I could start by saying this is the first week, really, that the NT is truly without music editor Jason Budjinski and that his alter ego, Fats Pompano, is dead. But that's not the headline. The headline is that Billy Boloby has been reborn.
If you've been missing your weekly fill of Fats, it's because he's resigned as music editor of my staid, authoritative publication. He says it never felt right for him to write about the music scene. Why? Because he is the music scene. His bands, including the aforementioned Billy Boloby (he is Boloby) and The Bittercups, have entertained and astonished South Florida audiences with their musically charged performances (or is their performance-charged music?) for years. And they say the Boloby band is now getting back together in some form or another. Here's the way he described the band a few years back:
"We are revivalists of sorts, but not rock & roll revivalists — that gig is being played to death, which only makes matters worse, as it becomes increasingly generic with every new apotheosized "savior" of this decaying musical form. No, we are more interested in
reviving the underlying humanity that seems to have been almost entirely removed from pop culture and replaced by stuff that just ain't fun: Pretension. Boredom. Ego problems (see also: Violence). The Herd Mentality. And the worst: Normality."
So if you want normal, stay away from Boloby, who'll be heading slightly north, 561 way. Me? I'm just gonna miss his clear-eyed, yet still sllightly bent, wit and having him around to watch us get drunk as monkeys and tell us about it the next day. (Boloby don't drink, don't smoke, but occasionally manages to go on surreal, subconcious journeys into the night anyway). The good news is that a capable replacement has joined the staff in his stead, one Jonathan Cunningham, who came down from Orlando Weekly (where NT alum Bob Whitby holds court).
