Throughout this week’s issue, CL’s edit staff is taking a stab at predicting what may or may not happen in 2017.
UPDATE: Two of this article’s featured artists (TRC and Natalie Claro) could play Okeechobee Music Festival in March. Fans can show support by going to a show at State Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 22. Details available here.
Instead of hoping that Jeebus will bring Lemmy back, the music section asked Tampa Bay artists to declare what their 2017 plans actually were. There’s a saying about actually doing what you say you will, right? Regardless, the response was overwhelming, and we’ve highlighted what your neighbors, friends and co-workers are plotting in the New Year. Without further delay, please meet…
MC Kenna
A 28-year-old Tampa-born emcee who attended Progress Village Middle School and Blake High. He toured independently twice and sees a possible East Coast run during the summer of 2017. MC Kenna also wants to bring more creative events to Tampa. His outlet platform, BeautiFLorida, conducted a networking event called Connect The Dots over last summer, and he’d like to fold that success into BeautiFLradio, where a quarterly mixtape of Florida musicians would accompany a release show (you can check out the first event on January 7 at The Venture Compound in St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts district). Listen to “Voodoo” featuring Vinny Virgo and She Go below.
Cheeba Love
He lives in Brandon, but Cheeba Love was born and raised in South Tampa. Samples from songs like “Decisions” are self-produced and expose the media’s misunderstanding of Ybor. He’s hoping to go on his first-ever tour in 2017; cities like Tampa, St. Pete, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles and New York are on the itinerary. Follow @cheebalove on Twitter and Instagram.
TRC (formerly The Real Clash)
Now veterans of the Tampa Bay scene, hip-hop collective TRC formed at St. Petersburg College, but the band’s members come from all over the greater Bay area. Their latest release is Clash Wednesday, and they hope to play Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival in 2016 after barely missing the cut in a fan-driven contest last year (fans can show support by showing up at a January 22 show at State Theatre in St. Pete — details here). Touring plans are not set in stone, but they hope to hit the road with another Bay area group, DEA & Saint, in the new year. Listen to “Heart Drops” via below and keep an eye out for a still-untitled solo EP from one TRC member, Shadcore.
M W Walker
A solo project from Matt Also Adam member Matt Walker, who released a Kickstarter-assisted 11-track LP of folk rock (Half Awake) in November, on which he gets assists from Kyle Kolar on drums, Adam Haar on bass, and Alec Ogg on piano. The St. Petersburg-born songwriter has plans to tour the entire south in 2017 along with with California, and may even hit Colorado. Listen to Half Awake‘s title track below, and get linked to Walker’s excellent 2015 EP of covers via Bandcamp.
Natalie Claro
She’s just 17, but the Los Angeles-born, St. Pete-based songwriter Natalie Claro has already opened for Hawthorne Heights, Spill Canvas and Underoath’s Aaron Gillespie. “Mountain,” from her brand new EP, Atychiphobia (it’s the fear of failure), is all guitar-pop polish, and Claro flexes her radio-ready vocal even more across the 20-minute effort. Follow her on Instagram. Listen to “Mountains” and download all of Atychiphobia for free via Bandcamp.
Jordan Esker & the Hundred Percent
Regular readers of CL’s music section should be no strangers to this St. Pete-based songwriter. We’ve premiered tracks like piano-pop single “Taking An Office Day” and regularly feature Esker’s gigs in our live music previews. He’s been making music with drummer/singer Vincent Montemarano since they were 12 years old, and the group (which recently inked a licensing deal with a company based out of Atlanta) plans on adding Austin and the midwest to its tour history, which already includes cities like Charleston, Chapel Hill, Knoxville, Nashville and Valdosta. Keep your fingers crossed for any one of the three songs they’ve already got written, recorded and ready for release any time in the new year. Listen to the debut LP, Best Supporting Actor, below.
Patrick Liam Doyle
There’s a banjo- and guitar-wielding Wisconsinite living in Gulfport, Florida, and he makes folk music that covers topics like drinking and even the perpetuity of time. His name is Patrick Liam Doyle, and he arrived in Tampa Bay just last year. He’s already played a number of local venues so far, including Green Bench Brewing and the Florida Folk Scene Stage at Et Cultura Festival. Listen to his EP, Lo-Fi Folk below.
Billy Mays III
Billy Mays III is the main driving force behind ambient project Infinite Third, but he’s also a facilitator for vocal looping project Mouth Council and folk-pop duo Memorycode. The St. Pete-based artist has been featured in our pages before, and as he readies a new Infinite Third LP, Mays is also planning a 2017 tour that will add the West Coast to a road history that’s seen him play in the midwest, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia.
Acho Brother
Tampa songwriter and latin pop guitarist Hector Mayoral (aka Acho Brother) has returned home to Puerto Rico to help Mijo De La Palma record a full-length in Cabo Rojo, but the Bay area looks forward to his return in the summer, when we hope he records a follow up to his Illegal Brown Island Flower album that has earned him accolades in CL’s Best of the Bay awards.
Radarmen?
Made of members from other Bay area bands like Navin Ave., Down By Law and Band of Sorrows, indie-post-rock outfit Radarmen? revolves around frontman Rodney Smith and hopes to release a follow up to 2015’s Echoes in Sound LP before the fall. Download the record for free via Bandcamp and listen to it below.
