SLIPPERY SLOPES -- Sad Tugs 7"

Florida's Dying -- Orlando -- 2010

Sad Tugs

Pizza I'm Against It

Carburetor

Burnin'

This band plays old school pop-punk in the Queers mold, with songs like "Pizza I'm Against It," the stand-out track. I usually use the label "pop punk" as an insult, but not in this case. This record is not overly slick like pop punk generally is and offers catchy, goofy who-cares attitude. In this recording they go for the reverby vocals like the Jacuzzi Boys and many other bands are doing at the moment, but it is not excessive.

The alernative and superior cover of the record cover prominently features a swastika. Definitely more punk than pop! They're worth catching live as well.

SHIT EAGLE – 7”

Florida’s Dying – Orlando – 2007

Girls at School

So Sad

Gaysted Love

Another fine FDR release. Extremely lo-fi speedy punk crap. I don’t think a lot of thought went into this – but that’s ok. Gaysted Love reminds me of Twin Infinitives era Royal Trux on helium (and speed). The other 2 are more straight forward. On 33 rpm, the singer’s voice is manlier, and it’s a lot heavier – but drags a little. I’d stay with 45.

FASHION! FASHION! AND THE IMAGE BOYS -- Over Before It Ever Began

Florida's Dying -- Orlando (2007)

Sleazy G -- vocals
Reacharound Robbie -- bass
Tracy Blades -- drums
DJ Dialtone -- guitar, vocals, theremin (!)

The Hit
Shopping in America
She
Last Good Brawl of Summer

The cover sold me on this, but the music would have also. Four solid songs of quick throwaway punk rock with tight no-nonsense guitar and intense, no-range screaming vocals framing respectable rants about consumerism, groovy femmes, fist fighting and the final days of rock-n-roll. It sort of has a Humpers/Candy Snatchers/New Bomb Turks feel to it, if that's any help.

I don't have any complaints about this record. Oh yeah, the 'Last Good Brawl' song has a gratuitous theremin solo in it. Is that a complaint?

DEREK LYN PLASTIC – Methamphetamines EP

Florida’s Dying – Tampa (2006)

D Duncan

R Knight

D Bram

D Woodard

PJ Woodard

Methamphetamines

Waste My Time

Walk the Dead

All My Fault

Great record and another good example of the Machine Gun Etiquette rule – start out with one of your best songs and follow it with a song almost as good, but twice as fast. Can’t lose that way. Methamphetamines has great off-kilter guitar and keyboard riffs and features opinions that would not be endorsed by the Drug Czar. Waste My Time is like 30 seconds long, but a very effective 30 seconds. Side two is great too – it only suffers in comparison to side one. Stellar – track it down & buy it!

BUTTERCUPS/CRETEENS 7" split

FLORIDA'S DYING -- Orlando (2005)

CRETEENS:
I Don't Want to Be Educated
Hound Dog

BUTTERCUPS:
I Wanna Live
Throwing Bulls

No personnel listed.

Both sides are trashy cretin garage punk -- heavy, quick and sloppy.

The Creteens A-side probably has the edge. 'Educated' carries a persuasive message over caveman drums, cymbals and distortion that are hard to distinguish from each other. 'Hound Dog' is surprisingly worthwhile, in a Germs-does-Chuck-Berry 'Round and Round' kind of way. The Buttercups B-side is similar enough that it belongs on the same record.

ELECTRIC BUNNIES – 2nd 7”EP

Florida’s Dying – Miami (2008)

Chewing Gum
Love Radiation
Super Fluorescent Hippo Flashback
The Stranger

Eldys Diaz - guitar, vocal
Victor - guitar, vocal
Thomas - drums

Excellent follow-up to their wonderful Eskimo single. Essential Florida weirdo-rock. Chewing Gum is deadpan vocals over a bubblegum riff – kind of annoying, kind of great. Love Radiation is a catchy punk rock song – the most conventional song here. SFHF is a semi-throwaway trashy noisy punk song – it’s ok. The Stranger is brilliant – slow noodley music with occasional noise bursts all about feelings of isolation and alienation and basically being the stranger. Once again, cool cover art.

JACUZZI BOYS – S/T 7” EP

Florida’s Dying – Miami (2007)

Ghost Ghost
Age of the Giant Jellyfish
Komi Caricoles

Gabriel – vocal, guitar
Diego – drums, vocal, keyboards
Danny – bass, bells

First (and best!) of several singles by this Miami band. Ghost Ghost is completely great. All songs are influenced by 60’s garage with an exotic, swampy feel. Reverb fans will be pleased. Jacuzzi Boys seem to have come out of nowhere and managed to forge an original sound. I’m not sure of the significance of the band’s moniker or if there’s any relation to the Jacuzzi Fuzz – another S. Fla. Band (I think). I would think these guys are a singles band – as early live performances started to drag a little toward the end – but they have an LP on the way that hopefully will prove me wrong.

ELECTRIC BUNNIES – Eskimo 7”

Floridas Dying Records – Miami (2007)

Eskimo
Eat Worms
Counting Sheep

Eldys Diaz
Victor
Thomas

Maybe I’m a bit Florida-centric, but I think the Bunnies are way better than almost all of the new “weird” punk bands of the last couple years. “Eskimo” is the hit – a perfect punky pop song over some weird instrumentation. “Eat worms” exhorts the listener to eat worms during the short, to-the-point, punk blast. “Counting Sheep” is a slow plodding chant in the style of “We will fall”, but less spooky. Excellent debut – but it’s too bad they no longer break flowerpots and roll in the soil at shows.

DEREK LYN PLASTIC – Plastic Surgery EP

Floridas Dying Records – Orlando (2006?)

Derek Lyn Plastic
Rusty Knight
Joshua Baker
Doug Woodard
Laura Callier

M.N.W.N.
Plastic Surgery
Psycho
Vampires in Heat
You Can’t Tell Me No

Modern mid tempo punk rock with snotty vocals, good production and keyboards (think Lost Sounds). These guy(s) have since defected to Atlanta and may have originated there. They have at least three other records and all sound similar (good!) I think this is #1 in the fine line of Floridas Dying releases.