With the release of her debut EP, 2022’s Ephyra, the Tampa-based artist Julia Powell gained a following for crafting cathartic pop that pairs sultry vocals with punchy, dark pop arrangements — and for a trippy live show that frequently featured mannequin heads and light displays.
After the release of Ephyra EP, Powell took a break from music, and it seems that during that period her life changed. She marked her return to music with the release of “2019” earlier this year. “2019” showcased her daring and honest approach to her music.
Her latest single “Lazarus” is a brooding, song featuring dramatically twinkling keys, subtly malevolent bass synths, skittering boom bap and swirling, atmospheric synths serving as an eerie yet lush bed for Powell’s sultry, soulful delivery. Sonically, “Lazarus” brings to mind a synthesis of Black to Black-era Amy Winhouse and Portishead, full of brooding yet cinematic sense of unease.
“‘Lazarus’ is about coming back to music. After my last EP, Ephyra, I burned out a little and had to focus on life for a minute,” Powell explains. “That was two years ago, and my life is so different now. So I decided it was time to finally come back. I wrote Lazarus as an apology to my fans who hadn’t heard from me for a while, and an announcement that I am back – for good.”
Jonathan Christian Picart is a Tampa-born, San Juan, Puerto Rico-raised and-based singer/songwriter, who can trace his music career to his interest and passion for music at a very young age: He frequently listed to Salsa, reggaeton, and American hip hop on the radio.
Back in 2019, he released his debut single as Yonna Picart, the Jangel El Antidoto-produced “#Se Te Mete.” By 2020, he released five more singles, “#borracho,” “#etiopia,” “#5g, “#Noteconocen,” and “#tevibran,” which continued his ongoing collaboration with Jangel El Antidoto.
The Tampa-born, San Juan-based singer/songwriter’s latest single “Bluebella” is a slickly produced and swaggering, club and lounge friendly bit of reggaeton built around skittering trap-meets-reggaeton beats, glistening synths serving as a lush bed for Picart’s delivery, which alternates between yearning and swaggering within the turn of a phrase. It’s a much-needed blast of summer and sweaty dance parties.
BluFlame is an emerging emcee, who was born in Bartow, FL, a town located between Tampa and Orlando and just south of Lakeland. While the town is named after Francis S. Barrow, the first brigade commander of the Confederate Army to die in combat during the Civil War, it’s best known as the birthplace of Hall of Fame linebacker and two-time Super Bowl Champ, Ray Lewis.
The Bartow-born emcee, grew up in Winter Haven‘s Abby Lane neighborhood, one of the region’s toughest neighborhoods. “Back then, Abby Lane was the streets,” he says. My cousin and I witnessed out first murder. A lady got her head blown off by her husband. I remember me and my cousin running, until the asthma kicked in. We seen the police everyday, if not every night. It was crazy fights everyday. Throw ‘em up, bust ‘em up…is what we called it. But it was a grind all day, every day.” Unsurprisingly, the environment forced the young, emerging emcee to mature much younger than most while fostering a desire to protect and provide for his family as best as he could. “I had to help take off my lil brother and sisters when I was 7. So I hustled and sold candy…anything to keep the family alive,” he says.
His latest single “Outta Sight” pairs a hyper contemporary trap production — featuring skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, eerily twinkling synths serving as a sleek vehicle for the emerging emcee’s remarkably self-assured and swaggering delivery full of some hilarious punchlines rooted in pop culture references. The single reveals an emcee and producer with an uncanny knack for a catchy hook.
Generally speaking, the music festival experience is pretty much the same — whether you’ve been to one or dozens of them, like myself. Reinvented last year, Pickathon redefines the music festival experience as an immersive choose-your-own-adventure experience, where attendees can discover music, arts and culture perfectly integrated into the natural wonders of Happy Valley, Oregon‘s Pendarvis Farm, located 16 miles outside of Portland.
