - Ybor City - 813.248.4969

1313 8th Ave E - Ybor City - 813.248.4969

@ New World Brewery

2.13.09

2.22.09

w/ Very Special Guests

Kingsbury, Blast & The Detergents & Glasgow

* Reax Pre-Valentines Day 80’s Prom The A+ Team Band + Gloffy 9pm | $FREE | 18&Up

@ Crowbar

* Johnny Apple-Eyes

* Pontiak

@ New World Brewery

3.12.09

* Lord Jeff

8pm | $7 | All Ages!

The Vera Violets, Strangers Family Band & Special Guests TBA

1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

@ New World Brewery

@ Crowbar

9pm | $7 | 21&Up

1313 8th Ave E - Ybor City - 813.248.4969

1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

2.27.09 2.19.09

* Rachel Goodrich

Poverty Branch, The JeanMarie 9pm | $7 | 18&Up

@ Backbooth

* The Spam Allstars

3.14.09

9pm | $12/14 | 18&Up

& Special Guests TBA

The Hip Abduction & Cope @ Crowbar

1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

* Rachel Goodrich

The JeanMarie The Early Twenties

2.28.09

@ The Atlantic

Relo & Special Guests TBA

2.21.09

* Rachel Goodrich

The JeanMarie, Pemberley The Wedding Party 9pm | $7 | 21&Up

@ New World Brewery

1313 8th Ave E - Ybor City - 813.248.4969

@ Crowbar

every wednesday

2.20.09

15 N. Main Street - Gainesville - 352.264.9844

9pm | $8/10 | 18&Up

1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

37 W Pine St - Orlando - 407.999.2570

9pm | $7 | 18&Up

* Red Fang

* Tigercity

9pm | $7 | 18&Up

@ Crowbar

1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

3.03.09

Da Cypher

* Tigercity

Hosted By Aych

9pm | $6/8 | 18&Up

@ Crowbar

& Special Guests TBA @ Wills Pub

1042 N Mills Avenue - Orlando - 407.898.5070

Open Mic, Live Performances & MC Battles 10pm | $5 | 18&Up 1812 N 17th Street - Ybor City - 813.241.8600

website & pre-sale tickets: thxmgmtlive.com • myspace: myspace.com/thxmgmtlive • booking: joe@thxmgmtlive.com