REAX #37 by Joel

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CONTENTS

INSIDE:

Publisher: Joel Cook

SOUNDCHECK 08

jcook@reaxmusic.com

INTRODUCTION

CALL & RESPONSE 10

READER MAIL / CONTRIBUTORS

SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING 11 12 13 14

DEAR GLOFFY Advice From Jeremy YOUR BAND BLOWS Peaches: Erotten STEP BY STEP How to Eat in Public ARTBEAT Craig Kaths

SOUNDBITES 16 18 20 22

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW Smokeless THE LOW ANTHEM Southern Lullabies THE TAKERS Blue in Their Bones THERE FOR TOMORROW The Name of the Game PULP 2-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Interview with Paul Geller

REAX INTERVIEWS 26

28 30 32 33

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

Noah Lennox on the Anxiety of Fatherhood & the Unpredictability of Legacy PONTIAK Clan of the Van BON IVER Winter’s End? THE DEAR HUNTER Tossing Out the Rulebook ANTHONY RANERI Unprofessionally Yours

SOAPBOX 34 36 40 42 43

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

YOU ARE HERE

A LOCAL GUIDE

TAMPA

44 46 47

Queen: Finnie Cook ﬁnniec@reaxmusic.com Editor: Scott Harrell scott@reaxmusic.com Art Director: Mike Delach

delach@cookwaremedia.com

Photography: Tony Landa landa@reaxmusic.com Circulation Manager: Scott Jenson scottj@reaxmusic.com

Sales Associates:

SPECIAL FEATURE 24

GUILTY

HOTSPOTS / ARTIST SPOTLIGHT HOTSPOTS / SPOTLIGHTS TAMPA BAY EVENTS

ORLANDO

50 52 53

HOTSPOTS / ARTIST SPOTLIGHT HOTSPOTS / EVENT SPOTLIGHT ORLANDO EVENTS

54 55

HOTSPOTS / ARTIST SPOTLIGHT GAINESVILLE EVENTS

56 58 59

HOTSPOTS / SPOTLIGHTS HOTSPOTS JACKSONVILLE & NE FLORIDA EVENTS

HOTSPOTS / EVENT SPOTLIGHT

Emily LaDuca emily@reaxmusic.com Shawn Kyle shawn@reaxmusic.com Marshall Dickson marshall@reaxmusic.com Jimmie Walker jimmie@reaxmusic.com Tommy Barrett tommy@reaxmusic.com

Contributors: Timothy Asher Joe D’Acunto Jason Ferguson Chris Gaughan Jeremy Gloff Shawn Goldberg Jack Gregory Justine Grifﬁn Robert J. Hilson Colin Kincaid Joel Mora Becca Nelson Susie Orr Ryan Patrick Hooper Cole Porterhouse Matt Powell John Prinzo Michael Rabinowitz Trevor Roppolo Evan Tokarz Nick Truden Susie Ulrey Carrie Waite

Interns: Alexis Quinn Chamberlain Emily Dwyer Benjamin Evans Christopher Golden Palmer Holmes Mary Manchess Andrew Pellegrino

Chris Anderson (Orlando) chris.anderson@reaxmusic.com Ryan McLaughlin (Gainesville) ryanm@reaxmusic.com

This cover was designed by: AZBA Alexis Ziritt & Bradley Askew for those not in the know. Google them for more info. Thanks guys! REAX Music Magazine P.O. Box 5809 Tampa, FL 33675 Phone: 813.247.6975 www.reaxmusic.com

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.

GAINESVILLE

JACKSONVILLE

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

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SOUNDCHECK INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Words: Scott Harrell • Artwork:

utting together an issue of REAX is hard.

We oughta know; this issue marks the beginning of our fourth year! The budgeting is painful, ‘cause some great stuff always gets left out. The layout is like the toughest round of Tetris ever. The editing is grueling, the hours are long, and the last four days before we go to press are like that Stephen King story The Long Walk - you just kind of go until you drop, and when you drop for the last time, you know there were a couple of little things you missed or wished you’d done differently, but time’s up. But sometimes, the hardest part of my role in turning REAX from a bunch of ideas into several thousand bundles of 64-page magazines is ﬁlling this stupid, mocking little block of white space. Blah blah blah sure was rainy last month, huh? Blah blah blah festival season is upon us. Wow,

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

it gets hot in Florida and stays that way a long time blah blah blah. Grumble bitch kvetch community argle local scene rant D.I.Y. scrunch we’re all in this together whackedy shmackedy doo. Yeah, it would be easy just to rehash last June’s intro about summer or the Warped Tour or whatever the hell it was. But I just don’t have the heart to do that to you guys, because we’re dedicated to blah blah blah and you’re the best damn bunch of yadda yadda yadda. It haunts my dreams, this rectangle of space that’s always so obscenely pristine and empty the ﬁrst time we print out the pages for a proof. Because frankly, I’m out of ideas for intros that aren’t so trite they’d ﬁt nicely into the plot of a Kate Hudson romantic comedy. So I’m asking you, the reader, to yak yak sputter bloomp suggestions blah blah your opinions are important to us snick glomp as much your magazine as it is ours. Burp.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

CALL & RESPONSE READER MAIL

BENJAMIN EVANS

FROM THE MAILBAG Hey - Scott Harrell, Creed - bad rock! You must be into Seether. If you don’t think those boys of Creed can play, try them as Alter Bridge. If Mark Tremonti’s guitar don’t get you, stick to rap. As for Limp Bizkit - I’m not a big fan, but they certainly pioneered a new rock genre I call Hip Hop Rap Rock and there they are as cool as Black Eyed Peas - with Fergie.

because you are being real and true to yourself, a concept they don’t understand and can’t aspire to. When Capitol Records doesn’t like how your second record didn’t sell as much as your ﬁrst one, you better have contingency plan that does not involve Pitchfork.

RE: “Tampa Says Goodbye to Kelly’s Pub This Sunday” by Scott Harrell “See you this Saturday!!! That’s the story! ... almost. The only correction:

- Scott Putesky ID + ML = SO - KI (indie darling + major label = sell out knowing it)

‘...the beer IS amazing, and so IS the attitude of every single person who STANDS behind the bar or volunteerS to sit outside and collect the cover.’

FROM REAXMUSIC.COM

See you on Saturday! And on Friday the 29th! (Fans of ‘the old Kelly’s,’ don’t worry ... you won’t be disappointed!

Rock history will acknowledge both these bands big time successful [sic], comebacks or not.

RE: “Your Band Blows - The Decemberists: Do The Math” by Scott Jenson

myspace.com/karmabarandcafe myspace.com/kellyspubtampa

- Mark Axel, Ocala, FL

“I got my death threat ready as soon as I started reading - but put it away once I began laughing my ass off. Even though I disagree vehemently, this is a great post.

P.S. Oh and Scott, when you check out Alter Bridge - ditch the shag and roll the green shit. P.P.S. I called 813-247-6375 [sic] - the number on Page 10, Issue 36. Some lame sounding dude hung up on me - twice! What’s the story with that???

I must ask, though - have you seen them live in person? They sold out Hard Rock Live back in (I think it was) April ‘07, and kept three thousand nerds dancing for two hours with folk rock! What they do is pretty remarkable.”

- Posted by Kelly’s Pub/ Karma Bar Cafe, May 20 “P.S. Holy shit, yes I remember the Enablers and The Tim Version!” - Posted by Kelly’s/Karma, May 20

P.P.P.S. I’m with Jenson, Seether sucks. Saw them at St. Augustine and had to leave before Staind got on ‘cause Seether was killing me!

- Posted by Joel, May 6

“Oh no!!! I loved this place. Thank you to everyone involved for making Kelly’s so wonderful.”

“PST NSV ISBPTCM

- Posted by Michael, May 21

[Scott Harrell responds: Um ... er ... OK, right on.]

Or, Pretentious Story Telling Nasally Singing Voice I Shit Better Poetry than Colin Melloy”

CORRECTIONS

RE: “Your Band Blows - The Decemberists: Do The Math,” by Scott Jenson

- Posted by William Shakespeare, May 23

Thanks for the recent Your Band Blows The Decemberists: Do The Math piece. It’s about time I read a sharp and coherent devaluation of an “indie-pop darling.” Even good bands can suck in certain ways from the right perspective. Indies who reach major-label positions often do so by blind bandwagon-ism. When hipsters love you, your lifespan gets reduced signiﬁcantly. When hipsters hate you, it’s

This Virginia-born and Tamparaised 19-year-old spends most of the year in Gainesville at the University of Florida. When he’s not telling a 7-year-old girl the pop idol on her wall reinforces gender stereotypes, he’s relaxing at home and listening to good ol’ Robert Johnson.

RE: “Bonnaroo Lineup Announced” by Benjamin Evans “The schedule this year is awesome and sucks at the same time. Wilco and Elvis Costello at the same time!? Who do I choose? There’s so many good bands that you’re bound to miss someone you like.” - Posted by Manuel, May 12

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

Brad Register wasn’t credited alongside Chris Anderson and Scott Harrell for his work on last month’s Orange You Glad Fest preview. He hauled a lot of the water. Our apologies. Contributor Alexis Quinn Chamberlain’s name was misspelled in last month’s issue. Harrell and Delach are pointing ﬁngers at each other, but we’re pretty sure Harrell boned that one.

SCOTT HARRELL

Scott Harrell doesn’t know how he got into this. He remembers being a freelancer who did a column every month, and a couple of conversations at Push Ultra Lounge; then, a stretched-taffy blur of tunes and phone calls and late-night TV and standing outside places asking the girl to check the list again, please, all set to the uneven rhythm of laptopkeyboard clicks. Now he’s sitting in an ofﬁce he’s pretty sure isn’t the original ofﬁce, and it’s, like, beyond deadline and the stuff still isn’t in. He’s pretty sure it beats selling lawnmower parts, though. What the hell does he know about lawnmower parts?

MARY MANCHESS

Mary Manchess is a junior Journalism major at the University of Florida. She likes movies, writing, music, dogs and pizza. After college, she hopes to work for a fashion or music magazine. Her best accomplishment in life so far was snowboarding down a double black diamond mountain in Utah this past Spring Break.

DEAR GLOFFY SEE SOMETHING...

DEAR

GLOFFY

ADVICE FROM JEREMY Words: Jeremy Gloff • Photo: Christopher Wharton

DEAR GLOFFY, There’s this girl I’ve been hanging out with whom I kind of have feelings for. She’s really cool and she is open with me about how she uses men for money. I buy her dinner once in a while, and I know she might be using me a little bit too. But she likes the same music I do, and plays the same video games that I do. Do you think it’s bad I still hang out with her even though I might be getting used a little bit? I haven’t met many people like me, and I’d almost rather be used by her than be alone. Signed, Confused in Seffner

DEAR CONFUSED, If I’ve said it once (and I have) then I’ve said it 69,000 times: If it’s good enough for Grace Jones, it’s good enough for Jeremy Gloff. And if it’s good enough for Jeremy Gloff, it’s good enough for you, Confused in Seffner! On track three of Grace Jones’ album Nightclubbing, Grace sings “Now I’m gonna spread the news/that if it feels this good gettin’ used/keep on using me ‘til you’ve used me up.” Let’s face it honaaay, it’s a lonely world out there. If you are smart enough to realize you are getting used a little; if you are self-aware enough to know there’s not many people like you, and if you are having a good time, well why the hell not? I bet Grace Jones always had a good time too. There’s a coke dealer somewhere in the world who can vouch for this I’m sure. Perhaps at one point you may want to see if this girl still hangs out with you even if you make her pay for her own dinner. But until then … let’s accept that in a way, we are ALL using each other for something. You are using her to distract yourself from yourself. And so you can play two-player games. So be it.

hang out occasionally. I recently found out that while I wasn’t home, my ex went into my bedroom and read my entire diary. (Yes, I’m one of those old-fashioned girls who actually still has a handwritten diary.) Needless to say, I am furious. I am not writing to you to ask how I should deal with my ex. I hate him. I’ve already told him off. What I want to know is, how do I get my essence back? That diary had everything in it that I’ve never shared with anyone. A piece of my soul was stolen from me. I am at a loss at how to deal with this. Signed, My Essence Is Gone

DEAR ESSENCE, I’ve avoided this day for a really really long time. I can’t believe that YOU are going to be the one to make me have to do this. It’s always been inevitable … and I always feared it was lurking right around the corner. Your letter is going to be the letter that forces me to quote Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love Of All.” I can’t help it; it has to happen. For the sake of our sanity, we are going to pretend I am quoting the rendition of “The Greatest Love Of All” by Sexual Chocolate from Coming to America. But face it honaaay, Whitney

IS RIGHT. No matter what a man does to you - degrades you, uses you, lies to you, cheats on you, reads your diary - HE CAN’T TAKE AWAY YOUR DIGNITY. It’s true my dearest, the greatest love of all really IS inside of yourself. REMEMBER THIS. Now let’s have a loud round of applause for Sexual Chocolate please.

DEAR GLOFFY, I broke up with my boyfriend about three months ago. We cut off connections completely. The problem is, he is still friends with my roommate. They

Write to deargloffy@gmail.com or just go to jeremygloff.com and write to me anonymously.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING YOUR BAND BLOWS SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHER. Really, I can’t make this up. Can you imagine the girl who wrote “Fuck the Pain Away” teaching children? Picture the horrified look on a fresh first grader when he walks into his first music class and has a bearded lady wearing nothing but panties and black electrical tape tell him to shove a recorder in his mouth. That little guy is going to end up cutting up prostitutes and eating them when he gets older. Of course, it could explain a few things. Maybe the day-to-day stress of having to listen to the most inexperienced musicians of any caliber drove her to the point of insanity, where it makes sense to badly rap and wail blatantly out of tune over beats that sound like they were made with a mid-’90s cell phone, some dental tape and a hubcap from a Chevy Nova. If you ever feel the need to cringe at a real travesty of human development I HIGHLY recommend that you watch Peaches’ minidocumentary, which is conveniently located at her site on the interwebs. In it, she repeatedly states how she “doesn’t care what she looks like or how bad she smells” and tells the documentarian in several ways about how much of an individual she is. Wow, congratulations … you’re disgusting AND pretentious.

YOUR BAND PEACHES:

BLOWS EROTTEN Words: Scott Jenson

ver since the first music journalist took coal to the wall of his clan’s cave to draw a crudely formed stick-figure Cro-Magnon banging two rocks together, people who study music have been trying to answer several questions. Some of these questions, like “how much side ass can I get from hanging around rock bands?” or “should I really use a blowjob reference in this piece about Yanni?” aren’t as applicable to the music, but are still very important to the function of the writer. There are, however, certain questions that frequently come up when appraising music that are ultimately important in evaluating an artist’s value. Influences, writing process, life experience and memes can be brought out through pointed questions such as “how does your life experience influence your writing process, and the themes of your current album?” that can tell you a lot about whether or not the artist is making a relevant statement. It’s somewhat amazing to hear what goes on behind the scenes when someone is making

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

music, and on occasion, such as when a band rents an 18th-century church and writes in it for three months while taking various and copious amounts of mind-twisting hallucinogens, it can result in an interesting story, and a greater understanding of the artist and their work. I started researching Peaches because I’d of course heard her putrid, low-fidelity pornoelectro in quite a few places and through various media outlets, and I was also trying to figure out if she was, in fact, a she. Peaches’ gender-bending persona and horse face had me scouring hi-res images for an adam’s apple. Seriously. But what really interested me about her, after I found some pretty compelling evidence that she is attached to a vagina, was finding out what kind of background would compel someone to make such blatantly eroticfor-shock-value-only pap. It turns out that this is Peaches’ second career after spending some time as an ELEMENTARY

When asked about her writing process, she states that she has production equipment next to her bed and she will lie around smoking dope and masturbating for days on end. Somehow this inspires her. Not that I have anything against smoking dope and masturbating - I think they are both very worthwhile pursuits - but the fact that some nasty, high skank diddling herself and crapping out lines like “Eat a cookie/a big dick/everyday/what?” and “Suck/Suck it up/ Suck it all, Suck and let go” is actually getting deep serious reviews proves once and for all that there is no God, and the human race is actually less evolved then rhesus monkeys. There is actually a review on a site I’ll call Bitchspork that speaks grandly about her “fully formed, distinct aesthetic” and “expression of complicated, conflicted emotions.” Really? The bitch gets stoned and plays with herself. The only thing that she’s fully forming while writing music is what amounts to the indie equivalent of Riskay’s “Smell Yo’ Dick,” which in my opinion is a much more well-crafted song about catching your significant other cheating. At least Riskay is drawing from life experiences of conflicted emotions that aren’t deciding whether to get high and THEN play with your dildo, or the other way around. So when it comes down to it, and you really want to see what kind of cred an artist should have, go to the source. Just because some trust-fund kid who had his parents pay for him to get a blog and a bloated writing education throws a bunch of $100 words at something doesn’t make it good. Take a look at the people behind the music and you’ll know if you’re attaching yourself to something relevant or just falling into the hype machine built to draw attention and dollars to someone who can’t even get out of bed to have some experiences outside of cheap drugs and even cheaper orgasms. Follow Your Band Blows on Twitter: twitter.com/yourbandblows, duh.

STEP BY STEP SAY SOMETHING...

STEP BY STEP : HOW TO EAT IN PUBLIC Words: Scott Harrell Listen. I realize that no one old enough to read a magazine like REAX for pleasure or information should have to be told how to eat in public. But I also realize that the operative word in that sentence is “should.” We’ve been friends a long time, and I love you. If nobody else is going to say it, however, I will: sitting across a restaurant table from some of you is about as pleasant as being forced to tour the place where horses are made into discount dog food. It’s appalling. I’m no Dandy Percy The Fancy Boy, but I’m aware enough of social protocol to try not to give you a detailed look inside my mouth while it’s grinding down some sausage, peppers and onions in red sauce, and I expect the same courtesy. It doesn’t matter where you are, or how much the meal costs; there’s a basic standard of behavior, and a whole lot of Americans either don’t know or don’t care. I don’t blame you. I blame your parents, who were obviously too busy putting food on the table to teach you how to eat it without giving the impression that you’ve been living in the yard and ﬁghting with the “outside dog” over scraps. It’s never too late to learn, though, and you’ll thank me when your co-workers stop making weird, obviously fake excuses for not joining you for lunch, and you actually get to make out with your dates after dinner. Wear a shirt. Even the hottest torso looks nasty dotted with bits of mayo-clotted onion and busily turning food into energy and poop. Plus, it always reminds other people that that’s exactly what’s happening. The only exemption? When you’re within 50 feet of a body of water. That’s it. It’s not even cool to sit on the curb and work on a Push-Pop shirtless if you’re over, say, ten. (Oh, and you moms who let your kids eat in just a shirt and some dirty training pants Underoos or tighty whities when they’re at home? FAIL. Put down the mason jar of white zinfandel and put a load of shorts in the wash.) Shut the hell up. No idea you could possibly have while working on a big hunk of anything edible will be so important that it can’t wait for you to ﬁnish chewing, and swallow. I don’t care if somebody’s sneaking up

behind me with a bloody machete - grunt and point, but keep your half-masticated morsels out of my sight and off of my face. In fact ... Always chew with your mouth shut. How hard is it, really? I mean, if your heart isn’t the size of a basketball, or you didn’t have a nosebleed earlier that necessitated the stuffing of your nostrils with gauze? If your heart is the size of a basketball, I recommend not eating at all until you can do it without breaking a sweat, and if your nostrils are packed with gauze, stay home, that’s gross too. You are somewhere other people can see you, damn it; they’d like to enjoy their own meals without being disgusted, and you’re not exactly a supermodel making mouth-love to a chocolate-covered banana. Know the difference between a napkin and your pants. Greasy fingers and stains are for four-year-olds and auto mechanics. Has anybody famous or important ever come over to your table, and you wanted to shake hands, but your mitts and general personal area were a little too gnarly? No? Of course not - everybody can see your digits glistening and bits piling up in your lap from across the room, and they don’t even want to give you an opportunity to politely decline. You are success repellent. If you want to go finger-and-crotch-commando in your car and cover your steering wheel with accident-inducing lubricant, that’s fine. That’s not technically “in public.” Everywhere else, McDonald’s to the Plaza, if your napkin is still neatly folded on the table at the end of your meal, it means a bunch of crap has ended up somewhere else, most likely on your person. And, finally ... If your meal comes with utensils, use them. Again, this really should go without saying, but we’ve all endured the sight of somebody trying to eat something with their bare hands that they shouldn’t - an overburdened chili dog, a baked potato, freaking sushi, for Pete’s sake. Those pointy and/or rounded things that came with your food are like a little aptitude test that determines whether or not you should be allowed to leave your house, because apparently turning a knob and pushing is so easy, even people who think it’s OK to pick the little meatballs out of their Italian wedding soup with a thumb and forefinger can do it.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING ARTBEAT

We’re Going to Take A Quick Brake more strongly than many tangible things.” Kaths has thus made it his goal to manifest the invisible. To illustrate this, Kaths pulls out a drawer and shows me ﬁve small prints. They consist of layers and layers of abstract designs repeated in varying colors on top of a larger image which looks like the ghost of a record. Behind the densely printed detail, one sees faint lines invoking the grooves on a vinyl record.

Same Songs Every Day

ARTBEAT KATHS CRAIG

“These are meant to go together,” Kaths explains, shufﬂing the order of the ﬁve pieces until I can see that where the design on one print ends, the next continues the motif, using both color and content. “Each print is 78 runs [meaning that each canvas was printed upon 78 different times], and the size of the image is the same size as a 78 record sleeve. Together, they represent a box set of 78s, something you don’t even really see anymore.”

Words: Becca Nelson • Artwork: Craig Kaths

CRAIG KATHS’ STUDIO IS INHABITED BY GHOSTS.

he 27-year-old Tampa Bay artist works in the former Covivant space, a local gallery that for years served as the backdrop for the brightest lights in the local art scene; their roster reads like a who’s who of past and present Bay area talent. The gallery closed when owner Carrie Mackin moved to New York, and was converted into small studios rented out by local artists - at ﬁrst, many of whom showed at Covivant in years past. When I arrive at the studio to see Kaths’ work and talk about his upcoming show at REAX Space, In Stereo, he informs me that everyone has pretty much left, the space just an echo of its past glory. “Everyone’s moved out. It’s kinda weird.” It is a little creepy in here. The remnants of past inhabitants have left a strange wallpaper: paint splatters, stickers and images taped to every imaginable surface, a grey haze of smudge pencil sketches sullying once-white plaster walls. Kaths’ studio, however, is alive with activity. The artist, who graduated from USF with his BFA in Printmaking, is being featured in the second art installation at REAX Space, this magazine’s newly opened boutique and gallery

in Ybor. The marriage of artist and publication is fitting; as Kaths explains, his work is entirely driven by music. “My influences as an artist are heavily drawn from music and sound. I’ve played guitar since I was 12; I was a musician long before I became a visual artist. So everything I do, art-wise, is taken from music and sound, attempting to physically embody it.” Kaths’ primary medium is printmaking, and his work is, literally, made of sound. To create his multi-layered and incredibly complex works (a single print may use up to 700 screens), Kaths explodes the tiny technical illustrations such as one might find in the users’ manual for a 1950s turntable - an intricate sketch of a record needle, or the tiny gears that turn the wheels of a cassette - making screens of each minute drawing. These screens are then printed hundreds of times over, in endless combinations, to create each work. “When I was writing my thesis at USF, I really delved into the theory that sound is the most important medium, because it’s intangible,” he says. “You can’t see it, you can’t put it down on paper. And yet listening to music has the ability to affect a person’s mood, or emotions, much

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Kaths is passionate about the physicality of music. It’s what drives his work. He’s also something of a purist; our conversation is peppered with remarks that point to this. “I’m not even listening to that much new music anymore because a lot of it is horrible,” he remarks at one point, when I ask what his musical inﬂuences are. Jimi Hendrix is the only artist he singles out in response. He is equally purist about his current medium. As opposed to the multitude of local artists whose sales rely upon screen-printed t-shirts and other consumer-friendly items that sell for under $20, Kaths is devoted to printmaking as an art-form, and refuses to sacriﬁce his work to make a quick buck. “I know a lot of people associate screen-printing with just t-shirts and stuff, and it’s hard for them to understand that a screen-print is worth just as much as an original painting,” he says. “But I’m not about to show a print that sells for $60 next to a shirt with the same design that sells for $17.” And that $60 print is the bottom rung for Kaths, whose labor-intensive screen-prints are priced upwards of $500. His loyalty to craft is not, obviously, going to prove especially lucrative, but Kaths isn’t that concerned about making money from his art, at least not here. “Doing shows in Tampa can be frustrating. Ever

Small Jam Session no. 1 since Covivant closed, a lot of the artists that were living in Tampa and actually attempting to make a living from it have moved. Trying to make money from this stuff,” he sighs, gesturing broadly to the room, “just doesn’t happen. Not that it’s just Tampa right now, I mean it’s everywhere. People don’t have money to buy a piece of paper.” Luckily, Kaths’ enthusiasm stems from something other than monetary gain. The brief moment of frustration brought on by the tired discussion of making money as an artist is quickly eclipsed when he spots a new print hidden in the stack on his desk, and is reminded of his newest project, which he simply explains as “improvisational.” “Sometimes I’ll come in here with no idea what I want to do, and I’ll just start printing,” he explains. “It’s a free-ﬂowing experiment, which is what jazz comes from. I’m not sayin’ I’m a jazz musician because I print, but what I’m doing mimics the idea. Every movement is a reaction to the one that came before it, and nothing is planned out. I come to the studio with no preconceived notion.” The prints he shows me now, I must admit, look very similar in style to his overtly conceptual work. But I am not one to judge; before talking to him I would have never looked at his artwork and seen a visual representation of a sound delay in an electronic recording; a drum beat laid down; or a 300-print deep work, simply titled “Same Songs Every Day,” that visualizes, in its density of color and repeated images, the monotonous drone that is commercial radio. Kaths enjoys the experiment he’s created for himself, the task of manifesting sound, that allpowerful medium, on paper. He admits that he doesn’t make art to make money, “but I wish I could.” In the meantime, though, the small rewards keep him going. “It’s all serendipitous,” he says, referring again to his current improvisational series. “Sometimes I’ll look back at what I’ve done and realize, Wow! Those two things lined up! And that’s what I’m really going for. Happy accidents.” Kaths’ exhibit In Stereo opens June 19th at REAX Space. CRAIGKATHS.COM • REAXSPACE.COM

92 0 W. K E N N E DY B LV D. TA M PA , F L 3 3 6 0 6

8 1 3 - 2 5 0 - 02 0 8

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SOUNDBITES BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW passed it along to the guy who runs Graveface Records … when we went to the studio, the whole point of the studio was to get the drums, record the drums in the right way. If there were any leftover bass parts that needed recording I had the Graveface guy do that. So we sort of worked backwards.”

