Frantik’s been bombarding South Florida now for some time with some righteous lyrics that are equal parts thought-provoking, tongue-in-cheek, positive and tough. And what makes the seemingly disparate amalgam is predicated by the fact that the toughness is not macho posing, it is inflection and execution that toughens the joint…
Cavity Crawling/Perseverance seven inch (Bacteria Sour) bacteriasour.com While the two songs on this delicious seven-inch can be found on the incredibly awesome full-length CD release Drowning, there is something special about this little record that commands its own entry to these Blast From the Past columns. There are two versions,…
Well, free “digital” shit anyways, which is what all you kids like because you’re all iPod-heads. But it’s good; it’s a 25-track mixtape from pretty much everyone on the Livid Records roster who has delivered and/or will deliver soon. There’s a new Getback tune that will be coming out on…
Well, it’s official! The sheriffs approved Part One, and while they are surely shooting themselves in the foot, I might as well aim my carbine at my extremities. Let’s see how long this hack can suckle from the sweet teat of Canadian dollar paychecks! I also encourage suggestions from you,…
Last week, I had a chance to interview Pool Party’s Creep Guirdo gearing up for their triumphant return to a South Florida stage, and this weekend, I find this video in my inbox. While everyone by now knows that the only things Pool Party cares about revolve around Iceland’s bygone…
Kind readers, we know each other through these digital planes and you usually trust that I am not too thick in the drink, or deep in the debt, or fat in the grizzle to make these little blogs worth your while. So after thinking about it long and hard, here’s…
Buffalo Brown’s been a fixture of South Florida’s music scene for some years now and his quiet demeanor has been a grounding factor in two of the scene’s better acts. From the Afro-groove electronically-tinged Latin pop of Elastic Bond to the trip-hop, improvisational acid-jazz of Out of the Anonymous (OOTA),…
The Crumbs Shakespeare 7″ (Lookout! Records) myspace.com/thecrumbs Now that I’ve had time to think about it, it seems like last year’s Gator Kicks album was one big put-on concerning this band’s demise. Nah, I’m looking at it as a hiatus from South Florida and with six full-lengths, two 7″ers, one…
Without opening up some crappy dialogue across the genres here, it’s the youth movements of Egypt, Tunisia, and hopefully Bahrain that will topple Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s dashiki-eclectic Pan-African scam soon. Granted, his oil interests have gotten the American subconscious, and that’s good because we’re close to four bucks a…
For all the gargantuan music festivals we host in South Florida, we are always guilty of forgetting the home-grown — the reason why others come to our shores.Case in point is visual artist David Brieske, operating under the close to unpronounceable pseudonym of Fsik Huvnx, making aural dreamscapes for fringe…
To Be Hated Outsourced (Destroyio Records!) www.myspace.com/tobehated Last month we took a look at To Be Hated’s State of Things album and I found myself entertaining questions of fleeting youth, upcoming middle age, time machines and what new school vs. old school punk rock means to me. All that is…
No Fraud The E.P. (Truth Records) myspace.com/nofraud Let’s posit the following: is No Fraud Florida’s hardest working band? Perhaps also the most rabid. If so, do the guys command legions of rabid fans? We will not attempt to prove this true, for it is a tautology in the mathematical and…
So my buddy Juan Montoya posted a Plasmatics video up on Facebook this morning, and while I was watching it, I noticed an obscene number of people on the discussion board likening the Plasmatics’ awesome frontwoman Wendy O. Williams to Lady Gaga. And then it struck me: I had never actually heard Lady Gaga…
Pretty Please Self-titled (Pretty Please Music) prettypleasemusic.net To say that Pretty Please’s self-titled album got here without turmoil would be a lie. Quite a tit-for-tat begat this delicious digital slab of 11 tracks. And it is delicious. Sultry and sexy. Svengali drummer Juan Oña has surrounded himself with the best…
To Be Hated State of Things (Self-released) myspace.com/tobehated I’d love to jump in the old time machine and see how I would’ve reacted to this band in my teens. I recognize the fact that the aging punker in me still needs a jolt of youthful adrenaline. Truth be told, To…
Let’s preempt this one by stating the obvious, ANTiSEEN are North Carolina’s sweetest children. Not only have they to a certain degree involved themselves in their local politics, but they have also provided a fringe soundtrack for legions of professional wrestling devotees as well as making believers out of Hank…
Last week, we examined the Drug Czars’ first EP and since then I took some time to evaluate the fact that the poor Drug Czars have as yet to reap the benefits of benevolent uncle Jello Biafra who’s Alternative Tentacles Records did a magnificent job of bringing to the masses…
Nothing saddens me more than when a record store, especially a cool one like Tampa’s Vinyl Fever, closes its doors forever. But such is the case with this place that has brought much joy and a steady counterpoint to the inflated egos of corporate giants in the southern end of…
Voodoo Idols We Dig Nixon Seven-Inch (Vee Dee Records) The Voodoo Idols were a Cramps-inspired band that toiled in the greater Tampa Bay area between the end of the ’70s and sometime in the mid-’80s. While the verdict’s out on the fans’ appreciation of their two full-length albums, one thing…
Enabler War Begins With You EP (Volatile Recordings) www.myspace.com/volatilerecordings Enabler hails out of the winter wonderland that is Milwaukee, Wisconsin and I had a chance to catch their set last week at Churchill’s after Steven Blush’s presentation on his book, American Hardcore: A Tribal History at Sweat Records. And while…
I don’t know about you folks, but my MLK holiday has been spent looking out of the window at this unrelenting downpour and listening to records. While it would be a monumental feat to discuss the Civil Rights movement within the digital pages of County Grind, I’m a little more…
Florida’s proud history of music extends beyond borders. We’re talking about things that fall under the categories of “region rock” and certain interstates that have built impromptu bridges between communities… so I want to go on the horn here and say that we have as much in common with Atlanta,…
