Julie Garisto, local music critic for tbt* (or as we fondly refer to as "The Big Red Asterisk" or "Tampa's version of the New York Post"), has been a friend of REAX's since offering a contribution last year.  She always does an exhaustive job researching and interviewing not just local bands in Tampa but those acts hailing throughout the entire I-4 corridor; a must read for reconnaisance on the Bay area and Central Florida scenes.  In fact, we at the Truly Independent were always amazed that the big "mainstream paper" was so keyed in to the local scene whereas the "alternative paper" couldn't even correctly cite a local band's myspace page.

Anyhoooo, Jules herself has gone independent with a new blog covering--what else?--the local music scene and it is a welcome addition (along with Nine Bullets and Stpetersblog) to our little blogosphere.  Titled Tampastica, her first posts is a "call to arms" in how to improve the scene, with outstanding, well rationalized points. 

Her newest posts (three in one day! somebody hire that girl!) include an interview with Lakeland electro-popsters, Joon.  The duo paired up rather well at New World with Petrograd in Transit last holiday weekend.  We ourselves are fans of Joon's 2007 release, The Uncanny Valley, and Jules offers an excellent opportunity to learn more about them.

You can check out Jules' blog, Tampastica here, as well Joon's myspace page here.