REAX: What do you mean ‘The drums the right way’? T: The drums that I do, I play them all on pads. I play them on an [electronic drum synthesizer] MPC. This is the ﬁrst album actually that’s got DRUMS drums, a person actually playing. There’s one song on there where I left my MPCs running but the rest of it is all her playing. REAX: You had a producer on this one. What was that like? Before, this is a solitary thing you’re making alone, now you have different voices. Did it change? T: It didn’t really. We didn’t do it the way a band would typically do it, I think. Because I think a band would typically go in the studio and record everything. And [the producer] would have a lot more creative control, and I think in this instance the thing was done before we got there. We knew exactly what we were there to do. And that was mainly to record drums. And let Dave [Fridmann, the producer] mix it, because he has such a great - he’s just got such a great space that I wanted to see what he could do with keeping my parts the way that I make them, because I think that I probably record them a lot differently than he would have, and I wanted to see the way he mixed those out. Concerning equipment, Tobacco is hesitant to explain, admitting that he uses an MPC for all his recording, along with box samplers, Rhodes piano, a couple of Vocoders from the ‘90s, and old Casios; the equipment used on tour is “old Yamaha stuff.” “I think all I’m trying to capture is something that sounds real,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s old or new, it just turns out that the stuff that sounds the best is the older. I haven’t found anything that’s newer, that’s not vintage, that’s not like an old antique, that sounds alive at all. “I’ve learned that I get lucky with the sounds that come out. The actual notes and the textures are all sort of luck these days, but the concepts and the moods have more to do with what I’m thinking about.”

SMOKELESS: TOBACCO OF

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW Words: Shawn Goldberg • Photo: Jae Ruberto

THE OTHERWORLDLY TEXTURES OF THE VOCODER-HEAVY INSANITY THAT IS BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW, LED BY TOBACCO, HAIL FROM PENNSYLVANIA. LEAVE ALL YOUR PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS BEHIND - HE’S NOT LOOPING THE FACTORY LEVEL IN AN EARLY MEGA MAN GAME, OR CULLING THROUGH FORGOTTEN ‘70S SCI-FI PROGRAMS SEARCHING FOR LASER SOUNDS, OR SCORCHED ON PINEAPPLE-FLAVORED NITROUS OXIDE. TODAY TOBACCO IS “FILLING OUT ENVELOPES ALL DAY.” WHAT?

REAX: How do you build a song? T: Sometimes it’s with an acoustic guitar. Other times it’s just, songs get built out of just plugging the keyboard in and just playing around, sort of warping the pitch and tone. Something that sounds kind of musical comes out, and if it’s good it might be the basis of a song. Usually the keyboard stuff I start off with is the kind of stuff that I’d never be able to recreate, so I’m always kind of recording. The demos always morph into the real recordings because I can’t recreate some of the stuff from the demos. I think four out of ﬁve times it’s some kind of accident. Tobacco designs all the artwork and packaging for his records, some which include scratch-n-sniff covers.

e explains that he’s inserting one-of-a-kind Polaroids, into pre-orders of his new CDs Eating Us, of the band doing “random stuff. It’s supposed to be like tiny little art pieces. Some of them are pretty abstract. Us hanging out with masks on. I found some really creepy masks. Like Judge Lance Ito kind of masks.

freedom a good thing? Tobacco: I think it’s changed a lot. Maybe I didn’t obsess as much about getting things to sound exactly the way they should. I only had a few hours and I had to do it and get it done. I was recording on the ﬂy before, where now I have so much time to just obsess over it. I don’t know if that’s healthy.

“I’m a kid of the ‘90s so that’s what I know, that’s how I got into so much of the stuff I got into, from going to the record store and looking at the cool covers,” he explains. “Ever since I started downloading stuff, like with Napster back then, it all got really disposable. If I didn’t like something on the ﬁrst listen, I deleted it and I went onto something else. Like when I was a kid, if I didn’t like something on the ﬁrst listen, I put $15 into it, I’m going to listen again. Some of that stuff ended up becoming probably some of my favorite stuff. So I think all that stuff is really important, especially for what I’m doing. In some cases the artwork comes before the songs do, and they dictate what the songs are going to turn into.”

“I usually put aside one or two days a week for post ofﬁce stuff. Normally, it’s just a lot of hanging out. Thinking about stuff. Some weeks will go by where I don’t make any kind of music. Hanging out, thinking and debating on what needs to get done.”

In the past, Black Moth Super Rainbow has been Tobacco’s brainchild, with band members needed for tour duty.

For the second half of Shawn’s interview with Tobacco, log onto reaxmusic.com.

“The new one started out like that,” he says. “And I pretty much ﬁnished it. I ﬁnished a version of the record by myself and then I gave it to my drummer to write her own drums to it, and then I

MYSPACE.COM/BLACKMOTHSUPERRAINBOW

REAX: Without a day job, you have all day to create. Is that

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SOUNDBITES THE LOW ANTHEM REAX: So many new things surround you - the culture, the environment - and, at the same time, you are dealing with copious amounts of stress each night. Was it a complicated chemistry of emotion to some degree? JP: We almost fell apart in Paris. [Laughs] You know, just with the typical frustrations of touring and such. You hardly get enough sleep and you’re never getting your greens … you’re eating way too many hamburgers and spending way too much time together in a small cargo van. It’s deﬁnitely not the way we usually live, so it’s quite stressful and it got under everyone’s skin eventually. But sometimes, that is a good thing. It wakes you up … and kind of shakes you. After that, for the next few days, you’re awake. You’re ready to reconnect and it feels fresh again. It’s like a wave that you ride - the peaks lead to the low points, which lead back to the peaks. As a touring band, you get used to that and vibe off of that. REAX: An optimist would call that a learning experience, walking away from an extremely stressful journey and becoming a well rounded, culturally educated man. JP: The running joke was that we were going to come back home and tell everyone that we are worldly traveled. We would be eating croissants with our friends and be like, ‘You know how they actually eat these in France? Let me show you heathens!’ But I don’t actually think of things in that way - the way of thinking that quantiﬁably assesses how much you’ve progressed from an experience. It was certainly a landmark for us, and we never knew what it would be like and now we do, you know? I’m just glad that we made it to every gig and, made it home all right and none of our instruments were stolen or anything like that. I really thought it was going to be a disaster. [Laughs]

THE LOWANTHEM SOUTHERN LULLABIES

Words: Ryan Patrick Hooper • Photo: The Low Anthem

AS SUMMER STRIKES AND CAMPGROUNDS BECOME “RESERVATION ONLY,” THE LOW ANTHEM BECOMES THE SMOKE RIFLING OFF OF SMALL FIRES INTO THE HAZY SUNSETS OF AUGUST. THE DISTANT DIN OF YOUTH SMASHING SNEAKERS INTO THE DIRT AND CHASING IMAGINARY GAMES IS THE MINIATURE MELANCHOLY THAT LIVES AND BREATHES THROUGHOUT THE PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND GROUP’S SECOND PROPER RELEASE, ‘08’S OH MY GOD, CHARLIE DARWIN (A REMASTERED VERSION OF WHICH IS SET TO BE RELEASED ON NONESUCH RECORDS).

ith 12 tracks, The Low Anthem have crafted an album packed with gorgeously arranged vocals, simplistic six-string strumming and a brave complement of innovative instrumentation, masterfully capturing the quiet hooray of summer days spent carefree and ﬂying, and dramatically positioning themselves as the pioneers of the ultimate southern lullaby that soothes the beast while rustling the leaves of the trees under which it sleeps. “We love the American songwriting tradition,” explains Jeff Prystowsky, the bass-playing baseball scholar of the trio - a “project” that has only been active since 2006. “Some of that reeks of southern culture, some of that northern … and some of that is mountains and rivers and more. We love the history of Americana, and we’re trying to add to that tradition.” Prystowsky is quick to toss the basic elements into his tent of inﬂuence - “Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Hank Williams.” It’s a capable roster that’s left unmistakable footprints on the craft, delivery and tone of The Low Anthem.

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Prystowsky and the rest of The Low Anthem (multi-instrumentalist Ben Knox Miller and classical composer Jocie Adams) recently returned from their ﬁrst European tour. While his voice is sleepy, his excitement for the band’s recent accomplishments is genuine. REAX recently spoke with Prystowsky, on one of his ﬁrst days back, about the stressful yet educational nature of the lengthy tour, and the dark social repercussions of being a professional musician in the country that provides The Low Anthem’s musical motivation.

REAX: First European tour - that’s a landmark in any band’s history. Jeff Prystowsky: It was a wild couple of weeks. We didn’t know what to expect. With all the rental equipment and meeting a sound guy that we had never worked with before and playing clubs that we never played before and trying to adjust to the new cultures … it was really exciting. I don’t know how we did it, but we showed up for every show and played well and were well received by each of the cities that we played in. It was a wild couple of weeks. [Laughs]

REAX: It can be a little rough to snap back to reality after a monumental tour like that. From joking around to how you’re going to come back to bills, maintaining relationships with people that are not in the same position as you, etc. Socially, what challenges do you face? JP: That’s interesting that you bring that up. I just got home, and it’s my brother’s wedding this weekend. There are 50 family members who ﬂew in, and they’re all like, ‘Oh my God! European tour!’ It’s strange how people don’t realize that it takes a lot of work to be in a band, and it’s taken us years of building this artistic project to the point where people in England were excited about it. People [in my family] … just think that everything is just given to us on a silver spoon - because we’re going to Europe, we sold our souls to the record companies and that means that we are in Rolling Stone and that’s it. Yes, all of that is happening … but it’s such a surface thing. Don’t get caught up in it. Listen to the music and love the songs because that’s what it is about, you know? All of us grew up loving music and … getting connected with music through records and live shows. It’s really cool that we get to take from all that and produce our own work that people enjoy. REAX: As a young band in this current musical climate, the hype machine can certainly blur reality for both the musician and those you surround yourself with. JP: I really hate all of this hype, you know? I really hope [the hype] doesn’t get so out of touch with … the grassroots of who we are. Socially, that’s really hard and probably has a lot to do with our culture and how everything is advertised. Our culture is too quick - they want it big and they want image. If advertising is king, it’s almost like falling in love with the advertising and the hype instead of digging deeper. I still go out to concerts all the time, and appreciate the artists and musicians who are making beautiful music. At the core, that’s what it should always be about. But I have faith that [the idea of hype and publicity] does help reach real music fans. I read newspapers and blogs, and hope other people do it. Hopefully, the music will live on. Oh my God, Charlie Darwin will be reissued by Nonesuch June 9. The Low Anthem is touring the East Coast before heading to Europe at the end of June. THELOWANTHEM.COM

SOUNDBITES THE TAKERS

THE TAKERS

BLUE IN THEIR BONES

Words: Timothy Asher • Photo: Aaron Kahn

LISTENING TO NEW COUNTRY BANDS CAN BE PAINFUL.

he genre has become inundated with wannabe pop stars, failed pop starlets, and those who look good in a hat but write seriously disheartening songs (“HonkyTonk-Ba-Donk-A-Donk”? Come on). Which is why it’s slightly surprising that Gainesville, world-renowned punk haven, has spawned The Takers, an honest-to-God outlaw country band more influenced by Waylon Jennings than Joey Ramone. Singer Devon Vlasin sees it as a natural progression, though. “Country is not too far off from punk rock as far as blue-collar ideals go, and the plight of the middle class and the lower middle class and the lower class,” he says. “I think once you slow the punk rocker down a little bit they start to take to country a little more.” The theory has its merits; over the past few years there has been a resurgence of country (or at least an increased interest). The most notable being Lucero, but Tim Barry and Chuck Ragan have released country and folk-influenced records, while Drag The River and Sarasota’s Have Gun, Will Travel are the evolutions of harder, faster bands. “I don’t know if we’re necessarily in that alt-country vein, we’re more straightforward country with some southern rock and I hope we don’t fall into that category that Tom Petty said was ‘all new country is bad rock and roll with a fiddle,’” muses Vlasin. “I hope we’re not bad rock and roll with a pedal steel, but as long as we’re honest and play what we know and write what we write, we shouldn’t be taken that way.” When Vlasin arrived in Gainesville in 2000, the country and southern-rock sounds he grew up listening to were still in him.

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He started gigging around town alone and with The RockhillSessions Band; it was for one of his solo shows in 2007 that The Takers spontaneously formed. “I was playing acoustic around Gainesville for quite a while and I was supposed to open for Willie Heath Neal, and I was living with Chad [Smith, guitar], and asked if he’d like to accompany me,” Vlasin recalls. “He was like, ‘sure, let’s go out to the warehouse, and as long as we’re going out there, let’s call a couple people.’ So we called Ronnie [Holmes, guitar] and called around to a couple other people and ended up having a band practice the night before. I taught them six songs the night before we played and it just so happens that all of us - Chad and I live together, Ronnie and Jerome [Goodman, bass] live together, and P-Nut, Jon Reinertsen [drums], lives with the pedal steel player, Mike [Collins], who was a later edition. So we all happened to be on Northwest Fourth in Gainesville and we all happen to call ourselves musicians. So we decided to start playing and it picked up steam and hasn’t slowed up yet.” Taker Easy, the full-length debut on Suburban Home Records, is due out July 21, but they’ll have copies on hand for their release party June 23 in Gainesville. After that, like any other band worth their salt, The Takers are hitting the road. ”We’re doing this thing called the ‘Citrus Circuit Tour’ which is being spearheaded by Pete from Truck Stop Coffee,” says Vlasin. “We decided to take it back to the roots of the punk scene. That’s what people do – they trade shows. But that hasn’t happened too much for, for lack of a better term, the alt-country scene. So we’re starting to ﬁll that up, because in Florida, there is a lot of folk history, a lot of camaraderie amongst singersongwriters, and we wanted to ﬁre that back up.”

After that, they’re looking forward to a two or three week tour in September or October, during which they’ll play the Suburban Home Anniversary show in Colorado. “Maybe somebody will like us enough and we’ll catch a break and we’ll get to go out with somebody bigger in the spring, but you can’t bank on that,” laughs Vlasin. “Not that if Kenny Chesney called and wanted to take The Takers on tour I’d say no or anything.” These aren’t guys looking for a quick run, or turning to country because it seemed easier. There is a deﬁnite passion for the music, and each member of the band understands hard work and paying their dues. “You got six dudes in band and all have day jobs to pay the bills,” Vlasin says. “We’re blue-collar to the core. We got blue in our veins, blue in our bones, leaks out to our collars I guess. We work our asses off by day and try to be rock and rollers by night and so far it’s working out. Our dream is to be full-time musicians, and hopefully we’re working our way towards that.” Still, that blue-collar/D.I.Y. ethic goes deep: “I assume if I ever make money at this, I’m not going to change much. Maybe a bigger house and a nicer car but I’ll still be bellied up with my buddies, hanging out and going to work if I have to and lovin’ my wife. That’s how I wanna live the rest of my life and hopefully nothing changes that.” The Takers in Florida: June 23 - The Atlantic, Gainesville June 24 - Bank and Blues Club, Daytona Beach June 25 - Tobacco Road, Miami June 26 - Propaganda, Lake Worth June 27 - New World Brewery, Ybor City June 28 - Will’s Pub, Orlando MYSPACE.COM/THETAKERSHONKYTONK

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SOUNDBITES THERE FOR TOMORROW

THERE FOR TOMORROW

THE NAME OF THE GAME

Words: Colin Kincaid • photo: Adam el makias

ORLANDO’S THERE FOR TOMORROW HAVE DONE A LOT OF GROWING SINCE THEIR EARLY EPS FIRST SHOWCASED AN AVERAGE EMO ACT WITH ABOVE-AVERAGE POTENTIAL. SINGER MAIKA MAILE NEVER WANTS IT TO STOP. WHY DO YOU THINK THEY WENT WITH THAT NAME? REAX: Did you guys do a lot of playing out in Orlando before you got signed? Did you find the scene there supportive? maika maile: Oh yeah, man. Me, Chris [Kamrada, drums] and Jay [Enriquez, bass] have been playing since I was 13. Our first show wasn’t even at a venue, it was on a little wooden stage outside somewhere in Orlando. We have videos from it, it’s quite comical to look back. But it all started there, then we started branching out a bit, playing out regionally. We just started seriously touring last [year]. REAX: Have you been inﬂuenced by some of the posthardcore bands that came out of the Orlando scene, like My Hotel Year or History? mm: Not so much, really. A band we really looked up to was [Tallahassee emo group] Forever Changed, they were our good friends and were a big influence on a lot of younger bands. We just saw how genuine those guys were, doing it for the love of it, that’s the main lesson we took from those dudes. And now that we’re starting to really establish ourselves, hopefully one day we can be hometown heroes. We’ve always had the love and support of our family and friends. REAX: For A Little Faster, you worked with both longtime collaborator James Paul Wisner and big-time producer David Bendeth. What was that process like? mm: It was very, very disorganized and together at the same time. It was a very cool thing, to see how it all came together because our whole mindset was to go with the flow. We went

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in with David Bendeth and did four songs’ pre-production, and really hit it off with him, and we fell in love with his place and his work ethic. We established that relationship, and he continued to stay involved through the whole thing because he was mixing, he ended up mixing four when he was just supposed to do two. And James is an awesome guy, his engineering work is just incredible. So we tracked with him, and he worked on the production side as well. We’re very familiar with the way he works, and felt very at home. I’m a pretty hands-on guy with that process, I like to jump behind the computer and do some stuff. It all came together in a surprisingly smooth way. Of course there was a little stress, but that’s the name of the game.

REAX: There’s a really fine balance on the album of catchiness and heaviness. Is that a conscious thing? mm: We’ve always been fans of heavier music, and fans of the whole spectrum. There’s nothing we really find ourselves attempting to do, it usually comes out in a very organic way, which we strive for. Just having that background of the music we’ve listened to, I think, it automatically establishes that edge to what we’re trying to create. It just comes out. We wanted to stand out from all the expectations, what everybody else is trying to do, have that edge but keep an honest and genuine approach to everything, especially lyrically. REAX: I was going to ask about that. There are some beats and styles, like the groove and riff hook in “Backbone,” that you really

don’t expect from a band associated with the emo scene. Does the band make an effort to do things that will stand out from the crowd, or are you just confident that your natural sound is original enough on its own? mm: I would say that what we naturally do is gonna stand out, but of course we look at what’s going on in the business and the scene, and are completely disgusted, so we have to make an effort to drive ourselves away from the pack. Listening to the music people appreciate these days, it saddens me, and a lot of other artists we talk to - it’s weird what gets appreciated and what doesn’t. I hope people are kind of ready to listen to genuine music and feeling again, and remember what that feels like.

REAX: In your bio, you talk a bit about your desire for longevity. Coming up in the current climate, where everybody’s ADD’ed out and trends last about 20 minutes, what do you think bands can do to help themselves stick around? mm: I don’t know, man. I wish I had all the answers. It’s trial and error, that’s what we’ve done since the beginning. We’re very DIY, we hold on to what’s ours, and don’t let go unless it’s for a good reason. It’s been about progression, a slow and steady build, not the quick, cheap thing everybody else wants to achieve. We’ve seen other bands do it, and establish an army of family members, and we’re getting a glimpse of that now, how people are standing behind us and getting our back. We’ve got the haters as well, and that’s good too, you need those, that’s good songwriting material. But we’re just gonna keep going, maturing and building. I’m 20, we have many years ahead of us and lots of things to go through, and it’s all going to come out in our music. A Little Faster comes out June 9 on Hopeless Records. There For Tomorrow are on tour in Japan through June. myspACE.ComE/ThEREFoRTomoRRoW

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL GELLER

Words: becca Nelson • photos: Nolan Wiley

n a lovely spring evening in 2007, two gentlemen from Orlando came to Tampa on a reconnaissance mission. Their goal: to create a dance party in Tampa, the likes of which had never been seen in our fair town. Who were these lads? Well, Mike Feinberg and Paul Geller, the latter known better as Pauly Crush: a dance party genius and self-acclaimed alcoholic who is the brains (and, well, booze) behind one of Orlando’s dirty little secrets, a Monday-night banger called Crush. Feinberg and Geller were also responsible for Saturday/Thursday, a similarly styled throwdown held at Club Firestone that ruined a lot of UCF students’ Friday mornings from 2006-2008. But, back to our story. On this particular night, I accompanied Geller and Feinberg on a tour de dive bars in Ybor City, which ended infamously in the Cyberia Room of Czar Vodka Bar, where the hospitality flowed endlessly out of the bottles of specialty vodkas into artfully made ice shots. It was here, after three hours and probably 167 shots, (and, summarily, the worst hangover of this writer’s life) that the decision was made: Czar Vodka Bar would play host to an event that would go on to reinvent the dance party in Ybor, and systematically wreak havoc on 800 hipsters’ livers every Friday night. Jump forward roughly two years. After a successful 104 Friday nights of unabashed alcoholism, shameless uber-trendiness and overall mayhem, PULP, and Geller, most definitely one of the hardest working (and hardest partying) promoters in Florida, is poised to celebrate its two-year anniversary on June 24, with a guest DJ set by Dim Mak founder and DJ extraordinaire Steve Aoki. As I write, it’s 2:30 a.m. and I’ve just received Paul’s answers to my who, what, where, why and what-the-@&$#-questions about PULP, and I find myself endlessly amused. In fact, I just sent him a text saying that in writing this article, my aesthetic seems to be inexplicably jumping from sounding like Vice Magazine to the National Enquirer to the New York Times. And perhaps this identity crisis cuts to the core of why PULP is important, and why its toddler birthday is worthy of celebrating. The promotion has gotten us all wasted for sure, hungover, definitely, and caused its fair share of party ups and party fouls. But it’s also changed the fabric of nightlife in Ybor. We appreciate it because we like to drink and party, but also because it adds a little bit of “big city” to a town whose biggest claims to fame are being the birthplace of death metal and the “Goth Capital of the Country.” But rather than take my words for it, I think Geller does a fine job of explaining the phenomenon his own self.

oN Why hE sTARTEd pULp:

“Using a fun, affordable weekly event to power national-sized acts through Tampa is something that wasn’t happening before. “Tampa was and still is starving. There are plenty of promoters out here pounding the pavement, but it’s been hard for DJs to really innovate. How are guys like DJ Mega supposed to play the stuff

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they love if no one knows about it? What we did here was help get the word out about what artists listen to. In my opinion it has made Tampa a more fun place to be a DJ.”

oN ThE diFFERENCE bETWEEN his TWo mAiN hAUNTs, TAmpA ANd oRLANdo:

“The two cities could not be more different. Tampa is at a different stage in its development; it’s older and has a richer cultural history; you could write a thesis on the cultural fabric of Ybor. There are older families here, and more people who grew up and stayed here. Orlando receives a fresh batch of kids every year - thousands of them. In Tampa, you have to make friends and keep them because even if they do leave, this is probably where their family lives and where they come home to. It is very incestuous, but that’s its charm.”

oN Why hE ChosE CZAR:

“It all starts with the venue. I immediately liked Sandi [Hein] and Alan [Kahana], but the versatility of the club is what really sold me. Czar would allow us to do multi-room DJ events, small indie shows and then the giant performances like Ladytron and Girl Talk. If the venue wasn’t perfect we would have walked.”

oN TAmpA vs. ThE NiGhTLiFE sCENEs iN biGGER CiTiEs:

“I’ve been saying since day one that so-called ‘experienced’ cities suck to work in. I see my friends in Miami and New York grinding to get 100 people out. In experienced cities people don’t pay to experience art. In the suburbs, you get loyal followers who are interested in growing and expanding themselves and their town. It feels good living in Tampa if you know that you are getting to see the same shows that they do in New York or LA.”

oN ThE RisKs hE’s TAKEN FoR pULp:

“Money and health. The first months of PULP were very expensive. To do this right you risk a lot of money. You spend a lot of time trying to make everything perfect. We lost a lot of sleep over this party. And adding another night of binge drinking hasn’t done any wonders for my belly. I actually developed an ulcer after one PULP night about a year ago. Don’t mix a bottle of blueberry vodka with Alka-Seltzer and aspirin before bed. It will burn a nickel-sized hole through your esophagus.”

oN WhAT hE’s doNE iN ThE pAsT TWo yEARs hE NEvER ThoUGhT hE WoULd do: “Get old.”

oN Why pEopLE FoLLoW pULp so LoyALLy:

“In my opinion, it’s the whole package. We give them the best value you possibly can. Without

“EASILY ONE OF THE BEST PARTIES WE’VE PLAYED ... COULDN’T TELL IF WE WERE SOAKED IN BOOZE OR SWEAT. PROBABLY BOTH.”

