{"id":197122,"date":"2026-03-19T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197122\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T00:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T00:00:09","slug":"turtleneck-collective-is-a-revolving-star-studded-cast-of-orlando-notables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197122\/","title":{"rendered":"Turtleneck Collective is a revolving, star-studded cast of Orlando notables"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TurtleneckTurtleneck Collective Credit: Jim Leatherman<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s Mike Levin has enough laurels to kick back. Beginning in the 1990s with bands like Shyster and Sunday Morning Revival, to 2000s-2010s band The New Lows, to current band Curtains \u2014 his music spans four decades here. Apparently, just luxuriating ceremoniously in the role of scene warhorse isn\u2019t good enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even with Curtains still ongoing, Levin\u2019s already showing creative restlessness. He recently debuted new project Turtleneck Collective in a January show and now he\u2019s about to unveil its debut release. In Turtleneck Collective, the songs are written by Levin but played by a revolving, star-studded cast of Orlando notables. \u201cI see it as less a band and more me recording songs and getting friends to come and record on them,\u201d he says. \u201cThe live version could be just me or whatever recording buddies who can make it or depending on the show context.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that sounds a little open-ended, it is. And it\u2019s by design. <\/p>\n

\u201cFluidity challenges my inclination to control everything,\u201d says Levin. \u201cThere are elements of improvisation and spontaneity of both presence and absence of players and sounds. It allows for more experimentation and genre ambiguity.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 21, the Turtleneck Sessions EP is released on historic Orlando label Figurehead Records. It\u2019s a debut that has more kinship with his turn-of-the-millennium work in Sunday Morning Revival than with the punk-leaning material Levin has done in the quarter-century since. Ambling somewhere between indie and Americana, these four unassuming songs have simple acoustic bones with purposefully minimal flourishes of twang, strings and keys. It\u2019s a record that\u2019s reflective, vulnerable and comfortable in being so.<\/p>\n

To launch the record, Levin will present Turtleneck Collective in full force as a septet at Saturday\u2019s release show (9 p.m. March 21, The Imperial, $7). All show proceeds go to Florida Immigrant Coalition. Turtleneck Sessions<\/a> will be available exclusively on 10-inch vinyl at first. Streaming on Bandcamp will follow soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Turtleneck\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tBut the music is written by Mike Levin, whose career spans four decades in Orlando\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"King\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\u201cAn effortlessly creamy synthesis of Latin, soul and funk that foreshadowed disco and rap\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tIf this is the house band, then that\u2019s our kind of heaven\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This article appears in March 18-24, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turtleneck Collective Credit: Jim Leatherman Orlando\u2019s Mike Levin has enough laurels to kick back. Beginning in the 1990s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[91490,91491,139,88106,141,7362,140,91492],"class_list":["post-197122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-figurehead-records","tag-mike-levin","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-bands","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-music","tag-orlando-news","tag-turtleneck-collective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}