Watch My Fat Face Sing To You

When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high. ~Mary H. Waldrip

The Best Unheard German Expressionist Soundtrack Yet...

Kilborough 17 was one of the only bands in the Fort Myers area (2000-2002) to innovatively mix elements of shoegaze and electronica into a digestable pop format.

Much of their subject matter focused on dark and brooding themes, which was rounded out by the heavy yet spacious use of delay and synth.

Kilborough 17 eventually disbanded due to being incredibly ahead of their time.

Jonothan Glover, a former member of Kilborough had this to say:

"Every moment of Kilborough seemed to be a moment of misery AND jubilation.

We had this really ambitious approach, using synths, drum machines, plus live drums, and guitars to try and meld a cinematic, almost symphonic kind of sound within the time constraints of conventional rock. As with all ambitious things, we rarely were able to actualize the concept."

Where Have All The All Age Venues Gone?

The concept of the all age venue has been around for a number of years.
For the uninitiated, all ages simply means: all who wish to see a show are allowed admittance.

So why aren't there any?

The sad truth is, when it comes to all age sales versus alcohol sales, the all age venue is doomed to live a relatively short life.The reason for this is, when a venue first opens, the overhead cost is usually high, due to any number of renovations that may have been done to it- anything from renovations, to bringing the building up to code.

The owner has to make money off of something. If not alcohol then what? Most of the all age venues I have seen or played in usually limit their fare to coffee, obscure records, or comics, which all belong to a rapidly dwindling market. Who needs to buy records when you can download them for free while sipping on a mocha from Starbucks?

Why don't they just make it a point to check I.D.'s at the door?

Because every kid who frequents a place that serves alcohol is just too much of a legal liability. Imagine an underage kid driving home drunk from a show and getting in a wreck or causing a fight. Youth is already unpredictable enough with insular hormones awash in melancholic confusion. Why throw alcohol in the mix?

What can be done?

This is a tough question and one I have been trying to answer for a while. House shows can be put on for certain bands,if they are folksy or acoustic. But any band not in that genre will probably catch the attention of the police.

Can this be remedied?

Is there a way to have a successful space that operates at low cost and attends to the needs of youth and touring bands in a safe and comfortable environment?

I don't know.

Thoughts anyone?

OT: The Power of Ideas.

I've often wondered about the power of an idea. How it can take shape and propel one to do something they wouldn't ever dream of doing normally. The past couple of years have seen a sweep of new age beliefs that mostly dwell in the realm of thought.
Of course this brand of championing thoughts as things is nothing new. The idea has been repackaged over and over again making it new for the contemporary audiences of the time.

The reading of such literature contains within it a certain running thread, that you can essentially do whatever you'd like to. And this is the main ethos behind much of punk rock music. In fact, punk pioneers Bad Brains might have never existed at all if it weren't for the singer, H.R., finding a copy of Think and Grow Rich on his father's desk.

The power of an idea is an intangible topic at best to try to discuss. But that is exactly what I have seen happen at shows before. People coming together and dancing,collectively taking part and creating the energy that is visible at shows; based on nothing more than people with ideas who picked up instruments...

Interview with Jon Glover of Ars Phoenix

The following interview is with Jon Glover of Ars Phoenix fame. His new album Engines of Progress is currently all the rave.


What inspired you to start playing music?
I'm not sure I can define a particular catalyst. I'd always been interested in music, I suppose for its emotive/aesthetic qualities. Of all the arts, music seems to, at least for me, have the most potential for eliciting a visceral emotional response. Expression, catharsis. If Spinoza was right about there being a third kind of knowledge--affect/affection/intuition/expression--music is the best way to engage it.

Do you think there is something to be said for going out on your own against what society as a whole wants for you, and striking out on your own?
Chasing down your own dreams or, as you put it, going out on your own IS the lesson. Success, in the corporative sense that we are so familiar with as Americans, reeks of hopelessness to me. I think the major lesson that playing music on our own terms teaches us is that there are always different ways to do things, different than the typical models always offered to us as the only options--major labels, living on the road, finding a "marketable" sound, finding a career instead "wasting time" on art.

Craziest thing you've ever done on stage. Most injuries sustained.

I was always the cautious one. In Failsafe (1995-1999) there was always an unsaid competition, I believe, between Leo, TJ, and myself for who could create the most chaos on stage. I did a fair amount of thrashing around on the stage floor, but nothing like Leo or TJ. Leo actually threw himself down a half pipe ramp that we were playing on at some skate park show once. That freaked me out. As far as injuries go, I was usually inflicting rather than sustaining them. The headstock of my bass drew blood from Leo's head on two occasions.

Do you feel a connection to something when you play?

"Feel" is the key word here. There is an abstract sort of sensation I get from playing music. Just sort of a harmony or resonance between myself and the sounds. I've been reading too much Spinoza, because I also am thinking of this from a Spinozistic perspective--when two "bodies" (in this case me and the music) are agreeable to one another--harmonize--their power, their ability to be affected, to FEEL is increased. This just might be an explanation for how music works period, but I definitely think it explains how it works for me.

Being from the "scene" do you feel that there ever was one in Fort Myers, and what construct made it up? What do you think tied the different personalities within the groups together?
Well, I was from the Naples scene, which strangely enough, was very distinct from the FM/Cape Coral scene, despite the many overlaps between all of them. I had been playing with bands in Naples since I was 15. It really wasn't until I was about 18, when Failsafe started playing more in FM, that I think I was really even aware of FM as a part of the same scene. Did Naples have an actual scene? Yes, I think so. But when FM and beyond get tacked on, that construct gets harder to articulate. Naples was basically a circle of friends who played in bands together.

