Introducing: Let's Get Fired Promotions 

St. Petersburg pop punk specialists 

Upcoming Events, July - October

Pop punk music has a subtle, subversive nature which can teach us something important about progressive politics. It's less in your face than many other sub-genres but reminds you that fun is critical -- nay, essential.  Quit your job!  Do an immature Tyler Durden style act of rebellion in the bathrooms!  Or at least improve your work-life balance, you yuppie.  St. Pete's new promotions team Let's Get Fired (LGF) is here to assist you.

Stealing is a good way to start your liberation mission, so the first headlining band of LGF’s life are the shoplifters’ advocates, Thieves Are Watching. Yeah, they can watch back!  This band play a heavy-tinged tribute to some of the more respectable music of emo’s early third wave.  They will be supported by Open Box Policy of New Port Richey, an appropriately labeled revival band who incorporate chugging guitars, emo and alt-rock into songs with titles reminiscent of pop punk legends ('Boredom,' 'Hello Suburbia').  Tampa's Pinehurst will come with the strained heaviness and emotional subject matter of Small Brown Bike and the vocal variations of Smoke or Fire, while Say It Ain't So invite you to enjoy a universe of high-pitched nostalgia inspired by Tom DeLonge.  This show is Friday, July 17th at 8pm, at The Market On 7th in Ybor.

The latter band -- who are implanting Weezer in my head repeatedly despite not sounding like them -- will also be playing at LGF's second gig on July 31st at The Neptune Lounge (Tarpon Springs).  Weekend-loving Atari types Saved By Friday will be there, as will the sparkly, summery, golden age emo punk of Starlight Envy from St. Petersburg.  Anthemic-but-warbly-vocalled Gainseville band Former Planets provide LGF with their second underdog-rooting headliner in a row. (Pluto, y'see -- last hired, first fired.)  They'll have a new, self-titled album for sale.  Last-minute addition The Casey Little Band will provide various variety due to their interesting combination of ska and folk.

Both of these gigs are $7 and all ages.  Let's Get Fired also has shows in the punky crock-pot for August 30th, September 1st, September 11th, September 19th and October 3rd.  So whenever it is that you happen to find yourself getting the corporate elbow, you can spend one of those final minimum wage hours on a good night out.  

These events not brought to you by Donald Fucking Trump.

Let's Get Fired on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/letsgetfiredpromotions
Let's Get Fired Tickets: http://letsgetfiredpromotions.ticketleap.com/

Event 1: https://www.facebook.com/events/967464486611252/

Event 2: https://www.facebook.com/events/780940655359560/ 

 

Thieves Are Watching: https://thievesarewatching.bandcamp.com/
Open Box Policy: https://openboxpolicy2.bandcamp.com

Pinehurst: https://pinehurstfl.bandcamp.com/
Say It Ain't So: https://soundcloud.com/jack-eppink/sets/pop-punk-pizza-and-pussh-doors
Saved By Friday: https://savedbyfriday.bandcamp.com/
Starlight Envy: https://starlightenvy.bandcamp.com/
Former Planets: https://formerplanets.bandcamp.com/
The Casey Little Band: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCaseyLittle

 

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BONUS CUP 

PS. His headline band dropped out of the first show, so here's the cut bonus footage if you're interested.

"And just as the deaths of our youth jobs are often the end of one phase of life, and the start of something better, coming first for LGF is Finish Last. On tour from Rochester and the impetus behind the promotions company, Finish Last play modern, catchy pop punk with a great amount of skate and punk rock underlying it all. They're promoting their EP Never Settle on this, their first tour venturing south." https://finishlast.bandcamp.com

mewithoutYou/Foxing/Field Mouse
Saturday, July 4th 2015
Local 662, St. Petersburg, FL

Originally published at Suburban Apologist

Benjamin Franklin may well never have meant it, but the wilderness beats a safe imprisonment. That seems to be the message as mewithoutYou plan a trip to town with timid, roaming creatures such as Foxing, Field Mouse and Pale Horses (their new album) in tow. It's mewithoutZoo. 

