United Front Issue Two (August 1988)

Here we have a true piece of Florida core history. United Front Issue Two is a slice of the scene going on in South Florida in the summer of '88, a time pivotal to all of the U.S. for hardcore music. Author "Dan" hand-writes most of this fanzine - not sure who Dan is but if anyone does know, hit me up as I would love to check out any other issues.

Reading this really put me in the shoes of what it might have been like being involved in the young Miami scene, going to house shows and obsessing over any New York hardcore one could get their hands on. Readers please keep in mind this was written at a time where being a punk often meant being shocking or offensive for the sake of turning heads, so there are some words and images you probably would not see in a similar fanzine today. Thanks to lifer Dennis Williams for hooking me up with this! Enjoy; preview images and download below.

United Front Issue Two Cover

Crossword Puzzle & Gig Review

CTHC & NYHC Reviews

d/l here:

United Front Issue Two

Select Florida Demos 2001-2004: Face Up, Flame Still Burns, Team Effort and X Option Zero X

Big thanks to John McHale for hooking me up with copies of each of these, I owe you some tapes next time I'm in Miami. Here are a bunch of tapes from the early 2000's in FL that likely did not exist digitally prior to now. Corny to some, crucial to others, essential to any core scholar from Florida. Read a quick snippet and listen away below.

Face Up - Sweatpants and Hardstances

Members of Clean Cut, another Florida straight edge favorite, put out as an early release on Think Fast Records (which later released Outbreak, Have Heart, The Geeks etc.). 

Flame Still Burns - Edge 2001 Demo

Released on Think Fast Records right after the Face Up demo, Flame Still Burns sounds like a adrenaline charged flurry of straight edge hardcore. Taking their namesake from Youth Of Today, the drum and vocal production on this one has me feeling a little overstimulated. I'm thinking they maybe should have followed the advice of another track from the Youth Crew - "Slow Down"! However you slice it, here it is.

Team Effort - Demo

Some members from this band play in some currently active, not-so-much-hardcore bands of now that shall not be named. Doesn't matter! This demo is actually probably the tightest of the bunch. Such a crazy intro name... is the edgeman on the cover clutching some sort of  baguette? Not sure. Check these jams out, though!

X Option Zero X - Pure Core Pride Demo 2002

Yellow copies must have been cheaper to run off or something! This demo, musically and lyrically... leaves a bit to be desired. I do love the name Pure Core Pride though, which itself is anything but underwhelming. The oddly proportioned, accidentally manga-like edgeman on the cover is what sells it for me. File under: automatically like this because it's Florida, but don't expect anyone else to get it.

Stream here:

Face Up - Sweatpants and Hardstances

Flame Still Burns - Edge 2001 Demo

Team Effort - Demo

X Option Zero X - Pure Core Pride Demo 2002

d/l here: 

Face Up - Sweatpants and Hardstances

Flame Still Burns - Edge 2001 Demo

Team Effort - Demo

X Option Zero X - Pure Core Pride Demo 2002

Sick Of Talk May 2017 Tour

Come catch Sick of Talk on our 2017 tour across the southern USA. The first three dates will be accompanied by Atlanta's Pay To Cum, as well as other dates with bands like Abuse Of Power, Search For Purpose, Laughing Sword and many more. For any additional information on dates visit the tour event on Facebook here or feel free to email me at garrettxstrobel@gmail.com. I will have all available Exact Change Records releases with me on this tour.

See you soon!

Exact Change Records 006 - Final Say Demo

Final Say demo tapes are now available for streaming and purchase.

Listen and purchase here. There are also a limited amount of tapes and shirts here.
Straight edge hardcore from Tampa, FL. See below for local order information and the next show.

Exact Change Records 005 & more available now

Visit the web store for mail order information here

Sick Of Talk Video Archive

11/22/14 at Cloud House in Valrico (live tape available here)
11/29/14 at Cloud House in Valrico
1/25/15 at Epic Problem in Tampa
3/10/15 Live on WUTT in Downtown
4/11/15 at Epic Problem in Tampa
4/24/15 at Solid Sound Studios in Pompano Beach 
8/1/15 at O'Malleys in Margate
10/12/15 at Goat House in Odessa
1/6/16 at TV Land in Tallahassee
1/11/16 at New York Pizza in Greensboro, NC
1/12/16 at Nowhere in Gainesville
4/16/16 at The Granary in Miami

Last updated 2/14/2017

DC's MISLED YOUTH and IRON CAGES come to Florida!

To end of the year, Sick Of Talk will be playing at The Bunker in Ybor with two bands visiting from Washington, D.C., Misled Youth and Iron Cages on Friday December 30th. With Transitions Art Gallery closing it's doors over the summer, Tampa has been in a dire search of a new regular punk and hardcore venue. The Bunker has hosted a few shows so far and all have gone well, so come out and make this one even better than the rest! There is still room for one more band to hop on in the next day or so, leave a comment or shoot me an email if you are interested.

Select Florida Demos 2009-2012: Thin Line, Faith Addiction and Kickturn

It's near the end of April and I'm finally getting around to posting some downloads. This time around, it's even more Florida bands, but from more recently. I'll give a little information on each band and throw the download links with scans of whatever came packaged with the demo at the bottom. Also, keep an eye on the blog for two cool show announcements next week!