- FLossTRAdAmUs, Who pLAyEd A bANG-Up pULp iN ApRiL oF 2008, WiTh A LivE pERFoRmANCE FRom FELLoW Chi-ToWNER Kid sisTER.

the drink specials no one could afford it. Without the good promotion and the national brand no one would have tried it. Without a great venue and bar staff, no one would have come back, and without great DJs and guests we wouldn’t have anything to talk about when we got there. “I am constantly fighting to give them the best possible experience. I also talk a lot - especially when I am drunk. I think I am honest to a fault when it comes to our patrons. I ask for support when we need it. I complain when they don’t. I guess I am a bit of a baby like that. That might make me look weak sometimes but any promoter who thinks their support comes from some internal charm is fooling themselves.”

bEsT momENT AT pULp?

“The first time I discovered the DJ booth was sturdy enough to stand on and the rafters could hold my body weight.”

WoRsT momENT?

“Probably last week when George unplugged the DJ equipment while I was spinning. There must be something worse than that but I can’t think of it right now.”

bEsT NiGhT?

“Toss-up between Diplo and Flosstradamus/Kid Sister.”

mosT EmbARRAssiNG?

“One night I passed out while I was DJing. I slammed down a bottle of blueberry vodka in about half an hour. I remember stumbling backward, grabbing Eagles [Desert Eagle, guest DJ at PULP that night], putting my arm around him, then slinking to the floor.

bEsT dRUNK Food iN yboR?

“Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza from that place right next to the Bodega. The pizza place with no A/C. Or cheesy bread from that other pizza place across from the ally behind Czar. Wow. I better learn some street names.”

bEsT hANGovER mEAL? “Saganaki at Acropolis.”

piZZA oR TACos?

“That is actually the hardest question you’ve asked me. Those are the only two foods I really like. It’s like choosing between Steak and Egg (my cats).”

ANd FiNALLy, ThE mosT impoRTANT QUEsTioN ... Why WoULd ANyoNE WiLLiNGLy CoNsUmE so mUCh JoosE!?

“JOOSE IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE INTOXICATION DELIVERY SYSTEM KNOWN TO MAN.” Trading the Weekend Warriors for a far more dedicated weeknight variety, PULP is now every Wednesday night. Same club, same DJs, almost the same drink specials. How about trying a Thursday hangover on for size?

pULpThEpARTy.Com

“WE DO THIS BECAUSE WE LOVE IT. PERIOD.”

“At that point Laura, one of the bartenders, ran up to the booth and put on the next track then ran around the club looking for Justin to finish my set. They rolled me under the table and finished the night. Around 3:30 they dumped a bucket of ice on me. I promptly threw up in the empty bucket and two members of the bar staff dragged 170 pounds of dead weight to the backseat of my car.”

This past March, renowned DJ and producer Diplo (who is the responsible party for bringing baile to the masses, and is probably best known as the producer of M.I.A’s debut album) played what PULP promoter Paul Geller conﬁrms as “the best guest DJ set ever at PULP, hands down.”

DIPLO

Diplo chimed in to recount his experience, and pimp his folks’ bait shop. REAX: You were born and bred in Florida and have probably been involved in the club scene since you were in diapers. How’d Tampa play up to your expectations? Do we dance good? diplo: Was cool. I’m very east side, New Smyrna/ Daytona, but used to head west to see great bands like Assück perform. Shows how old I am! You guys danced pretty well … could have done a bit more windmills, though,

- miKE FEiNbERG, AKA FEiNbEEZy, GELLER’s pARTNER-iN-CRimE, Who CURRENTLy REsidEs iN L.A. WoRKiNG FoR dim mAK RECoRds.

In March of 2008, PULP went local. After killing a handful of guest spots at PULP, Geller invited Tampa’s own Crate Brothers (aka MES and Oprah Spinfrey) to take over the decks in Cyberia. Playing yin to Pauly’s yang, the Crates immediately owned their new residency, playing everything from old-school hip-hop to ‘80s crowd-pleasers. It was, apparently, an educational experience. CRATE bRos pREsENT:

10 THINGS WE LEARNED AT PULP 1. How to mix. 2. After dropping

the Promise Ring’s “Deep South” at 1:30 a.m. and clearing the dance floor in record time, I realized that no matter how much I love Braid, Knapsack, Mineral, Sarge, etc., I will NEVER play any “emo bangers” after midnight.

CRATE BROS.

3. Mom jeans ain’t just for moms anymore. 4. Just ‘cause you love something, it doesn’t mean the party will. If, after the fifth time you drop a new track, the dance floor stays empty, keep it on the iPod. 5. When you “make it rain,” someone has to “clean it up.”

Popular belief states that drunk kids will dance to just about anything. That statement is simply not true.

7. If you preface a request with the phrase

REAX: Best moment of the night (that you remember)? d: Playing Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” with 2 Live Crew over the top.

“I respect what you’re playing but … ,” the cards will not fall in your favor. If you think Rick Ross sucks, say it. If you hate that I’m playin’ Jordy, tell it. But don’t follow that up with a request. Cause chances are, you’re gonna be gettin’ the gas face.

REAX: You comin’ back? d: Yeah … I love to support Florida. It’s always a bit difficult to get kids excited about new music, but FL has the best energy and I want to keep blowing up the scene.

8. Some ladies that you didn’t think could dance to some reggae can, in fact, dance to some reggae. 9. Club kids have no sense of timing. Don’t request “I Follow You Into the Dark” when I’m playing Mobb

I remember how excited I was living in Orlando years ago when I was still in high school and the underground was huge. Let’s keep it going there. And, my parents own a bait shop, so I’ll be there catching shrimp until I die. Check it out! (indianmoundfishcamp.net)

Deep. Yeah, we love Death Cab just as much as the next guy, but pick your battles, son.

10. Pauly is “that dude.” As much as I’d like to engage in some friendly ribbing regarding said promoter’s penchant for moccasins and flashlights, he runs a tight ship and rolls with a talented crew. That guy truly cares about the kids that come out to dance. JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

REAX INTERVIEWS ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

ANIMAL

COLLECTIVE Words: Ryan patrick hooper • photo: Takahiro imamura

NOAH LENNOX ON THE ANXIETY OF FATHERHOOD & THE UNPREDICTIBILITY OF LEGACY ANimAL CoLLECTivE’s NoAh LENNoX REsidEs iN ThE RoLLiNG TopoGRAphy oF LisboN, poRTUGAL WiTh his dAUGhTER ANd WiFE. his LiviNG Room is soAKEd iN ThE LEFTovER sUNLiGhT oF ThE dAy’s AppRoAChiNG TWiLiGhT - ThE REsULT oF LiviNG iN ThE CiTy oF sEvEN hiLLs - ANd his dAUGhTER’s WidE RANGE oF Toys ARE LiTTEREd AboUT ThE ApARTmENT. ThE ToWN sTREETs ARE RELATivELy sTEEp, TURNiNG A QUiCK RUN To ThE GRoCERy sToRE iNTo A JoURNEy iN iTsELF.

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE REAX INTERVIEWS

“The whole country is reminiscent of California,” opines Lennox, whose sleepy stoner tone is a perfect fit for his figure and face, but a far cry from the vocal stylings found on Animal Collective’s nine full-length albums and various one-offs and b-sides; those are a perfect complement to the swelling, electro-sampled and heavily esoteric nature of the cult-y band’s extensive catalog. While Lennox can easily compare Portugal to a state from his country of origin, he is quick to admit his lack of understanding of the language. “My wife speaks almost perfect English,” explains Lennox, who, as one of Animal Collective’s three multi-instrumentalists, can’t quite be pinned down to one musical responsibility, but is usually noted for his Beach Boys-esque delivery over a sonically-soaked background. “That’s good in the way that we can communicate, but bad that I don’t have to speak Portuguese. I feel like I can [say] basic stuff, but I can’t have an in-depth conversation about physiology or anything like that.” The same sort of philosophy can be applied to Animal Collective’s latest release on Domino Records, Merriweather Post Pavilion: rich layers quickly yield immediate and comfortable pleasures, but the search for complete meaning may leave you comfortable and a bit tired. While overly elaborate questions about recording sessions of yore and which combinations of pedals Animal Collective have used in the past often become fodder for journalists and curious musicians alike, Lennox and the rest of the band are often short on words - in most cases, they’ve just forgotten - about the exact configuration of buttons, knobs and strings. But when it comes to family life, and the sounds Animal Collective leave in their progressive wake, Lennox is unusually social and open - a bit of his true nature shining through, he claims. REAX recently spit the technicalities to the side, and dug into the human nature buried underneath the forgotten combinations of amps and effects that have created many of their cult classics, and their most recent release.

REAX: With David Portner (Avey Tare) living in Brooklyn and Brian Weitz (Geologist) living in Washington D.C. for the past couple of years, was the creative formula altered drastically on Merriweather Post Pavilion? Noah Lennox: I’d say the biggest thing was that instead of all being together to work on a given song or just play, and having things develop that way, it became everybody doing a bunch of preparation work on their own in their own spaces - making sounds, writing pieces of songs or full-fledged skeletal versions of songs. When we get together, everybody has this little library of sounds that might or might not work. If you try one sound or whatever you’ve been working on and it doesn’t work, you move onto the next thing you’ve been doing for the past six months or two months or whatever. REAX: With such a change in process, do the energy levels suffer and the human aspects of connecting with other musicians disappear? NL: It was a bit of a conscious decision on my part. I don’t know if the others were on this tip or not, but I remember starting to feel the way that we would do live shows … we would often create this manic energy in this really intense layer and get hyped up on stage. It was starting to feel like maybe it was a go-to move, and I wasn’t really into … doing the same thing all the time, you know? It was interesting to me, at least, to see if we could still go for something that still had some thrust or power to the music, but not rely on the hyped-up state of mind for the stuff to work. Some nights, we do it better than others, or some songs work better in that way than others. But at least on my part, there was a conscious decision to do something a little more subdued. REAX: Apparently, you’re not afraid to try something radically new and different with your craft. NL: It’s scary, but I feel like it is way cooler to try and do

something different and have it suck then be much more lame and do the same thing all the time … even though you felt like it worked the first time, you know? Creatively, you are kind of killing yourself if you do the same thing again and again.

REAX: People do love the comfort zone, and when they find the right one, it’s tough to break away. NL: There is something to be said for the signature sound. I’m not trying to hate on anybody who has their thing and does it really well. For myself, I’m restless creatively and I always want to use new equipment and try out new ways of writing songs. The surprise element of making it is part of what is fun to me. REAX: Lyrically, I don’t understand everything on Merriweather. That being said, I kept sensing an underlying tone that dealt with family, relationships and monetary success - perhaps the dichotomy of those three elements. NL: I feel like there are two big things that are … the main themes lyrically of the album, and it’s sort of curious because Dave and I were not like, ‘let’s write about this. This is really on my mind, so let’s work it out.’ In retrospect, there is a focus lyrically on family and our working lives and the relationship between those two things. That covers a lot of territory, but I feel like pretty much every song touches on one or both of those subjects - our personal lives and our professional lives, the combination and the relationship between those two things. Maybe not so cut and dried for every song, but … REAX: What do you think made these topics continually resurface for the both of you as writers and musicians? NL: It’s just where we are in our lives. For me, it is always just what I’m thinking about or what is important to me at the time. I’ve never been the sort of person who can write a song about a toaster. I can’t even finish the song if it doesn’t feel like it is important to me. [Portner] doesn’t have any kids, but I think we’re kind of old to the point where we are … looking at the last half of life rather than the first half of life, you know? Why did I get married? Why did I want to have children? It’s a pretty epic answer. REAX: Being in a band is an up and down thing. You are not promised a steady income. You have to take a look at if you can start a family financially, and if you can execute such a monumental step like a responsible adult. Was there any anxiety that tagged along with such a premise? NL: Yeah, big time. Later on, when my daughter was born, I was really nervous about that kind of thing, and it was always in the back of my mind, you know? As far as I could tell, it didn’t influence the kinds of things I would write about or the type of music I wanted to play. The way it did impact the professional side of my life is that it cranked my work ethic into high gear. It’s not like I wanted to write hit music even if I could. It was more like whatever I wanted to do, I have to really work hard at it … making sure that I was really covering my bases, professionally speaking. REAX: Looking at how the rock ‘n’ roll economy is shaped, does ‘covering your bases’ mean making decisions with your music that you wouldn’t have made in the past - licensing, corporate whoring, etc.? NL: In certain instances, yes. As far as touring goes, I’m way more up on going on a longer tour or doing more tours now than I was a couple years ago. We don’t really make any money on record sales. If I want to pay my bills, I have to go on tour. But no matter how bad it gets, we wouldn’t budge or change the way we do certain things. We don’t accept too many advertisements or endorsements. I wouldn’t say that is a subject we’re all 100% in agreement about, but the people [in the band] who feel strongest about it feel extremely strongly about it. We’re a very democratic entity for the most part. REAX: An international committee of sorts at this point. Are you concerned about leaving behind any sort of musical legacy for your daughter? NL: Personally, I could … give a crap about that sort of thing.

My daughter does not seem too interested in what I’m doing musically. Maybe she will be at a later point, but I could care less to be honest with you. That’s not to say that I don’t value what I’ve been a part of or what I do, you know? It is really important to me, but it would be selfish and vain of me to hope that my kid thinks I’m awesome and that I made these sweet jams. As long as my kids are psyched and happy people, I’ll feel like I’ve done a good job. I’m not the kind of person who is bummed about being old or growing up. I’m pretty psyched about where I’m at and where I’m going. It’s just a different attitude and vibe when you are considering the end of the cycle rather than feeling like you are just starting out, you know?

REAX: Do you have any sort of thoughts on how Animal Collective will be remembered musically? NL: That’s really hard to say. Take somebody like Nick Drake, for example, who probably died not thinking he would be remembered at all. It turns out that his music is a lot more famous than it was during his lifetime. You never really know how things will be treated and how generations and popular attitudes will treat what you’ve done. One possibility is to be completely forgotten. I remember thinking that the goal was to have a physical copy of our record manufactured with a barcode on it. [Laughs] The other goal was to play in Japan. I started considering that career trajectory when I was 17 years old. By the time I was 23 or 24, I had both those things. It was mission accomplished, and I don’t know what is going to happen from here. Everything since then has been relatively shocking to me. Knowing that, I couldn’t even begin to predict what is going to happen 15 years down the road. I wouldn’t be any less proud if it had ended after that first Japan show. REAX: Have there been concerns about dealing with fans, being too personally exposed in interviews? Have you become more conscious of such supposed threats? NL: I’m a pretty open person. I don’t really feel like it’s in my nature to really hide stuff, but I will use tact as much as I can. I don’t want to betray my wife, my daughter or other members of my family in any way. I just want to talk about my music and myself for the most part. I would say that it wasn’t until the most recent album and what happened with that that any of us felt like this was beyond our comfort zone. Like I was saying, I haven’t really read any press. I cut myself off from all of that. It started to feel like it was making a difference mentally for me, and it never had before - just the volume of what was being said or the types of comments, both positive and negative, were so gnarly that I couldn’t go about things in a direct way, so I shut it down completely. REAX: After the success of this album, do you feel any sort of expectations for Animal Collective’s next release - from both the financial and creative angle? NL: Commercially, it is more difficult because it’s not entirely up to me. It’s just about what we’re doing, and what people are excited about hearing, totally connecting to make commercial success strike. I don’t know if that is going to happen again like it is now, you know? Although I’ve thought a lot about that - and I feel like the fact of the sonic spectrum of the music being really broad, and that there is nothing super abrasive about it yet it is very full, is a very familiar sonic palette. The fact that there are really strong rhythms and strong vocals in each song is in tune with popular music these days. Even though there may be things about the music that are odd or not super familiar, we are presenting these things, these sorts of creative, weird ideas, in packages that are immediately familiar. Animal Collective’s shows in St. Petersburg (State Theatre, June 8), Fort Lauderdale (Culture Room, June 9) and Orlando (Club Firestone, June 10) are all sold out. myspace.com/animalcollectivetheband

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

REAX INTERVIEWS PONTIAK

CLAN OF THE VAN

PONTIAK

Words: scott harrell • photo: Courtesy of Thrill Jockey Records

FoR A LoT oF Us, ThE idEA oF NoT oNLy spENdiNG moNThs oN ENd CRAmmEd iN A vAN WiTh oUR sibLiNGs, bUT ALso WoRKiNG WiTh ThEm dURiNG mosT oF oUR WAKiNG hoURs WhEN NoT oN ThE RoAd As WELL, is TERRiFyiNG.

ey, we love our brothers and/or sisters and all, and we’ll gladly set aside some weeks and weekends to get together, catch up and hang out. But … come on. We lived 18 years in forced cohabitation with those people, and argued away a substantial portion of it. They’re great, but they’ve got their own thing going on now, and we’ve got ours, you know? That sentiment probably seems as alien to the three brothers that make up muscular Virginia art-rock act Pontiak as the notion of being emotionally able to hang out with relatives 24/7 does to those of us who remember more screaming matches and Indian rug burns than inspiring conversations about art and culture. “We’ve had a collective 60-plus years of learning how to talk to each other - there really isn’t any bullshit,” says bassist Jennings Carney of the familial relationship. “We’ve learned how to say ‘I like this,’ ‘I don’t like that.’ Maybe it’s just a luxury I’m taking for granted, but maybe with people you’re not related to, you might not be as frank. We’ve known each other for so long, I don’t even think about it, actually. My brothers are also my best friends, that’s just the way it’s always been.” The Carney brothers - Jennings, guitarist Van and drummer Lain

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

- grew up on a farm, which may account for their closeness; with plenty to do and without a whole lot of other people to do it with, they undoubtedly spent many of their young years working and hanging together, learning to rely on one another to get the chores done, and to come up with something interesting to do when they were. Their upbringing definitely influenced an appreciation of the wide open spaces - the group often camps out when on tour rather than staying in hotels - as well as an admirable work ethic that’s resulted in three, count ‘em, three releases on the largely unimpeachable Thrill Jockey imprint in little more than a single year. “We’ve just been kind of writing consistently,” says Jennings. “Since we started playing, actually. When we signed to Thrill Jockey, we’d already been writing material, and because we have our own studio, we’re pretty much writing constantly. It’s an ongoing process.” The group’s studio is located back in the sort of country in which they grew up; after originally convening amid the busy, buzzy Baltimore, Maryland indie scene, the brothers decided a return to their roots would be beneficial to their art. And it has. Pontiak’s latest, the brand-new full-length Maker, is a wholly unique animal. These songs are deceptively jammy - despite the fact

that some tracks, like the 13-minute centerpiece title cut, come off wonderfully like the work of an Allman Brothers-inspired county-fair band with better distortion, ideas and drugs, Jennings says every part is thoughtfully crafted - while sacrificing neither heft nor a cohesive, emotionally evocative character that unites elements of prog, psychedelia, math-rock and heavy blues even as it transcends them. Being removed from the biases and social osmosis of any kind of hipster-centric scene has led to both an original sound that delivers heaviness and organic vibe in equal measure, and what must be a comfortable sense of creative freedom in every aspect of the band’s process. “I kind of feel like we’re musical libertarians,” Jennings says. “We intentionally set about to record our own music, and write songs by ourselves. When we first started out in Baltimore, we wanted to play shows and go on tour, so I started doing the booking. And people I talked to about it, they weren’t going to do it the way I wanted to; it took a long time to get to where people would [let us] do it the way I wanted to do it myself. “It’s helpful to learn these things, doing the music and the booking and the press, it really gives a musician a perspective that maybe they otherwise wouldn’t have. People have this idea that they’re going to rely on blog hype, and see 10,000 people unite, and that it’s going to be sustainable, and it’s not. So a lot of the independence is just how we are, but it’s also because, if you’re independent, there’s self-reliance there and it’s more sustainable in the end.” Pontiak in Florida: June 9 - The Engine Room, Tallahassee June 10 - Common Grounds, Gainesville June 11 - New World Brewery, Ybor City June 12 - BackBooth, Orlando myspACE.Com/poNTiAK

REAX INTERVIEWS BON IVER after the rough tracks garnered such heavy-handed approval from friends, Vernon decided to keep them as they were, and release the record himself. The record was later picked up and re-released by Jagjaguwar, the imprint with which Vernon is still associated. The self-empowering decision to release his songs as they were served as a catalyst for the legend that has become Bon Iver: a project created for the sake of creation, and one which Vernon declares will never succumb to outside influences. He intends to record and release all subsequent material in the same manner as Emma, retaining sole creative and production power. Again, from Treblezine: “I’m a pretty worrisome dude, so the only reason I thought [the originals from Emma] were demos was because I was insecure. I still, to a certain degree, will be insecure always, but I think that I’ll continue to make records like this. I’m not going to hire engineers; I’m not going to hire producers. I’m fully capable of doing all that stuff, and I’m just going to keep it within myself, under my control and surveillance.” Emma’s influence had not even begun to waver when Vernon released a subsequent four-song EP, Blood Bank, in January of this year. Blood Bank is tricky to talk about. Four songs, on the heels an almost-epic first album, released before anyone expected anything, and which prove more confusing than anything else? The record listens like a preemptive strike against critics who were all too ready to lump him in with similarly scratchy-voiced, bearded, stripped-down folk acts like Iron and Wine and Fleet Foxes. The songs are almost happy, in an endearingly morbid way. (The title track croons, in earnest, “Well, I met you at the blood bank/We were looking at the bags/ Wonderin’ if any of the colors/matched the names we knew on the tags.) The wanton demon having been exorcised, the woods around Vernon took on a new light.

WINTER’S END?

BON IVER

Words: Becca Nelson • Photo: Drew Kaiser

BON IVER, THE ASSUMED IDENTITY OF MUSICIAN JUSTIN VERNON, HAS SECURED A SANCTIFIED SPOT IN THE FABRIC OF THE “NEW” NEW INDIE ROCK. HE DOESN’T GIVE A SHIT, AND WE LOVE HIM FOR IT. AND YET, AS OPPOSED TO THE ACTIVE EVASIVENESS OF EQUALLY ELUSIVE ARTISTS IN DECADES PAST (PRINCE, ETC.) MR. VERNON DOESN’T SEEM TO CARE WHETHER ANYONE CARES THAT HE DOESN’T CARE.

on Iver’s ﬁrst album, For Emma, Forever Ago, has become the stuff of blogosphere myth in the months since its formal release in 2008. Facts: Vernon abruptly departed Raleigh, North Carolina in late 2006, leaving behind both his band (DeYarmond Edison) and his girlfriend (whose name was NOT Emma) to seek artistic asceticism in his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He happened to have a microphone and four-track in the trunk of his car, remnants from a production gig with Chapel Hill band The Rosebuds. In the months leading to this strange exodus, Vernon had also contracted mononucleosis, and spent a great deal of time in bed watching Northern Exposure. During this time, Vernon was moved by a quaint colloquialism repeated often: bon hiver, meaning, “have a good winter.” The word hiver was truncated, however, as it reminded him too much of the word “liver” (said organ suffered complications due to his mono). Get rid of the offensive consonant; problem solved. More than inﬂuence or a nom de plume, though, Vernon sought winter. “I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn’t know

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold,” Vernon told Canadian music magazine Exclaim! in March of last year. Touching on the same subject in an interview with Treblezine the month before, he emphasized that for all he was seeking the cold, he was NOT seeking to make a record. “[T]he reason I went up there, ﬁrst and foremost, was really out of necessity. It was kind of a rushed decision. I didn’t go up there thinking, ‘alright, I gotta make a record.’” Much has been said, and more speculated, about the reasoning behind this odd turn of events, but what is far more important is the result. For Emma, Forever Ago is comprised of nine deeply pained and deeply beautiful songs that recount in simple detail a relationship gone awry. This is not exceptional. Nor is the way they sound, particularly: plaintive scruffy vocals atop roughly recorded guitar melodies, everything somehow washed in the obliterating hush of woods and snow.

