|
Localized 148
We were going to apologize to Rick Benegbi, guitarist/soundman and the only guy at Bringe Music willing to admit that yeah, guitar strings really shouldn’t cost that much (Rick’s since moved to the much more band-dude-friendly Mad Music out on Madeira Beach – check ‘em out, it’s worth the drive), about neglecting to blurb his new band, Led Ripstick, in the last issue. Until, that is, we noticed the word ‘cover’ in his press release. Oh, Ricky, not you too? While Rick, Glenn ‘Mr. Mean’ Drabik, Jaco Porter, and Jerry Garcia (!) do have some originals in the can, we will exercise our right to be pious scene snobs, and withhold proper pluggage until the men see the error of their ways…WMNF has been devoting some late-night time to flaunting the metal of late; DJ Alan, from WBUL and Pirate Radio 102.1, has been helming a metal-oriented program every couple of Sundays or so, starting at midnight. He’s also brought in various local guests to lend a hand, most notably generous tippers Shiver. The program will run intermittently throughout the summer, and hopefully snag a regular slot thereafter. The next three-hour assault is scheduled for May 21…Crizzy & The Punx do not screw around when it comes time to make another record. Deftly avoiding the Psychles Syndrome (a phenomenon soon to be renamed, after a certain black-jacket-and-skinny-tie pop quartet we all know and love), CATP have nearly finished their second full-length, tentatively titled Coast To Coast, at Panda Studios, under the watchful eye and sardonic demeanor of one George Harris. The disc is expected before summer’s end; Miami-based Dalin Records will again marked their tuneage to college radio, and lovely manager Deb Matera is currently in the process of hooking the band up with a national booking agency, so that they may tour forever and ever, amen. In other Crizzy news, east coast surf video purveyors One Eye Productions have selected two songs from their debut, Tight, for use in their next video epic, and some of their tracks have been charting quite highly over at www.garageband.com, the website where bands review each other in order to earn free space for their own stuff…KimMystrY recently took to guerrilla tactics in New Orleans, setting up in the street during The Big Easy’s annual Jazz Festival. They’ll let us know how it went just as soon as somebody makes bail, but plan to be back in time to donate their talents to this year’s Cancer Walk, May 19 at USF. www.kimmystry.com …ambitious, psychedelipawp ex-Tampons Home will return to the Bay on May 26 for a Screw Music Forever showcase at Orpheum. Their latest record sports one more Roman numeral in its title than the last one did, but I can’t remember how damn many they’re up to. The band was also spotlighted in witty British music tabloid NME just recently. Dumbwaiters, The Boats, Spacious International, and FunKruze (see, I can be a sport) round out the SMF bill. Eight pee-em, five bones, all ages…in other Orpheum news, it seems the venue has decided that nine or ten ‘series nights’ just aren’t enough, and has added The Groovewell Series to its schedule. “Cross-cultural musical diversity is the theme of the series”, it says here; okay, sure. Strangeways and Nueve Lunas will play the first gig, set for June 7, and you can find out all about the Groovewell manifesto at www.groovewell.com. In other series news, the slate for the next Writer’s Night, hosted by Fran Snyder @ Orpheum, consists of Bob Anthony, Gayle Trippsmith, Mike Pachelli (!), Brian Merrill, Elston Gunnn, and, lest ye forget, Fran Snyder
…Hot Chick Alert: seven of The Erotic Toy Store’s “day girls” will be on hand at The State for May 19’s G-Spot shindig, brought to you by The Gita and Nakedpoetry.com. As you may remember, Greed Engine and the enigmatic Goddess Mooncar will also find time to play between various arousing activities. Jeez, if only they’d add a free beer special to the menu, we could all just go there and die. The Gita are also slated to perform at Clearwater’s PepperFest (Beckett Lake Nursery) on the weekend of June 24/25…Fornikulture will be at Gasoline Alley on June 9, along with venue favorites Noble Jones. You can grab all sorts of downloadables, and view the webcam (Voyeurkulture?) at web.tampabay.rr.com/fornikulture…a lot of people (well, seven) wanted to know why Sage didn’t return to Livestock this year for another set; well, it’s because they were busy winning two grand at a battle of the bands in Orlando, sponsored by UCF out in College Park. So they had two thousand reasons not to be there – I only had one thousand, eight hundred and four. The second Sage disc is nearing completion, and you can catch ‘em at Orpheum on May 19, when they’ll support The Gotohells, along with Cocktail Honeys and NutraJeff. The three-guitar-pronged North Pinellas rawk terror has also managed to bring the indie to Gasoline Alley on June 2, when they’ll host a night with the Honeys