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Bao Le-Huu
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I first encountered Orlando’s Renee Arozqueta back in 2015 when she was performing at Ethos solo as Renee Is a Zombie. Sure, she was the picture of a quirky folkie playing in a vegan joint. But she was also something else altogether, something utterly individual.
Since then, she’s become a prominent character in the city’s scene, most notably as one of the most visible members of Beth McKee’s Swamp Sistas. Over the years, the outsider spark that I saw in her has become an established calling card that often makes her the weirdest one in the room.
Recently, Arozqueta has been playing out with band project The Ladybits, who just released their debut album, Little Dreams. Although a trio where she’s backed by Mike Adkins and Kevin Meehan, The Ladybits are true to their name as a vehicle for both Arozqueta’s songwriting and her resolutely femme-forward perspective. As she puts it, “Our songs are about the bits and experiences of being a lady, or person, or you know, being alive.” The order in which that came out isn’t accidental.
Across the album’s eight songs, The Ladybits reveal a stylistically irreverent sound that spikes folk music with a little punk vim and a wild, unchained heart. It’s a free-spirited ramble that ventures into different genres but never quite conforms to any of them, a trait that essentially nutshells Arozqueta herself.
Released on Orlando label Sugar City Music, Little Dreams now streams everywhere, including atop TLU’s Spotify playlist. The release will power The Ladybits’ upcoming tour that kicks off at home this week with appearances on WPRK with Frankie Messina (April 4) and at the Audubon Park Community Market (April 8).
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Bao Le-Huu
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Everyone’s absolutely agog about Judson’s Live right now for good reason. But, while the Dr. Phillips Center’s newest, most intimate and most accessible listening room has been hopping with many acts, perhaps none so far are as ideally suited to this spot’s supper-club concept than Tatiana Eva-Marie.
Although she’s NYC-based right now, this bright young songbird’s pedigree has both French and Balkan roots, so the heritage of Gypsy jazz is in her actual blood. She exhales vintage allure with revivalist jazz-manouche stylings that will quantum-leap you right back to the swinging club scene of 1930s Paris, tout de suite. So tip that bottle and pass the Gauloises, mes amours. (Well, maybe save that last part for outside after the show.)
Eva-Marie has been a regular feature at premier NYC jazz joints like Birdland, Blue Note and Dizzy’s. Now, see her classic glow fully unleash the spirit that Judson’s Live was painstakingly designed to embody.
OW: A two-night stand allows you more freedom; do you have anything special planned for these shows?
TEM: We are going to play some selections from my upcoming album Djangology, a tribute to Django Reinhardt which will be released on June 7 on GroundUP Music, but I am also going to add some Parisian and Gypsy jazz classics to the repertoire. I might even take up the guitar myself and sing you an old Gypsy folk song in the Rromanes language.
When did Django Reinhardt’s music really start to resonate with you?
I actually discovered Django through Stéphane Grappelli, because my mother is a violinist and obviously a big fan; it was always playing at home when I was a kid. When I moved to Paris as a teenager, I discovered a swarm of guitarists: Gypsy jazz (jazz manouche in French) was everywhere, on every street corner, in every café. To me, it became the soundtrack of the city. It’s such a distinct sound, which somehow
is not at all stuck in time.
Would you talk a little bit about the science of Djangology (we’re not joking!)?
You think you’re joking, but there is an academic side to my personality I keep secret! The aim of this project is to celebrate Django “the composer.” Everyone is so blown away by his guitar wizardry that we too often forget what an interesting and unusual com- poser he was, influenced not only by American popular music and French musette, but also classical music of his time.
Another important influence was the folk music of the Manouche people, descendants of Rromani tribes who left India about 1,000 years ago, living nomadically then settling in various regions in Europe, integrating local cultures into their own.
All of this is so rich, full of rhythms and musical colors, so inspiring for me as a singer reimagining Django’s instrumental music as stories I can tell, with original lyrics and new arrangements. I try to showcase all of these different influences in my homage, onstage and on the album. And this is just the first chapter of a “Django songbook” I will keep adding to!
7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 5-6, Judson’s Live.
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Bao Le-Huu and Matthew Moyer
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Since 1990, Orlando Weekly has served as the free, independent voice of Orlando, and we want to keep it that way.
Becoming an Orlando Weekly Supporter for as little as $5 a month allows us to continue offering readers access to our coverage of local news, food, nightlife, events, and culture with no paywalls.
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Bao Le-Huu
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Vaporwave has always been primarily a sampler’s genre. There is, however, a sliver of practitioners who do it with the craft of traditional composers, and prolific Orlando artist Breadbarn is one of the newest worth noting.
Just like accomplished fellow local artist Dan Mason, Breadbarn specializes in a sample-free brand of electronic pop that weaves the vaporwave nostalgia all by hand, rather than the plunderphonic approach that’s endemic to the microgenre.
Brent Barnhart — the mind behind Breadbarn — is exacting, even academic, in his pursuit of the vaporwave aesthetic. “I want people to think that what they’re hearing actually appeared on the Weather Channel in 1995 or was the background music on the VHS they watched in their middle-school science class,” he says.
Breadbarn’s entire presentation exudes the genre’s hallmarks. Between the sounds, imagery and song titles, it’s all soft focus and synthesizers — and it’s textbook vaporwave. “When one of my songs was one of the most popular posts of the year on /r/vaporwave, I realized I was actually onto something,”says Barnhart.
The fact that Breadbarn’s music is created entirely from scratch, more like chillwave than typical sample-based vaporwave, makes sense since Barnhart actually comes from a traditional indie-rock background. After years of artistic struggle there, he came to be an accidental electronic-music artist once he finally shed his own biases on the genre.
Now, after a steady stream of smaller releases since 2022, Barnhart is finally emerging with Breadbarn’s first true full-length album. New LP This Could Be Your Dream Vacation is pure retro reverie, a fully rendered and instantly transporting fantasy that bottles the sonic zeitgeist of the 1980s with extraordinary fidelity. But this is no pop-radio redux. Breadbarn’s music is less interested in reviving the decade’s Top 40 than romanticizing the backing soundtracks in commercials, TV, movies and malls. In so doing, this album captures not simply the sounds but the very aura of the 1980s.
Moreover, it’s got a distinctly Floridian flavor.
“I grew up in the Panhandle and my parents managed a timeshare resort,” Barnhart says. “Hotels, beaches, escapism and gauche advertising are all themes I try to weave into my music and imagery. I’d like to think that my music is very ‘Florida.’ This album is.”
Even more than just a sonic postcard, though, This Could Be Your Dream Vacation is a plush portal to the past that immerses with stunning specificity. It’s pastiche par excellence, and it now streams everywhere and is available on Bandcamp as a name-your-price download. If you want the full audiovisual experience, check out the perfect throwback music videos on Breadbarn’s YouTube channel.
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Bao Le-Huu
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This stacked lineup surrounds an excellent touring band with some of Orlando’s best new underground talent.
Deliciously dark Atlanta headliner Psychic Death are a dire post-punk mix of death rock and new wave.
Chicago-based but Orlando-born Leatherette are singularly famous for their junkie-punk blues and exhilarating performances. This will be a rare and welcome homecoming show for them.
Rounding out the bill will be the Velvet Underground-esque rock primitivism of Tiger Beat and post-punk revivalists the Synthetics.
7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, Conduit, $15.
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Bao Le-Huu
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