Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2019: The bands of Tampa Bay

The annual Best of the Bay reader poll/survey for Tampa Bay residents is out and will be active during the month of August. A lot of subject-maters and items are covered within the survey/poll, which is divided up into four sections (“Goods and Services”, “Arts and Entertainment”, “Food and Drink” and “People, Places, and Politics”).

While I usually go first-and-foremost to the “People, Places and Politics” section because of my affinity and involvement in sports, I went to “Arts and Entertainment” firstly this time around in order to quench a curiosity that I have. A curiosity in music, sweet music…

It’s not news for me to mention I’m running a local-theme Spotify playlist. What is an issue is me actually looking for and finding more artists to put on the playlist (not like anyone actually listens to that thing though :-/) I also wonder about the local scene and performing artists (of original nature) that are out there.

There are many.

What I’m posting here is a list, simply a list. The list is everyone who was nominated as the Best Local Band (Original Music). The nominees aren’t all current, and they cover many genres. The downside of this list is that I’m not linking to their respective web pages or social media accounts. They are out there though in one fashion or another. These are musicians from or in the greater Tampa Bay metopolitain area.

• 22N
• 5 Star Hooker
• Abortion Twins
• Actual Bank Robbers
• Ajeva
• Animal Person
• Ashley Smith and the Random Occurrence
• Aurorae
• Autumn June
• Bangarang
• Banjoe Steve & the World Drummers
• Bearded Brothers
• Benjamin Road
• Betty Fox Band
• Between Bluffs
• Black Honkeys
• Black Velvet Band
• Blackbird Sanctuary
• Blackwater Jack
• Blind Optimism
• Brian L. Band
• Brittany Baldwin Band
• broom closet
• Brother Cephus
• Changer
• Clang!
• Come Back Alice
• Cottondale Swamp
• Crackerbillys
• Crushtone
• Damond Jiniya
• Danfield
• DEA & Saint
• Dean Johanesen
• Deathtruck
• Den of Thieves
• Derrick Williams & The Gospel Voice Band
• Dezerv.Co
• Discord theory
• Discount Baby
• Discount Baby (fka Bendy Straw)
• Divine AF
• Double M Band
• Eccentric
• Eddie Garrido
• El Coyote
• Electric Woodshed
• Ella Jet & Future Soul
• Ellie Lee
• F19 Band
• Face Melt
• Fall on Purpose
• FAM
• Fay Roy
• Fever Beam
• Florida Bjorkestra
• Florida Wind Band
• Follow The Monarchs
• Forthteller
• Frankie Raye
• Garden Club
• George herzog
• Gloria West and her gents
• Glove
• GoldenEra
• Greg Billings Band
• Guerilla Panic
• Gushing
• Gwan Massive
• Gypsy Wind
• Halcyon
• Have gun will travel
• Heff
• Hello Joyce
• Holey Miss Moley
• Honeywhat
• Hope Darling
• Horsewhip
• House Of I
• Human Error
• Infinite Eights
• Jaded
• Jah Movement
• Jenu Six and the Old Souls
• Jeriko turnpike
• Johnny Mile and the Kilometers
• Jukebox Assassins
• Julie Black & Her Band
• Kelp
• Kerry Courtney
• Kettle of Fish
• King Complex
• King of Denmark
• Know it all
• Kraken Krewe
• La Lucha
• Lassyu
• Lazormouth
• Leon majcen
• Level
• Lie Low
• Little Sheba and the Shamans
• Love Addiction
• Madtown
• Magnum Opus – Tampa Florida Band
• MarKus lee and the Pride
• Maudlin Moon
• MB Banned
• Mega Schmegna
• MEKA NISM
• Mighty Mongo
• Mission City Worship
• Mixed Signal
• Monkeybone
• Moose Masseuse
• MORE is MORE
• Mosquito Teeth
• Mountain Holler
• MR. Bella
• Murder the Crows
• Murkov
• Mushroomhead
• Mushu
• Mwiza
• Nathan and The Players
• Negative Split
• New Fang
• No Filter
• Nocturnus AD
• Nolen Strong
• paul anthony band
• Paul Cazares
• PIG PEN
• Pitbull toddler
• PLEASURES
• Proud Miranda
• Psykotribe
• Rebekah Pulley
• Rebekah Pulley & The Reluctant Prophets
• Re-birth
• Rehoboth
• Resinated
• restless soul
• Reverend Barry & The Funk
• Ricky Wilcox and the Moon Snakes
• Ron Rhinehart Group
• Ronnie Dee and the Super Stars
• Row Jomah
• Rue Bix Queue
• Rutterkin
• Sam Adwell Band and the HoneyWhats
• Scapeghost
• Scream Machine
• Serenation
• Shevonne
• Shevonne & The Force
• Sick Hot
• Six Volt Rodeo
• Someday Honey
• Soul Circus Cowboys
• Soul Hybrid
• South of Kennedy
• Speak Easy
• Spirit & The Cosmic Heart
• SPIT
• Stolen Idols
• Stonegrey
• Stormbringer
• StraitJacket Smile
• Sunset Bridge Band
• Swampland Symphony
• Sweet Lick
• Swipe Right
• Tampa Pride Band
• Taylor Fletcher Band
• The Applebutter Express
• The Band 4X – Fred Chandler All Original Music CD Released
• The Bawdy Boys
• The boats
• The Cadillac Cowboys
• The Cheaters
• The Cunningham Wake
• The curse
• The Difference
• The HeadTones
• The Henleys
• The Hip Abduction
• The Holy Terror
• The Hummingbirds
• The Jackettes
• The Kirk Adams Band
• The New Brutarians
• The New Rulers
• The real clash
• The Ries Brothers
• The Stick Martin Show
• The Stillhouse Shakers
• The Wandering Hours
• The Whole Band
• The young something
• Tom Kats Jazz Orchestra
• Tone of The Year
• Tropico Blvd
• Uncle John’s Band
• Urban gypsies
• Urbane Cowboys
• Vetnough
• Victims of Circumstance
• Viewers Like You
• Vilest Breed
• Vomit Sawdust
• WARLAB
• WD-HAN
• Weather Prophets
• Wolf Face

So… All these names, all these acts. What should you, the reader, take from this? The names alone might make you curious to find out more about the act. If you know of the acts, you might be compelled to vote in support of the artists.

That goes for people who aren’t local too. Few of these acts have a national or international grip from what I’ve seen on Spotify. While some are known groups with libraries and music portfolios that span decades (like The Weather Prophets), others are local0local who haven’t drawn broader interest due to one reason or another.

I also can’t confirm that all the listed acts are indeed local bands. I also don’t know if Creative Loafing reviewed the acts or not. Honeywater, a very popular duo, is listed and their origin isn’t clear. ( Update Aug 20, 2019: I read the band name wrong. Honeywhat, when searched for on Spotify, drew Honeywater as the top result. The band’s name is wrong entirely — it’s HoneyWheat. It’s spelled wrong on the (copied version of) the CL listing. I still hold to what I said about “Dunno if they’re all locals” sentiment tho. -JF)