Blood Bank’s tracks tell a very different tale than the forsaken love of Emma, offering a multi-layered, vocoder-heavy, soulful and almost Jamiroquai-esque romp through a thawed forest, snow replaced by jonquils (albeit trampled ones) and self-pity replaced with humor. Vernon took the very aspect of his first record that people grasped onto - its overarching sadness and bitter resignation - and made lemonade out of it for his second. Jagjaguwar emphasizes this aesthetic difference in a statement found in the label’s press alcove for the EP: “As much as Emma is about the cold, the Blood Bank collection is about the warmth that gets you through it. You can feel the air move. Like a fire you’ve been stoking for hours and finally got to sustain itself, the heat blisters your face while your back is frozen solid.” If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Vernon seems to have both the biggest and the smallest. The very nature of Blood Bank is so far removed from what came before, it’s almost offered up as an antidote. Bon Iver may only exist to persistently negate itself, but something tells us this is OK with Vernon. Indie rock as it was once intended - for no one apart from its maker. Once more, Treblezine: “I’m just going to make a record, ya know. I’m just going to make the music that I want to make and I’m going to take all the time that I need to do it. And if I need to go up [to Eau Claire] to make another record, I will. If I don’t, I’ll still make a record that I’m proud of, if I can be free of distraction, free of outside influence. As long as I can be happy and free to approach my music the same way - if I can recreate the path and not the process, or if I don’t care about the story, I’ll be good.” Bon Iver performs at Orlando’s Plaza Theatre on June 8th, Ft. Lauderdale’s Revolution June 9th, and St. Petersburg’s State Theatre on June 10th. BONIVER.ORG

Why, then, all the fuss? Vernon’s story continues as such: For Emma’s nine tracks were recorded as demos; Vernon originally intended to ship them to various labels hoping for a signing. But,

REAX INTERVIEWS THE DEAR HUNTER

TOSSING OUT THE RULEBOOK

THE DEAR

HUNTER

Words: Evan Tokarz • Photo: Dan Gillan

“HELLO?” “HEY, IT’S EVAN FROM REAX MAGAZINE, IS THIS A GOOD TIME?” “YES, I CAN TALK TO YOU, HOLD ON, JUST LET ME LAND.” “ARE YOU FLYING?!”

o, the creative force of The Dear Hunter was not ﬂying; rather, he had decided on a whim to say “land” instead of “pull over.” The ﬁrst thing Casey Crescenzo says when he picks up the phone again is he wishes he were doing something cool like landing a plane. In fact, he’s talking to REAX from a beach cottage in Fairhaven, Rhode Island.

Crescenzo says he came up with the name The Dear Hunter in high school, before he had ever heard of the band Deerhunter or the movie The Deer Hunter. Although some people are frustrated by the band’s name, he doesn’t think it’s a problem.

“It’s kind of like saying ‘shitty masterpiece’ or something like that,” he says. “There’s only so much of an opera a rock album can really be.” Crescenzo doesn’t like having anything about his band being put into a genre, although people have tried: Listeners label the band everything from emo to indie to prog-rock. When he hears people call the band prog-rock, he laughs. “I can’t really think of any our songs that we would play on tour with any real prog bands,” he says.

universal than based on political beliefs,” he says. He’s most proud of the way the song “Life and Death” turned out. He likes that the song, the final track on the album, has a raw, almost classic-rock vibe, yet what he’s happiest with about the song is its directness and straightforward lyrics. Crescenzo says he doesn’t really listen to much new music just what he considers standards: The Beach Boys and The Beatles. He also likes Björk, although the Icelandic pixie has no vocal influence on him, he adds with a laugh; it’s the string arrangements that definitely influence him. According to Crescenzo, The Dear Hunter loves Florida, and Florida loves The Dear Hunter. Along with Philly and California, Florida is a favorite place for the band to play. He says the people seem more open to the band’s music than in other areas of the country. The band always tries to hit Florida, since other bands he’s been in have skipped over the state. In a that’s-what-shesaid-moment, he says the reason bands skip Florida is because it’s hard to leave the state to play shows. “If you decide to go in, you have to go all the way in,” he says. “Then, you have to go all the way out.” The band tours in June with mewithoutyou, a band whose members he says are “almost unbelievably kind people.” He says it will be a bit of a change for the band to tour with such nice people, since in the past they have toured with people who were bad influences on the band. “On the last tour, we toured with the wrong kind of people - the kind your mom will tell you not to hang out with,” he jokes.

The reason he kept the name is not to spite Deerhunter (Or Robert De Niro, for that matter). Rather, he says he didn’t even hear about the connection to the “Pitchfork band” until the ﬁrst year of touring. He asked the label about changing the band’s name, but they said it wasn’t an issue. Nevertheless, for the new album, Act III: Life and Death, the label - Triple Crown Records - came to him and wanted to change it.

To Crescenzo, it seems many bands have a notebook of rules and regulations for them to follow in order to feel accomplished when it comes to a record. He says that since he doesn’t ﬁt into one genre, he doesn’t have to write his songs this way.

“I was like, well, I brought up the idea of a name change years ago - why are you saying now it is a good idea?” he recalls.

Act III: Life and Death continues the narrative of previous releases. Set in the WWI era, this CD is third in a series of six concept albums. Although it is set in wartime, Crescenzo claims he didn’t set out to write a politically driven, anti-war album; he simply liked how the time period looked visually.

“I can make music with these people my whole life,” he says.

“The commentary about war that’s there in the record is more

MYSPACE.COM/THEDEARHUNTER

Also, although the label’s press release describes Act III: Life and Death as a rock opera, Crescenzo isn’t immediately comfortable with that particular phrase. Yes, technically the album is a rock opera, but that the term is a bit of an oxymoron.

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

“For us, there’s no real rulebook or guidelines,” he says. “It’s just making a record, and writing a song.”

Fans of The Dear Hunter shouldn’t worry about the band disbanding after the narrative arc of the albums is complete. He says he will likely go onto a different project with the same people, maybe even keeping the same band name.

Florida tour dates: June 10 - The Social in Orlando, June 11 - The State Theatre in St. Petersburg, June 12 - Common Grounds in Gainesville

ANTHONY RANERI REAX INTERVIEWS time I play a bunch of new songs that I’m writing. I’m working on a solo record, that I’m planning on putting out in the fall. I’m demoing the songs now, they’re ﬁnally ready to play for people, so those Florida shows are gonna be the ﬁrst time I’ve played ‘em for anybody.

REAX: There seems to be a pretty tight connection between Bayside and Florida. A lot of my friends have been seeing you for years, they know the guys, and you work with some Florida bands. What’s the connection? AR: Our roots run pretty deep there. We’ve been a band for nine years and have been touring since three weeks after we met each other, and Florida is always one of the places we’re able to get shows, from day one. We’ve only been playing L.A. for six years because we never made it out that way, and these major cities - we probably played 50 shows in Florida before we ever played Philadelphia, which is two hours down the road. We used to go down there and play anywhere. Especially back when we just started, you could do shows everywhere, Daytona, Melbourne, Pensacola, Tallahassee, all these places. And as we got bigger and got signed, we started going to Tampa and Orlando more often. I guess the answer would be because we’ve been playing there forever. You know [anti-depression/self-injury non-proﬁt] To Write Love On Her Arms? Jamie, who started it, is from Melbourne, and he told me when we ﬁrst met that one of his friends called us the biggest band to come out of Melbourne. We played there so much that people thought we were from there.

UNPROFESSIONALLY YOURS

ANTHONY

RANERI

Words: Scott Harrell • Photo: Courtesy of Victory Records

BAYSIDE FRONTMAN ANTHONY RANERI IS WEDGING SOME RARE SOLO PERFORMANCES INTO HIS BAND’S PACKED SUMMER SCHEDULE, IN ORDER TO VISIT SOME LONGTIME FLORIDA FANS AND ROAD-WORK SOME NEW TUNES. HE SPOKE TO REAX ABOUT THE OLD-SCHOOL KICK HE GETS OUT OF ACOUSTIC GIGS, AS WELL AS HIS BAND’S LONGTIME ASSOCIATION WITH THE SUNSHINE STATE. REAX: So you’re going to Europe, then right into these acoustic shows, then straight on to the Warped Tour? Anthony Raneri: I get home from Europe, I’ve got five days off, then we do a couple of Bayside shows around here, like upstate New York, then another five days, then I do these solo shows, then two weeks off, then it’s Warped for eight weeks. It never ends. REAX: What made you decide to do this string of acoustic shows in there, instead of taking the time off? AR: I just have a lot of fun doing it, you know? I hate to sound cliché, but it kinda makes me feel young to do these shows, it makes me feel like I did when I was 13 and playing my first shows. If I mess up, if I don’t know what to say, or what to play, it’s this exciting nervous energy that I don’t get anymore from

Bayside, because the set is what it is, and we spend weeks preparing and have techs and lights and buses, you know what I mean? I don’t know how many people are gonna come - it’s that whole kind of excitement that made being in a band cool when I was just starting.

REAX: I imagine doing stuff like this helps recharge your enthusiasm for going back to Bayside too, gives you a little different perspective. AR: Yeah, for sure. REAX: What can fans expect as far as material? Do you even know what you’re going to play? AR: I usually play a good amount of Bayside songs, and I usually play a bunch of covers. But this is actually gonna be the ﬁrst

REAX: Bayside, especially in recent albums, has showcased some classic sounds and styles that obviously come from outside of punk rock. Have you always been a fan of singersongwriters and more classic pop stuff? AR: Oh yeah, for sure. Especially pop stuff. It’s hard to say I’m a fan, but when it comes time to write a record, I listen to a lot of music for inspiration and research. There’s a song on The Walking Wounded, the title track, it has this kind of klezmer part, and I knew I wanted to include that, but if I want to write it, I have to know about it. So I was listening to a lot of Jewish music, and stuff like Fiddler on the Roof for inspiration. I listen to country, to singer-songwriter stuff. Some of it I love, and some of it is kind of like research. REAX: One of the side effects of some elements of punk becoming so mainstream is that it’s also become more acceptable for musicians from that scene, particularly more established guys, to dabble in other areas, try different styles. AR: I think there’s good and bad to come from that. One, for people who are gonna use those outside inﬂuences well, like for instance My Chemical Romance, they modeled themselves after Queen for [The Black Parade], and it was cool that they were able to do that. In that instance, it’s a cool thing. But at the same time, the pop element that’s come into the scene, and even something of an urban or rap element that’s come into the scene, the fact that bands are able to get away with that now? Top 40? It’s totally not cool. It’s kind of exploitative, it’s ruining the scene to an extent, you’ve got bands on the Warped Tour that are basically highjacking the scene, they’re no different than the Jonas Brothers or something. That that’s become acceptable is kind of gross, actually, that the fans aren’t calling bullshit on that. It’s kind of our job, to call bullshit on stuff like that. REAX: So we’ll be seeing an Anthony Raneri solo release in the near future. You going to get Victory to put it out, or do a smaller, self-release thing? AR: Our newest record was our last for Victory. We’re free agents right now, which is pretty exciting. But yeah, something small. Like I said, what makes it fun for me is the unprofessional aspect of it, you know? So to sign the traditional deal, and have all those things that go with that, would kind of take away from why I do it for in the ﬁrst place. Anthony Raneri plays Tampa’s Crowbar June 19, Gainesville’s 1982 June 20, and Orlando’s Backbooth June 21. MYSPACE.COM/BAYSIDE

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SOAPBOX PRODUCT PLACEMENT

PRODUCT PLACEMENT PIXIES BOX SET They didn’t invent indie rock; nobody did. But they did pretty much deﬁne it, and however many years later, they still sound fresh and original and ahead of their time. And Minotaur, available for pre-order June 15 via Artist In Residence, collects all ﬁve of their studio albums, as well as all sorts of bonus stuff like a DVD of the band’s legendary ‘91 London concert and all their videos, a book of work by cover artists Vaughan Oliver and Simon Larbalestier, and new album artwork from the gentlemen. And if that isn’t enough, superfans can shell out a mind-boggling $450 for a limited-edition version of the set, with high-quality vinyl albums, a bigger hardback book and even a print by Oliver.

$175

ainr.com

ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL VIDEO CONVERTER FOR MAC If you’re not a digital-video ninja, converting your old VHS movies and camcorder footage to a usable digital format can be a major pain in the ass. It’s getting easier all the time, but Elgato’s Video Capture cable is a simple one-shot deal, straight from analog - via RCA or S-video - to your Mac and the iPod- and PSP-friendly H.264 format. Yeah, it costs about as much as a lower-end digital-video handheld, but a new recorder isn’t going to help you get Skate Visions and The Search for Animal Chin and that tape you made of you and your buddies getting sauced on crème de menthe that time your parents went out of town on your new-tech screens.

$100

Elgato.com

What’s it been, like, 20 years since the first Rockman headphone amps first allowed electric guitarists to practice quietly and still get something close to approaching real amplifier sounds? Those things were the size of books. Nowadays, Vox has a pretty decent-sounding headphone amp - with a built-in digital delay effect and an auxiliary in for your CD or mp3 player - that’s not much bigger than a Zippo. The amPlug Lead runs on two AAA batteries, plugs right into any electric guitar, and says Vox on it, so as not to embarrass purists.

VOX HEADPHONE AMP

Connecticut design artist Rob Dobi’s Fullbleed graphics are bold and iconic, evoking substantial concepts and emotions without ever coming off as busy. Lots of stark images - like these three, “Out of Reach,” “Branching Out,” and “Surf’s Up Dudes” - but plenty of colorful, almost playful graphics to offset the dark stuff, as well. And hey, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area and don’t feel like waiting for an online order or you want to check out the quality in person, you can always, ahem, stop by the REAX Space ...

FULLBLEED T-SHIRTS

$17

$49.99

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fullbleed.org

SAP CAP

It’s not just a cool, plain, logofree baseball cap - it’s also a concealed weapon of the most primal variety. Hidden in the Sap Cap’s crown is a weight made of some space-age material that’s both rust-resistant and denser than lead; when accosted by muggers, drunken barﬂys who like to ﬁght for no reason or overripe zombies, the wearer grabs the brim, and the Sap Cap turns into an old-school headknocking blackjack. No, we’re not kidding. Let’s hear it for blunt trauma in the name of self-defense.

$29.99

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

BudK.com

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SOAPBOX UPCOMING RELEASES / MUSIC REVIEWS

UPCOMING

ABRAHAM LINCOLN THOMAS JEFFERSON BILL CLINTON

RELEASES ARTIST

RICHARD NIXON GEORGE W. BUSH

ALBUM

LABEL

CROCODILES SUMMER OF HATE

JUNE 05 / JUNE 09

DIRTY PROJECTORS BITTE ORCA

SONIC YOUTH THE ETERNAL MATADOR

DOMINO Anti-Flag Black Meteoric Star Busdriver Cass McCombs Deerhunter Eels Greg Kowalsky Headdress J-Dilla Joan of Arc Liechtenstein Mos Def Neil Young Spinnerette

The People or the Gun Black Meteoric Star Jhelli Beam Catacombs Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP Hombre Lobo Tape Chants Lunes Jay $tay Paid Flowers Survival Strategies in a Modern World The Ecstatic Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 Spinnerette

Side One Dummy DFA AntiDomino Kranky Vagrant Kranky No Quarter Nature Sounds Polyvinyl Slumberland Downtown Warner Bros. Anthem/RED

JUNE 16 / JUNE 23

DEASTRO MOONDAGGER

GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL

Baby Teeth Bibio Birds of Avalon The Dear Hunter Dinosaur Jr. Foreign Born God Help The Girl The Lemonheads Lil Wayne The Mars Volta Onna Regina Spektor Royal City Sunset Rubdown Tortoise Venetian Snares Zs

Hustle Beach Ambililance Avenue Uncanny Valley Act III: Life and Death Farm Person to Person God Help The Girl Varshons Rebirth Octahedron Onna Far Royal City Dragonslayer Beacons of Ancestorship Horsey Noises Magic of the Modern White

JETS OVERHEAD NO NATIONS VAPOR

Lujo Warp Volcom Triple Crown Rec. Jagjaguwar Secretly Canadian Matador The End Cash Money Warner Bros. Holy Mountain Sire Asthmatic Kitty Jagjaguwar Thrill Jockey Planet Mu The Social Registry

JULY 07

CAGE DEPART FROM ME DEFINITIVE JUX

THE PINE HILL HAINTS TO WIN OR TO LOSE K RECORDS

Animal Collective Junior Boys Moby Nebula Nurses Oneida Owen Son Volt Tiny Vipers UUVVWWWZ

Summertime Clothes 12” Hazel 12” Wait For Me Heavy Psych Apple’s Acre Rated O The Seaside EP American Central Dust Life On Earth UUVVWWWZ

Reviewed in this issue

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

Domino Domino Mute Tee Pee Dead Oceans Jagjaguwar Polyvinyl Rounder Sub Pop Saddle Creek

One word describes Crocodiles’ freshman album: Reverb. Actually, make that three words: Reverb done well. This San Diego duo has produced a record that, had it not been for good song lyrics and a more-than-decent grasp of rhythmic composition, could have been an atrocity. The album has nine songs, but my two favorites are “I Wanna Kill” and “Young Drugs.” Though it might seem like it’s a bit of a throwback, the general sound of this album is a mash-up of the reverb-laden tracks of Fischerspooner and early-’80s Smiths-style electro-pop. Organ MIDIs and feedback loops seem to be the meat and potatoes of Crocodiles, and the two band members say that their inspiration for this album was San Diego. If that’s true, then San Diego doesn’t sound like too bad of a place to be. (FAT POSSUM) - Chris Gaughan

SONIC YOUTH THE ETERNAL Well, what hasn’t been said about the band that just about singlehandedly elevated under ground college rock to the level of credible art? Their 16th album - which features former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold in the mix - is a familiar mix of darkly fuzz-toned cool and layered, tidal instrumental atmospherics that leans more toward the accessible side of Sonic Youth’s nature. But while it’s a tad less experimental than some of the stalwart NYC unit’s releases, The Eternal more than makes up for a comparative dearth of weirdness on the strength and solidity of its songwriting. Slightly less challenging, yes, but it’s a hell of an enjoyable listen, and proof that this venerable group isn’t anywhere near tired. (MATADOR) - Scott Harrell

RAMBLIN’ JACK ELLIOTT A STRANGER HERE Seventy-seven-year-old Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is one of the last bona ﬁde American troubadours. In his early teens, Elliott ran away from his home in Brooklyn to join the rodeo, and picked up guitar from a cowboy. In the ‘50s, he became a disciple of Woody Guthrie, traveling the country with nothing but a six-string and a toothbrush. Now, after more than 40 albums, Ramblin’ Jack takes a break from the folk music he’s most known for to try something different with noted Americana producer Joe Henry. On A Stranger Here, he tackles ten country-blues standards, from Blind Willie Johnson to Furry Lewis, with help from David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and Van Dyke Parks. The titles and lyrics may be familiar to fans of the blues, but Elliott’s polished renderings of the old and sometimes grainy recordings

are entirely his own. The weary vocals and minimalist instrumentation on “Grinnin’ In Your Face” produce a spooky track that is every bit as evocative as Son House’s a cappella version, and songs like “Richland Women Blues” and “Falling Down Blues” are perfect for a summer afternoon of porch-sitting and iced tea. You could argue the songs on A Stranger Here aren’t as good as the originals and you’d probably be right, but Elliott’s greatness is in his delivery, and his ability to make you believe that the songs written by black, precivil rights era southerners came from his pen. (ANTI-) - Benjamin Evans

COMPANY FLOW FUNCRUSHER PLUS It’s arguably where backpack started, with El-P, Bigg Jus and DJ Mr. Len defying trends and signing to a deal with then-fledgling Rawkus Records that offered them unprecedented creative freedom and profit-sharing. This, the resulting 1997 full-length expansion of CoFlow’s vinyl-only Funcrusher EP, whiplashed the necks of open-minded fans looking for hip-hop’s next new thing, and set the precedent for every smart, abstract, scattershot stream-of-active-consciousness verse laid over a weird beat to follow. Now remastered, Funcrusher Plus remains as jaw-dropping as ever. While a few of the beats are noticeably more sparse than some of the fathoms-deep layers of Bomb Squadinfluenced production that came later (and come off in hindsight as perhaps more inspired by the simple, jazzy soundscapes of DJ Premier and the Native Tongues cabal than originally supposed, albeit in a darker, much grittier way), nothing seems dated in the least, and oh, man, the rhymes. El-P’s aggressive and expressive style in particular still sounds like it’s from the future, but everyone involved pushed the envelope so hard that today’s underground MCs are still seeing traces of CoFlow’s trail no matter how far ahead they’re looking. This one belongs up there with The Low End Theory, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Paul’s Boutique, etc. (DEFINITIVE JUX) - Scott Harrell

DIRTY PROJECTORS BITTE ORCA After two weeks of listening to this album, I still don’t know what the hell “Bitte Orca” means, and the Internet doesn’t know either. Does it mean “thank you,” or “please,” or does it mean “an album that doesn’t really fall into any clear category”? If it’s the last one, then Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors have named their new album correctly. Bitte Orca ranges from well constructed and melodic indie rock to acoustic minimalism. The band’s singer sounds like Ted Leo, backed by music that sounds like The Unicorns on sedatives. A few of the songs, like “Fluorescent half-Dome,” sound like vocalist Dave Longsreth is trying to pass himself off as a new-millennium Barry Manilow crooning away to a synthesizer. In the end, as scattered as this album is, the result is pulled together well, and I have to say, I like it. (DOMINO) - Chris Gaughan

MUSIC REVIEWS SOAPBOX

DANGER MOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL Holy crap, that’s quite a list of guest artists! Wayne Coyne, Frank Blank, Julian Casablancas, James Mercer, Iggy Pop, Jason Lytle, Nina Persson, David Lynch. For those of you who haven’t done your homework, those artists are the creative forces behind The Flaming Lips, Pixies, The Strokes, The Shins, Grandaddy, The Cardigans, and, wait, David Lynch?! What’s he doing there? Yes, that David Lynch, the famous director, oversaw the artistic direction of Dark Night of the Soul. Lynch also sings two tracks on the album, the work of hyped DJ Danger Mouse and singer-songwriter Mark Linkous, the guiding force behind Sparklehorse. Do believe the hype: the album totally works. Although EMI has shelved it for legal reasons, here’s hoping Danger Mouse’s insurgent scheme to release the artwork with a blank CD-R and encourage downloading gets it out there. Cheers! (EMI) - Evan Tokarz

CHIMAIRA THE INFECTION This is a band that has never struck me as anything special in the past, and it’s certainly not happening now. The album starts off with a moody, semi-epic intro that goes right into a barrage of mid-tempo mediocrity. That’s all the listener gets from every song on this record: poorly executed Meshuggah and Pantera worship. There are a few moments of pretty heavy riffing and technical drumming, but they get overshadowed by the poor use of transitions in the songwriting that never really pick the listener up. As the album gets on, you’ll notice the absence of clean vocals, something that’s become a staple for this band and their sound: screamed verse/ sung chorus or good cop/bad cop vocals. It’s paint by numbers. I guess the clean vocals were traded in for some deep growls reminiscent of that popular thing going on right now called “death core” that has has all the boys trading in their flat irons for Job for a Cowboy T-shirts. At the CD’s end, we get a 14-minute-plus instrumental that pretty much recaps the entire mood of the record: riff after riff, with little to no change in tempo, plus the four and a half minutes of white noise at the end. What is the point in that, except to say “we have a 14-minute instrumental,” when the song should have stopped with the fadeout? Lame. This is the sound of a band trying to keep up while running out of steam they never had in the first place. (FERRET MUSIC) - Jamie Stewart

FISCHERSPOONER ENTERTAINMENT It seems a little odd that this synth-pop/ performance art duo felt the need to make a statement on the theme of “entertainment” this late in the game - after all, their blend of retro dance blips, pretense and club-kid camp has been about little else, and almost single-handedly redeﬁned the term for nightlifers straddling the subway lines between the dance ﬂoor and the gallery. In any case, what Fischerspooner’s third full-length

reﬂects more than anything about entertainment is the ﬂeeting and cyclical nature of its tastes, because less than a decade after they appeared on the scene as ahead-of-their-time pop-life provocateurs, here they come off as dated and predictable. Entertainment isn’t bad, and has its impressive moments, like “We Are Electric” and the interesting juxtaposition of vocals and rhythm in “Amuse Bouche” (clever!). But too often, it relies on rote, self-consciously moody Depeche Mode-isms, rendering the experience somewhat uninspired. Hey, maybe that’s what they were trying to say about pop culture all along; if so, mission accomplished. (FS STUDIOS/WORLD’S FAIR) - Scott Harrell

ELDE OMAR GRUPO NUEVO RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ CRYPTOMNESIA

The lead guitar guy from Mars Volta is still keeping himself busy. So far this year he’s released four albums. This one is my favorite; it might as well be another Mars Volta LP. It’s got MV lead singer Cedric Zavala, other Mars Volta personnel, and the human octopus Zach Hill from Hella, playing music that will most likely be enjoyed by Mars Volta fans. Fanatics will worship its lunacy, but someone that can’t ﬁnd comfort in 10,000-mph insanity like the ﬁrst track off of Bedlam in Goliath will most likely pass. This is Mars Volta Plus, due to the extra freedom and experimentation the non-band format delivers. (RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ PRODUCTIONS) - Shawn Goldberg

DROP DEAD, GORGEOUS THE HOT N’ HEAVY This band embodies everything I see wrong with “heavy” music these days, at least in America - a real lack of originality. Breakdowns, whiny clean vocals, generic lyrics about girls (as if that hasn’t been beaten into the ground already), and a whole lot of these guys wanting to be Underoath and Norma Jean on top of yearning to be a TRLstyle sensation. Wanting your band to be popular isn’t a bad thing, as long as it is on your own terms. Taking the obvious measures to ensure stardom by purposely leaning on the “easy listening” crutch is just sad and aggravating. Anybody in a band knows the deal: You do your thing making music, hopefully from the heart, and put yourself out there to be heard. A lot of bands get recognition, and some actually get bigger based on their hard work and talent; but a lot of people want to be in bands just to be popular no matter what the cost, and that’s when the bullshit ﬂows and you get watered-down, deliberate posturing like Drop Dead, Gorgeous. I’m not into it, and that is all I get from this band. All I really need to say about the album itself aside from the not-funny “funny” song titles and weird, artsy piano interludes - is that all the songs pretty much sound the same, with the exception of track four, “Two Birds, One Stone.” This is the one song on the album that has mostly clean vocals. Once I heard this, I thought, “single,” and after going to the band’s Myspace, my suspicions were conﬁrmed. This band is so on purpose … I suppose if you like Underoath, Norma Jean, and the bands with the half-hearted onstage sass that have the mall rats raging in their Atreyu shirts (no dis to U.O. or Norma Jean, but Atreyu sucks), then this is your watered down cup of crappy tea. (SURETONE) - Jamie Stewart

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Leonard Cohen: First Five Albums (Sundazed Records) His first five albums originally released from 1967-1974: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs From a Room, Songs of Love and Hate, Live Songs, New Skin For the Old Ceremony; are for the first time in decades remastered from the original Columbia Records stereo masters and pressed on high-definition vinyl. Rudy Ray Moore: This Ain’t No White Christmas (Norton Records) I know it’s only June but you need some cheering up. Christmas with Dolemite. Raunchier than Richard Pryor, the Human Tornado spins eight yarns of life lessons in this special 37th anniversary collection of his 1971 Christmas album, with additonal material. Lou Reed: Berlin Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse (Matador Records) A haunting chorus and orchestration swirl about Reed’s 2006 live rendition of his 1973 rock opera. Dive through the depressing circumstances of how love and heroin addiction intersect and restrain control upon the heartbreaking relationship of the protagonists. Includes three additional songs not on the original Berlin release: “Sweet Jane,” “Rock Minuet,” and “Candy Says.” Andrew Bird: Noble Beast (Fat Possum Records) Need a soundtrack for wandering around a misty field around twilight? And maybe it’s such a satisfying listen because Sufjan Stevens hasn’t released a new album in a couple years, but this guy’s violin and whistling picks up the slack. Wipers: Is This Real? (Jackpot Records) Remastered from original tapes provided by singer and guitarist Greg Sage, this repress presents the unmistakable piercing sound of Portland’s best late70s/early80s punk outfit without losing the cloudy raucous texture of their snapping delivery and twitching rhythms.