Late last month, festival organizes announced that the 2023 edition will take place August 3, 2023-August 6, 2023, along with the festival’s music lineup. This year’s edition will continue the festival’s reputation for eclecticism and its ability to spot the next breakout band across a variety of genres while featuring: indie roots outfit Watchhouse, the legendary Lee Fields, alt-glam band Dehd, rising singer/songwriter Madison Cunningham, Zambian psych rockers W.I.T.C.H., Thee Sinseers, The Altons, the acclaimed Mailian artist Vieux Farka Touré, desert blues outfit Imarhan, rising bluegrass banjo and Venezuelan harp duo Larry & Joe, Bay Area African psych rock outfit Orchestra Gold, post-internet jazz project MonoNeon, the Native American powwow-meets-electroinc music-meets-Bon Ives-like soundscapes of Joe Rainey, Yot Club, Columbian psychedelic cumbia outfit Meridian Brothers, Peruvian electro pop group Novalima, Mexican punk rockers Sgt. Papers, acclaimed Canadian rapper TOBi, Tampa-based experimentalists They Hate Change and jazz funk outfit Butcher Brown.
“Reinventing Pickathon last year around the concept of integrating music, arts, and culture into the natural settings of Pendarvis Farm was an incredible endeavor,” Pickathon founder Dale Schoenborn says. “2023 not only presents our best lineup ever, but now we understand the new Pickathon Neighborhoods even better, and we’re excited to refine all the details to make this year our most immersive experience to date. I can’t wait for everyone to join us at Pendarvis Farm!”
Early bird tickets end today. Camping, parking, shuttles and everything else you need to get to the farm is on sale now, too. That information can be found here.
Chemikkal is an emerging, Tampa-based producer and DJ, who has penchant for crafting infectious bangers meant to get people on their feet. His latest single, the balearic house-like “Decline U” continues a run of infectious, crowd pleasing bangers, centered around glistening synth arpeggios, self-assured and sultry vocals, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and some enormous Top 40 pop-like hooks. It’ll get you to the dance floor, I promise.
Rising Tampa-based indie act Glove can trace their origins back to 2017: the band’s founding members Rod Wendt, Brie Deux and Michelle Primiani started playing music. Justin Burns joined shortly thereafter, and the band quickly established their sound, which blends 80s synth-based New Wave with elements of contemporary rock ‘n’ roll,.
The Tampa based indie outfit honed their show through two years of self-booking DIY shows, and then opening for The Nude Party and Broncho on a string of East Coast shows. The members of Glove caught the attention of Cage the Elephant‘s Brad Shultz, who produced the band’s forthcoming, full-length debut Boom Nights.
Boom Nights‘ first single “Glass” was released in April and landed on Spotify’s New Noise playlist. Since then, the Tampa based band has hit the road: they finished a month-long tour with White Reaper and have played sets at Lollapalooza and Levitation. They’ll play a handful of dates with Wavves this month.
2022 looks to be a breakthrough year for the Tampa-based quartet: they’ll begin the year touring with A Place to Bury Strangers and Boom Nights will see its release. As always, tour dates are below. But in the meantime the album’s third and latest single “Modern Toy,” which features the band’s Brie Deux taking up lead vocal duties, is a frenetic yet dance floor friendly ripper that’s one-part Freedom of Choice era Devo, one-part Fever toTell era Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
“‘Modern Toy’ refers to the dark underbelly of Hollywood,” Glove’s Brie Deux says. “The song slowly creeps up and starts revealing the frustrations and alienation within the entertainment industry. It all leads up to a full fledge lash out, where the industry has completely consumed the person and reveals they’re nothing but a prop. This can be interpreted in any industry or life and for anyone who is being used or treated unjustly. I dedicate this song to Britney Spears.”
The recently released video features the band’s Brie Deux is a Tron-inspired silver jumpsuit and silver wraparound shades. If you’re a child of the 80s as I am, the video brings back a lot of memories.
Over the past few years of this site’s almost nine year history, I’ve written a bit about the up-and-coming Tampa, FL-born, New York-based soul/pop artist, Camille Trust. And as you may recall, Trust has publicly cited Janis Joplin, Lauryn Hill and Etta James as major influences — although from her live shows and raw, unvarnished honesty, her work strikes me as being much more indebted to Mary J. Blige.
