MENSTRUAL CYCLES – ½ Skin Punx 7” EP

Cycles – Hialeah (1983)

Retirement Home

Rejected From the Premises

Kill the President

Oi Warning

Shock (Mario) – guitar, vocals

Skin – bass, backing vocals

Hippie – drums, backing vocals

This record seems to focus on the state of being a punk or a skinhead or in the case of the drummer, a hippie. This record is ground-zero of the Hialeah Oi connection – an affinity I don’t fully understand. Maybe it’s an island thing. Something’s really off-kilter and disjointed here – not sure if it’s the bad production (Dave Camp usually did better), dodgy musicianship, crappy songwriting or some combination thereof. Loud and aggressive but, except for the first ten seconds of each song, somehow doesn’t really advance the art of loud shitty music. “Oi Warning” has inappropriate punk rock use of a phase shifter, other songs have roto-toms or whatever they call those fukkin things. Ugly cover art before ugly covers were cool! Rumor has it that they sold a bunch of these in the UK – who knows?…..

SECTOR FOUR – Disclexia

Destroy – Tallahassee (1983)

Greg Sapronetti – guitar, vocals

Neal Cline – bass, vocals

Paul Suhor – drums, vocals

Heartbreak Hotel

Jump On You

No Revenge

Time

Table Leg

Soon after recording this fine record, Sector Four decided they had to play as fast as their friends in Hated Youth and became less interesting rather quickly – though the song “Destroy” on Rick Lennick’s Florida Explosion tape is probably the best thing they ever did. The record starts with a goofy version of Heartbreak Hotel complete with Elvis-style vocals – it’s not as bad as that sounds – ok. Jump on You concerns the problem of being a teenager – which they all were – the drummer may have been a pre-teen - I don’t know how they managed to play all those shows at Flynn’s without police interest. No Revenge and Time are among their best songs – sci-fi-ish with a rare quality – welcome use of a phase shifter in a punk rock song. Table Leg is 20 seconds of nonsense yelling about “IT’S 1983!!!”. Truly a reason for the denizens of Tallahassee to hold their heads up and be proud – another rarity.

U-BOATS – Dead and Desparate EP

Crow Records – Tampa (1983)

America Unemployed

VFW Ball

Bad Boy

Mike Nelson – vocals

Jay Jetmore – guitar

Aaron Knerr – drums

Alex Civiletti – bass

Second single from Tampa’s U-Boats. They followed this with an LP and their disappearance from the music industry. They were fairly well know back in the day, but I can’t remember them ever playing anywhere but Tampa. Anyway, America Unemployed concerns the injustice of not being able to find employment, despite such worthy attributes as laziness, open hostility and slovenliness. B-side consists of two short songs displaying bad attitudes with varying degrees of cleverness. Bad Boy sounds great if you can ignore lyrics such as “I need a new toy because I am a bad boy” – it’s a little difficult as that’s the chorus though. Overall a quite good up-tempo PUNK ROCK record – no real HC influence here.

THE COMETS – Help Me / Big Business Jokes 7”

Orange Records – Orlando (1983)

Mitch Shields
others

Help Me sounds vaguely like the Jam – it’s good, I can listen to it. Big Business Jokes sounds more like the Jam than the Jam does – that’s not a compliment – Jesus – get your own sound!! These dudes have one more single that never seems to turn up. I’m pretty sure they played around the Central Florida region quite a bit. I don’t remember seeing them – but who knows…..I’m also not sure if this Orange Records is the same Orange Records that Rich Rags was on.

EVASIVE ACTION – We Bad / Nightstalker 7”

Majestic records – Anthony (1983)

Jack Sferlazza – guitar, vocals
Spazz Sferlazza – bass, synthesizer, vocals
John Davison – vocals
Billy Pattern – guitar, vocals
Ken Genes – drums
Dawn Kozsey – Keyboards, synthesizers, vocals

I had to google Anthony to figure out where the hell it is. It’s a tiny burg outside Ocala. Yikes. I don’t remember ever hearing about this band, “back in the day”. More than likely they were a cover band that played at the Brown Derby and other sad hotspots. Certain aspects of the cover and song titles might lead one to believe this is somehow related to punk rock / new wave. It is not. “We bad” is a true statement if I ever heard one. Bouncing, fake funk, party-music – yuck. Nightstalker has female vocals and is quite a bit better – though in an early MTV type of way – sort of like a less ept Motels.

VISITORS – Death of a Gunfighter /I’ll Never Know 7”

Three Equals One – Miami (1983)

Julio Rey – guitar, vocals
Peter – bass
Juan Carlos Noa – drums

All in all, a pretty damn good record – both songs feature good guitar, catchy songs, dodgy production, decent vocals – mid-tempo punk style – nearly everything to make you instant KBD heroes. What held these folks from all the glamour of being Florida punk stars, is the fact that they flaunt the fact that they have fallen victim to a common delusion – the one that a dead man is floating up in space that can read your mind and cares about each and every thought and action that you and everyone else on earth has. It really and truly spoils everything when you realize the songs are not about heroin, the crazy girl down the street or smashing the state – but the floating dead man. Julio Rey subsequently released a solo single and later became the leader of the Lead.