Gainesville is the cradle of startup bands. As new bands pop up left and right, there inevitably comes a point, at which they must drift on. After the diplomas have been handed, the career pressures start to pile on, bands are left with three choices: stay put, break up or leave the nest.
Gainesville bands Debutaunts, Umoja Orchestra and Squeaky have reached that point.
"What's in Gainesville anyway?" Debutaunts frontman Jazek Creacy said.
The determined, young, four-piece, indie/rock/pop band had its first show at Club Red in 2006. Since then, the band has had several breaks and is looking to get out of Gainesville as soon as possible.
Creacy said the Gainesville music scene has fallen apart and is now dominated by hillbilly punk rockers and friend-based college bands, but notes Gainesville as a great place to get a footing.
"If it's taught me anything, it's that everybody has to have a starting point," Creacy said.
But to grow, the guys feel they have to branch out.
After meeting through gainesvilebands.com, the members began playing shows around town.
Debutaunts recorded its first EP in 2007 with Sky Lab Records and sent it to Universal Records. This booked the band a showcase in New York, where it hooked up with Grammy-nominated producer Matt Goldman.
"Now, we're in a position where we have the right people behind us to take a larger step," Creacy said.
In September the band is moving to Atlanta where it will be recording with Goldman for two months. From there the band will launch a national tour to promote the album.
"We're not going to stop until we've taken it as far as it can go," Creacy said.
With the move to Atlanta coming up, Debutaunts will be too busy for a farewell show, but it will try to make a stop during its tour.
Umoja Orchestra, Gainesville's 14-piece Latin/afro-beat/funk band, has chosen another route: for now, it's staying put. But, with two members in different corners of the world, the band is putting things on hold.
In 2005, Umoja had its first live performance at University Auditorium for Hispanic Heritage month where it won "best in dance," a caption that some of Umoja's members still question the validity of.
They set off playing shows all over Gainesville, rehearsing in Jennings Hall dorm rooms where they were often interrupted by RAs telling them to quiet down.
After three years and three albums, the band decided to put things on hold after David Borenstein (saxophone) and Jason Prover (trumpet) left. Borenstein is headed to China to study Chinese political science, and Prover is attending New York University for master's degree in jazz. But, that isn't to say they won't be missing the town they started in.
"I miss the community aspect of Gainesville," Prover said. "Everything's a free-for-all …in New York‡, man."
The band took Prover and Borenstein's absences hard and refused to replace the two members. The band revels in its fraternal ways and function on love and friendship. After all, "umoja" is Swahili for "unity."
"Umoja is the only band, I feel, is one cohesive unit," Micah Shalom, trombone player, said.
There is still speculation that the band may continue. The flier for its last show on April 17, 2008, read "last show for a while."
"We have to retool and kind of rethink things, but it's definitely still an option," Shalom said.
For some bands, however, reuniting is not an option. Squeaky, a four-piece indie rock band will not be continuing after its drummer, Danny Welsh, moves back to Memphis, Tenn.
The band has been around since 1995 and is sick of finding new drummers, said frontman Harry Monkhorst.
With the exception of Welsh, Squeaky is a band of middle-aged men living the married life with kids. The musicians list '70s AM radio as one of their influences as well as older bands like Superchunk, Arches of Loaf and Fugazzi.
They started the band mainly as a way to get away from the family and act like 12-year-old boys again, bassist Steven Bottom said.
"We just had to play music, or we'd go crazy," Bottom said.
Monkhorst considers the band Gainesville natives. Out of Gainesville he has gained love for his bandmates, hearing loss, broken cymbals, broken strings, smiles and, above all, fun times. Monkhorst said he can't understand why bands leave Gainesville.
To up-and-coming bands in Gainesville Monkhorst offers this advice: "Do it because you love it, not because you want anyone to like it."