Last year was big year for the Tampa-born, New York-based soul/pop artist as she released her long-awaited debut EP No Other Way, which featured the sultry “Freak,” a track that to my ears was part Gwen Stefani “Hollaback Girl” part Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” part Rick James with an Earth Wind and Fire-like horn line. Sonically, the song was a strutting and swaggering bit of hook-driven funk paired within a brash and boldly feminist anthem in which, the song’s narrator openly and freely talks about lust and desiring raunchy, freaky sex from her object of affection. Building upon the attention that she received for “Freak,” Trust’s latest single “Scandalous” continues in a similar vein — sultry and strutting, hook-driven funk with a sinuous bass line, a big horn line; but unlike its predecessor, the song sounds a bit more indebted to Prince and Carl Carlton’s “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” and The Gap Band, with a self-assured, come-hither performance from Trust.
Directed by Dylan Perlot and featuring choreography by Camille Trust and Ivy Ledon, the recently released video for “Scandalous” continues from its predecessor, following Trust is a feverishly shot visual that features split screens, 80s styled Flashdance-like dance routines and some sultry strutting from Trust and her backing dancers — as expected. Much like the song it accompanies, it’s brash, self-assured and just a lot of fun, capturing a young vocalist, who I think we’ll be hearing quite a bit more from.
Throughout the past handful of years, I’ve written a bit about Camille Trust, an up-and-coming Tampa, FL-born, New York-based soul/pop artist. And as you may recall, Trust has cited the likes of Janis Joplin, Lauryn Hill and Etta James; however from with her energetic, dynamic stage presence and raw, unvarnished honesty, her work to me, seems much more indebted to Mary J. Blige.
2018 has been a big year for the Tampa-born, New York-based soul/pop artist, as she released her long-awaited debut EP No Other Way. Trust closes out the year with the release of “Freak,” a sultry track that draws from both classic soul, contemporary pop and hip-hop simultaneously as its centered by a Gwen Stefani “Hollaback Girl” meets Mark Ronson‘s “Uptown Funk” meets Rick James-like performance from Trust, handclap-led hook, a horn arrangement reminiscent of Earth Wind and Fire. But more important, the song is a brash, boldly feminist anthem in which the song’s narrator talks about wanting and needing raunchy, nasty, freaky sex from her object of affection.
Directed by Tanima Mehrotra and featuring choreography by Camille Trust and Ivy Ledon, the recently released video features Trust and a series of different backing dancers shot in a series of dressed in bold, bright colors in front of equally bold, bright backgrounds — before pulling out to reveal the behind the scenes, with Trust taking off earrings and getting ready for a successive video. Much like the song, it’s brash, sensual, playful and captures the artist’s swaggering and undeniable confidence and presence.
Camille Trust is an up-and-coming, Tampa, FL-born, New York-based soul/pop artist, who’s influenced by the likes of Janis Joplin, Lauryn Hill and Etta James — although with her energetic and dynamic stage presence and raw, unvarnished honesty, her work seems much more indebted to the likes of Mary J. Blige. Now, as you may recall, I caught the Tampa-born, New York-based soul/pop artist performing an opening setBaby’s All Right that featured sultry covers of Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to Talk About” and Stevie Wonder‘s “Signed, Sealed and Delivered,” and a collection of singles that she’s released over the past few years, as well as material off her recently released EP — including her latest single, “Lose You,” which pairs Trust’s effortlessly soulful vocals with a modern production consisting of stuttering beats, brief horn blasts, twinkling keys and an explosive, radio friendly and rousingly anthemic hook; but underneath the swaggering and thumping production, is a plaintive and urgent plea to a lover, who seems ready to bolt.
Born and reared outside of Tampa, FL, the up-and-coming Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Corina Seas has what may arguably be a prototypical American, feel-good story, as the singer/songwriter is the daughter of Honduran immigrants, who settled […]
Born and raised in Tampa, FL and currently located here in NYC, Camille Trzcinski, who performs under the moniker Camille TRUST is a singer/songwriter, whose sound according to her website is deeply influenced by Motown and […]
Originally part of the Tampa, FL music scene, the members of The Ukiah Drag, ZZ Ramirez, Thomas Conte, Brian “The Sultan” Hennessey and Andrew Eaton have played in bands alongside the members of Merchandise and […]
The Olympia, WA-based Milk Music, the Sonoran Desert-based Destruction Unit and the Tampa, FL-based Merchandise teamed up for a Record Store Day split 12 inch release, titled USA 13 which reveals the incredibly diverse of this […]
Cascine Records, a label that’s quickly become a favorite label of mine, recently released Kids in L.A. the latest effort from the duo of Kisses. The duo is on an East Coast tour which includes […]