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myspace.com/mojobooksandmusic JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SOAPBOX MUSIC REVIEWS

65DAYSOFSTATIC ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK In 2002, I discovered I loved experimental post-rock and I tried to consume as much of it as possible. After I nearly overdosed on Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed! You Black Emperor, I came across 65daysofstatic. I’ve been in love ever since. Where Godspeed! has epic on lock and Explosions has cornered the market on melodic, 65days covers all of the area in between. The newest album by 65days, Escape from New York, is a good follow-up to their previous endeavors. This album is live, and captures a performance that DJ ensembles like Autechre or Aphex Twin wish they could produce. The album is gritty, industrial, and electronic, but tempered by softer sets of percussion and piano. The overall effect is something you could work out to, listen to on a rainy day, or even write that overdue thesis paper to. Two thumbs up. (MONOTREME) - Chris Gaughan

GREEN DAY 21st CENTURY BREAKDOWN Their ﬁrst proper album since the world’s biggest punk-pop band dominated the charts and awards shows with 2004’s American Idiot sounds … a lot like American Idiot, only with more piano. Tunes like the anthemic, rhythm-shifting title track, singalong single “Know Your Enemy,” the show tunedynamic “Before The Lobotomy” and, well, pretty much everything else (excepting, perhaps, the mix of old and new that is “Christian’s Inferno”) sounds like it came out of the same sessions that produced the previous Green Day release. They wouldn’t have been cut for lack of quality; Breakdown is every bit as cohesive, catchy and accomplished a suite of songs. But coming from a band that really achieved iconic status not by perfecting the three-chords-and-a-ton-of-hookyenergy formula, but by walking away from that distinction and going on to consistently reinvent itself, such a safe next move, however enjoyable, comes off as something of a disappointment. (REPRISE) - Scott Harrell

DEERHUNTER RAINWATER

CASSETTE EXCHANGE I’m really beginning to think that Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox’s songwriting “Never Stops.” With 25 tracks on Deerhunter’s recent releases Microcastle and Weird Era Cont., and constant uploads of songs onto the band’s blog, Cox has to be one of the most prolific and well-received artists around. But this kind of effort doesn’t usually come without some overlapping material. Although the five tracks on Rainwater could easily be added onto the end of their last album, the songs also showcase some unusual references, and a band that has far more to say than I previously thought. And that’s saying a lot. The title track builds in typical Deerhunter fashion, but also has a Hawaiian feel and tangoesque bass line; they’re two styles I know you’ve never heard together in the same song. Moses Archuleta’s drumming propels what is essentially a pop song drenched in reverb on the standout “Disappearing Ink,” and the sci-fi influenced

theremin on “Famous Last Words” recalls the noise you’re used to hearing in black-and-white alien movies as a ﬂying saucer ﬂoats through the atmosphere. On “Game of Diamonds,” the band trades in the trance-inducing hubbub of a previously recorded version for a simpler sound backed by tribal drums. The Rainwater version is sonically less intense, but just as effective. Hawaii, Argentina, space and Africa! Somehow, in one short record, the band has managed to take you with them on a trip around the world with Cox as the modern day Phineas Fogg. (KRANKY) - Benjamin Evans

THEE OH SEES HELP For their new LP, the soul of Thee Oh Sees dwells between 1955-1965 and honors rockabilly and Buddy Holly bop. Now a full band, they’re not as folky as before; there’s less of an embrace of the Marty Robbins 78 played at 45 rpm through two tin cans, yet the amount of fuzz and reverb slathered across these 12 tracks adopts so many early rock/Britpop elements, it’s very difﬁcult to realize the recording is not 40 years old. It searches back and singles out a small spark in memory, and coaxes that dormant coal into a slowly illuminating combustion that returns glimmering to the forefront of the mind. So bouncy a sock-hop might erupt in your living room. (IN THE RED RECORDS) - Shawn Goldberg

SAXON SHORE IT DOESN’T MATTER Good ol’ post-rock. It’s like chicken and pasta. No matter what you put into post-rock, if you have the right mix, it’s tasty. By this strange analogy, It Doesn’t Matter has a pretty fair mix of chicken instrumental and pasta crescendo. On the previous album, 2005’s The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore, the band had a more guitar-driven sound; on this one, though, the band bases the sound centrally on piano and violin. For example, the track “Tweleven” has a lengthy, quiet piano opening that builds to apocalypse guitars and crashing drums. It also has a really spiffy name. “Tweleven.” “Tweleven.” “Tweleven.” Although it is sort of a cliché to breed bands, the song “This Place” sounds like the offspring of M83, Múm, and, well, Saxon Shore. Saxon Shore appeals to those who are always down for some good postrock. (& RECORDS) - Evan Tokarz

THE PINE HILL HAINTS TO WIN OR TO LOSE Roots and rock in a marriage of traveling tunes for the hitchhiking soul. In a world that is most deﬁnitely a product of overused inﬂuence, The Pine Hill Haints make you want throw a bandana on a stick and hop a train to Big Sky country. Each song tells a story, which is the most important part of Americana/folk music, and is often the part bands forget to borrow. Late on the album, all the angst shows up on “Doublehead.” From the cover right on through all 16 tunes, To Win or To Lose is pure American folk magic. (K) - Jack Gregory

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND

ANEURETICAL WHEN YOU WERE A KID

OUTER SOUTH

Once again, everyone’s favorite singer-songwriter, Conor Oberst, has come out with an album that falls somewhere in between background music and mediocrity. Once again, he’s backed by a group of musicians who don’t really set any standards for musical excellence. This doesn’t mean that Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band’s second album is bad; it just means it’s nothing to write home about. Alt-country has been Mr. Oberst’s chosen milieu for the past few years, so it’s no surprise that this album follows that trend. The album’s melodies are acceptably catchy, and the lyrics are as postemo as anyone could expect. Maybe it’s because I’m not a self-obsessed adolescent anymore, but this album just does not stand out among any of the other albums I’ve reviewed this month. Once again, Mr. Oberst, I’m not impressed. Thanks for the effort, and I’ll see you next album. (MERGE) - Chris Gaughan

HILL COUNTRY REVUE MAKE A MOVE Hill Country Revue is definitely an offshoot of the more well-known North Mississippi Allstars, what with guitarist/vocalist Cody Dickinson and bassist Chris Chew runnin’ things. But it’s also definitely much more than that. While the stomping, organic roots-groove of NMA is amply represented, there’s a flowing, lyrical nature here, and a reverence for the dirtiest of chitlin-circuit backwoods blues, that lend Make A Move a personality all its own (and hefty contributions by smokin’ guitarists Garry and Duwayne Burnside, along with NMA six-stringer Luther Dickinson, don’t hurt none, either). Fans of the down ‘n’ gritty will love tunes like “Dirty Shirt,” “Let’s Talk About Me And You” and “Let Me Love You,” while the inherent melodies and Allman Brothers-esque bouncy guitar jams of “You Can Make It” and “Growing Up In Mississippi” keep things melodic. This is the real deal, showcasing a group of musicians both technically gifted and completely in touch with the soul at the root of the blues. (RAZOR & TIE) - Colin Kincaid

ANNABEL EACH AND EVERYONE Does anybody remember laughter? Jesus Cristo! When emo unveiled itself to this generation a few years ago, I assumed it would be hip for a minute and die like ska in the late ‘90s. When this happens to most genres, a few true believers remain, and the airwaves are clear for the next ear turds. However, Annabel and the many bands that sound just like them have stuck around to milk the “sensitive soul” thing and make the young girls swoon. While I don’t exactly love this brand of sad-bastard music, I understand its presence, and don’t fault the kids for getting in touch with emotion. Annabel can play well; the songs are well crafted, gooey and sad grooves complete with toy keyboards and synth drones. Lyrically, nothing stands as great, but they aren’t offensively awful. I leave you with a request to the parents of the next generation: Please give your kids enough hugs, but not too many. (COUNT YOUR LUCKY STARS) - Jack Gregory

Apparently Aneuretical’s When You Were a Kid is a “reissue of the crazy popular 2004 album,” but I’m not quite sure where I was. As Aneuretical treads their way through the teenage angst rock scene with screechy, nasally vocals and repetitive lyrics (I guess it successfully gets the point across, or something), I can understand why the Minnesota band may be well liked. But the noisy tracks on When You Were a Kid seem reminiscent of something you’d hear an opening act play in an empty, echo-y venue before the main attraction. (AFTERNOON RECORDS) - Alexis Quinn Chamberlain

THE HIGH STRUNG ODE TO THE INVERSE OF THE DUDE

From the ﬁrst choired vocals of Dude’s indomitable opener, it’s wholly apparent that this is not in fact a tribute to The Big Lebowski’s Jeff Bridges. Ah, but the sheer perk and pep of the next tossed-off half-hour of music quickly sweeps away any lingering disappointment. The Polyphonic Spree minus white sheets, 20 backup singers, and the Jim Jones vibe, this quirky power-pop trio discards its Detroit pedigree with goofball pyschedelia, sing-along choruses, and fresh-out-of-the-dryer warm ‘n’ fuzzies. On the jaunty “The Lifestyle that Got Away,” Josh Malerman’s strangled high pitch has a charming way of hovering over the nerve without actually getting on it - his caution-to-thewind delivery comes off like Jeff Mangum on Percocet. Crashing cymbals pair with ascendant orchestration to swallow up vulnerable confessions in “Bad with My Hands,” while the acid-washed piano jam “Real Stone” sweetly kisses side two of the White Album with Flaming Lips. Of all these three-minute cheeseball inspirations, though, the representative-of-the-whole leadoff track “Standing at the Door of Self-Discovery” ups the ante both for cheese and inspiration. If Dude is ABC prime time, this cut is its Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - a sappy group effort, done in good spirits, probably tossed together in a couple days. (PARK THE VAN) - Robert J. Hilson

JETS OVERHEAD NO NATIONS The comparisons to Pink Floyd and Radiohead currently ﬂoating around as descriptors for this Juno Award-nominated Canadian co-ed group are understandable, in the context of, “they’re kinda mellow and super textured and don’t really sound like anybody else.” Which means, of course, they don’t really sound like Pink Floyd or Radiohead, either. No Nations is an incredibly nuanced album of slow-burn art-pop meditations whose most upbeat tunes (“Heading for Nowhere;” Americanatinged highlight “Sure Sign”) barely reach a trot, but nonetheless manage to be catchy, resonant and engaging. It’s not gonna keep you awake if you’re already tired, but it certainly isn’t gonna put you to sleep, and its deceptively ﬂuid melodies will be with you for days. This one isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it is charming, memorable and extremely well executed. (VAPOR) - Scott Harrell

MUSIC REVIEWS SOAPBOX

EELS HOMBRE LOBO:

12 SONGS OF DESIRE Those fans that stayed with L.A.’s awesome Eels after initial shiny success know what to expect from any given new CD: a balance of melancholy mid-tempo pop and de-/reconstructed blues stompers for the new millennium. Hey, guess what makes up Hombre Lobo? Yup. And it’s a great collection of classic E-penned tunes, split just about down the middle between his two default settings. Where the pop stuff might have outshone some of the blues stuff in the past, the revved-up, fuzzed-out groove-jams come out on top here, particularly “Tremendous Dynamite” and “What’s A Fella Gotta Do,” but “Fresh Blood” actually brings the Eels’ yin and yang together with exciting results. (VAGRANT) - Scott Harrell

QUIETING SYRUP SONGS ABOUT A SICK BOY You know those insomniac nights where it seems you’re able to do anything but sleep? Quieting Syrup may want to consider changing their name to NyQuil - plain and simple. This insanely personal and narrative debut album consists of 12 solid songs, written over a period of 12 years, that will quickly lull you to sleep - but deﬁnitely not in a bad way. Quieting Syrup frontman Stephen Howard wrote the tracks that make up Songs About A Sick Boy throughout various illnesses, surgeries, and even teenage drama, attacking the topics in a unique manner, leaving you hopeful, and completely and utterly mellowed out. Although Songs About A Sick Boy is the kind of album where you can’t really distinguish one track from the other, it doesn’t matter - they’re all equally melodic and impressive. (LOVITT RECORDS) - Alexis Quinn Chamberlain

VARIOUS ARTISTS VOL 1: THE REAL BETTER JACKSONVILLE PLAN

Twenty-four lo-ﬁ tracks by fourteen experimental Jacksonville area acts. The parts: Lelyn R. Masters - self-consciously eccentric singer-songwriter; equally cool and annoying. Honey Chamber - upbeat full-band indie-ness; vaguely Dead Milkmen-esque. The Memphibians - alternately acceptable and awful caterwauling drone. Richelieu - worse than the awful Memphibians cut. D.M. Waltz – two very different tunes, one a cool jangle ‘n’ drive with menacing vocals, the other futuro-spaz-core. Tuffy - strummy and sweet, but still quite original. Mothrawashington - from tastefully minimalist electro beats and droning guitar to Nick Caveesque downerisms. Stow - uniquely evocative ﬁngerpicking and vocal interplay; a highlight. American Bowie - terrible dickings-around. Beach Party - nicely tweaked Americana. Lazerstar goofy and somehow childlike, like Michael Penn for disco-toddlers. Jon Todd - dark ‘n’ moody guitar instrumentals. Elevators Making Analog - creepy slow-burn intro goes all distorto-sludgy on ya, then back again, over ten minutes. Horse Thieves - detuned broken twang ‘n’ noise. The sum: This is obviously a tight-knit group of folks more into doing something unique and fun than honing a typical type of songcraft. It’s

interesting to see how tracks that have so much in common can be so different at the same time; some of it is really pretty great, but honestly, some of it is just unlistenable masturbatory bullshit. (INFINTESMAL RECORDS) - Colin Kincaid

CKY CARVER CITY The band best known for its Jackass associations was always slicker and more mainstreamsounding than its skate-punk fans were willing to admit. Here, the band leans even further toward stacked chorus harmonies, synth guitars and nu-metal production values, and ends up feeling even more eight-years-ago than the TV show that first brought it peripheral notoriety. The songs all showcase the same incongruous mix of oddly disco-fied stoner rock, arena-metal angst and occasional screamo catharsis, running uniformly together like lava flowing downhill - pretty and powerfully propulsive, but stubbornly invasive and unchanging, and ultimately boring despite its alienness. The breakneck staccato riff of “Imaginary Threats” and spazzy Faith No More cop “Old Carver’s Bones” are the best things here; desperate single “A#1 Roller Rager” is by far the worst. (ROADRUNNER) - Colin Kincaid

MR. LIF I HEARD IT TODAY Mr. Lif more or less starts I Heard It Today with “Obama? So what? We still have problems to deal with.” Mr. Lif makes me glad I reviewed him over Del Tha Funky Homosapien; Lif’s beats are more original, his lyrics are more dense, and he uses words that have more than one syllable. I swear he just made a Noam Chomsky reference. The album addresses the bailout plan, the U.S. economy, black identity, and ways to relieve daily stress. Y’know, stuff that actually matters. Stuff like this needs to get out there. Check out “What About Us?” How could I not like an album with the line “Phenomenal rhinoceros in a box with much smaller animal/my hoofs on your mandibles”? (BLOODBOT TACTICAL ENTERPRISES) - Evan Tokarz

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE EATS DARKNESS Broken Social Scene co-conspirator Andrew Whiteman’s third Apostle of Hustle full-length comes off less like the concept album it’s purported to be, and more like a decidedly un-ironic submersion in those aspects of modern culture many artists try so hard to pretend don’t exist. But then again, isn’t that what all Apostle of Hustle CDs are about? An exploration of the self, and the deﬁnition of the self within and without certain contexts? This one’s just more external, and its wildly eclectic nature mimics the assaultive, ADD’ed-out nature of media, of marketing, of simply leaving the house to a satisfying degree. Whiteman and Co. haven’t left behind the Latin rhythms and instrumentation that inspired AoH’s creation, but here it’s more subtly and seamlessly incorporated into any number of other styles; the result is an idiosyncratic yet cohesive slice of wholly original indie-pop that speaks, in many accents, to the harried contemporary human experience. (ARTS & CRAFTS) - Scott Harrell

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SOAPBOX MUSIC REVIEWS / DVD REVIEW

IRON & WINE AROUND THE WELL Around the Well collects some bits of music out of Sam Beam’s beard. The ﬂavors of Wine are intimate and familiar: you’ve got Southwestern Beam, hushed Beam, and - okay, that’s about it. The album is separated into two discs, home recordings and studio recordings. The home recordings contain a cover of the Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman” and “Such Great Heights,” the song from Garden State that was included in a hallucinogenic M&M advertisement. Beam, incidentally, would be the relaxed blue one, undoubtedly the coolest anthropomorphic M&M. The track “Belated Promise Ring” stands out from the studio tracks - instead of more quiet, bearded, indie-singer-songwriter Beam, the track is cheerfully uptempo. On the whole, if you’re a sucker for intimate, mellow acoustic, I recommend this collection. (SUB POP) - Evan Tokarz

TARA JANE O’NEIL A WAYS AWAY Former Rodan member (and occasional Ida coconspirator) O’Neil has been putting out good solo records since the turn of the new millennium, and A Ways Away is yet another - her sixth or eighth, depending on whose discography you find most accurate. Often somber and melancholy yet never true downers, these quiet songs subtly evoke images of everything from rainyday children’s choirs to chilled-out ‘60s campfire singalongs without ever appearing to do too much on the surface. That’s O’Neil’s true gift: what in lesser hands might come off as mellow background music gently worms its way from your subconscious to the front of your brain, first distracting then enthralling you with the associations it conjures. There’s a fragility on display here that makes you want to take care of O’Neil’s material, and take it to heart. (K RECORDS) - Scott Harrell

NOFX COASTER What do you want me to say? It’s a fucking NOFX record - it’s fast, it’s punk, and it’s often more smartass than anything else. While never too shy to deride faith (any faith) before, they seem to have stepped it up a notch. “Best God In Show” uses a happy reggae vibe to point out their “distaste has turned to detest,” and in the country-on-meth riff “Blasphemy (The Victimless Crime)” they point out “anything that is your holy or sacred/I’m gonna desecrate and use in jest/But you’ll never hear a crack about Mohammed/Cuz I don’t wanna get shot in the chest.” But the record has other facets, such as the weird narrative about how Fat Mike met the latter half of Tegan & Sara in “Creeping Out Sara.” Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper NOFX record without paying homage to getting wasted. “First Call” is a wonderful homage to a bar that opens at six a.m., while “I Am An Alcoholic” is an unapologetic admission. The title track laments about how things that were once new and great have become less important - like the CD. It’s exactly what you would expect from NOFX: sometimes offensive, always solid, and ultimately a good time. (FAT WRECK CHORDS) - Timothy Asher

PAUL AND THE PATIENTS TO THE LIONS Dubbing themselves a mixture of progressive and classic rock, Paul and the Patients’ debut EP To the Lions seems as though it’s going to be yet another failed attempt at classic rock with repetitive lyrics, dark melodies, and what seems to be nothing more than simple background noise. And at ﬁrst listen it is. But with calmer, less produced - although not less repetitive - tracks like “Blogspot” and “Black Beards,” To the Lions is the kind of album you might want to sit through just to hear the few tracks actually worth listening to. (AMERICAN MYTH) - Alexis Quinn Chamberlain

THE VERA VIOLETS THE VERA VIOLETS I’ve always really enjoyed Jonathan Beadle’s output, starting back in the days of Drone Dimension. The new Vera Violets disc continues his obsession with the swirling, reverbed-out, druggy-yet-melodic elements of old-school shoegaze. Unfortunately, this particular effort is a little less energetic and eclectic overall, and occasionally tends to border on sameness. It’s still a solid disc; the vocal melodies usually succeed in drawing the listener in, and tunes like the throbbing, comparatively heavy “Destroyer” and the aptly sinewy “Electric Serpent” mix it up to a certain degree. But we’ve come to expect better than good from Beadle and his collaborators, and for all its mesmerizing charms, this eponymous full-length rests on its laurels - and plodding rhythms - a little too often to be called great. (SAFRANIN SOUND) - Scott Harrell

CAGE THE ELEPHANT CAGE THE ELEPHANT If you are introduced to a new band by reading a Coachella review that compares the singer’s stage presence to a “demented Bible Belt teacher,” there are two possibilities regarding said band’s off-stage, in-studio talent. A) They suck, but are ballsy and young and not afraid to do whatever it is that a demented Sunday school teacher would do if he were playing onstage at a rock fest in the desert, or B) They’re really damn good. Fortunately, this band survives the hype: Cage The Elephant deliver a solid, energetic, ambitious yet deliberate rock album in their self-titled debut, out this past April on Jive. The Southern Rock revival is entering adolescence; the novelty of boys from the country slinging sprawling country-fried rock songs about everything from horses to having babies is wearing thin. But the Bowling Green, KY natives’ ﬁrst effort is a refreshing reminder that when you combine all these elements: bluesinﬂuenced rock, grounded in folk but torn apart and put back together with a punk-rock aesthetic, magic can still happen. If you are a person that dreams of turning a ramshackle barn into a kickass party loft; if you’ve dreamt of a lovechild born of Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Pixies with Uncle Tupelo serving as midwife, your fantasy is “Caged” on this record. (JIVE) - Becca Nelson

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

DVD

SETH MACFARLANE’S CAVALCADE OF CARTOON COMEDY UNRATED / 2009

eth MacFarlane doesn’t write stuff for die-hard comedy fans, which isn’t a condemnation or a dismissal; it’s just a fact. And die-hard comedy fans who recognize and accept that fact, rather than getting all snippy at not being catered to, know that Family Guy, while defiantly derivative and middlebrow, is often pretty funny and occasionally genius. (Though, in this critic’s opinion, American Dad ups the originality and absurdity antes in a more satisfying way, and in the last couple of seasons has completely surpassed its predecessor.) Seth MacFarlane writes stuff for people who have spent their entire lives watching network television. His best bits rely on the viewer’s accumulated trivial knowledge of mainstream pop culture - what’s been on screens big and small, what you’re allowed to do on TV, what you’re not allowed to do on TV and, perhaps most crucially, what you used to not be able to do on TV. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. While these random animated shorts were originally conceived for Internet dissemination - and brought to you by Burger King - their main thrust seems conspicuously TV-related. Basically, they exist solely to present cartoon characters doing the three things they’d never, ever do on the boob tube: cursing, balling and producing turds. Now, if that’s enough for you, then you’re gonna love this DVD. Rarely do five minutes pass without somebody (Dick Cheney, Helena Bonham Carter, Mr. Sulu, a monkey and the first AIDS victim) getting laid, and five minutes never pass without a familiarly drawn person or animal or caricature of a celebrity unleashing a torrent of profanity. As for turds, more than two, but less than five, make an appearance over the hour or so of shorts. So yeah, if the mere sight of cartoon poop or cartoon ass bobbing and grinding under a sheet (or cartoon animal genitalia - at one memorable

point, a mountain lion’s package is grandly revealed in all its vein-y glory) is enough to send you into convulsive guffaws, you might want to keep an oxygen tank handy when you watch. If, on the other hand, you need some– thing, anything more than that to get you giggling, skip Cavalcade altogether, because its material is half-assed, broad even for MacFarlane, and rarely works on a level higher than that of Wile E. Coyote saying “fuck.” Did you know that Bob Dylan and Tom Waits talk funny? That a Scottish accent makes some words sound like other words? That people who wear soul patches and wifebeaters can generally be counted on to act like douchebags, even if they’re unicorns? That Matthew McConaughey has zero artistic credibility? That a talking frog might lie about being a cursed prince in order to get some action from a princess? That it might be absurd to imagine Jesus as a fat, self-absorbed slob? Yes, you did. A million other comedic constructs have reminded you endlessly. But that’s about as clever as Cavalcade gets. Even the bits that sound good in theory - a mountain climber takes a dump on a couple’s nuptials, convincing them God doesn’t want them to get married; the aforementioned Wile E. Coyote ﬁnally kills the Roadrunner, and his life loses its meaning - mostly come off like missed opportunities. The DVD isn’t a total washout. A twist on the horse-walks-into-a-bar joke that goes miles for a Sarah Jessica Parker punchline is meta-comedy-tastic, and about a third of the ten “Things You Never Hear” are good for a chuckle. And yeah, the mountain lion’s junk elicits a revolted crack-up. Three or four quality laughs, however, do not a worthwhile viewing experience make. This time around, MacFarlane has vastly overestimated the power of once-shocking television taboos to, hee hee, titillate. (20th CENTURY FOX) - Scott Harrell

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

SOAPBOX VIDEO GAME REVIEW

GAME UFC 2009 UNDISPUTED HOT GUY ON GUY ACTION

have to admit, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is not something that I follow. I don’t know, something about two men sharing their fungal infections just never appealed to me. But when the demo for UFC 2009 Undisputed came out last month, I was intrigued. Turning Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s face into meatloaf using Chuck “Iceman” Liddell was way too gratifying to overlook. So I decided to gas up the Hummer, Bic my head, throw on a wifebeater and pick up the full version of the game to try my luck in the Octagon. What’s immediately apparent is that you need to play the tutorial! It’s superannoying and really slowly paced, but necessary for survival in the ring (you’ll net an achievement, too). You may be able to best the first few fighters in the Career mode without any practice, but you’ll soon find yourself mounted and taking serious beat-downs. I had my fighter doling out healthy amounts of pain while standing, but fights started to end quickly once I was brought to the mat. Stand-up fighting is all done by using the face buttons, so you can mash buttons until your fingers fall off. But the ground-game is (appropriately) more technical, and makes use of the right thumb-stick to pull off difficult wrestling and jiu-jitsu moves. Really, concentrate on your ground game!

