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click to enlarge Photo by Jim Leatherman / Orlando Weekly Eugene Snowden returns to Orlando stages (twice!) this weekend

After increasing his profile both nationally and in Orlando with years of strong work and touring, indie-rap MC-producer Blueprint seemingly went MIA. Now on his first tour in six years, the accomplished Ohio player and RJD2 collaborator is finally emerging from pandemic-induced doldrums that involved financial and interpersonal ruin.

If you don’t frequent any of our area’s many Mexican bodegas or taco joints then, first, something is wrong with you. But, second, you might not know that Orlando band Los Jarritos take their name from a Mexican soft drink in homage to their origin as the surviving members of Bobby Clock & the Soda Pops.

'Tigers Blood' proves that this direction isn't just a passing fancy.

Oakland metal lords High on Fire 1) are celebrating 25 years as a band, 2) have just dropped their first new album in five years and 3) are about to launch their tour right here in Orlando. It’s a perfect storm and we’re ground zero.

Together, they’re beacons of new Orlando music.

Orlando promoter Ugly Orange strikes again with a tasteful lineup of bands you may not know but should. Specializing in indie rock with shoegaze tendencies, L.A. headliners Cryogeyser have a moody and melodic sound that packs the sonic horsepower to go airborne at the stomp of a pedal.

Few in the 1990s hip-hop canon are as equally legendary and left-field as L.A.’s the Pharcyde. While their South Central contemporaries were measuring their dicks with gangsta rap, these cats just let their balls hang out and kept it funny and weird with funky jams of pure irreverence. Opening will be the modern eclecticism of aptly named Arizona rapper the Kaleidoscope Kid.

As today’s patriarchy flexes to suppress women, America’s female voice just keeps on rising (hopefully into a nationwide primal scream come November). Even beyond politics, there’s been a swelling movement in culture that’s aiming to both give women their due spotlight right now and pave the way for next generations. Hey Ladies! Orlando is the local embodiment of that spirit.

Featuring members of Witchbender, Freakazoid and Burn to Learn