Pee Shy - "Little Dudes" from the CD Who Let All The Monkeys Out?

I'd like to welcome as my guestblogger this week my lovely girlfriend Melanie. She'd had an idea for a piece centering around her experiences when she lived in Tampa in the '90's, and a song that continues to take her back, and I am glad to post it. Melanie's writing is always so exuberant; it's a quality I am envious of, as all I can ever get out of my writing is a weary cynicism . . . .

At any rate, I hope you enjoy Melanie's take on Pee Shy and Tampa, back when it was cool, as much as I did . . .

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The longest continuous sidewalk in the world. . .

It's been many years since I left Tampa. As my memory grows dimmer with age, I try to reconstruct bits of my life there, through the use of music and photographs.

For me, the best representatives of the Tampa music scene of the mid 1990's was the local band, Pee Shy. Everytime I listen to their music now, I'm transported back to my grotto-like apartment off of Howard Ave. I'm cruising around town in my 1981 Ford Fairmont that I called 'Mee-Ma.' Goin' to all the coolest places. Sunshine Thrift store, Hugo's for the best Cuban sandwiches, Eccentricities for the latest Doc Marten styles.

Night-time is the best time. If it's Tuesday, friends and I are going to Angelica's Cafe down in Ybor for Starving Artists' night to eat the best Mexican food around for two bucks a plate! Stroll around 7th and then pop into The Castle with it's gorgeous dark interior and cracked marble bar with water running across the top that dribbled down into a fountain. Out back, in the small outdoor courtyard, guys and gals chatting under the colored lights. Tattoos were soooo COOL, back then!

On another night, I might be at The Hub, smoking and smoking and talking to Michael Pool about collectable Exotica records. Michael Pool used to spin records at New World Brewery. It was there, that I gave him a copy of Blues And The Beat by Henry Mancini. I had a crush on Michael. It was also there, that I drank my first La Fin Du Monde beer.

Watching the sunset from the rooftop of an old industrial building which housed the artists' collective known as 'Titanic Anatomy' was always one of my favorite Tampa activities. A bunch of us would climb out of the window and sit on the slanted rooftop still warm from the heat of the day, and watch as the sky melted into evening with its brilliant stars winking.

And so, though their body of work was small, Pee Shy left a large impression on my life, my Tampa life.

I hope you enjoy "Little Dudes".

The sweet and melancholy accordion intro already tells us, it's just not meant to be. The sweeter and more melancholic clarinet ending tells us 'it wasn't ever meant to be, but the memories, though dim, are cool and sweet and a little melancholy.'

For all of you that shared Tampa with me in the 1990's, don't forget Tampa Theatre, Ybor City, Poetry slams, Heat Wave, WMNF, Titanic Anatomy, USF Contemporary Art Museum, The Hub, Sunshine Thrift Store, Vinyl Fever, Pee Shy and Bayshore Blvd., the longest continuous sidewalk in the world.

Pee Shy - Who Let All The Monkeys Out - 04 Little Dudes.mp3

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File under: Accordion Crimes