DieAlps!
Fuckin’ A. CL’s favorite alt-waltz outfit bought a van. DieAlps! have expanded an already charming sound since we first gushed about a debut EP two years ago, and their new vehicle means the band (DieAlps!) will be bringing their forthcoming debut full-length (Our City, due early this year) to new fans up and down the East Coast very, very soon. Frontwoman Cornelia Calcaterra and hubby/guitar player Frank sound all kinds of grown up on “Battles” and “I Can See It Now” from Our City, and we can’t wait for you to hear it, too. Watch this clip filmed at Ybor’s Lot 1901 studio in the meantime.
Krono Genesis
An experimental hip-hop artist who settled in Tampa after stints in Boston, Los Angeles and Providence. His 2015 EP, Unorthodox, is available for free download via Bandcamp. A new release (Mastering Pain) was supposed to be released by Krono Genesis in December, but seems to be on delay. Listen to “Party People” to hold you over for now.
Bride of Chaotica
Psych-rock outfit Bride of Chaotica will release Ghosts on Television (the follow up to 2012’s Bamboo Transistor) in less than two weeks, and hope to add more southern Florida dates to a touring history that already features stops all over the Bay area festival scene.
The Tattered Saints
Bay area rock outfit The Tattered Saints have plans to record their first full-length this year, but already have a nice stable of Springsteen and Stones-loving Bay area fans who enjoy the band’s three-guitar harmonies and anthemic rock. They started their own podcast in 2016 and toured in Asheville, Atlanta and Nashville in addition to local dates at the Tampa Bay Margarita Festival and Rock the Park.
The Rustbelt
The Rustbelt’s first show isn’t even until January 21 at Dead Lizard Brewing in Orlando, but longtime Bay area resident Jim Monroe and his band (James Colyer on keys, Aric Hopson on guitar plus bassist Rob Redmond and drummer Jim Vitale) hope to bring songs like “All the Awful Things I’ve Done” and “Try Try” to local venues soon.
House of I
House of I, Miami transplants now calling Tampa home, underwent a lot of changes in 2016, but frontmen Daniel Caballero and Kenny Rodriguez (who’ve been playing music together since middle school) are ready to bring the rowdy garage-blues from a 2014 EP (Mechanic Vida Y La Luna) to more and more Bay area audiences in 2017.
DAWNS
It’s not right to consider Chris Horn, Ariel Cortes, Michael Barrow and Bryson St. Angelo “leftover pieces from other bands,” but the boys now collectively known as DAWNS did just that in their note to CL. Their February 2016 EP of fuzzy indie rock was backed up by a new single, “Embrace,” which DAWNS released in July, and we look forward to hearing stuff from a new EP the band just finished mixing and mastering.
DrewB
DrewB was born in The Bronx, but he’s making a name for himself from deep within Plant City and Tampa, where his 2013 EP Language Arts (especially lead track “Good Chance”) has helped him land shows in the Carolinas, Brooklyn and Atlanta. He hopes to hit Nashville, Raleigh and Jacksonville as part of his first proper tour.
Sean Hamilton
Tampa composer Sean Hamilton loves to be on the road (he was from Pittsburgh before settling in Tampa Heights) and has done it solo en route to touching down all over the globe. He’s a classically trained percussionist that really turns heads with improvised, electroacoustic live performances. Hamilton’s most exciting 2017 plan is a collaborative album with Tampa standout Leo Suarez, who’ll play percussion while he handles prepared vibraphone.
Mike Chinn
This Cincinnati native moved to St. Pete in his 20s and hasn’t looked back. Mike Chinn has opened for Hall & Oates, Grand Funk Railroad, Rare Earth and others in his time, and publishing deals have helped him place songs on CBS’s The Mentalist and Zero Hour on ABC. He’ll be spending his year placing more songs on TV and in film while also hosting an acoustic night at Finley’s Irish Pub in Largo.
The Delta Troubadours
The Delta Troubadours should look familiar to locals, and while they aren’t exactly from Tampa Bay, the Gainesville quartet are regulars to our region’s clubs and festival stages. Formerly known as Gritt, the band will spend the new year getting fans acquainted with the new name while slinging the fiery brand of rock & roll that came out of their roots as a more country-based band.
Mason Monroe
Turning up even when funds are scarce, “5 Finger discount” reveals Mason Monroe’s financial struggles in an affluent society. As he plots to one day earn his own wealth, Monroe doesn’t let his financial disability strain his finesses.
“Swank” is a turning point on Nu Souf. The instrumentation’s tenacious heartbeat revitalizes Monroe’s 808s & Heartbreak auto-tuned background vocals. Ultimately it’s the sexy saxophone serenade at the end of “Swanks” that truly embodies the quest for money, power, and respect.
Music for the pimp soul, Nu Souf sways between jazz, trap, and gospel. As he prepares to dominate the New Year, it’s Monroe’s lyrical versatility on Nu Souf that ensures 2017 will be started off on the right note. Listen to an older track, “December,” below. — Casey Jeanite
This article appears in Jan 5-12, 2017.