and Spiller…the aforementioned Elston Gunnn have recovered from their latest road trip, and return to The Mug on May 20 to support The Bushhounds, which may seem odd when one considers that EG didn’t release an album in The Seventies, and are not currently in heavy rotation at Thunder. The whole thing will be broadcast at www.brassmug.com. Hey, Bushhounds, some guy keeps calling DaddyKool.com and asking when your new CD is going to come out; apparently he caught you at the Great White show, and loved it…a word about The Mug, if I may. A few of the newer bands have taken to bitching about the way things are handled over there; it seems they feel they’re not being treated with the kind of respect their talents deserve. This is sometimes known as ‘whining’. Yes, Heather adds bands to the bill at the last minute. Yes, you’re going to go on an hour later than you thought you were. No, you’re not at the Ice Palace, you’re at the fucking Brass Mug. These things have happened there for ten years, and will continue to happen. Deal with it. You are being offered an outlet for your music – she could probably make more money on a weekend just by letting the jukebox rip for the local ex-cons than you are going to bring in. Having ten shows under your belt does not automatically elevate you to a shot-calling position, and pulling shit like refusing to play only makes you look petulant, not to mention the fact that you let down the people who did come to see you, and would’ve waited for your set anyway. Personally, I think cutting one’s teeth at the Mug is a necessary growing process, and we should institute some kind of Subway Club-type program, where you’ve gotta play there and get your card stamped ten times before you can play somewhere like Club More or The State…it seems the second Leonard Croon Band disc, The Night Before The Morning After, is pretty close to done. The band have been doing overdubs and mixing at Gunburner guitarist Chris Irvin’s studio, but so have Gunburner themselves; it’s a matter of time allotment, you see. But the album should rear it’s twangy head before too long – in the meantime, LCB have made all manner of trackage available at their website, including live cuts, alternate versions of songs from their first record, ‘shine, and one unreleased tune, ‘I Do’, which was co-written by Joe Prince of Flat Stanley. You can get your fill of live Croon on May 13 (New World Brewery), May 27 (Orpheum w/Sparky’s Nightmare), or June 9 (Yeoman’s Road, stripped and acoustic)…The Refuge need your help in putting out their forthcoming compilation/benefit CD. They’re offering spaces on the disc’s booklet where you can get whatever you want (band, studio, website, etc) plugged; three lines of text, one bold, for fifteen bones. The record features acts like Five Iron Frenzy, Mike Knott, and Deluxetone Rockets, to name but a few, and will be sold at Cornerstone everywhere. There are only thirty spaces available, and you can buy two if you feel like it, so send a check and exactly what you want printed on the booklet to: Scott Will, 255 Catalan Blvd NE, St. Pete, FL 33704…Althea’s tour supporting River City High will make two stops in the Bay Area: May 23 – New World Brewery, Tampa; May 25 – Atari Info Shop, Sarasota…ska/rock/pop outfit Slipjoint has landed a gig playing at the upcoming IPW Hardcore Wrestling May Massacre bruisefest. It’ll be at Jannus Landing on May 19, and features none other than Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope in their final tag-team match. Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, should anybody want one…
did you know that Joey Ramone’s birthday was May 19? Me neither, but Dave did. Members of Loose Ends and Futureman have come together to form The Ramones Army for a special one-night celebration at The Mug; Blue Flame Combo, Boney Fiend and Reckless Deerhunters will also be on hand, because Joey couldn’t possibly blow out that many candles by his scrawny, wasted self. This is a one-time-only thing, kids…Gutterfly has changed their name to Singe, and has inducted former Space Age President drummer Joey Romanik. The new lineup debuted on April 22 at the Alley, and are currently in the studio…Sarasota postpunk mavens Midhaven will open for the greatest band since Hot Water Music, Grade, at Light Painter Gallery on Tuesday, May 16. Reach The Sky and Jersey are on the Grade tour as well. A word to the wise – get there early. Not a large venue. In related LPG news, apparently the place has been getting hassled by the city council, because while they are licensed to serve beer and wine, they are not licensed as a live-entertainment venue. If it gets any worse, the gallery may have to quit doing shows. At the risk of sounding vulgar, WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THAT?! This is the kind of thing city councils usually overlook; if you’re serving beers, you’re probably gonna have bands occasionally. All Sarasota