The Fuck Florida Music Festival Fest 2008. |
It's hopeful every time I see a FMF schedule come out (now in it's sixth year believe it or not) I'm more and more impressed in who is NOT listed. No Florida's Dying bands? Check. No Post Records bands? Check. No Summerbirds, no New Mexican Disaster Squad, no Yip-Yip, no Mumpsy. I could go on. I'll quit being a whiny bitch now and Ill talk about what others think...... The guys behind Post Records (good for Florida and Florida musicians) feel pretty much the same way. So much so that they organized an anti-FMF festival against them. It was called the Fuck Florida Music Festival Fest. FFMFF for short. Pretty freaking cool if you ask me. They invited a bunch of friends including Tres Bien, Mumpsy and a host of others for an all day party celebrating music that is a little more sincere. I didn't arrive until later in the afternoon. The festival was being held at Chris Rae's house in College Park neighborhood of Orlando. Cars were parked tightly along this narrow street. Almost scary. The schedule pictured above wasn't that accurate. Not all those bands played and neither were the times correct. I first caught Gatorface, a new band with Alex and Richard (New Mexican Disaster Squad), Nick (Polluted Youth) and a guy named Quilty. It was good punk music not too far off from the musical NMDS tree. They played inside the house in the kitchen. I was told the previous bands played outside being a huge FFMFF banner. Next band to play was Max Green, who added two other members to his band. He says he has two more member which is cool because a whole band behind Max Green sounds like a great idea. They played a short set and any indication shows much promise.
The FFMFF seemed like a success. Throughout the day there was a ton of people, including a lot of people that support bands. Good signs for the Post Records people who just may make this an annual event. How cool would it be to organize a festival to go against FMF? Imagine having several A-list Orlando bands mixed with other "smaller" bands. Sigh...... Oh yeah Post Records it having their I-4 Fest in July. Get there! Fuck FMF!!!!! The next morning (into the evening) was Grandma Party, a bazaar held a couple of times a year at Stardust Coffee and Video where vendors set up and sell their wares. It's another event good for Orlando. Booths are set up across the parking lot filled with everything from homemade clothes, comic books, art and bric brac galore. It's a pretty fun event. There's music, bands, raffles and fried carrots!!!! There's always lots of people. This year Kristin and Courtney (you know... from the band Courtneys) had a booth. By the time I arrived Kristin was sunburned and had sold one of her Monster Pillows. Courtney had sold a lot more of her artwork and toys. Jeff from Mumpsy had a booth where he wrote songs for people for three dollars. What fun!
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It's no secret that I despise the Florida Music Festival, an annual event in Orlando that takes place over three days. It takes over downtown and all the clubs and fills with the most gosh darn awful racket. It's run by Axis Magazine, the most gosh awful publication, who's audience is basically horny college guys (the kind of magazine that only has "babes" on the cover). The inside contents don't go beyond that and this magazine makes a bastardization of Florida and Florida musicians. These guys make horrible mismatching schedules, and get headliners to set message boards on fire. This years was Von Ray. *Chirps* Von who? They have no business with music. Seriously.
I had to leave again to pick up Kristin from band practice. We both made it back in time to catch Strangers last couple of songs. Strangers (along with Tres Bien) did in fact play FMF. I don't think they knew what they were getting into. They got some good reviews on the internet because some industry types were attending their show to sign them all to labels and make them big stars. Their blend of indie rock and psychedelic is pretty cool. Somehow they managed to get Freddie Mullins (Future of Films in Space, Fantasie) to play drums for them.