Undisputed has a few different game modes - Exhibition, Classic Matches, and Xbox Live - but the aforementioned Career mode is where you’ll likely spend most of your time. Throughout your career you’ll receive numerous e-mails with different Cred-boosting opportunities - like photoops, autograph sessions and fill-in fights - that earn you better sponsorships and training opportunities. After each bout, you’ll spend time in your gym balancing training, sparring and resting in order to gain attributes for your created fighter and keep him in tip-top condition. Managing all of this is a bit cumbersome, thanks to the menus and load-times, but it keeps you involved while trudging through the ranks of the world’s top fighters. THQ and Yuke’s have done a great job of capturing the essence of MMA with Undisputed. The game’s 80+ fighters look (mostly) like their real-life counterparts. They sweat and bruise; gashes open up and drip blood everywhere; and the submissions look painfully real. Besides the deliberate speed at which it all takes place, it almost looks like you’re watching a Pay-Per-View event. In addition, the fighters - like Bruce Buffer, Herb Dean, Steve Masagatti, and Mario Yamasaki - are all there. Even a couple of the UFC Ring Girls make, um … “bouncy”

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

appearances. Throw it all together with commentary from Mike Goldberg and the great Joe Rogan, and you’ve got a game that even the most discerning UFC fan will ﬁnd alluring. A few things hold Undisputed back from being the perfect brawler. Only one online mode of gameplay kind of seems like a missed opportunity (no tournament play?), and all of the saving and loading involved is just ridiculous. Also, I understand who the game is marketed toward, but the soundtrack is seriously painful (when Saliva’s “Click Click Boom” is the game’s best song, you know you have crap). UFC 2009 is undisputedly a ﬁghting fan’s wet dream (see what I did there?). But no matter if you’re a die-hard fan of the sport or not, Undisputed is a great game that showcases the world’s fastest-growing athletic obsession in a way that anyone can appreciate. After playing for a while, I found myself stuck on Versus watching WEC WrekCage and craving more. So who knows, the video game might just end up being as big for the sport as the sport is right now for video games. REVIEWED ON XBOX 360 - Trevor Roppolo

HANDS ON PRODUCT REVIEWS SOAPBOX

IKEA AMUSEMENT PARK Words: Shawn Kyle

Well, it was true in the 1970’s and it is still true today: nothing is like a Big Muff. Completely (ELECTRO HARMONIX) untamed, unmanageable, sort of with a life of its own, and easy to work and turn on. I am of course talking about the historic reissue of the USA Electro Harmonix guitar/bass effect pedal. Quite a few styles of music including grunge, stoner rock, psychedelia, alt, indie, and experimental would have suffered an unknown fate without this effect pedal’s trademark “bag full of angry bees stuffed into a Harley motorcycle engine” sound. And as far as the name “Big Muff” goes, it sounds so much more rock and roll than “Brazilian Sugar Wax,” doesn’t it?

BIG MUFF PI USA REISSUE

After years of travel and eccentric living, I occasionally am stunned, staggered and amazed at “normal” things like a 353,000-square-foot colossus of a three-story amusement park/furniture store/eatery/ confusing warehouse/labyrinth called IKEA. I had no idea what an IKEA was, but I ventured into the twilight zone when I had an hour to kill. I now want to buy a sleek and sexy minimalist house made out of aluminum and glass and perched on the edge of a cliff so I can ﬁll it up with sleek and sexy shelves, chairs, mirrors, and assorted whatnots from IKEA. If the Swedes have so easily brainwashed me with their yellow and blue building (possibly pumped full of suggestion and oxygen like a casino), then I fear the world is ripe for a takeover by Bauhaus Design School Vikings and we will all be eating Swedish meatballs with lingonberry compote before it’s all over. Swedish meatballs with lingonberry compote tested at IKEA, Ybor City IKEA.com

Product tested at Green Shift Music greenshiftmusic.com

When ProTools ﬁrst brought out the original M-Box, a portable and affordable (DIGIDESIGN) two-channel recording interface that worked with the groundbreaking and industry standard ProTools recording software, it started a revolution of indie recording, and initially hinted at the doom of many of the big box recording studios. It also was responsible for everyone you know thinking that they could competently make their own record, only to embarrassingly discover later that there is more to producing, engineering and mixing a recording than knowing how to work the software and the computer. Now, laptop-based recording and production is everywhere, and while the ProTools-based LE version software no longer seems cutting-edge (it is missing plenty of the value-added features of its competitors), it is still a solid way to produce music on the cheap, and bundled with the MBox Mini, a USB-powered analog-todigital interface the size of two packs of cigarettes, it is still, for the time being, an industry standard.

PROTOOLS & MBOX MINI

digidesign.com

VICIOUS INTENT

THE ROCK AND ROLL

ART EXPLOITATION

OF STAINBOY REINEL

(DARK HORSE BOOKS)

Embodying everything that made ‘70’s pulp movies, fast cars & girls with curves haunt the dreams of every rock and roller, Stainboy Reinel has become one of the notable and inﬂuential poster artists of this decade. Dark Horse Books has released a retrospective of many of his best and most sought after posters (including the infamous Nashville Pussy tour posters), as well as a detailed view of his inspirations and sketch designs (this dude still hand draws in ink!), and it’s a must for any and all aspiring poster artists. It’s a beautiful book, but don’t let your mother ﬁnd it on her coffee table.

stainboyreinel.com • darkhorse.com

This is hands down the best new beer that I have had this year. An Indian Pale Ale, but (LAGUNITAS BREWING) not too overwhelmingly bitter, with a complex and citrus-y overtone and an initially round ﬂavor of toasted hops and full malts. It pours a delightful orange color, with a frothy head. IPAs are by nature a great summer beer, and while many people can’t get around the tart aftertaste, they might ﬁnd this example to be an exception. Apparently a best seller in California, where it is brewed by a bunch of crazy but brilliant master-brewer hippies obsessed with Frank Zappa.

LAGUNITAS IPA

Tested during the sweltering Tropical Heatwave Festival at the New World Brewery Lagunitas.com

ORIGINAL SUN SINGLES ‘56-’60 Back in the 2-LP SET - SUNDAZED RECORDS day, singles were the way to go. You went into a studio and they recorded the band and cut the wax then and there, and went out and pressed the small 45-rpm single records that went into the jukeboxes and onto DJs’ turntables across the country. On this double LP-vinyl reissue, sourced from the original analog mono masters, you get to hear Jerry Lee Lewis help invent rock and roll music. Called “The Killer,” he was a piano prodigy at a young age, and his parents mortgaged their farm in Louisiana to buy him a piano. He soon turned to what was called “the Devil’s music,” and quickly became renowned for playing the piano in a way that no one before him had; songs like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” brought him international fame but also 1950s-era protests and boycotts at the music’s obvious sexual overtones. Still, this is music to drive your car fast, drink PBR Product tested at Daddy Kool Records DaddyKool.com and have your girl shake her hips to.

JERRY LEE LEWIS

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY HOTSPOTS: VENUES & BARS 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 City crowbarlive.com

CZAR

Home to some of the best parties of 2009, CZAR’s three rooms of goodness have a lot to offer music and vodka lovers alike. PULP on Wednesday night is a must, see hipsters dance the night away in style. Don’t forget the ice shots!

1420 E. 7th Ave., Ybor City czarybor.com

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 8th Ave., Ybor City 813.248.6130

NEW WORLD BREWERY

A killer beer selection and eclectic, culture-friendly musical slate make this Ybor City bar-and-patio a local favorite.

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

THE ORPHEUM

A long-running favorite for national and local indie shows, as well as hipster-ﬁlled dance nights.

1902 Ave. Republica De Cuba, Ybor City 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

THE RITZ

The infamous 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.

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

THE DISC EXCHANGE

Open 25 Years! Here’s where to go to buy, sell, and trade your CDs, vinyl, and memorabilia. Always lots of new and used merchandise to dig through - All styles of music from punk to gospel! Open Mon - Fri: 11 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Sat: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

6712 Central Ave. St.Pete FL 727.343.5845 madtiki.com

GREEN SHIFT MUSIC & COMICS

Quirky but cool collision of guitars, amps and new, used and rare comics.

5226 N. Nebraska Ave., Tampa 813.238.4177 greenshiftmusic.com

HASLAM’S BOOK STORE

Florida’s largest new-and-used book joint. Make the drive, and plan to spend at least half the day browsing.

MOJO BOOKS & MUSIC

Used CDs and vinyl of course, but don’t forget about the amazingly huge selection of great 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 very 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.

THE STATE THEATRE

VINYL FEVER

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

687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg statetheatreconcerts.com

4110 Henderson Blvd., Tampa 813.289.8399 vinylfevertampa.com

UPTOWN BAR

WILSON’S BOOK WORLD

658 Central Ave., St. Petersburg 727.463.0567

GLASGOW

2025 Central Ave., St. Petersburg haslams.com

1503 7th Ave., Ybor City theritzybor.com

Amiable little dive that features an alwayseclectic lineup of local shows, from DJs to hardcore.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

ALL PRO PERCUSSION

650 Central Ave., St. Petersburg 727-822-3304 30111 U.S. HWY 19 N., Clearwater 727.785.9106

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.

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL

Excellent (mostly used) bookstore just north of downtown St. Pete. They’ve got everything from comics to contemporary lit to rare collectibles and ﬁrst editions.

2934 Dr. MLK, Jr. St. N., St. Petersburg 727.896.3700

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

Words: Patrick Gregory • Photo: Kyle Barret

n a muggy Tampa evening, I met up with three of the four members of upand-coming Tampa Bay folk-rock act Glasgow. The conversation ﬂowed like delicious pale ale; as we sailed on a sea of discussion, I managed to muster a few proper questions. The answers were long, and often led to complete sidebar discussions. So what we have here is a light sketch of my meeting with the Cigar City’s newest-born sensitive sons. Singer/guitarist Matt did most of the answering; bass player Sean and guitarist Boomer chimed in as well.

fun, I wouldn’t do it. I get off on playing shows.

REAX: Who does the writing? All: Matt.

REAX: Favorite albums? Matt: Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie. Boomer: Minus the Bear’s Menos el Oso. Sean: Radiohead, In Rainbows.

REAX: In what state do you most often ﬁnd yourself writing? Matt: This one. Florida. I’m kind of a sissy. It all boils down to my emotional state. When I’m happy, I write the meanest songs, because I’m happy about a break, or whatever it is. REAX: Why the Name Glasgow? Matt: We were practicing our song of the same name, and realized that it was just a good ﬁt. It’s short. One word. Perfect. REAX: What’s the plan, is this just for fun or are you chasing the rock ‘n’ roll rainbow? Matt: I think you’ll get a different answer out of all of us, but I’ll go ahead and spearhead this one. To look at it as hobby and not a business is just foolish. I grew up in sports, and played sports all my life. I want people to hear it and think it’s the best, most importantly our peers. Sean: The way I look at it is, if I were not having

REAX: Boomer, what is your take on this? Boomer: I want to sustain myself playing original music. REAX: Is everything you write mellow? When do you rock? Matt: We have a new song called “Arizona” that we decided to add a more rocking ending to. Sean: Our live show is a lot more energetic than the things we’ve recorded.

REAX: What is your favorite place to play? Matt: The Crowbar has been great to us. REAX: What is your dream bill to play on? Matt: Minus the Bear, Jimmy Eat World, and Band of Horses. REAX: I heard a lot of newer bands in the last question. If you could pick one older band, who would it be? Matt: Bob Dylan. Led Zeppelin. Boston. Or Hank Williams. Glasgow plays Ybor City’s New World Brewery June 11, and Tallahassee’s Engine Room June 19. MYSPACE.COM/GLASGOW813

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY HOTSPOTS: RETAIL

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE

AGUILA SANDWICH SHOP

BENTLEY SALON

3200 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa 813.876.4022

3228 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa 813.877.9801 myspace.com/bentleysalon

CAPPY’S PIZZA

RED LETTER 1

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.

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

CEVICHE

Stylish and delicious, with surprisingly affordable Spanish-style tapas at both locations.

1502 S. Howard Ave., Tampa 813.250.0203 10 Beach Dr., St. Petersburg 727.209.2302 ceviche.com

EL TACONAZO (TACO BUS)

Mexican food made in a bus. Weird, 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

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

A Redken-authorized, forward-thinking salon that emphasizes education for aspiring stylists.

RedLetter1 is a ﬂash-free, 100% custom 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 p.m., Tuesday-Saturdaya... other hours available by appointment only.

1818 N 15th Street. Ybor City 813.241.2435

SKATEPARK OF TAMPA

The legendary home of the Tampa Pro and Am comps.

4215 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa 813.621.6793 skateparkoftampa.com

YOU CAN’T SPELL

SKATEPARK

TRIBECA COLOR SALON

Keeping Tampa beautiful, one head at a time. Watch for a new location opening soon in beautiful Ybor City!

920 W Kennedy Blvd 813.250.0208 www.tribecasalon.com

HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES REAX SPACE

What, you didn’t know that we’ve got our own boutique? Where’ve you been? See, we’ve got a little bit of everything to fully accessorize yourself here, like our ever-growing selection of killer graphic t’s and one-of-a-kind dresses. Plus cool hand-made accessories, books, records, and more! Featuring local and national designers and artists, our shop is more than a clothing boutique. It’s a gallery space and a retail establishment and the REAX ofﬁce, all rolled into one package of awesomeness. Come by and say hello!

1911 19th St., Ybor City 813.247.6975 reaxspace.com

WITHOUT, UM, YOU KNOW Photo: Carrie Waite

was looking for a clever metaphor for the way ska is always with us, how it flares up every once in a while and then goes back underground, but we know it’s still there, alive and well, and about the only thing I could come up with is herpes. And, you know, there’s just no cool, complimentary way to compare anything to herpes, so … Anyway, the Bay area seems to be one of those places where those upbeat syncopated rhythms and celebratory vibe never goes out of style. Hometown label Skacore Records is putting on its fifth, yes, fifth annual SkaFest this month, and it’s a beaut, featuring bands from all over the Southeast. Fans will get to skank to sets by The Taj Motel Trio, Angry Banana, The CV,

Paranoia Dance Party!, The Long Johns, Out of Nothing, The Sweet Kings, Chupaskabra, The Disregardables and Shut Up Travis!, as well newly hot St. Pete combo Johnny Cakes & The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso and exCohort Mitchy B’s new full-band action. That’s a lot of ska bands to only have one with the word “ska” in its name. It’s also a lot of spastic white-kid dancing, so please make sure you guys stay hydrated. SkaFest 2009! takes place June 13 @ Skatepark of Tampa’s Transitions Art Gallery. The all-ages show starts at 2 p.m.; the cover is $12. MYSPACE.COM/SKACORERECORDS

SQUARESVILLE

ALBUM SPOTLIGHT

508 S. Howard Ave., Tampa 813.259.9944

RICH WHITELEY

SUNSHINE THRIFT

(BLUE HEART RECORDS)

A local favorite for vintage clothing, not to mention those kitschy home furnishings.

RUBY FIZZ

There’s always something cool to ﬁnd here, even when others are cleaned out.

4304 S. Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa 813.831.4377

URBAN OUTFITTERS You know the deal.

1600 E. 8th Ave., Centro Ybor, Ybor City 813.242.8472

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

Sometimes you forget that not all great Americana is about murder and destitution and morning-after-the-whiskey-bender regret. Veteran Tampa Bay singer-songwriter Rich Whiteley is here to remind you with a new, largely upbeat set of 14 songs. It ain’t gritty or dark; what it is, is a bunch of catchy, well-honed tunes that blur the lines between folk, country and pop. Things occasionally get a little trite, as in the title track, “King of The Losers” and “Moonscape,” but standout cuts like “Sunny Delight,” “Flesh Blood and Bone” and “Hard Times” more than make up for the occasional pat or cheesy lyrical or stylistic misstep. Overall, this one’s consistently above average, and often great. - Scott Harrell

A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY YOUR ARE HERE

TAMPA BAY EVENTS FRI JUNE 05 Bogus Pomp Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $12/15 Time: 8 p.m. Dead Heros, Kronik Disorder, Rise II Brutality, Terra Firma, Dementia Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $8/$9 Time: 8 p.m. Deleted Scenes, Beardsley, The Pauses Arts on 9th, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. First Name Basis, The Haas, Holly, Poundsalt Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. Dynasty, The Villanz, Blac Soap, Jinx, DJ Sandman & DJ Fader Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. The Beauvilles, Thomas Wynn & The Believers, Shawn Fisher & The JGs New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. The Wailers Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $22/24 Time: 7 p.m.

SAT JUNE 06 And.On.I.Must Orpheum, Ybor City Time: 6 p.m. Patriots, The Ruins, Redliners, Scurvy Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. Post No Bills: Art for The Masses Art by Mike Delach, Laren Colombo, Smile Maker, Meology, Michelle Stevens, Calavera Comics, Chris Preston Feat. Cosmic Bakalava, The Crate Bros. Cafe Hey, Tampa Time: 8 p.m. Suncoast Blues Society Anniversary Party Feat. Hubert Sumlin Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $15/20 Time: 8 p.m. The Vodkanauts, The Ditchﬂowers New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m.

SUN JUNE 07 Faithless Oath, Neolith, Suggestion, Filtered Thoughts, Blood in the Water Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $9/10 Time: 6 p.m. Animal Collective, Black Dice State Theatre, St.Petersburg SOLD OUT! Hat Trick Heroes, Mail Order Brides, The Mantics, Killer Without a Cause Skipper’s Smokehouse Time: 5 p.m. Stereosix, Grecian Urns, The Safety Patrol, Sean O’Connor Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

TUE JUNE 09 An Evening with Johnny Rabb All Pro Percussion, Tampa Cost: $6 Time: 7:30 p.m. 10th Concession, Leilah Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m. New York Dolls, Black Joe Lewis, The Honeybears State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $25 Time: 7 p.m. Punk Rock Party w/ DJ Nemesis The Uptown Bar, St. Petersburg Time: 11 p.m.

JUNE 2009 oh hell yeah

WED JUNE 10 Bon Iver, Elvis Perkins State Theatre, St.Petersburg Time: 7 p.m. Mishka, Zaki Ibrahim, Matt Hires, Channing Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $12 Time: 7 p.m.

Unit Shifters Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

SUN JUNE 14 2009 Homemade Music Symposium REAX Space, Ybor City Tre Amici @ The Bunker, Ybor City Dreaded Harmony, Seventh Calling, Inner Demons, Dragonhead, Deshrived Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 7 p.m.

In Alcatraz 1962, Horizons, Illustrate The Apocalypse, Take Charge!, Wake Up Dead, Defy the Tides Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $8 Time: 7 p.m.

Necrophagist, Suffocation, Darkest Hour, Winds of Plague, Dying Fetus, Born of Osiris, Origin, Beneath the Massacre, After the Burial, Blackguard Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $25/30 Time: 3 p.m.

THU JUNE 11

TUE JUNE 16

Down with Paul Reiser & The Renegade Thugs, Acoustic Charlie, Signal 20, On Carlton Row Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Taking Back Sunday, Anberlin, Envy on The Coast The Ritz, Ybor City Cost: $25/29.50 Time: 6 p.m.

Mewithoutyou, The Dear Hunter, Bear Colony State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $14/16 Time: 7 p.m.

WED JUNE 17

Pontiak, History, King of Spain, Glasgow New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. Rusted Root Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $22/25 Time: 7 p.m. Vizcaya Globe Coffee Lounge, St. Petersburg Time: 9 p.m.

FRI JUNE 12 Alexander & The Grapes, Dark Knights of Camelot, Steady State New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m. Better than Ezra, Tyrone Wells Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $20/24 Time: 8 p.m. Dark Skinned Assassin Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 8 p.m. Eric Lindell Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost; $10/13 Time: 8 p.m. Murdok, Forsaken Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. Ryan Cabrera, Zack Hexum Orpheum, Ybor City Cost: $12/$15 Time: 7 p.m. The Human Condition Limey’s Pub, St. Petersburg Cost: FREE Time: 10 p.m. Fatal, Legions, Party Time, Salt Mine, Tortured Existence Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

SAT JUNE 13 2009 Homemade Music Symposium Hillsborough Community College, Ybor City 2009 Homemade Music Symposium Showcase Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. Crossbreed State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $12 Time: 7 p.m. Roots ‘N’ Rhythm 4* Feat. Big Jef Special, Midnight Bowlers League, Sarge & The Aeromen Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost; $10 Time: 8 p.m. Skafest 2009! The Taj Motel Trio, The CV, Dance Party Paranoia, Angry Banana, The Long Johns, Johnny Cakes And The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso, Out of Nothing, The Disregardables, Shut Up Travis!, The Sweet Kings, Chupaskabra, Mitchy B Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $12 Time: 2 p.m.

Island Night Feat. Impulse Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

THU JUNE 18 Signal 20, Tim Walker, Acoustic Charlie Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. The Heart Show Mise En Place Restaurant, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 8-12 p.m.

FRI JUNE 19 Anthony Raneri (Bayside), Andy Jackson (Hot Rod Circuit), Travis Adams (Inkwell) Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $10/12 Time: 7 p.m. Cope, Diocious Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m. (In Stereo) Selected Works by Craig Kaths Feat. DJ Deacon, DJ Colonic REAX Space, Ybor City Cost: FREE Time: 7 p.m. Killers of Comedy Tour! Feat. The Reverend Bob Levy, Sal the Stockbroker, Yucko the Clown, Shulie, Beetlejuice, & Mike Morse State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $25/30 Time: 8 p.m. Rabbit in the Moon, Baby Anne The Ritz Theatre, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. Subnoxiouz, Cid Vorheez, Fall of Babylon Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. The Explorers Club, Brent Rademaker New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. The Human Condition, Matt Eddy Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin

SAT JUNE 20 Beach Party Feat. Variety Workshop Gasoline Alley, Clearwater Time: 9 p.m. Halcyon, Stephanie Anderson Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $12 Time: 8 p.m. Highway to Hell Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $10/12 Time: 7 p.m. Beneﬁt to Fight Cancer 2 Feat. Until the End, Losing Vision, Coldside, Forty Winters, When Honor Meant Everything, With Increase Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m. Social Ghost, Situation Mine, The Cruz State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

A GUIDE TO TAMPA BAY YOUR ARE HERE

TAMPA BAY EVENTS SAT JUNE 20

CONTINUED

Spam All Stars, Junkie Rush, Johnny Cakes and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $12/15 Time: 8:30 p.m. Wherewithal, Singod Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

JUNE 2009 oh hell yeah

Matt Hires The Ritz, Ybor City Time: 7 p.m. The Dolladay 4 Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $5 Time: 10 p.m. Toby Keith, Trace Adkins Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa Time: 7:30 p.m.

SUN JUNE 21

Tommy Talton Band, Pedro Arevalo & friends Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

Her & Kings County, Southside Serenade, Nine Mile Drive State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m.

Van*Gloria New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: FREE Time: 9 p.m.

Spinlight City, Giants, The Retrofrets Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

Yellowman State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $16 Time: 7 p.m.

The Jerry Outlaw/David Pate Group, The LaRue Nickelson Group Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $10 Time: 5 p.m.

TUE JUNE 23 Boys Like Girls, Never Shout Never, The Ready Set State Theatre, St. Petersburg Time: 6 p.m. Carnifex, Impending Doom, Miss May I, Conducting From the Grave, Underneath The Gun, Molotov Solution Orpheum, Ybor City Cost $10/13 Time: 5:30 p.m.

