Last week, I enjoyed a series of fun and rewarding musical experiences on three consecutive nights (January 27-29) in Ybor City. [All photos by Phil Bardi.]
On Wednesday at Tre Amici, Joran Oppelt and I along with a few music interns and contributors took part in a Demo Listening Party, a soon-to-be-monthly public event staged by the Homemade Music Symposium at which developing musicians get counsel, critique and encouragement on their creative output. Each participant offered up a single song for analysis, then performed acoustic renditions of some originals live for the quaint audience of friends, family and the odd Tre Amici regulars, among a few others. The inaugural party featured Brahm Bones, Aleshea Harris, and The Sepia Sound.
Brahm Bones kicked things off with “Old Mobly,” a dark and gritty Southern rockin’ blues tune with swells of organ and twangy pained vocals. Both Joran and I could hear the Neil Young influence; Joran suggested more pain and aggression in the vocals, I suggested a few more organ swells, but overall, our interest was piqued about what else the band had to offer. Second up was The Sepia Sound, the solo musical project of 17-year-old St. Pete High junior Dominique Pecchio [pictured at right], who’d only recorded her song, “I Can Read You Like a Book,” a mere week before on her Garageband midi-keyboard. Her clear soprano was laid overtop fresh and bouncy synth pop. While the vocals were once again the focus of our analysis (she could hit all her notes very prettily but needed to be more assertive in her delivery), the song was a rather catchy effort with appealing breakdowns and quirky electro sonics. (My other suggestion was for her to throw some more bleeps into the mix.) Aleshea Harris closed out the demo listening with “Back Roads.” A spoken word and performance artist who's been putting her words to music of late, Aleshea's lyricism was her biggest strength (one lyric, “I got a gun where my right arm used to be,” is still ringing in my head) as was her throaty singing, which was set against a minimalist beat made up of laptop percussion and bass. Aleshea was trying to get herself out there and we recommended that she get comfortable playing live (she was relatively green on guitar), and try experimenting with other musicians to figure out how exactly she wanted to evolve her sound.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2010.