Wednesday, February 16, 2005
the third good band from florida
Dumbwaiters "Icons (Too Many People)"
So of course Tampa is a complete shithole. It’s in Florida, so you know it is. What’s really screwed up is that it’s not even remotely the shithole that Jacksonville or Orlando or Tallahassee is. I wouldn’t call it an oasis (have you ever fucking been to Ybor City? God-damn!), but it pales in comparison to the unvarnished, unfiltered disastrodome that is the rest of our most unnecessary state.
I’m allowed to say these things. I grew up in Sarasota, a rare atoll of sanity in an otherwise churning sea of societal diarrhea. I also grew up in Georgia, and thus my hatred is legitimate. I'd rather not wake up at all than have to wake up in Florida. Florida is where you go when you’re too weak to kill yourself. Yes.
Dumbwaiters are from Tampa, and I admire their resolve. Instead of fleeing to New York at the first possible moment, like former Sunshine State indie-rockers Home, these guys are gutting it out down in our closest approximation to Hell. I imagine a town best known for its absolutely ridiculous AD&D-nerd goth-metal scene probably isn’t the best place for an indie-rock band to flourish, but Dumbwaiters have been making nice for themselves nonetheless. They’ve been around for eight years now, and recently released their third album, Musick, on the Fiani Records label. Musick alternates between blazing indie-space rock (a la early, pre-easy listening Mercury Rev, and the Flaming Lips’ early ‘90’s peak) and more straight-forward, New Wavey, melodic pop-rock. “Icons (Too Many People)” starts off like an outtake from Wire’s Chairs Missing before drifting into Simply Saucer / Yerself is Steam territory. Musick sounds contemporary while also being a nice throwback to a lot of the stuff that made college radio worth listening to thirteen or so years ago. It’s also probably the best thing out of Tampa since Fred McGriff.
You can buy a copy of Musick here.
Dumbwaiters "Icons (Too Many People)"
So of course Tampa is a complete shithole. It’s in Florida, so you know it is. What’s really screwed up is that it’s not even remotely the shithole that Jacksonville or Orlando or Tallahassee is. I wouldn’t call it an oasis (have you ever fucking been to Ybor City? God-damn!), but it pales in comparison to the unvarnished, unfiltered disastrodome that is the rest of our most unnecessary state.
I’m allowed to say these things. I grew up in Sarasota, a rare atoll of sanity in an otherwise churning sea of societal diarrhea. I also grew up in Georgia, and thus my hatred is legitimate. I'd rather not wake up at all than have to wake up in Florida. Florida is where you go when you’re too weak to kill yourself. Yes.
Dumbwaiters are from Tampa, and I admire their resolve. Instead of fleeing to New York at the first possible moment, like former Sunshine State indie-rockers Home, these guys are gutting it out down in our closest approximation to Hell. I imagine a town best known for its absolutely ridiculous AD&D-nerd goth-metal scene probably isn’t the best place for an indie-rock band to flourish, but Dumbwaiters have been making nice for themselves nonetheless. They’ve been around for eight years now, and recently released their third album, Musick, on the Fiani Records label. Musick alternates between blazing indie-space rock (a la early, pre-easy listening Mercury Rev, and the Flaming Lips’ early ‘90’s peak) and more straight-forward, New Wavey, melodic pop-rock. “Icons (Too Many People)” starts off like an outtake from Wire’s Chairs Missing before drifting into Simply Saucer / Yerself is Steam territory. Musick sounds contemporary while also being a nice throwback to a lot of the stuff that made college radio worth listening to thirteen or so years ago. It’s also probably the best thing out of Tampa since Fred McGriff.
You can buy a copy of Musick here.