SAT JUNE 27 Battle of the Bands Market On 7th, Ybor City Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m. Cyril Neville, Bird Street Players Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $12/15 Time: 8 p.m. Drop Dead, Gorgeous State Theatre, St. Petersburg Cost: $13/15 Time: 7 p.m. Have Gun Will Travel, The Takers, Lauris Vidal, Truckstop Coffee New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m.

Chris Whiteley Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m. Wed Junee 24

Kid Rock & Lynyrd Skynyrd Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa Time: 6:30 p.m.

Plain White T’s Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: 16.50/20 Time: 7 p.m.

MS Beneﬁt Show Feat. The Virgins Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $5 Time: 7 p.m.

WED JUNE 24 Anniversary Party for The RITZ Ybor Feat. Grayson Capps The Ritz Theatre, Ybor City Time: 6 p.m. CIO, The Ska-Munists, The M1s, Introverts, Johnny Teabags Transitions Art Gallery, Tampa Cost: $5 Time: 7 p.m.

THU JUNE 25 Joey Cape (In-Store Performance) REAX Space, Ybor City Cost: FREE Time: 5 p.m. Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Cory Branan, Jon Snodgrass (Drag the River) New World Brewery, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. On Carlton Row, Acoustic Charlie Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. New Wave 80’s Tribute to Peter Murphy w/ DJ Nemesis The Rare Olive, St. Petersburg Time: 11 p.m. Peter Murphy Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $25 Time: 7 p.m. The Dark Romantics Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

FRI JUNE 26 ABSU Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg Cost: $17/20 Time: 7 p.m Biggodtalking, Groove Plant, Dawn’s Early Light Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. Goatwhore, Abigail Williams, Daath, Abysmal Dawn, S.W.W.A.A.T.S. The Garage, St. Petersburg Time: 8 p.m.

The Mighty Swines, Me In Fireworks, Consinity Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. The Takers, Lauris Vidal, Have Gun, Will Travel (In-Store Performances) REAX Space, Ybor City Cost: FREE Time: 5 p.m.

SUN JUNE 28 Christie Lenee and the FunkGrass Groove, The Hip Abduction, Lauren Reed Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $10/13 Time: 8 p.m. Tension Head, Enter The Era Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m.

TUE JUNE 30 Awesome New Republic Crowbar, Ybor City Time: 9 p.m. Freight Train Annie’s Girlie Show #11 Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa Cost: $7 Time: 7:30 p.m.

THU JULY 02 Acoustic Charlie Pegasus Lounge, Tampa Time: 9 p.m. Mike Dunn & The Kings of New England, Rick Brantley New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

FRI JULY 03 REAX Music Magazine Presents The 3rd Annual Hot Dog Show! Feat. SUNBEARS!, Juicy Pony, eFFeX + More Crowbar, Ybor City Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m. Starlight Mints, Evangelicals New World Brewery, Ybor City Cost: $8 Time: 9 p.m.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO ORLANDO & CENTRAL FLORIDA 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

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

HARD ROCK LIVE

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE DRUMS2GO

Everything percussion, and indie to boot.

204 S. Semoran Blvd., Orlando 407.306.0611 drums2go.com

FULL SAIL ACADEMY

Probably still best known as the place to get schooled in sound/engineering/ recording, but Full Sail also offers intensive degree programs in everything from Entertainment Business to Game Development.

3300 University Blvd., Winter Park 407.679.6333

REDEFINE

A combination art gallery and clothing boutique that’s a new part of the emerging arts district in downtown Orlando.

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

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

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

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 PLAZA THEATRE

An eclectic community venue that’s been consistently ramping up its cool-show quotient over the last year.

435 N. Bumby Ave., Orlando theplazatheatre.com

THE SOCIAL

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

54 North Orange Ave., Orlando thesocial.org

WILL’S PUB

One of O-Town’s favorite venues/hangouts. 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.

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL DISCOUNT MUSIC CENTER

DMC continues to hold off the big-box music-store chains, maybe because it’s so big its damn self.

3301 Gardenia Ave., Orlando 407.423.4171 discountmusic.com

IKEA

Cheap, fairly neat-looking furniture and a food court? It’s worth it just for the walkaround.

4092 Eastgate Dr., Orlando ikea-usa.com

PARK AVE. CDS

They support the local scene, promote shows and even host in-stores.

2916 Corrine Dr., Orlando 407.447.PARK UCF Student Union, Orlando 407.282.1616 parkavecds.com

ÜBERBOT

An awesome collectible-design shop art, ﬁgures, designer toys, basically Cool Geek Utopia.

480 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park 407.788.UBER uberbotonline.com

1040 N. Mills Ave., Orlando myspace.com/willspub

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

DAMION SUOMI Words: Jason Ferguson • Photo: Rich Sullivan

ou know the guy. The handsome kid belting out covers in the bar, the one with the spark in his eye and the scratch of premature world-weariness in his voice that lets you know that he’s got far more to offer the musical world than crowd-pleasing renditions of drinker-friendly tunes ... you know that guy, don’t you?

“Music has always been a part of my life,” says Suomi. “My dad always played in bands, and there was always a guitar around; my brother was a guitar player too. It didn’t really interest me until I was 15; they were always trying to put a guitar in my hand, and I didn’t really want anything to do with it, but around that time, I picked it up and it was just magical.”

If you don’t, then meet Damion Suomi, a bearded, tattooed twenty-something who pays his rent (and paid his dues) singing tunes in a Cocoa Beach Irish pub, but who has recently released a solo album – the wittily emblazoned Self-Titled – that packs an emotional and spiritual punch more resonant than a whiskey-soaked 2 a.m. rendition of “Danny Boy” ever could.

That magic soon found Suomi gigging with a pop-punk band that “just never felt right, even though we had a lot of success really quickly,” and then making his way around the country with stops in Boston and San Francisco before returning home to Central Florida, where he began working on the songs that would become Self-Titled. Songs like “Sunday Morning,” “Archer Women,” “Save Your Ass” and others make up a gritty and soulful soundtrack to the process of a young, well-traveled man who’s attempting to wrestle with the questions of love, faith and identity that plague us all.

“I went to Bible college for a year and quickly realized that it wasn’t for me, and an opportunity arose for me to travel to go stay in Ireland for a while, and it ended up being about nine months,” says Suomi about the unusual path that found a Florida kid with Finnish heritage singing Celtic folk songs in bars. “That experience was an initiation into the world; a lot of my ideas about the world were pretty immature up to that point, and it took getting out of this – this state, this country, this mindset – to get some real perspective on things.” That perspective gave Suomi the impetus to take a lifetime of growing up in a musical household and begin creating music that meant something to him as an artist and as a writer.

“Somewhere along the line, it became more about wanting to write words than just about playing music,” Suomi says. “The guitar just became a vehicle for getting those words across and trying to say something. It became a passion, then it became my therapy.” Damion Suomi is currently touring the U.S. He’ll be back in Florida for shows at Tallahassee’s Engine Room June 18 and Orlando’s House of Blues July 2. MYSPACE.COM/DAMIONSUOMI

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Rouse, Mud Flappers

Letters to Mantua, Weapon of Fate, MTA

Xit Lyt, Last Ditch effort, Confused Little Girl

Strangers Family Band, attachedhands

Robbie Hazen & the Riot, The Sevilles

Republicorpse, Vessels of Energia, Bad Actor

Mad Moon, Grey Scale

Kung Fu Dykes

Tent Revival, Jawn Mallon, Mel Martinez

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(407) 898-5070

(407) 839-3707 â&#x20AC;˘ www.akalounge.com

(407) 999-2570 â&#x20AC;˘ www.backbooth.com

(407) 426-8336 â&#x20AC;˘ www.myspace.com

RJ Harmon & Company

1040 N Mills Ave â&#x20AC;˘ Orlando, FL 32803

Tina Nicole Band, Haole Sound

68 E Pine St â&#x20AC;˘ Orlando, FL 32801

The Vices, 69 Fingers

Have Gun Will Travel, Lauris Vidal

37 W Pine St â&#x20AC;˘ Orlando, FL 32801

100 E Central Blvd â&#x20AC;˘ Orlando, FL 32801

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO ORLANDO & CENTRAL FLORIDA HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES

HOTSPOTS: EATS

CULTURE KINGS ORLANDO

AUSTIN’S ORGANICS

2219 E. Colonial Dr., Orlando 407.895.3155

929 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park

An urban edge, with tons of upscale sneaker action.

DEJA VU VINTAGE CLOTHING Specializes in vintage looks.

1825 North Orange Ave., Orlando 407.898.3609

HIPKAT

This boutique carries some hard-to-ﬁnd 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

PINK HEART BOUTIQUE

Recently featured in Lucky Magazine, this shop offers scads of accessories as well as image consulting.

4825 New Broad St., Orlando 407.228.6013

STATIC

Rock ‘n’ roll fashion covering pretty much every inch of the territory that implies.

240 N. Orlando Ave., Winter Park 407.478.1083

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

Organic Fairtrade beans, a surprising array of light and vegetarian-friendly fare, and regular nighttime entertainment.

DRUNKEN MONKEY COFFEE

Emily sez “free wi-ﬁ, homemade 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

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 and carnivores alike.

1842 E. Winter Park Rd., Orlando 407.623.3393

“YOU DON’T KNOW ME

BUTME YOU MAKE SO HAPPY” Photo: Courtesy of Press Here Publicity

ack when Rilo Kiley was more wellknown for being friends with Conor Oberst than for a thick catalog of quality alt-pop, there must’ve been quite a few scenesters who ﬁgured Jenny Lewis would be the cute girl who fronted a ﬂavor-of-themonth indie band for a few shining moments, then fade into hip-rock obscurity. But Rilo Kiley proved themselves to be a great, lasting act no small feat in these trendy times - and then, Lewis double-whammied us by putting out a stunning solo debut that showcased her own, more timeless style. These days, there’s little doubt that she’ll be one of those artists to overcome truncated attention spans, and continue to release good stuff for

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

years to come. Sophomore effort Acid Tongue is at least as good as its predecessor, Watson Twins or no, and Lewis more than brings it live. She’s gracing Orlando’s Plaza Theatre this month as part of her current tour, so we know that serious aﬁcionados and drooling fanboys alike all over the state are already saving up their gas money, and that it will be gas money well spent. Plus, openers Heartless Bastards were just around a month ago, and proved they can kill it as well. Jenny Lewis and Heartless Bastards play Orlando’s Plaza Theatre Monday, June 29. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the show; doors open at 7 p.m.

A GUIDE TO ORLANDO & CENTRAL FLORIDA YOUR ARE HERE

ORLANDO EVENTS JUNE 2009 oh hell yeah

FRI JUNE 05 1997, Boxer, Clover The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m. Dave Capp Project House of Blues, Orlando Time: 10:30 p.m. La Garage A Go Go Feat. Los Knievels, The Empyres, The Mondellos Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. Munk Tung, 7 Blue Skies, Skindustry, Johnny Plastic & The Rubber Band BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 7 p.m Wanda Sykes Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $35-50 Time: 7:30 p.m.

SAT JUNE 06 Dave Capp Project House of Blues, Orlando Time: 10:30 p.m. Jim Gafﬁgan Hard Rock Live, Orlando Cost: $35-42.75 Time: 7 p.m. Girls in Wonderland, DJ Pride House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $26-$75 Time: 9 p.m. Thomas Wynn & The Believers, Apparitioners, The Beauvilles, Shawn Fisher & The JGs BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m.

SUN JUNE 07 Great Deceivers, Deleted Scenes, The Pauses, The Future of Films in Space BackBooth, Orlando Time: $7 Cost: 7 p.m. Impure Jazz Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. Junior Doctor, To My Dearly Beloved, Far From The Tree The Social, Orlando Cost: $8-$10 Time: 6:30 p.m.

MON JUNE 08 Bon Iver, Elvis Perkins The Plaza Theatre, Orlando Cost: $18-$20 Time: 7:30 p.m.

New York Dolls, Black Joe Lewis House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $15-$46 Time: 7 p.m. Savi Fernandez Band BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m The Howlies, Hot Hands, The Dealers Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m.

FRI JUNE 12 Bop Gun, Steffanotto, Not Them Plaza Theatre, Orlando Cost: $8 Time: 8 p.m. Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Christina Wagner The Social, Orlando Cost: $12 Time: 9 p.m. Pontiak, Stangers Family Band, Attachedhands BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m. Rusted Root House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $22-$41 Time: 8 p.m. The Howlies, Hot Hands, The Dealers Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m.

SAT JUNE 13 Bassbin Twins, Monk, Merlyn Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 10 p.m. Better Than Ezra, Tyrone Wells House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $17.25-$50.50 Time: 7:30 p.m. Cotton Candy Cookies & Cream, Vomit Pop, Dr. Moonstein Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. Rabbits With Glasses CD Release Party Feat. Brother Gunn, Everyday I, M.E.S.S. AKA Lounge, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. Richard Cheese & Lounge Against The Machine The Plaza Theatre, Orlando Cost: $35 Time: 8 p.m. The Dealers, Cure for Caska, The Black Rabbits BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m. The Ludes, The Little Debbies, Sugarfree Music The Social, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

TUE JUNE 09

SUN JUNE 14

Awesome New Republic, The Royal BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5-$7 Time: 8 p.m.

Orlando Jazz Orchestra The Plaza Theatre, Orlando

Mishka, Zaki Ibrahim The Social, Orlando Cost: $12 Time: 8 p.m.

WED JUNE 10 Animal Collective, Black Dice Club Firestone, Orlando SOLD OUT! Maisie (Early Show) BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6-$8 Time: 5:30 p.m Mewithoutyou, The Dear Hunter, Bear Colony The Social, Orlando Cost: $13-15 Time: 7 p.m. Porch Records Night AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 9 p.m.

MON JUNE 15 Soldier City Legends, Amely, Doubting Beneﬁt, Camerae BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $8-$10 Time: 5:30 p.m.

TUE JUNE 16 Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m. Hannah & The Halfway House, Maximino, You and All the Animals BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Special All Acoustic Show Feat. Alec V BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

Porch Records MC Battle AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 11 p.m.

The Down Getters Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: FREE Time: 9 p.m.

Road to Essence Music Festival Feat. Jasmine Sullivan, Ryan Leslie House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $30.75-$74.50 Time: 7 p.m.

THU JUNE 18

THU JUNE 25

Empyrean, Great Awakening Plaza Theatre, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

Alex Baugh & The Crazy Carls CD Release Show BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m.

Leftover Crack, The Casualties, Trash Talk, The Angst BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 7 p.m. The Explorers Club, X.O.X.O., Vasti, Death Mites Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $6-$7 Time: 9 p.m.

Drop Dead, Gorgeous, He is Legend, Then There Were None The Social, Orlando Cost: $12-$14 Time: 6 p.m. Kimball Collins, Cliff Tangredi Club Fireston, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 10 p.m.

The Lee Boys, Gerry Williams The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

Skindred, The Supervillains, Unsaid House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $11.25-$14.25 Time: 7 p.m.

FRI JUNE 19

FRI JUNE 26

Gargamel, The Little Debbies Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m. Leftover Crack, The Casualties, Trash Talk, The Attack BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 7 p.m.

Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Jon Snodgrass (Drag The River), Cory Branan Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m. Peter Murphy House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $17.25-$48.50 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Road To Essence Music Festival Feat. Joe, Chico Debarge House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $24-$64 Time: 7 p.m.

Social Ghost, Vertigo The Social, Orlando Cost: $8 Time: 9 p.m.

The Supervillains The Social, Orlando Cost: $12-$14 Time: 9 p.m.

The Attack, How Dare You BackBooth, Orlando Cost: Free Time: 8 p.m.

SAT JUNE 20

SAT JUNE 27

Gorilla Productions Battle of the Bands AKA Lounge, Orlando Time: 2 p.m.

Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy, Whole Wheat Bread, Cracker Jackson, KittyBat Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

Killer Robots CD Release Party Feat. Kung Fu Dykes Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Hand to Hand, Aside Oceans, Love & Reverie, Crisis in Hollywood, Farewell to Fashion BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 7 p.m.

The Supervillains The Social, Orlando Cost: $12-$14 Time: 9 p.m.

Fall of Envy The Social, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 9 p.m.

Young Brother, Modernage BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $6 Time: 7 p.m.

Nonpoint, Rising Up Angry, Kezia House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $12.75-$15.75 Time: 7 p.m.

SUN JUNE 21 Anthony Raneri (Bayside), Andy Jackson (Hot Rod Circuit), Travis Adams (Inkwell) BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $10-$12 Time: 7 p.m. Francis Harold & The Holograms Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. John Vanderslice, The Tallest Man On Earth The Social, Orlando Cost: $12 Time: 8 p.m.

SUN JUNE 28 Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo House of Blues, Orlando Cost: $32.25-$86.50 Time: 6:30 p.m. Plain White T’s The Social, Orlando Cost: $15-$17 Time: 7 p.m. The Takers, Have Gun, Will Travel, Lauris Vidal, Truckstop Coffee Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $8 Time: 9 p.m.

MON JUNE 29

TUE JUNE 22

Jenny Lewis, The Heartless Bastards The Plaza Theatre, Orlando Cost: $20-$25 Time: 7 p.m.

ArtOfﬁcial, DJ BMF The Social, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 10 p.m. House of Fools/Motel Motel, Cloud Conquers City Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 7 p.m. Vega Under Fire, American Science, Seven Story Fall, In Passing, Amely, Junior Doctor Plaza Theatre, Orlando Time: 5:30 p.m.

SARLACC, Republicorpse, Vessels of Energia, Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $8 Time: 9 p.m.

The Summer Slaughter Tour Feat. Suffocation, Darkest Hour, Necrophagist, Winds of Plague, Dying Fetus, Born of Osiris, Origin, Beneath the Massacre, After the Burial, Blackguard, Headbang For the Highway Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $20-$25 Time: 2 p.m.

THU JUNE 11

WED JUNE 17

Attachedhands, Power Animal, Discovery of Magnetic North Will’s Pub, Orlando Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

Ken Block, Dan Verduin The Social, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 8 p.m.

Appetite for Destruction (Guns ‘N’ Roses Tribute) The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 9 p.m.

Orange Ave., Tent Revival, Jawn Mallon, BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $5-$7 Time: 7 p.m.

WED JUNE 24

TUE JUNE 30 Josh Hoge, Andy Davis, Mikey Wax, Tim Brantley The Social, Orlando Cost: $10 Time: 6 p.m.

THU JULY 02 Swansinger, Special Guests BackBooth, Orlando Cost: $7 Time: 8 p.m.

FRI JULY 03 Combichrist, Julien-K, Gen-XX, Dismantled, Ego Likeness Club Firestone, Orlando Cost: $15 Time: 7 p.m.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO GAINESVILLE HOTSPOTS: VENUES & BARS

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

1982

All-ages friendly live-music hangout.

919 W. University Ave., Gainesville myspace.com/1982_bar

THE ATLANTIC

Cozy, eclectic bar and performance space that usually does live music four nights a week.

15 N. Main St., Gainesville myspace.com/atlanticnights

BACKSTAGE LOUNGE

The Backstage 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

COMMON GROUNDS

G-ville’s premier punk/indie-rock club.

210 S.W. 2nd Ave., Ste. A, G-ville commongroundslive.com

THE KICKSTAND

This altruistic endeavor - more formally known as The Gainesville Community Bicycle Project - promotes responsible bicycle use and ownership while hosting the shows that help raise funds.

722 S. Main St., Gainesville thekickstand.org

UMOJA ORCHESTRA

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE

A TEMPORARY GOODBYE

Words: Mary Manchess • Photo: Courtesy of Umoja Orchestra

FASHION EXCHANGE

This thrift/consignment store offers duds on the cheap for guys and girls.

2032 NW 6th St., Gainesville 352-271-1171 feconsignment.com

FREERIDE SURF SHOP

A surf shop in Gainesville? Yes indeed. Named after the classic wave ﬂick.

420 N.W. 13th St., Gainesville freeridesurfshop.com

MOTHER EARTH MARKET

Organic groceries, holistic supplements, and a schedule of events and lectures held right on the premises.

521 N.W. 13th St., Gainesville 352.378.5244

MODERN AGE TOBACCO

Your one-stop shop for things with dancing teddy bears on them.

1035 N.W. 76th Blvd., Gainesville 352.332.5100

RECYCLED BIKES Rent and roll.

805 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352.372.4890

he Afro-Latino rhythms and funky dance vibes of Umoja Orchestra have come to a pause. In April, the 13member group that is known for its sold-out shows at Common Grounds performed its last one - at least for a while. REAX spoke with drummer Evan Garﬁeld to ﬁnd out what the future looks like for this truly unique group.

REAX: You guys kicked off your tour in Gainesville back in April, and it was advertised as your last show for a while. How did not knowing when you would be playing somewhere like Common Grounds again affect your performance? Evan Garﬁeld: I think we always put a lot into it, but I think that show was very emotional for a lot of us. Especially for the two guys who are leaving because they were a part of the original six. REAX: Who’s leaving? EG: Jason Prover, our trumpet player, got into NYU for jazz so he is going to New York. Then David Borenstein, our saxophone player, got a Fulbright scholarship to do research in China for a year. Those are two very prominent people in the band, so we just don’t know what that means exactly for our future. We have a chance of looking at other horn players but that would be a very careful process if we do that. REAX: You have a lot of fans in Gainesville. How did they react to the news that this was

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

going to be your last show for a while? EG: A lot of them we have become good friends with. They deﬁnitely expressed some sadness because they have enjoyed the shows. People have been really awesome about it. Some people have given us a hard time - ‘you can’t stop,’ telling us that sort of thing. It’s all been very encouraging though in kind of urging us to keep playing. They have given us a motivation to keep it going, but we’ll see what happens. We can’t really know for sure.

REAX: At the same time, it was a CD release show for your new album, Dinner at the Republic. Was the release of this album a way not to leave your fans feeling empty-handed? EG: Yeah, for sure. It was kind of a weird thing how it happened, sort of our last show and then having a new CD released. It was kind of like the beginning of something. I was glad that happened, because I think it made it like, even though we are leaving, we got something new to hold onto for a little bit. I think we were real happy that we could do that. REAX: Gainesville has a pretty big music community. And a lot of that music community is associated with punk music, but you guys have a more eclectic sound. How did you ﬁnd your niche in this music scene? What’s it like being in a music scene that is so different from what you are producing? EG: I don’t know exactly. I always just say that we were in the right place at the right time. We

are deﬁnitely not delusional in the fact that if we were in New York City or Miami or somewhere that had a very healthy Latin music scene, it would be a very different story. We would just be lost in the numbers of bands just like us, who are much better. The lucky thing is we are doing something that is just weird enough for them. It wasn’t too foreign or strange ... I think we just got lucky. I didn’t know we were going to play this type of music. It evolved so naturally at the time. We just started playing some songs in the dorms, and the sound just evolved from there. We never really sat down and were like, ‘OK, let’s write songs that go in this direction.’ I’ll tell you right now, the Latin stuff I never knew about ... we were pretty much going for Africanoriented music. It was kind of unpredictable how that happened.

REAX: If you had something to say to the city of Gainesville about this possible departure for a while, what would you want to say to them? EG: The only thing we can really say is thank you. A lot of bands play a show, and they play to a bunch of people who stand there and watch them play ... with our band, without the crowd there dancing, our music doesn’t serve a purpose. They really are as essential to the orchestra’s music as the band members are, which is a really unique thing. Without them, it literally wouldn’t have happened. MYSPACE.COM/UMOJAORCHESTRA

A GUIDE TO GAINESVILLE YOUR ARE HERE

GAINESVILLE EVENTS JUNE 2009

The Pull Out, Cope, Special Guests Market Street Pub, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

oh hell yeah

FRI JUNE 05 Shattered Symphony, Steel Bridge, Violation of Probation Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 10 p.m. Spam Allstars The Atlantic, Gainesville Cost: $10/12 Time: 10 p.m. The Duppies Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

SAT JUNE 06 Ghost of Gloria, Scarlet Armor, Deimos, Lynch The Martyr Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m. Making Eyes, Sarcastic, Douglas Shield, The X Factors Civic Media Center, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. The Future Now, Diet Cokeheads, Towers of Hanoi The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m. The Rooze, High Life, Benny C and the Jam, Al Torchia & The Tattered Saints Market Street Pub, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

MON JUNE 08 Isabella, Audrey Rose, Soldier City Legends, Doubting Beneﬁt, For The Win 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

TUE JUNE 09 Grabass Charlestons (Acoustic), Coffee Project, Awesome City Limits Civic Media Center, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

WED JUNE 10 Pontiak, Ancient River Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m. We are Masked Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

THU JUNE 11 Idols End, Azymth Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. Madeline Ava, Max Weiss, Mrs. Triceratops, Cootie Shot, Brian Lugo Wayward Council, Gainesville Cost: $3 Time: 9 p.m.

FRI JUNE 12 Mewithoutyou, The Dear Hunter, Bear Colony Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 7 p.m. Chupaskabra, Angry Banana, Paranoia Dance Party, The Disregardables 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m. Core, Unchained Chaos, Rojo Diablo Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m. Let Me Run, We’re All Broken, Terror in Tiny Town, Homemade Handgrenade The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

SAT JUNE 13 Avocado, Building Rockets, Joe’s Feral Cats, The Terrazzo 4 Civic Media Center, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m. Backline Rush Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Clock Hands Strangle, Pseudo Kids, Hours Eastly, Funkatron Market Street Pub, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. Turn Thieves The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m. Squeaky 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

MON JUNE 15 Chuck Ragan, Gasoline Heart, Coffee Project Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

TUE JUNE 16 The Enablers, The Fab Family Civic Media Center, Gainesville Cost: $5 Time: 9 p.m.