The more things change, the more they stay the same? True or False?

Completely false! Really, this cliché is based on two assumptions--the stable/fixed/unchanging psychic core of the individual, and the stable/fixed/unchanging character of history. So many external factors affect how we as humans perceive ourselves and our societies that the act of comparison (between a current self and a past self, especially) is extremely tenuous. When we look back at ourselves 10, 15, years ago, do we truly recognize ourselves? Anyone who answers this question with too much confident affirmation should not be trusted.

That Strange and Distant Town To Our South (2)

Naples 1998

An influential band for the time and place,Failsafe was one of the only bands in the surrounding area to be playing what would later be popularly known as "screamo".


Where are they now?

Terrance Hannum,(the kid in the yellow) now teaches art at Columbia University in Chicago.

Jonathan Glover,(the bass player) is currently working on his masters and fronting Ars Phoenix.

Dave Miller, (the drummer) is a back up dancer for Redman.

And the singer, Leo Ashline is currently a vegan chef...

That Strange and Distant Town to Our South.

Naples is a strange place. Look hard and long enough past the ritz and the glitter and you will find quite the "scene". In fact, the music scene in Naples carries within it a large history of very good bands; bands that were at the forefront of many of the "new" popular genres today. What’s more is that in most places, once people reach a certain age, they simply move away never to be heard from again. Not so in Naples. If someone moves off they stay in touch, often collaborating with one another in future projects.

Maybe there's something in the water that rallies the people together, causing them to love and care about the bands...whatever it is Naples certainly seems to foster their own.

Click here to read about the magic that is the Naples music scene.

Owlphabet.

Owlphabet is a website run by a few musicians who high tailed it from Fort Myers to Athens Georgia.

The website is fairly comprehensive, and at times reads like a rare back catalog of defunct Fort Myers bands, such as A Soft Perversion, Dreams Die First, and The Strip Club Moms.

OT: Sex and drug rambles...Patrick Norris reflects and keeps reflecting.

The world of live music often acts as a convergence point for the build up and release of sexual energy between its participants. The performer carries within them a certain sexual potency or je ne sais quoi that is brought out on stage and an attraction develops. The reasons for this attraction are not important.

Perhaps the crowd sees the performer onstage creating something; and through this act of creation, a sense of familiarity is fostered, allowing the night to become rife with possibilities among consenting parties.

But I wouldn’t know a thing about that.

I have been tempted many a time over the years, and I have always said no, opting instead to return home alone to watch X-files and eat Oreos as my after show ritual.

Needless to say this behavior could be particularly alienating, especially when a lot of my musical peers viewed playing shows as nothing more than a mere blip preceding the night’s bacchanalian activities.

I myself have always approached playing shows with the eyes of a shining puritan. To me music always had less to do with the opposite sex and more to do with the exorcising of any internal demons that I felt were the symptoms of a larger whole connecting me to everyone in the room. I was also fortunate enough to be in a band with two other people who felt the same as I did. And I think a lot of the time we were viewed as odd because of our behavior. The rowdiest thing we ever did was amass several speeding tickets under the heady influence of sleep deprivation and Nyquil while singing to The Carpenters on tour.

I guess the greater issue I’m driving at is people are strange, myself included. And nowhere is this strageness more apparent than in a room full of people at a show, and that is something I will always find interesting.

Drawing Maps

This band first began under the name of Crimson Fetch in August of 2002.
After a few shows they quickly became local favorites due to their energetic live shows and ability to play far beyond their young years.

Eventually Crimson Fetch changed their name to the more cartographically themed Drawing Maps; trading their earlier verse chorus formula in for a darker more ambient sound.

"We were all pretty young, so when we started it was mainly to just play music with friends. When it turned into Drawing Maps we went through several member changes and after a while it just seemed time to put the whole thing away."

-Andrew Bernard,founding member of Drawing Maps.

Marc Davis reflects...

Marc Davis is the only person I know who can keep perfect time playing a drum solo while simultaneously biting into a can of soda.

Marc has been in numerous bands over the years and is one of the few remaining torch bearers for the local music scene.

When I asked Marc to contribute to this blog a far away look crept into his eyes as he remembered all the faces that have come and gone.


"When people bring up "the scene," I don't generally think of the years I played in The Anchorite Four. I think of the times I first got into it. I had always gone to Metallica and Primus concerts, paying 50 dollars a ticket for nosebleed seats, 30 dollars for a t shirt- drunk people everywhere. That’s just the way things were. If bands played in a bar, they were cover bands. I wasn't even aware of places in Fort Myers like the Draft House, 1 Fish 2 Fish or Offbeat Records. Finding out about them AND that they housed bands just as good as, if not better than the bands I grew up listening to was a shock.

At the time,(1995) downtown Fort Myers was teeming with punk rockers, rude boys,(true!) emo kids, hardcore kids, traditional skinheads, (true!) goths, and so much more. It was invigorating talking with these people about their love for music and art; to hear someone talk about liking something other than because it's what's placed in front of them. I started listening to ska, and then made my way into some punk and then down to hardcore and indie rock and much, much more. I learned of layers and layers of music that were right under my nose for years, but I had no clue.


It's important that indie music isn't sold off as some kind of hot commodity, which unfortunately is what’s happening now. People have to FIND indie music. It’s a lot harder now with the internet and major record labels scouring the independent scene for The Next Big Thing, but if you look hard enough there's still a world untouched. And the people who dig hard enough find it and few turn away. There’s just something so alive about a hardcore show in a cramped basement or a ska show in a small club with the horn section right in front of you. Talking to bands that would normally be so out of reach, it becomes so real. It becomes something anyone can do. And it is. And it's great to know that."