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Monday, November 24, 2008
Tampa Bay's cultural death greatly exaggerated
Posted by Christopher Nadeau on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 6:53 PM
The Sprawl: In the effort to create an American wet dream of spacious property and segregated neighborhoods out of the Tampa Bay area, developers deconstructed centralized arteries of urban life and supported massive sprawl. The end result, a limitless landscape of suburban paradise, stifles awareness of community and cultural events. When even the independent media outlets have been focusing on baby boomer sanctioned and approved activities, the mutants and youth have nowhere to turn. Regardless, cutting edge bands, musical acts, djs, etc. continue to perform to a handful of their friends.
OK, so USF St. Pete is a commuter college. No art school. Everybody drives everywhere. USF Tampa is out in the boondocks. Downtown Tampa remains bombed out and closes up at 3 p.m. Downtown St. Petersburg consists of two or maybe three worthwhile blocks. The majority of random people in this area seem to be completely closed-minded to sounds different than familiar mainstream and top-40 pop. Somehow, in the face of all these generalizations, underground, challenging, exciting music keeps festering into bars and venues across Hillsborough and Pinellas...
Instead of complaining about these trends in Tampa Bay living, embrace the fact that the local music scene boasts relevant expression through the lenses of punk, no wave, noise, experimental, garage, rock n roll etc. In addition, relevant weirdo state and national acts are making their way down here in slightly greater numbers (Neptune, The Dead Science and Deerhoof ring a bell for anyone?) What about the blossoming experimental music scene in Gainesville? Or the garage rock of Orlando? Noise from Miami, Sarasota, Tallahasee, Tampa and all points in between playing enthusiastic (if not caustic) shows all across the state. Tampa Bay remains a part of these developments, so lets keep eachother informed of shows, records, sounds etc. Lets try the internet thing and maybe connect and become aware of eachother as sparse blips on this vast radar screen of cultural activity in Tampa Bay, even though I can barely say hello to my neighbors that live too close to me. The common complaint that there's nothing to do in this area seems relevant in the outlying reaches of reality like Pinellas Park, Clearwater and all those towns/cities, but its getting easier to find music worth listening to around here. And if you can't find it, friggin' start it yourself.
Comments (6)
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Amen! Furthermore, I'd like to challenge someone (anyone) to leave a comment letting us know about an upcoming cool show or a story about how they found a killer local band they'd never heard of. TESTIFY!
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TREE/soundz, whom hail from Miami/Gainesville, area fantastically pleasant band. They dabble in what might be called a combination of trip hop and bossa nova. Even though their live set is grounded by some prerecorded sequencing, they augment that with live instrumentation and the beautiful voice of Teresa. They do get to Tampa/St Pete every now and again, be sure to check them out, you love 'em! TREE/soundz: http://www.myspace.com/treesareesa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4NFS-vfol4
We try and keep folks abreast of what's going down in the Americana scene over on ninebullets.net. Plus, we've started trying to book bands to get down this way. Do a meetup in St. Pete and I'll be there.
Thanks for the support! There are so many great bands in Florida and beyond that aren't getting enough attention. I'll meet up in St Pete anytime- There's a good chance I've had some beers with you at Steve's once or twice Autopsy IV. Please be on guard for my new blog series coming soon to a Tampa Calling blog near you: Get to know your local mutants!