Yet as many a would-be rebel has rationalised, in order to be free you must also be captive. As Field Mouse begin playing it is rather like a zoo at this crowded, sold out gig, surrounded by double the regular number of bars and hand-scrawled no smoking signs to accommodate the numbers. Will singer Rachel Browne be drowned out as their moniker implies, or is the name an ironic label over mob-silencing mammoth broadcasts? The weirdly satisfying truth turns out to be neither. While Browne has a soft voice it is by no means mousey; it rides a wave of keyboard and alt-rock guitar snarls comfortably and confidently. Think Garbage circa Version 2.0, the female nonchalance of L7 and a heavy shoegaze influence (maybe that ground level view is the origin of the name Field Mouse). With these comparisons it's needless to say that the band is cool, but The Local 662 is currently not and it's hard to tell whether your brain is meandering or the set itself.

Field Mouse dedicate their first night on the tour to Foxing, the Missouri band who had $27,000 of equipment and possessions stolen in Austin three days earlier. Information had been conflicting in the afternoon about whether the band would appear; having smashed a $5000 goal on gofundme in just 4 hours and then doubling it, there were hopes of a bittersweet performance. But, because of some opportunistic dildos in Texas, Foxing missed Florida entirely, picking themselves up only in time for the Atlanta date on the 6th. It's a shame that the promoter couldn't find a replacement local act for us. It's mainly a shame that the St. Pete audience was denied a chance to witness their combo of modern nightclub indie and emo-influenced post-rock (something like fellow Midwesterners Appleseed Cast). The band is about to spend August on a UK tour with their new equipment, where they will perhaps be glad to hear that despite a recent government wobble, foxhunting remains banned (their song titles and artwork seem to indicate an interest).

mewithoutYou are clearly also upset to be without Foxing. They open with a forlorn, slow, short intro (the Pale Horses title track) before anything vaguely hardcore; lay down some comforting bedding for all their animal friends in the form of 'Timothy Hay'; and play a few songs from the album that today we might title Catch For the Foxes Those Thieving Bastards. There's even a gap with a mic in the middle of the stage, not assigned to any of the members, as if representing something. Singer Aaron Weiss delivers the kind of lyrics that require quiet bedroom contemplation, not analysis in some rowdy bar. Still, the continuing lack of cooling in the 662 does make for a sort of heady dizziness that fits the bands sharp-angled style, even if the goal is simply to make people buy more beer. Both the bars seem oddly barren -- is art-core rock the nuanced descendant of straight edge? The audience is sober, still and enthusiastic as mewithoutYou utilise everything from a piano accordion to what from a distance appears to be a vodka bottle (but is most likely a tambourine stick). Weiss, as he has done periodically, does some triple spins as the set spirals towards an end, before finally using the open microphone.

Clash Wednesday, Clash Corn

A side dish to the Clash Wednesday Benefit Show main course.

When I got into the car of Shadcore, I was just happy as a non-driver to be getting a way home. It's a constant struggle and work of negotiation in a place like Tampa Bay, trying not to be an inconvenience to your friends and acquaintances, and a nice guy like Rashad helps massively. What I was not expecting was a trip down nourishment lane! One crucial element in being a humble hitcher is flowing with the motorists schedule, so I raised no objection when Rashad asked if I minded stopping to see some cousins of his before they left town.

After a shot of wine made from grapes grown in his families own backyard, it dawned on me just how large the zip lock of corn was. I'd accepted it without viewing the dose, but it was no mistake. Three days and two thirds into the bag my girlfriend and I are still trying to judo the stuff down. It's gone into sandwiches, tacos, the side of fries and eaten by its cobby self. The mac and cheese that Shadcore's mother makes was devoured within the hour of leaving its mother kitchen, totally justifying its position in the rappers lyrics sheet. Such generous genes is surely the kind of thoughtfulness that led me to get a lift in the first place.

Music and food, bringing people together since Clash Wednesday!

