A couple of weeks (maybe months) ago I picked up a new magazine downtown called Reax Music. It is similar in size and style to a couple of other magazines around here, but focuses completely on music and actually has content as opposed to mostly ads like tbt and Weekly Planet.

My first reaction when I saw this was “there is no way they can actually put out another issue.” We’re talking a free, full color magazine just launching. The few ads can’t be paying for much, I doubt even the distribution. This made me a little sad because I actually read the whole and thing and thought that it was well written, covered the local scene well and has a great design. Each story usually has its own design and layout, which could be annoying in some instances but makes sense for a music magazine.

Good news! I just picked up issue 3 over the weekend. And just like the other 2 issues I now have a local band that I have never heard of to check out (The Beauvilles, playing August 10 at The Orpheum). I am really hoping that this means Reax is being well received by others as well and that it will stick. This is exactly the kind of thing that we need in the Tampa Bay area to pull together a very disjointed music scene.

Thanks Reax, and good luck.