Artist of the day: My Little Trotsky

My Little Trotsky founded in 2008 as a partnership between classically trained concert pianist and multiinstrumentalist Corey Jane Holt and Karen Collins, a veteran of local bands including Monday Mornings and Ferrell Melton.

Their sound is cathartic, catchy and complex, with curiously intricate rhythms, chunky riffs and shout-along choruses -- a pop, punk and jazz club sandwich.

The band plays at 9 p.m. Saturday at Karma Bar and Cafe, 206 N Morgan St., Tampa. Click here to listen to an mp3 of their track Count the Stars.

And after the jump, get the full story on their background, songwriting style and how they picked their Russo-riffic band name...

Revolutionaries: Corey Jane Holt, vocals, keyboards, piano (acoustic, electric, and toy), guitar and accordion; Karen Collins, vocals and bass; and Nick Souder, drums.

Their sound: Cathartic, catchy and complex. Holt’s classical background as a concert pianist, who’s even headlined Carnegie Hall, informs curiously intricate rhythms, fortified by chunky riffs and shout-along choruses — a pop, punk and jazz club sandwich.

Bass at the base: Collins is subdued in her demeanor but dynamic in her playing. “Sometimes Corey will throw me a 7/4 that’s surprisingly easy,” she says, “but then the hardest part will be a 4/4 that’s fast and busy.”

Czars of the scene: Founders Holt and Collins command much respect in the music scene; not consciously but by way of their reputations. Holt played keyboards in Clang, a Tampa favorite throughout the ’90s. Collins played in Monday Mornings between 1989 and ’93 with the late, great Mike O’Neill. She later played with him in Ferrell Melton, a band named after Hub bartender Scooter, and with husband Mike Roe. Holt and Collins also played together in the Great Big New Ones and the Federalists. Over the years, Eastman grad Holt helped organize the annual Bonk Festival of New Music. She taught herself to speak Russian and loves reading Russian literature — explaining her choice for the band name and band fliers using old agitprop posters.

When it all came about: May 2008, in West Tampa, over cafe con leches at a Tampa meat market. (Collins takes hers with sugar, Holt without.) “We have a song called Fourth of July and we tried to have coffee at the Fourth of July cafe, but it was closed. I was eyeing the meat,” vegetarian Holt recalls with a shudder. The women commiserated over the fact that work pressures were getting to them and they needed an outlet. Holt had begun a business in 2007 with her husband, Bruce Merenda, doing interior design for airports and hotels. Collins is a massage therapist.

Collins: “It gets to the point when you feel like you’re working all the time, but that’s when you have to make time to make music.”

The drummer: Souder came by way of a recommendation from USF professor Bob McCormick. He’s away this summer in a drum corps but will be back in the fall. Collins and Holt will be performing as a mostly acoustic duo this weekend.

Songs and songwriting: Tunes Korean Girl and War Machine are tough anthems about emotional topics, both written with a deft, sideways approach. “Corey’s strength is definitely in her songwriting,” Collins says.

Holt: “You want to do something that’s a little unexpected. If you say something and the next person finishes that phrase, then it’s pretty obvious. … But I’m trying to be not forcefully different. … Lux Aeterna is a song about World War II and the war in Iraq couched in a love song. Beachway is about a house that I wanted to buy, but somebody (got it) before I got to it.” 

Collins: “It’s an ode to a one-night stand, or a one-day stand.”

Hear them: 9 p.m. Saturday at Karma Bar and Cafe, 206 N Morgan St. Tampa. (813) 228-0870.

-- Julie Garisto, tbt*