The Clash Wednesday Benefit Show

Sunday, 19th April 2015

The Palladium Side Door, St. Petersburg FL

When you redefine hip hop, the philosophical among us may ask, are you keeping that hip hop real?  The Real Clash are a real band really crossing genres beyond the usual rap/rock equation.  They make songs about real important things with real intent, but without mistaking that for the real work required by today's social movements.  They're inspiring yet humble, in other words.  They're keeping it real though inaccurate, holding this Clash Wednesday album fundraiser on a Sunday, in a fancy venue called the Side Door that patrons don't even enter through the side of the building.  How fancy? The candles on each of the round, linen-covered tables here apparently aren't real, but the provided snacks definitely are.

La Lucha might sound a little fancier and more sophisticated than if their name was in English, but irrespective of that, their music fits the atmosphere at this Palladium bonus stage seamlessly.  It feels like a cool and dark New Orleans bar upon walking in. A jazz trio at heart (winning Best of the Bay in 2013 and 2014), the international sometimes-cover band incorporates in pop, funk, Latin music, EDM warbles and trip-hoppy bits of ginger instrumentation.  To that end they also sometimes incorporate singer Jun Bustamante and her arresting voice. She even sings arrestingly on a Police cover: "Can't Stand Losing You" comes at the end of both this set and La Lucha's new album Standards, Not-Standards.  See Zero Warning's recent video interview with Jun Bustamante here.

Next is another group of Danny Piechocki Birthday Experience 2.1 alumni, Lions After Dark (LAD).  He's only gone and shown up here as a guest bassist as well.  This lot are again primed for this satisfyingly dim little location, not just in their name but in their current sound.  LAD since I last saw them have gotten heavier, verging on hardcore, punk and sludge metal at times, with feedback, and screams from vocalist Maddie Pfeiffer.  That's not to say there aren't still moments of restraint and breath catching. During the track 'Casper' the band invites Jay and Rashad from The Real Clash up to give us a bridge-based preview of what's coming next.  Member of both acts Andrew Roden kind of encapsulates where LAD seem to have gone between his need for two guitars (one is apparently named 'Sparkly') and his Henry Rollins t-shirt. 'Let's Start A War' becomes My War.

While I wouldn't quite describe TRC as militant, they seem a bit like a battalion right now, with 2 rows of 4 members lined up, ready to get on to the task at hand.  The hacky sack kicked around during the strangely dramatic intro indicates more of a lean towards 3 Feet High and Rising than The 3rd World, with Jay Acolyte continuing to blur lines amid his touching Star Wars geekery (Darth Vader shirt, verse about the new trailer in his LAD rap).  To reference another band tag line, is this what hip hop looks like in 2015?  Part of the reason there are so many people here is the sheer number of guests.  There's DJ Rahim Samad, putting well placed scratches throughout the set, violinist Fae Nageon de Lestang from Gainseville's Flat Land, and wind instrument teachers David R. Manson and Austin Vickrey.  (After forming at SPC, it seems The Real Clash can't help but stay close -- The Palladium is owned by the college, these teachers employed by it.)  "Imagine a tambourine with them" says the ever-inclusive Shadcore. No wonder this album has taken a while to put together; just the costs of sandwiches at rehearsal alone must cost a small fortune.  New features include a reworking of 'Stupid,' sexy additions to other older tracks courtesy of the horny horns and a song about shady show promoters taking advantage of artists. Despite all of the instrumentation the vocals are clearer, including those of tonight's third strong female lead, Eliana Blanchard.  Perhaps this could be considered something of a backfire as the many musicians attempt not to stand on each others toes, but the last song at least is nice and loud.

I want to clarify what I wrote in the introduction about The Real Clash and their place as a conscious act.  Even as they begin to organise a benefit for Nepal on June 27th, sales from their shirts and track Embrace are still going towards recovery efforts after 2013's typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, long after the media has left.  They publicise this long-term thinking in the run-up to and during their own album fundraiser, unworried that it might delay their aspirations as artists, modestly ranking needs above their own.  They are fusing culture to society and not pretending soundtrack alone is enough. They are doing the real work. For this reason you should support them with real money, so that they can continue to make art with real connections to the real world.