pundits need to make a phone call…Forever And A Day has been added to the Christiansen tour, and will be present at the May 14 Orpheum date, along with local support from two bands you really need to see, For Your Girlfriend and The Dakota Coastline…The Return Of The Incident. The State Theatre and Super 6 Records are pleased to bring The Memorial Day Incident back to you, the discerning consumer. Things are looking a little heavier on the punk tip this time around, with performances by Tomorrow, Closure, NutraJet, The Spills, The Hustlers (!), Flat Stanley, Spiller, and Joe Popp, who have played more ‘final performances’ than Delores Telescope, and are again claiming that This Is The One! Five bucks and a can of food (for The Vincent DePaul Society) gets you in; most of you will undoubtedly forget about the can of food until on your way to the show, so please stop for some peas or something instead of copping out and paying six bucks at the door. There will be free beer from seven until eight PM. May 28… Greed Engine singer Geoff Ford and his wonderful wife recently gave birth to a healthy baby girl; well, you know, he didn’t, but congratulations to the new family. GE also became the first band to ever play Livestock twice in the same day, with sets at both 11:30 AM and four PM. In addition to the aforementioned G-Spot gig, they’ll be at Orpheum on May 12 with The Lemmings and Chrome Yellow. Much more news is available at www.greedengine.com …Mr Bella will get a chance to show off their new drummer Josh Young this Friday, May 12, when they open up for Neurotica and O-Town’s Naïve at The State; the band is, however, still looking for a second guitarist… Sarasota’s Swallowed will be included on Adrenaline Records’ upcoming release, Pride – A Tribute to U2. The album features bands from Spain, Norway, and the US, AND – this is a new one – will be a double-disc set, with one disc of the groups’ U2 covers, and another of their own original material. Sweet. Swallowed’s chosen U2 song is ‘Mysterious Ways’, and their contributed original will be ‘Cherry Blue’, not to be confused with ‘Cherry Orchards’, the Celtic Frost tune. Expect a fall release. www.adrenaline.it …when the smoke cleared at the finals for this year’s Florida Rock-Off, it was The Dogs who stood alone. Yes, that means they won. Way to go, young gentlemen. While various bands won in various categories, and somebody’s dad threw a tantrum about Desperate Cry’s light show being better than everybody else’s, The Dogs scored highest overall, and took home the thousand bucks, not to mention the poisonous notion that there can be a ‘best’ when it comes to art… Konkrete Kite just keep on grabbing these cool little Band Search deals that, for some reason, nobody else knows about. This time it was the Jim Beach Rock Band Search, and KK were the only Florida band to be selected. The bourbon cartel flew the guys up to Cleveland, put ‘em up in a nice hotel, and actually doled out per diems for the extent of their stay. The band placed second following a showcase set at The Hard Rock Café, and got to schmooze with reps from Crown Records and Restless, who intimated that they might send some guys down to witness the Kite’s upcoming May 21 set at Gasoline Alley’s Eighth Anniversary Bash (headlined by Pat Travers, naturally). Nice going, guys. Where the hell do you hear about these things? The band is also the only Bay area outfit to inform me that they’re on Napster…
WMNF Community Radio’s 19th Annual TROPICAL HEATWAVE
Saturday, May 20 6pm until the wee hours
$24 advance. $30 door; $12 under 21 years old;
under12 free. Late-night ticket after 11pm, $12
SCHEDULE
CUBAN CLUB BANDSHELL
6:00-7:20 Blue Rags
7:45-9:15 Los Mocosos
9:40-11:10 Alejandro Escovedo
11:35 The Iguanas
EL PASAJE PLAZA
6:25-7:55 Mighty Mo Rodgers
8:20-9:50 Deborah Coleman
10:15-11:45 Buckwheat Zydeco
12:10 The Waco Brothers
BALLROOM
6:30-7:30 The Thrusters
7:55-9:20 The Grandsons
9:35-10:50 Robin Nolan Trio
11:10-12:35 Kevin Gordon
1:00 Orchestra Matata
CANTINA
6:30-7:30 Pagan Saints
7:50-9:05 Trailer Bride
9:30-10:40 Homer Erotic
11:05- 12:25 Dismemberment Plan
12:50 Screwface
CHEROKEE CLUB
7:00-8:00 Dave Hardin Band
8:20-9:50 Greg Prophet
10:05 -11:25 Chris Chandler and Magda Hiller
11:45-1:10 Blue Rags
1:30 Ronny Elliot and the Nationals
And there you have it.
Ask, ponder, fret. What formerly-prominent Bay area radio jock was recently convicted of using his position to seduce underage females? Did a mother and brother of one of the girls actually discover the man, handcuffed and masked, in the act, and proceed to beat the shit out of him? Let me quote from English music and culture magazine Q: “Don’t be a perv. You WILL get caught.” Is Club More considering going to a weekends-only live-music policy? Did they spend too much on national acts? Is Spurs the only place doing local shows that actually lets the band have a couple of free beers? What is the world coming to?
|
