Throughout the 90s, I lived in Gainesville, FL and hung out in the scene there. I was an emo kid, for sure, into bands like RITES OF SPRING< JAWBREAKER, LYNC, THE HATED, UNWOUND and PALATKA. One of the best, and in some ways, most enigmatic Florida bands at that time was Don Martin 3.
Colin McCann, who sang and played guitar in DM3 carried their shows with his intensity, but in person, he was really sincere and down-to-earth. His lyrics were metaphorical and nature-focused, and the music alternated between melodic restraint and total explosion. Awesome.
I remember one super intense show where
PALATKA played their whole set in 10 minutes, MOONRAKER played 3 songs, and then DON MARTIN THREE played one 10 minute song and stole the show. Their 12″ on Belledonna records is still one of my favorite albums.
Anyway, then they all packed up and moved to Baltimore? WTF. I think they wanted to be part of the LUNGFISH / Dan Higgs cult. Not a bad goal. Eventually, a few of the DM3 folks ended up doing the band WILDERNESS, which has a couple LPs on Jagjaguwar.
http://www.jagjaguwar.com/onesheet.php?cat=JAG127
Colin played in town tonight… A friend helped me set up a show for him at the dark bar (Cryptatropa). It’s like if Sam Jayne or James Bertram (of LYNC) were playing a small bar in Florida… a long way from home. Would you go? I hope so…
In any case, I’m grateful for getting to hang out tonight to see Colin play. He was on tour with Claire from URARIDER. Her solo thing is called CAETHUA. I’ll be posting a video from her set, too.
THE LORD DOG BIRD (Colin McCann) on Youtube
CAETHUA (Clare Hubbard) on Youtube