As part of our upcoming Urban Explorer's Handbook, we mapped out the Bay area's own Internet community and spotlighted a variety of blogs and websites that cover local arts, news, politics, film, music and food. Here is a profile I wrote about Bryan Childs, a Tampa Calling contributor and the man behind ninebullets.net.
Bryan Childs, aka Autopsy IV, isn’t trying to be a music writer or a critic or even a go-to source for music news and information. But the 35-year-old electrical designer has single-handedly become all three. The St. Petersburg-based owner and operator of ninebullets.net brings so much knowledge and raw talent to the table that Creative Loafing recruited him as a contributor to our own music blog, Tampa Calling, last year.
Via ninebullets.net, Childs shines a light on Americana, bluegrass, newgrass, psychobilly, alt-country, folk, deep blues and any other genre with a downhome, rootsy feel, though you’re as likely to find posts about Tori Amos or Slayer as you will Old Crow Medicine Show and The Black Keys. His site includes interviews, MP3s, live show previews and reviews, commentary on CDs and DVDs, music news, and posts about Childs’ own whisky-soaked adventures. He also has a few guest bloggers to help spread the flavor.
Childs has no professional experience writing or playing music, though he dabbled in both while growing up in Plant City. His formative years were spent exploring the Bay area’s goth industrial music scene, where he became a regular at The Castle and joined its online community message board, Underground Tampa.
Then he discovered the Drive-By Truckers. “I heard them and I was done,” Childs says of his love-at-first-listen awakening. Soon enough, he was digging up more alterna-twang artists and contacting local radio DJs for recommendations.
