Did this once before with North Carolina bands, but Florida is deep and wide. So all of the bands have the qualifier of "right now." There is no blood from surfers, no people that I'm against! and all of this is subject to change if Further Seems Forever gets back together in the next 24 hours...
Part St. Pete bar band, part Americana innovators, Have Gun Will Travel's Postcards From A Friendly City was recently adopted by Suburban Home Records. No excuse not to find these guys.
Greetings From Levy Park, the Only Thieves rocking debut is so good, but I originally thought they were from Jersey. Guess it was the album title. Have no fear, they rock it right in Tallahassee, snap!
I got Wooden Teeth when someone accidentally gave it to me. I soon realized how much Lujo Records and I see eye to eye. Word is, new album from Lakeland's Mouse Fire in May.
Look Mexico: "You're Not Afraid of The Dark Are You?" This kind of messes up my list, because according to this article most of the band is moving to Texas next week. Surprisingly, their old stuff is lighter and more mature than their new stuff, which is more straight ahead punkish-rock. Soon, indie rock kids at Florida State will say..."Look Mexico was so chill. We used to hang out with them all the time before they were on the radio..." Their new album comes out in March. See their tour dates here.
I just discovered John Ralston in the last few months, but I knew John Ralston. A Legends of Rodeo song popped up on iTunes and I was like, "dang they are so legendary...what happened to them? To where have they RECESSed?"
Soon, I found the John Ralston MySpace page and hooked myself up with the album Sorry Vampire. It came out a few years ago, and he's had an EP since then...but expect more becaue my THEORY is that he's heating up again.
I'm enjoying the recent wave of emo troubadours, now that Dashboard Confessional is pretty much out of the way. Guys like Ace Enders, Jon Nolan, even The New Amsterdams. There are a whole bunch of others and one of those is John Ralston. From Lake Worth, FL he took a similar road after his stint with Legends of Rodeo, a band I love. Their early Americana/alt-country/emo hybrid seemed foreign in 2002 but now seems almost commonplace.
Ralston has embraced that ethic even more so with his solo releases, and has slowed down his tunes but has thrown some more electronic wash into the mix (see "White Spiders" and "Gone Gone Gone," a Legends-sounding song).
With all that said, personally I've dropped the ball on Mr. Ralston. Don't have any of his albums, but think I'll pick up some soon.
Southeast tour dates & vid after the jump:
This is a fan video of "Gone Gone Gone," but it's done well.