 

Thin Line - Demo

This demo was recorded in 2009, right around when I first started coming to shows. Apparently Thin Line was from Orlando. I actually never saw this band and only even heard about them a week ago when my friend Oliver was giving away some of his old things. He told me this band was from FL so I grabbed the tape out of principle. If you can't tell from the cover, this is a straight edge hardcore band that I would very loosely compare to Righteous Jams or Mental. The lyrics get about as cheesy as they come on the track "Get Involved" (not a Brotherhood cover) but the tape includes a rendition of Use Your Head (which is a Uniform Choice cover) that actually rocks pretty hard. Drummer Tommy currently plays in one of Florida's continually rising star bands, Axis. I was surprised to find their Bandcamp link is still active, so I nabbed the songs from there and threw in the cover and insert scan in the download.

Faith Addiction - Demo 

Faith Addiction was a short lived hardcore band from Tampa. Four songs clocking in at under 2:30 on this sucker. On this demo were all three members of grindcore band Cellgraft plus Justin who sang in Feral Babies on bass. Awesome blown out hardcore that I think would be hugely popular if it came out this year, but sort of flopped when they were around. I remember seeing them open a show in a storage unit in Tampa and just about no one caring or watching. Crazy! They put out a lathe cut 7" a few years after this demo. Only 25 copies were made and I'm pretty sure every single copy is sitting in various Tampa record stores. Even crazier! I highly recommend this, though I had to rip the audio from the cassette so it's not the best quality.

Kickturn - The Demo 2012

Chances are you heard or saw this band when they were around, but I rarely hear them get brought up nowadays. Since members also played in Losin' It I think maybe this demo is just seen as the "other" band, but this demo still holds up to me. Four cool tracks that remind me of stripped down, nuts-and-bolts hardcore in love with Underdog or Token Entry blended with that Florida taste that can't be mistaken. Ian now sings in Day By Day, and with that in mind, you can hear the vocal similarities even though the music varies quite a bit.

That about wraps it up, here's the download links. Enjoy!

d/l here: Thin Line - Demo

d/l more here: Faith Addiction - Demo

d/l even more here: Kickturn - The Demo 2012

North Carolina's SUBSTANCE comes to Florida!

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog. It has been a hectic two months, as Exact Change has hit the road in January on the Sick Of Talk 2016 Winter Tour as well as in February on the Hit List/Crisis Unit East Coast Tour. Thanks for everyone who came and saw any of the bands and picked up an ECR release, more Hit List live tapes will be available in the store very soon.

In April, Substance from NC will be coming down and playing through FL for a weekend. Check out the St. Pete show if you are in the area, or see the bottom flyer for information on the whole weekend. See you at the shows!

Beyond Reason - It's Just Begun 7" & Notes From The South compilation 7"

Check it out - a Florida hardcore Youth Bus Records two-fer! First up is the Beyond Reason 7", "It's Just Begun", with four powerful yet fun tracks. Released in 1990, but reminds me a lot of bands that were around in the mid-to-late-80's like Bustin' Out and Unit Pride.

Up next, a 7" compilation, "Notes From The South" featuring an array of bands from Florida: The Believers, whom I posted about a short while ago, a little heavier act called Hangman, then Beyond Reason and, ending off the compilation with my personal favorite tracks, Ego-Trip. This deserves to be the "We Can't Help It If We're From Florida" of the 90's. Track after track of unique hardcore happening in Florida that has somehow flown under the radar for all but those involved, or so it seems. Oh, did I mention the Beyond Reason record come with a huge fold out insert, and the compilation comes with an excellent lyric booklet, all of which are scanned and included in this download?

Here's the Ego-Trip pages of the booklet... How cool is this?! I need more info!

So there you have it. Youth Bus Records #1 and #2, discovered as I promised I'd try to do in the post about The Believers. Now for #3-5... I seriously have to find the Ego Trip "Together In The Mind" 7" if it is anywhere near as awesome as these compilation tracks.

d/l here:
Beyond Reason - It's Just Begun

d/l here too:
Notes From The South compilation

Mistaken Identity - Sheep 7"

Florida has a vast history of fast punk from the 80's and 90's, and this Mistaken Identity 7" fits right in. The fuzzed out guitars and whined vocals perfectly pair the annoyed-at-the-world lyrics. This band definitely fits the feel of the early FL punk bands that loved to sound angry while simultaneously poking fun at everything, including themselves. I was gifted this rare record by my friend Ellie and was fortunate enough to speak with the singer, Doug, for a history on the band, since not much information is found online. Here's what Doug had to contribute...

"There isn't much to tell about Mistaken Identity, but I'll try. It all started back in 1986...

We started out playing covers of The Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Fear, Black Flag, and we were terrible, obviously.

After a couple of years and some reassigned roles (I was moved from drums to vocals) we started writing a few originals and put out a demo in 1988. We played at most local venues, including Club Detroit, Arts Alive, and The Ritz. Opened for D.R.I., