Lake Worth It and Kevin Barnes

Unwinding from a fun and educational weekend in Palm Beach. I spent the Lake Worth It festival with a crew of down people who know exactly how a music festival is supposed to be tackled.  Because they were there, I didn’t notice the heat or the rain or any downer moments for all of 12 hours. We laughed and got rocked the entire day. For their spirited participation, I am grateful. I attended for the elation that giving oneself over to a festival inspires, to find new bands of interest and, of course, to see The Dewars. All of my wildest dreams came true (even a late night game of Celebrity) and the Capone suite at The Hummingbird Hotel was as luxurious as ever.

I arrived before the music began. It was hot as dragon’s breath out and very few people attended the early part of the festival. Grey & Orange opened the day up right with an upbeat set, which pleased my mom and her crew who asked, “is this Sweet Bronco?” (it was their first time coming out to check out Chris’ band because most of these shows happen in smoky bars long after they’ve gone to bed). “Uh, no.” When SB did go on, they asked when they  were going to play their happy songs to which I replied, “These are their happy songs!” So, that happened. The good news is that they really enjoyed Grey & Orange, as did I. Sparse musically, but vocally pristine performances by Jesse Bauman and Wayside Flyer followed and pleased the parental units as well.  Yellow #6, which has a very catchy sound, was playing as we were running to get provisions. We’ll have to catch them some other time. After an amazing trip to Publix, we returned to find that most of the festival’s attendees were taking cover from a rain spell. But, a good number were standing in the rain to watch Bladesong shred some metal riffs. Bladesong, was utter madness and a new discovery for me. We weathered the rain for a hard-driving set from long-time favorites Blond Fuzz.

After the ground dried up, we put down our cartoon blanket and parked right in front of the stage for the rest of the evening. Things got super deep super fast with our favorite weird bands the Dewars and the Jameses.

Invisible Music killed the closing set. At the afterparty at Propaganda, I discovered a delightful new noisy band called Lavola fronted by an enigmatic young brown-haired man with high-pitched vocals named Julian.

Julian also showed up at the Kevin Barnes show at Respectable Street on Sunday. I went up early for the sound check, which put me in the path of Monica McGivern, with whom I spoke for about an hour. She’s the photographer/artist who did the black and white photos of Palm Beach musicians. I was slow to admit that I missed her exhibit at the festival. I was very happy to learn that she put the photos up on her website foodshelterart.She got up on stage to sing with Fire Zuave, and harmonized with frontman Chuck Andrews beautifully.  Wow, how can one person have so many different talents? Spending a bit of one on one with Monica was one of my favorite experiences of the weekend. (You know who else doesn’t need a guitar to be a rock star? New Times photographer Ian Witlen.)

Not surprisingly, Kevin Barnes’ solo performance was a fantastic, intimate affair. Fort Lauderdale-based musician, writer, human curiosity Travis Newbill reviewed it did more justice to it than I have time for now. I think those of us who fested this weekend shared a handful of special moments — that was, after all, the point. Though the crowd picked up significantly at the end of the day, Lake Worth It was not as well-attended as it deserved to be. If it happens again next year, do yourself a favor and go.

Shows Tomorrow — Check out this Flyer

I couldn’t stop laughing after seeing this Sh*t Ton of Funk flyer. I’ve seen this image once before, but it still gets me. I don’t think that there’s anything funny about obesity in general, but the way the giraffe wears it gives  me a giggle. ST of Funk is playing tonight at Prop w/ The Dewars.

Invisible Music and The Dewars (3 shows, one weekend!), along with two bands I don’t know called Alphabet Soup and The Band in Heaven, will “baptize” the stage at Little Munich in Lake Worth tomorrow (Friday) and make it officially rad. I’m so curious to see this happening little German bar/restaurant/venue in action. Not sure if we’ll be able to get up there on Friday (cause we’ll be in Palm Beach on Sat and Sun), but this looks like a most excellent show. I think I’m going to head over to Little Munich for a bit during the Lake Worth It festival afterparties.

Blond Fuzz , who will play the Lake Worth It fest and an afterpaty, is playing Miami’s Vagabond nightclub tomorrow night (3 shows, one weekend!). We won’t be there, but tons of fashionable people certainly will. On this Vagabond flyer, I see a band called The New. Never heard of them before, but they’re also listed on Zombies! Organize!! August 21 Dada show. Also, Lauderdale’s own Catalonia will play Dada in Delray tomorrow night. What in the heck is going on? This metropolitan area is ablaze with happenings. I need a nap just thinking about it!

Ahem, Hi There Everyone

Aghh! This feels good. It’s been a while, eh? I don’t have too long to blog now, but I just want to mention the rooftop party that’s going on tomorrow night at Nu River Landing. Twilight Notes, the DJ group that spins at downtown Brew and other local venues, is celebrating its two year anniversary. That’s a big deal, especially considering that their parties have kept getting bigger the entire time. But, what I think is going to be super radical about the whole thing, besides the music and the company and the fact that it benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, is the whole rooftop angle. It’s running like charity events tend to with the steep cover price of $25 that’s not really that steep because it’s all inclusive. Good job, Adam. Good job, Eric. Good job all other TN-affiliated DJs. If we could all be as cool as you, we’d probably try and still eff it up.

Also, despite the distance I’ve been keeping from my internet, I have been going out and about for the last few weeks. There’s lots of new stuff to know (Stonefox changed its name to Blond Fuzz. Did you know that? If not, you’re further out of the loop these days than I am) and new people to meet (Have you seen the new local blog by the Fort Lauderdale Collective? They’ve got five bloggers and Mood Vane only has one. No Fair!!!! New Times Music Editor Reed Fischer already wrote about it at New Times recently-launched BPB-centric music blog County Grind. No Fair!!! Why’s everyone got to be so diligent all the time?). Also, there’s very likely going to be a not altogether new but very exciting venue opening in downtown right behind Maguire’s Hill 16 (Magoos!) in early July. Will discuss later.  Bye Bye! Miss you! Hi Shmee!

Tonight! Lake Worth or Bust!

We’re so excited to hit up Lake Worth tonight! Six great bands will be playing in that little Palm Beach town, and we’re gonna chill up there for my birthday. We even rented a hotel room so that we could party hard and not worry about driving home.  We’re gonna catch this show and see the incomparable John Ralston-fronted Invisible Music, the Dan Bonebrake-fronted Grey & Orange and see what the Northwood Social Club at South Shores Tavern. Northwood Social Club is pretty new, and I’m curious to see what it’s all about. Chris has heard a couple of the tunes before and he says that I, and anyone else who’s planning to attend, should expect good things.

Then, we’re going to head over to Propaganda to catch The Freakin’ Hott, Stonefox and Zombies! Organize!! live. Yes, that Stonefox. Yes, back together. Yes, you should probably already know that. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to miss the Florida Yeah Poor House show tonight with Kill Miss Pretty, Dooms De Pop and Murderous Rampage!

This Weekend: It’s a Little Mind Boggling, But…

…we’ll be cool as long as we don’t try to do everything. Chris and I might, and that’s a big might, go see Flaming Lips at Sun Fest on Thursday night. After spending an hour hating them the last time I saw them at Langerado, and complaining the whole time that my party made me stand there and watch a bunch of furry creatures dance around the stage while Wayne Coyne crawled around the audience in his big clear ball acting like he should be (at the time, I thought undeservedly) adored, the band played one of my favorite songs, “Do You Realize”. Oops. Chris will never let me live that down. So I gave the band a few hundred spins over the years and Flaming Lips has become one of my faves. You know what other band I passionately hated the first time I saw it on TV? Arcade Fire. Nice instincts, Court. The other bands on Thursday aren’t as fabulous as the Lips and likely will not merit the 45 minute drive plus 30 bean per person drop. We’ll see.

Friday: Here’s a nice suggestion for Friday night: Alexander and Bastard Love Child of Rock ‘n’ Roll at 1921. Also, I haven’t been able to confirm it, but I think that the hilarious, wandering, bluegrass-playing, storytelling one-man band Smokestack and the Foothill Fury will be at The Monterey Club on Friday night. It’s on his MySpace calendar but not the club’s calendar. I hope he’s coming. We had a blast the last time we saw him. Smokestack’s gritty, but I highly recommend catching his show if you’re not otherwise engaged on Friday night. He’s always on tour, which is pretty inspiring for all of us regular folks. PS. Monterey’s very close to 1921, so it would be possible to hit both clubs. Keep in mind that these are not expensive venues. Five bucks here, five bucks there. How much do a couple of O’Doul’s really set you back?

Saturday, Huge Partay!Also, The Bubble’s big anniversary blowout is this weekend. I would go into the significance of the occasion, but it would be redundant to and a muted echo of Erica Landau’s brilliant article in New Times on the evolution of IWAN, the promotional group, and The Bubble, the space. Plus, I’m quoted in the article, which I believe is the first time that anyone’s ever asked my opinion in all of my, ahem, 27 years on the planet. If you hate poetic prose and just want to know what in the heck is gong on, the quick-and-dirty version is that IWAN is going to celebrate its anniversary with an all-day event at THE BUBBLE and all-night event at POOR HOUSE and an acoustic Sunday night show at JIB ROOM. I believe that event has gone monthly, and was a very fun affair last month (thanks, Trav). The line-up is listed on the Facebook invite. Also, the portion of the party at Poor House will feature a mysterious band called Falco, which I’ve heard is a lot like Stonefox, the tight-pantsed blues rock trio that broke up 3 months ago, but three months older and, if I’ve heard correctly, the members of Falco have beautiful muffintops.

Seriously, they do look a lot like Stonefox. See for your own self: Stop it, Stop rocking right now, silly boys! Stop banging your heads. It’s insuh-portable! Isn’t it weird that the weekend of Stonefox’s last show was the last time Smokestack played in Fort Lauderdale? Hmmm? Can we say full circle, kids? Can we say muy interesante and totally random? We can say whatever we want…almost.

Trips down memory lane are wonderful, aren’t they? Check this photo gallery out! Photos:
What did THE BUBBLE look like in the early days?

Also, if you’re a Palm Beacher, Saturday’s show at Propaganda looks way better than decent. Miami’s indie pop band Ex-Norwegian, a female fronted trio from Atlanta called Geri X, Mike Mineo and The Still Voice.

I think Saturday evening at Bubble and the Sunday acoustic at Jib will consume all of the energy that I’ll be able to muster, but running around to Friday’s events could be interesting too. I don’t want to miss Smokestack…if he’s really coming.

This Weekend: I’m Bored! Wah! What Should I Do????

Friday
Propaganda or The Bubble, right? Right.

Protoman, Dee Dubbs Jabrjaw at Propaganda

I don’t typically go out for local hip-hop or rap shows, but this kid Protoman struck a chord with me recently. I was just checking out his MySpace at first, but then I quickly noticed that he was a consummate blogger, a social media junkie and that he had some cool songs. I wrote an article about Fort Lauderdale rapper Protoman for New Times this week. I think I’m probably going to try to head up to this show at Propaganda on Friday. Maybe I should have Sweet Broncoface get up on stage and battle with him. That would be hilarious. Chris won’t go. He’s got better things to do than to hang out with me. Sigh!

Saturday
Kill Miss Pretty and Daisy Berkowitz (SMP)at Squeeze (this is Seamonster Nightclub, the former Squeeze). They will celebrate the release of their single “Judy Garland” and SMP will play it with them. I bumped into SMP last week, and he said that he was probably going to play a Spooky Kids track too. So, rad.

For Art’s Sake at The Bubble, Friday and Saturday
The Bubble will host a 2-day local art show with 16 area talents exhibiting their wares. It’s called For Art’s Sake, and it starts at 6 p.m. both days. Twilight Notes DJs Esoteric and Adam Foster will spin at the event. The live music will come from the mouth and hands of Alexander — that’s Ryan Alexander, who’s been booking acts and playing intimate sets on Friday and Saturday nights at Brew Urban Cafe Victoria Park. I was in there at like 11 p.m. on a recent Friday night to finish up some work (yes, my life is that exciting!) and they had an awesome little jazz set going on. It’s five bologna if you don’t drink and ten bologna if you do.

Saturday: Tonight’s Happenings — It Will Be a Wild One

So, I already mentioned that the famous D-Knuckle will play tonight at The Monterey Club. Will be crazy as evidenced by the photo below:

But, what the heck else? Obviously, we’ve got two festivals raging in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The Blues Festival is holding down the Riverwalk in the area of Downtowner Saloon and The Greek Fest is going off in Victoria Park at the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. Those should be fun. Not sure if we’re going to pop over there or what.
We’ve got a full plate of potential outings for tonight and some tough decisions to make.

It’s an all-girl art exhibit tonight at IWAN’s The Bubble warehouse, and I would love to spend my entire Saturday afternoon sitting here writing about “The Trouble With Girls”, but someone has already done a fine job describing it. That special someone is Travis Newbill, who wrote it up for the New Times.

Also, Auteur Explosion is happening tonight at Cinema Paradiso, and it’s all about hip-hop art and music. Check out this video for Protoman and DJ Immortal’s “Wake Up”. Fort Lauderdale’s Protoman will play a special show next Friday night at Propaganda with Toki Wright and Dee Dee Dubbs & Jabrjaw. Also, heads up for the story that I wrote about Protoman. It will come out in New Times this week.

The music portion of the evening starts at 9:20 p.m. and runs to 11 p.m., and the line-up includes Mecca and Laguardia, Protoman, Sunflower, Brimstone127 & The Brass King and Scratch Academy Turntablism with DJ Immortal, DJ Hurricane and DJ K-Razor. Details can be found at Cinema Paradiso’s page for the Auteur Explosion.

Saturday Night: Acoustic Sets at The Bubble and Rocking Rock by Freakin Zombies Timb Collaboration

Last Saturday night was easily my favorite night of live music in quite some time. A quick stop off at The Bubble to see Trav (Travis Newbill) and Evan (Catalonia) turned into an all-night affair. There was a warm energy in the air, a sense that everyone had a bit of time to kill and the inclination to be exactly where they were. Evan played and played and played, playing his own material and then cracking up his audience with twists on and bastardized versions of popular songs, such as Radiohead’s “Creep”, that freshened ‘em up a bit.

Trav was out of control. I did not know that I had such a secret talent among my acquaintance. He’s got an arrestingly beautiful voice and a bevy of original songs that I have yet to fully explore. His amiga Natasha painted him during his set, which was erotic and innocent at the same time, and then she started painting everyone else in the room. Was rad. Can’t wait to see Trav play again!

Chris played after Trav, performing a few original songs like Morning Night, my fave, and a coupla his favorite covers. He’s all painted up at this point, as were many of us when we headed over to Poor House to check out the D*ck Knuckle show.

Saturday: Saturday Is The Day That Parties the Hardest

SATURDAY

RAFFA & RAINER SHOW IS POSTPONED, BUT THE BUBBLE WILL STILL HAVE AN EVENT THIS SATURDAY. CHEAPER DOOR PRICE. DETAILS YET TO BE DETERMINED. I’LL POST THEM AS SOON AS I KNOW MORE, K? TENTATIVE RESCHEDULE DATE FOR RAFFA AND RAINER IS MARCH 20. POOR HOUSE WILL BE KICKING LATE NIGHT. SEE DETAILS OF POOR HOUSE SHOW BELOW.

Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Raffa & Rainer CD release party at The Bubble Miami trio Raffa & Rainer releases its newest album No Mercy to the Fort Lauderdale crowd this Saturday night. Opening for the group is fellow Miami act, Bridget & Luke, which produces remarkable female-fronted pop, and the boy-girl fronted Sweet Bronco. I am very excited that my schedule permits me to attend. It’s been months since I’ve been to The Bubble, which I love so well. This is a particularly righteous night for live music in Fort Lauderdale. Hopefully this event will leave time for me to scoot over to Poor House, where the Freakin’ Hott/TIMB/Zombies Organize hybrid band known as D*ck Knuckle will be playing. The show’s promo materials didn’t go up until just a couple of days ago, so you might not know that it’s happening. A little D-Knuckle is going to be a perfect follow-up to the Raffa & Rainer show — a fun, snarky, rocking contrast to the sincere content we’ll see at The Bubble — so make sure to check out the information about it below.

Saturday at 9 p.m. Three Imaginary Girls at Propaganda in Lake Worth

In fact, the show will feature three actual girls. I don’t know anything about them, but maybe you do. There’s also a show at Radioactive Records on Saturday night, two other bands that I don’t know anything about, but they do, as Mikey Ramirez commented, have a really cute show flyer.

D*ck Knuckle, Poor House, 11 p.m. D*ckknuckle will reunite for a Fort Lauderdale show this Saturday night at Poor House. That’s all of the members of The Freakin’ Hott, TIMB, and Zombies Organize playing together as one unit. Festivities are likely to begin around 11 p.m. First they will play individual sets, and then merge for the megaband that spits foul-language riddled witticisms that will make you laugh so hard your beer will shoot out through your nose. Plus, they rock. It’s a good time, really good. Saw them at Propaganda in December. You don’t have to take my suggestion that you see this show. Check out Maggie’s blog about why she dislikes Radiohead and Dancer in the Dark followed by the usual non sequitur show announcement. Why do I use an asterisk in the band’s name? No particular reason other than that I just don’t feel like writing curse words on my blog right now.

Friday: Friday’s Nickname Should Be “Blow Dry Your Hair Cause There’s Lots To Do”

FRIDAY

Fort Lauderdale. Dialect at Brew Urban Cafe in Himmarshee.
The DJ/Gallery party Dialect has moved to Fridays, and the next installation goes down this Friday the 5th at 7:30. Deejays Utopia Syndrome, Esoteric, Kristof and Adam Foster will spin.  Featured visual artists include Betty Dominguez, Vionette, Zizi Barhouma, Ilian Velasco, Nick Lopez, Eric Small, N! Satterfield, Jeff Dekal and Jennifer Toboada. Good times? Probably. These parties generally get a pretty good draw and they are chill affairs. Though it conflicts with a show that I’m going to this Friday night, I think the move to the weekend will make attending doable for most folks.  I think you could deem a Friday night complete with a little hang out at Dialect followed by a stopoff at Poor House.

Fort Lauderdale. For a second night in a row, The Monterey Club is moving way beyond blues/rockabilly/roots rock this Friday night with a line-up that includes Miami indie pop bands Ex-Norwegian, Dreaming in Stereo and Jim Camacho.

Lake Worth. On Friday night at 9 p.m. Sweet Bronco, The Dewars, Bonnie Riot and Radio Boxer at Propaganda, Sweet Bronco, as you may know, is trucking along, playing lots of shows and recording an as-of-yet unspecified number of its songs at a studio up in Lake Worth. The Dewars I’ve never heard of before. From their bio and all photographic appearances, it appears that the band is fronted by twin brothers. The band’s songs, I like a lot — especially “High on You”, a cute, lyrically charming acoustic song in which their voices meld wonderfully. I guess it helps that they have the same gene structure. Friday will also be the first time that I get see Palm Beach band Bonnie Riot. I’m going to play it safe and wear sensible shoes because their electronic rock songs are highly danceable. Is it just me, or does the singer kind of sound like Geddy Lee from Rush? Rawk.

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