U-BOATS -- Government Rip Off

Crow Records -- Tampa -- 1982

Government Ripoff

Break Out Tonight

Mike Nelson -- vocals

Jay Jetmore -- guitar

Bob Widenhofer -- bass

Hitler -- drums

The charming German motif (there's both a Hitler and a Widenhofer in this band) fills out this 1982 throwaway classic outta Tampa. However, their teutonic rhythm section was ditched for the U-Boat second 7". They have an LP still later but I've never heard it.

Both songs here are solid hardcore-informed midtempo punk. The stand-out track here is "Break Out Tonight" which they brazenly annexed from the equally obscure Commandos from Massachusetts who had originally titled the track "Stay Out Tonight" on their first 1978 7". There is no indication the song is a cover and given that they changed the words and name, the U-Boats clearly intended to steal it. Yes, that's right, this is a genuine punk rock record. The chorus of the A-side, "We're all into anarchy, the government's ripping off me," confirms it.

Widenhofer, also known as Bobby Skullfucker, also played in Tampa's Jehovah's Sicknesses if memory serves. He later moved to Austin, Texas, and played with the Convulsions in the 1990s.

UFC – 7” EP

Charged Records – Ft Lauderdale (2000)

Second State

Fuck the World

Punk Rock Stars

I Fucking Hate You

Carlos – bass

Roach – Drums

Jose Juan – guitar

Danny – vocals

Ya gotta give these wackos credit for having giant mohawks in 2000. I would think a giant mohawk would make traditional employment unlikely. I worked with a guy with a mini-hawk in the mid-90’s – there was a short window where you could get away with it. The music is fairly tuneless ugliness influenced by 80’s hardcore and likeminded louts from the United Kingdom. They manage to work the word “fuck” into 50% of their song titles, which is one reason to buy this – along with the shirtless Roach photo on the back.

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.