Doing My Part For Local Musicpirates and the caribbean, the green lanterns, pirates of the caribbean on

Doing My Part For Local Music

I always harp on supporting the local music scene, because I think it's important to show some love to the bands in your area to strengthen the music scene overall. I've been a little lazy with this lately, but through the years I've found a lot of bands I supported by catching their live shows and buying their merch as well as telling everybody in earshot about them. A lot of people might not think it's easy around Little Rock, but there really is a solid music scene around here with some great local bands. Currently I really like Rwake, Third Degree, Machina, Wishtribe, Tragikly White and Go Fast to name just a few of the cool bands in the area. My favorite for a few years though has been Bombay Black.

Bombay Black is a melodic hard rock band who has that retro, old-school sort of feel to them ala maybe Motley Crue, Def Leppard or KISS. They have really catchy hooks and solid lyrics and put on a pretty high energy show without a lot of flash or any gimmicks, just concentrating on the music. I've seen them many times and have always enjoyed them as they sound very good live with a lot of melody in the vocals, making for anthemic sing-along choruses, and they perform with loads of adrenaline. They've got 3 CDs out, Mercy, Anger Management and Junk Food, all on Kivel Records. A lot of their songs are sharp jabs at relationships, or more specifically bad relationships. Titles include "Who Do You Think You Are," "Get Mad Get Even," and "You Suck." You can't help but nod in approval and smile at a bunch of their lyrics as they're equal parts smart and witty. As for musicianship, find me a guitar player anywhere to match licks with Jim and I'll be shocked. The guy has serious enough chops to drop jaws live. His solo during their regular cover of Night Ranger's "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" brings people to their feet.

Enough nut-swinging. Check 'em out for yourself.

Official Bombay Black Website

Bombay Black on MySpace

I caught their show last night at Juanitas in Little Rock and snapped a few pics, which I posted below. A certain Mr. Beau Hill (a producer who has worked with people like Alice Cooper, Kix, Winger, Warrant, Europe and Ratt) was in the audience. Hmmm...