Tag: unknown bands
A musical throwback: Music Tampa Bay’s Top 100 of 2008
I’ve posted two of Music Tampa Bay radio’s “Top 100” lists. Let’s be honest to start here: It’s an unknown station for the most part and the acts being highlighted are mostly enigmas. The question that could be asked about these blog posts is: Why do it? Why post them in text format when they’re already available online, albeit in image form?
The answer is pretty simple to me but it remains to be seen if I have actually accomplished it or anything near it with these previous posts. That answer is exposure. While these songs have aired on the online stream for MTB over the years, that’s a niche audience. While the songs have likely seen air-time with MTB’s broadcasts on the FM dial in St. Petersburg, Florida, that’s a limited potential audience in Tampa Bay or beyond.
While not all musicians dream of going big, there are those who want lightning to strike,Four Star Riot accomplished that with thanks to their inclusion on the Deadpool soundtrack in 2016. But others remain out there but no one has heard them beyond the niche in live performances and how far they’ve pushed their own exposure to the masses.
What’s posted below is the original Music Tampa Bay Top 100 representing 2008- The nine-year old list (released in 2009) features some songs that got somewhere – the “views” count on their music videos/audio streams show it. Others didn’t go anywhere beyond finally seeing time online in 2015 with thanks to CD Baby’s publication program. Others are a mystery – the fact they’re on this list in name-only shows that. They may be out there and I may have missed them in my web search but there’s also the high chance they aren’t.
How good these songs are don’t stand in their order, so listen to what music is available and be the judge yourself. Don’t look for performers you know because unless you know the music scene in the Tampa Bay region you likely won’t know anyone. Consider this post your opportunity at music discovery. If not this post, then the more recent Music Tampa Bay Top 100 lists from 2016 or 2017.
Read More
Indulged by the glimmer from Gypsy Star
I was on the Music Tampa Bay website yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an indie rock/music station in the Tampa Bay metro area (96.7 FM). I’ve interacted with the site before as I helped get the Pretty Voices on air on the station.
One key element on the Music Tampa Bay website is a Top-10 list of songs from local artists. It’s also directly tied to voting on the Top-40 of the station. I was looking at the list specifically to see if the Pretty Voices had any tracks listed at the time (nope). None of the listed artists or bands were familiar to me and that’s regularly the case with me and indie music.
What’s also regularly the case with me is checking out an indie artist because… why the hell not?
So, listed at #1 at the time on the Top-40 list was Gypsy Star, “I Feel Love”. I jumped to Google and typed that in and instead of pointing to a version of “I Feel Love” on YouTube, it pointed to the song Paramour:
All too often what I hear and what I see is bland rock. It’s not the lyrcs that make it bland, it’s just the non-riff of guitar and everything layered on top of each other to make the tunes forgettable. This was not that. I was taken aback by a violinist and accordion being part of the arrangement. Gypsy Star describes themselves as being “dynamic folk / rock” and this sure as shit felt like it. It transfixed me through Monday night.
Yet, listening to the opening of the song again, familiarity crept in. I’ve heard another variation of this before, haven’t I? Listen to the song alone for a minute, without the show distraction. Think about it for a minute.
It reminded me squarely of a song that “you can check out any time you like, but you can never” leave:
Don’t take that as a criticism, folks. I highly recommend checking out more of their tunes; they just released the album Under the Moonlit Night in January. Listening to “Paramour” and checking out some of their other songs (like the previously mentioned “I Feel Love”, you can find “I Feel Love” here, it is on YouTube… Not in concert version) I’ve been left curious and surprised. Gypsy Star is only a Tampa Bay local group? They sure as hell look an sound like a group that should be seeing a broader playing area in Florida, in the US and perhaps around the globe.