WED JUNE 17 EVAK, City in Fiction, Atom Strange Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. The Explorers Club, Hey!, The Epicureans 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

THU JUNE 18 Legion X, Dirt Messiah Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

FRI JUNE 19 Frodus, Guiltmaker, So Pastel Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. High Life, Maniacal Swifty 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. Michael J. Weiss Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

SAT JUNE 20 Anthony Raneri (Bayside), Andy Jackson (Hot Rod Circuit) 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m. Bang Bang Boom, The Jaguars Market Street Pub, Gainesville Cost: $6 Time: 9 p.m. HOMEvan Beneﬁt Show Feat. Oh Sanders, Ars Phoenix, G.L.O, Laserhead The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m. John Vanderslice, The Tallest Man On Earth Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. Local Trafﬁc Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

TUE JUNE 23 The Takers (CD Release Show), The Enablers, Lauris Vidal The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

WED JUNE 24 Call it Conﬂict, House of Fools, Motel Motel, Special Guests 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

Travis McCleod, DGN Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Jon Snodgrass (Drag the River), Cory Branan Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

MON JUNE 29

THU JUNE 25

Vertigo Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Asphalt Valentine, Muphin Chuckrs, 10th Concession Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

TUE JUNE 30

Vega Under Fire, The Sophomore Attempt, Seven Story Fall, Victory Blvd, Michael Brigardner 1982, Gainesville Time: 8 p.m.

FRI JUNE 26 Girls on Film, Oddknock, Special Guests The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m. The Banner Year Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 10 p.m.

Plain White T’s, Company of Thieves, Days Difference, T13C! The Venue, Gainesville Time: 7 p.m. The Ones to Blame, Itchy hearts, Greenland is Melting, The Early Twenties Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. Wetnurse, Lord Mantis, Chill Wizard, Hot Graves, Droan The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m.

WED JULY 01

SAT JUNE 27 D.P., Artofﬁcial, 1.0 w/ DJ Spintom, J-MAG The Atlantic, Gainesville Time: 9:30 p.m. Grabass Charlestons, Blacksnake, The Footlights Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

Between The Trees, Paint Me Irrational, Shut Up And Dance, A Cover Story 1982, Gainesville Cost: $10 Time: 7 p.m. The Starlight Mints, Evangelicals Common Grounds, Gainesville Cost: $10

THU JULY 02

Paxico Via Mexico, Dustin Pence, The Great Take Back, Stereo Carousel, Kris Karlsson 1982, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

HOTSPOTS: EATS EL INDIO

We think yelp.com commenter Kasey S. 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

REGGAE SHACK

Yup, just what you’d expect - everything from jerk chicken and beef patties to curry, Caribbean salads and hell-yes passion fruit smoothies.

619 W. University Ave., Gainesville 352.377.5464

Bang Bang Boom Common Grounds, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m. Say When, In Five Years’ Time 1982, Gainesville Cost: $6 Time: 8 p.m.

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

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

D.G.N., This Day Forever, Travis McCleod Backstage Lounge, Gainesville Time: 9 p.m.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO JACKSONVILLE & NORTHEAST FLORIDA HOTSPOTS: VENUES & BARS CLUB TSI

Hipsterifﬁc “indie disco” and venue that hosts hip-hop, touring bands, art exhibitions, and cool stuff in between.

333 East Bay St., Jacksonville clubtsi.com

ECLIPSE NIGHTCLUB

Not necessarily a live music venue, per se, but you can deﬁnitely catch some good shows here ... and always dance and ﬁnd great drink specials!

4219 Saint Johns Ave www.eclipsejax.com

THE FLORIDA THEATRE

Originally opened as a movie theatre in 1927, and then restored in the 80’s, this historic downtown venue hosts concerts, classic movies, and special events.

128 E Forsyth Ave www.ﬂoridatheatre.com

FREEBIRD LIVE

The area’s most well-known concert venue. Lots of touring acts and bigger local stuff.

200 North 1st St., Jacksonville Beach freebirdlive.com

JACK RABBITS

Another local legend of a spot geared toward original music, with an alwayseclectic slate featuring both local and national acts.

1528 Hendricks Ave., Jacksonville jackrabbitsonline.com

LANDSHARK CAFE

Surf, funk, hard rock, dance nights - this watering hole on A1A seems to cater to a pretty diverse, unpretentious crowd.

1738 3rd St. N., Jacksonville Beach myspace.com/landsharkcafe

THE PEARL

Very cool bar/venue complete with oak trees and an old-time phone booth. Being inside kind of makes you feel like you’re outside. We hosted our ﬁrst Jacksonville show there and fun times were had.

1101 N. Main St., Jacksonville myspace.com/thepearlofspringﬁeld

Everything skate, surf, swim, kayaking and awesome. Two locations!

696 Atlantic Blvd., Jacksonville Beach 904.246.2550 1850 A1A South, St.Augustine Beach 904.471.8070 aquaeast.com

BLACK HIVE TATTOO

Flash-free! Hallelujah! A creative and talented shop, and owner Nick Wagner is on the Board of Directors of the FL Professional Tattoo Artists Guild: a nonproﬁt dedicated to protecting the tattoo industry in our state.

2063 Gilmore Street 904.475.1989 www.nicktattoo.com

FLAT FILE GALLERY

A brand new gallery in the 5 Points Theatre building that focuses on limited edition, affordable, local art.

1022 Park Street www.ﬂat-ﬁlegallery.com

FLUX STUDIO/GALLERY

A contemporary art gallery/photography studio with emphasis on local artists. Check their website for upcoming events and exhibitions.

1011 Park Street 904.355.7233 www.ﬂuxjacksonville.com

KONA SKATEPARK

Did you know Jax is home to America’s longest-surviving skatepark? Surprise! Kona’s been around since ‘77.

8739 Kona Ave., Jacksonville konaskatepark.com

MS. DEBORAH’S FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Well-known tattoo studio with a very talented staff.

78 Lemon Street, St. Augustine 904.825.0108 msdeborahtattoo.com

NEEDFUL THINGZ

SHANTY TOWN PUB

22 W. 6th St., Jacksonville myspace.com/shantytownpub

215 W. King St. Suite 3, St. Augustine 904.829.7101 myspace.com/needful_thingz

STEAMWORKS PUB

SQUARE ONE

Very cool music-conscious bar in Five Points. Plus, there’s a poster on their website advertising a Sparks drink special some night, so they’re automatically in.

100% skate since 2000. Plus, they have a rad skate team.

822 Lomax St., Jacksonville myspace.com/steamworksjax

1019 S. 3rd St., Jacksonville Beach 904.241.7667 squareonejax.com

ST. AUGUSTINE AMPHITHEATRE

ZOMBIE BIKES

1340 A1A South, St. Augustine staugamphitheatre.com

1520 N. Main St., Jacksonville myspace.com/zombiebikesjax

This large outdoor shed hosts everything from new jam and indie sounds to classic country and rock.

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

AQUA EAST

Tobacco, T’s, posters, stickers, patches, incense, oils, spikes and studs, Manic Panic, jewelry, funky gifts and novelties and much, much more. Special orders always welcome.

Bar, live music and themed DJ nights, along w/ a cool outdoor area for hangin’.

HOTSPOTS: LIFESTYLE

Bike shop/co-op dedicated to rehabbing old bikes, wild customization, and teaching folks how to take care of their own.

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

GET. GRAB. GO. M an, what is it about Jacksonville that inspires such good hip-hop? There just seem to be tons and tons of good, smart, opposite-of-trendy rap going on over there. This month, like most of ‘em, is packed with great shows and battles, many courtesy of local label/promo/booking entity Hip Hop Hell, and the CD release party for unique, stylish and liquid MC Tough Junkie’s brand new CD Grab What You Can is looking to be one of the best of the bunch.

and featured DJs ZaneIII, SpaceMikeSpace and NickFRESH. This will be an evening like no other so Junkie will be expecting all of you to clear your calendars. There will be music, dance contests with prizes, free snacks, great prices on beer and wine, surprise guests, giveaways and plenty of copies of the album for sale. This isn’t a concert or your average show, this is a party, so don’t show up three hours after it starts or you’ll miss out on some surprises and mystery guest appearances.”

Grab What You Can comes out June 9 on Ohio’s Colemine Records, and supportive locals will get to help him celebrate at a June 19 Club TSI shindig. Via his website, TJ says: “The album droppage party is from 9p.m. - 1:30 a.m. and the talent will include emcees Arsun F!st, Paten Locke (a.k.a. Therapy of The Smile Rays, Asamov, Black Gestapos, The Perceptionists)

There’s really no way to say it any better. Get excited. Tough Junkie CD Release Party, June 19, Club TSI, Jacksonville, 9 p.m. TOUGHJUNKIE.COM

ALBUM SPOTLIGHT TUBERS SHELL OUT

(BAKERY OUTLET) Spiky, bristling art-punk from St. Augustine that manages to sound both primitive and oddly tech-y, often at the same time. A clichéd and inane yet persistent association: They sound like the early Pixies might’ve, had the early Pixies been bigger Minutemen fans and airtight with the Dischord scene. At times it’s a little too abstract, but the inherently melodic guitar work generally keeps things more visceral and engaging than self-indulgent, and there’s a really nice assortment of tempos and moods on aural display. Not exactly the most immediately gratifying, easily digestible thing out there right now, but they’ve got a cool original, thoughtful vibe that balances intellect and emotion and doesn’t go off on some weird tangent just for the sake of being weird - there are real songs at work here. Nicely done. - Cole Porterhouse

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO JACKSONVILLE & NE FLORIDA HOTSPOTS: EATS A1A ALE HOUSE

CARRIBBEAN CONNECTION

1 King St., St. Augustine 904.829.2977

1034 Park St., Jacksonville 777 S. 3 rd St., Jacksonville myspace.com/carribbeanconnectionjax

BURRITO GALLERY

CD CONNECTION

Fresh seafood, and hell-yes hand-crafted beer at both bars. Enjoy an exclusive beverage created on the premises while taking in the view from the patio.

So much more than a burrito joint, with seafood, salads, music, and full liquor.

21 East Adams St., Jacksonville 904.598.2922

CAFÉ ELEVEN

Outstanding eats. Impressive beer/wine selection. Extraordinary music calendar. What else could you possibly ask for?

501 A1A Bch Blvd., St. Aug. Beach

THE CASBAH CAFE

A favorite Avondale spot - go for a beer and a hookah, or to enjoy some tasty Mediterranean cuisine. Or maybe even for the weekly entertainment and belly dancing.

3228 Saint Johns Ave 904.981.9966 www.thecasbahcafe.com

GRASSROOTS NATURAL MARKET

Smaller, yet super efﬁcient market where you can shop for all things organic or grab a wrap, salad or smoothie. And feel good about it, because they are independently owned.

2007 Park Street, 5 Points 904.384.4474 1915 East West Parkway, Orange Park 904.541.0009 www.thegrassrootsmarket.com

GYPSY CAB COMPANY

Mmmmm! is all you can say when tasting the eclectic style of “urban cuisine” offered by Chef/Owner Ned Pollack. ‘Cause we know better than to speak with our mouths full, this might be a rather quiet meal.

828 Anastasia Blvd, St. Augustine 904.824.8244

One-stop shopping for music-culture peripherals - shoes, shirts, tickets, tats and more.

If you claim to like music, you need to stop by. Over 4,000 s.f. of indie record store awesomeness + super friendly and knowledgeable staff = happy customers.

1908 3rd St Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250 904.246.0550

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

WEIRD WAX

New and used music, a huge, crazy and ever-changing selection of vinyl, and live events to boot.

2128 Atlantic Blvd., Jacksonville 904-399-3004 myspace.com/weirdwax

HOTSPOTS: WEARABLES ANOMALY

Five Points clothing shop specializing in introducing indie designers to the world.

1012 Park St., Jacksonville anomalyﬁvepoints.com

THE CLOSET

From their site: “dedicated to consciously bringing our customers greener, one-ofa-kind, and unique choices; with many local designers and consignment.”

MANATEE CAFE

51 Cordova St., St Augustine 904.810.5699 myspace.com/theclosetconundrum

525 SR 16 #106, St. Augustine 904.826.0210

THE CLOTHING WAREHOUSE

Affordable vegetarian and vegan just a few miles northwest of downtown.

MELLOW MUSHROOM

One of the most heavily praised pizza chains in existence anywhere. And did we mention the plethora of awesome beers?

9734 Deer Lake Ct 904.997.1955 1800 Towne Center Pkwy, Fleming Island 904.541.1999 Coming Summer ‘09 to Jax Beach!

What started as an Atlanta vintage-fashion wholesaler has become a southeastern retail-franchise phenomenon.

1010 Park St., Jacksonville 904.356.5003

EDGE CITY

A funky vibe and cutting-edge women’s fashions for more than 30 years.

1017 Park St., Jacksonville 904.353.9423

RAGLAND’S

WOLFGANG

1023 Park St., Jacksonville 904.598.527

1038 Park St., Jacksonville myspace.com/wolfgangboutique

Full menu, taproom and some eclectic music events on the patio.

HOTSPOTS: RETAIL

A stylish boutique offering affordable name-brand fashionables for both sexes.

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

A GUIDE TO JACKSONVILLE & NORTHEAST FLORIDA YOUR ARE HERE

NE FLA EVENTS FRI JUNE 05 Buff Clout Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. A Storm Within, Suckerpunch, Baker Act Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. Josh Turner, The Harters Florida Theatre, Jacksonville Cost: $34/41 Time: 8 p.m. Killer on the Way, As Daylight Burns, Code Iris, None Like Us, Kalily! Freebird Live, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m. Stevie Stilletto, C-Class Electric, snOre, Store Bought Bones, The Pinz Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m. Soulo Lyons Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 10 p.m. Tres Bien, Mumpsy Club TSI, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

SAT JUNE 06 Carnival of Crue (Motley Crue Tribute) Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m. Deleted Scenes, Prancer Prancis Eclipse, Jacksonville Cost: $5 Time: 10 p.m. Grandpa’s Cough Medicine Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 10 p.m. Malt Liquor Riot, Radiobagdhad, SPP, S.P.A.C. Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. Mechanical Shark, Rug, The Howlies, The Photo Atlas, All You Can Eat Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m. West Town Music Fest: A Beneﬁt for Jay Tibbs Kulture Hookah Lounge, Jacksonville Time: 11 p.m.

JUNE 2009 oh hell yeah

THU JUNE 11 Chuck Ragan, Christina Wagner, I Am God Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $12/15 Time: 8 p.m. Dark Nights of Camelot Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m. Elvis Perkins Cafe Eleven, St. Augustine Cost: $10 Let Me Run, We’re All Broken, Onslaught Dynamo, Status Faux Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

FRI JUNE 12 Aerial Tribe Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 10 p.m. Name: Bran, Society Red, The Embraced Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m. J-Biz Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. Mishka, Greenhouse Lounge Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m. Seventh Calling, Inner Demons, Awol, Deshrived Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m. The Miracle Dolls, Chapel of Thieves, Car on Fire Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

SAT JUNE 13

TUE JUNE 09 For the Win, Panorama Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m. Forfeit, Legacies, Nasty Crew, Downside, Three Count Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

WED JUNE 10 As Darkness Shines, No Justyce, 29 Stabs, Autumn Trace Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 7 p.m. Grits Picnic, Tuffy Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Elevated Hip-Hop Budokai IV Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville

THU JUNE 25

Her And Kings County, Pilar Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 9 p.m. Steely Dan St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine Cost: $39-99 Time: 7 p.m.

FRI JUNE 19 Eugene Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Tourist Trap, Staring Daggers, Fatal, Ripper Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

SUN JUNE 14 Ryan Cabrera, Brent Grundin Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10/13 Time: 8 p.m. Steve Earle, Joe Pug Florida Theatre, Jacksonville Cost: $28.50/38.50 Time: 8 p.m.

MON JUNE 15 Dead Heroes, Liberation, Caulﬁeld, Downside Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. Pro-Pain, Sworn Enemy, Manic Ritual Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $13/15 Time: 8 p.m.

TUE JUNE 16 Hot Seats, Special Guests Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m.

Abigail Williams, Goatwhore, Death, Abysmal Dawn, S.W.W.A.A.T.S. Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $12/15 Time: 7 p.m. Carnifex, Impending Doom, Miss May I, Conducting From The Grave Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 6 p.m.

FRI JUNE 26 Circadian Rising, Dead Southern Bishop, Dirt Messiah Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

John Vanderslice, The Tallest Man on Earth Cafe Eleven, St. Augustine Cost: $10

Grindtime Freestyle Battle Ocean Club, Jacksonville Beach

Legion X, Repressed Dreams, Bears for Sale Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Hands High CD Release Party Feat. The Sophomore Attempt, Radio City Confessions Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 7 p.m.

Slave to the Metal Festival Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Tough Junkie CD Release Party Feat. Arson Fist, P. Locke Club TSI, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Monsters, Bermuda Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

SAT JUNE 27

What About Me CD Release Party Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 9 p.m.

Derek Daisey, Cody Van, Nuclear Doodles Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Zoso (Led Zeppelin Tribute) Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m.

Nick Costanzo Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

SAT JUNE 20 The Lee Boys, Matt Grondlin Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $10/15 Time: 8 p.m.

Pierce Pettis, Mark Williams Cafe Eleven, Jacksonville Cost: $10

Trampskirts, The Wastedest, Tyrone Askins, Vigilante Fat Kid Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Steve Drew Miller, Damien Starkey Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 9 p.m.

Sarlacc, Downside Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Yellowman, Hours Eastly, 74 Soundsystem Landshark Cafe, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m.

Hello Danger, We Still Dream, Words in Red, Katie Helow Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

SUN JUNE 07

MON JUNE 08

Crime in Stereo, Fireworks, Title Fight Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m.

Slave to the Metal Festival Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville

Long Gone Daddys, Huge in Hungary, The Pinz Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Shawn Fisher and the Jukebox Gypsies, Thomas Wynn & The Believers, The Beauvilles Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $8/10 Time: 8 p.m.

Words In Red, Rock ‘N’ Roll Chrome, Philler, MindSlip Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m.

Fighting Kangaroos, Goot, Floral Terrace, The In Crowd, Constellations, Hollwierd, FGGT$ Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m.

Scum of the Earth, Tough Junkie, Chicken & Whiskey Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Patriot, The Ruins, Pancho Villa & The Banditos, Talk Sick Earth Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

THU JUNE 18

SUN JUNE 28

SUN JUNE 21 The Blue Pop Tarts, Jones for Revival Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m.

Beneﬁt for Barbie Feat. Ghostwitch Family Band, Pilar, Baker Act, Coda, Christina Wagner, Esther, Locust Grove Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 3 p.m. BSOM, Vulcan, Vomkaust, ortured Existence Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. The Dead Records Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m.

Cancer Beneﬁt Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m.

MON JUNE 29

Fled North From Fear, Twilight Gunﬁght, Armored in Grace Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

Plain White T’s Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15/20 Time: 7 p.m.

Framing Hanley, Red, Cavo, Joan Red Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15 Time: 7 p.m.

Simplex1, We Still Dream, Status Faux, The Have Nots, Running Riot Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m.

Inﬁnetesmal Records BBQ Shantytown Pub, Jacksonville

The Goddamn Gallows, Witness, Beach Party, Tell Yer Children Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m.

TUE JUNE 23

TUE JUNE 30

FIVEnine, Frenchie Doozer’s Pub, Jacksonville Time: 9 p.m. Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Jon Snodgrass (Drag The River) Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

WED JUNE 24

WED JUNE 17

Drop Dead, Gorgeous, He Is Legend Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $13/15 Time: 7 p.m.

Carley Tanchon, Rick Seibold, Micah Zenda Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m.

Skindred, Philler Brewster’s Pit, Jacksonville Beach Time: 8 p.m.

Can You Keep A Secret, Isitgettingbetter Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Time: 8 p.m. Jacksonville Beardsmith Society Meeting Steamworks Pub, Jacksonville Jenny Lewis, Heartless Bastards Freebird Live, Jacksonville Beach Cost: $15/20 Time: 8 p.m.

WED JULY 01 Josh Hoge, Amy Davis, Mikey Wax, Tim Brantley Jack Rabbits, Jacksonville Cost: $10 Time: 8 p.m.

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

YOU ARE HERE A GUIDE TO SOUTHEAST FLORIDA

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

SE FLA EVENTS JUNE 2009 oh hell yeah

FRI JUNE 05 Ex Norwegian, Pretty Please Propaganda, Lake Worth Foundation Respectable Street, West Palm Beach Time: 8 p.m.

SAT JUNE 06 Zombies! Organize!! Propaganda, Lake Worth

SUN JUNE 07 Kill Now?!, Quiet River Propaganda, Lake Worth

TUE JUNE 09 Animal Collective, Black Dice Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale (SOLD OUT) Bon Iver, Elvis Perkins Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale Time: 7:30 p.m.

The Hukilau Feat. Los Straitjackets, The Intoxicators, The Stolen Idols, Haole Kats, The Van Orsdels, The Bikini Beachcombers Bahia Cabana Resort/Mai-Kai Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $20/70 weekend pass

FRI JUNE 12 Jason & The Punknecks, Angry Pudding, The Freakin’ Hott Propaganda, Lake Worth The Hukilau Feat. Los Straitjackets, The Intoxicators, The Stolen Idols, Haole Kats, The Van Orsdels, The Bikini Beachcombers Bahia Cabana Resort/Mai-Kai Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $50/70 weekend pass

The weekend of June 11-14, tiki and surf-rock fans from all over the world will converge on Ft. Lauderdale’s Bahia Cabana for The Hukilau, a “4-day celebration of mid-century Polynesian pop splendor” that’s shaping up to be one of the country’s coolest tiki to-dos. We could go on and on about the cruise, the “Room Crawl,” the art show, the bazaar, the various and sundry soirees, the fashion and, of course, the

The Hukilau runs June 11-14, and is headquartered around the Bahia Cabana Resort and the Mai-Kai Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale. For a full schedule of events and ticket information, check out thehukilau.com.

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009

B-Liminal Propaganda, Lake Worth Her and Kings County Respectable Street, West Palm Beach Time: 8 p.m.

SAT JUNE 20 Viva Le Fox, The Black Fairlanes Propaganda, Lake Worth

Plain White T’s Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $14.99 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Mishka, Zaki Ibrahim, The Resolvers Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale Time: 7 p.m.

FRI JUNE 19

TUE JUNE 23

Better Than Ezra, Tyrone Wells, Marianne Keith Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $19.99 Time: 8 p.m.

tropical bevvies that will undoubtedly ﬂow freely and casually. But for a lot of folks, it’s gonna be all about the music, which features, in addition to sets by Tallahassee’s stylish Intoxicators, Tampa’s own Haole Kats and others, the only Florida appearance by the beloved masked surfrock marauders known as Los Straitjackets. So get out your best Hawaiian shirt and a big cup that looks like a coconut with a face carved into it, and get ready to party.

The Supervillains, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, The Punktuations Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $12 Time: 7:30

Ryan Cabrera, Zach Hexum, Jesse Young Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale Time: 6 p.m.

THU JUNE 11

eah, it’s OK to think that the people that fanatically embrace the whole tiki lifestyle are a little different. But you gotta admit the artwork, the music and the Mai Tais are pretty freakin’ cool, and it beats the hell out of cosplay or collecting Star Wars ﬁgures.

WED JUNE 17

WED JUNE 10 The New York Dolls, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $24.99 Time: 8 p.m.

TAI ONE ON

SAT JUNE 13 Chapel of Thieves, Miracle Dolls, Angry Pudding, The Dirty Boxes Respectable Street, West Palm Beach Cost: $5 Time: 8 p.m. Mumpsy, X.O.X.O., Surfer Blood Propaganda, Lake Worth

WED JUNE 24 Boys Like Girls, Never Shout Never, The Ready Set Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $19.99 Time: 7 p.m. Peter Murphy Respectable Street, West Palm Beach Cost: $29.50 Time: 8 p.m.

THU JUNE 25 The Takers, Lauris Vidal, Have Gun, Will Travel, Truckstop Coffee Tobacco Road, Miami Time: 8 p.m.

FRI JUNE 26 Drop Dead, Gorgeous, He Is Legend, Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $12 Time: 7:30 p.m. Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach Time: 6:30 p.m. Truckstop Coffee, Lauris Vidal, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Takers Propaganda, Lake Worth

SAT JUNE 27 ABSU, Rumplestiltskin Grinder, Sothis Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $14.99 Time: 7:30 p.m. Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Jon Snodgrass (Drag The River), Cory Branan Propaganda, Lake Worth Toby Keith Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach Time: 7:30 p.m.

Pro-Pain, Mantic Ritual, SAQ, Thrash or Die Culture room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $12 Time: 7:30

Yellowman, Spred The Dub Respectable Street, West Palm Beach Cost: $20 Time: 8 p.m.

Rusted Root Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale Time: 7 p.m.

TUE JUNE 30

The Orb, Orchard Lounge Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Cost: $19.99 Time: 8 p.m.

THU JULY 02

SUN JUNE 14

Nonpoint, Kezia, Rising Up Angry, Beauty to the Moon Revolution Live, Ft. Lauderdale Time: 6 p.m.

Sunset Soundtrack, Noble Rocket Propaganda, Lake Worth

Spred The Dub Propaganda, Lake Worth

JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE

REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE JUNE 2009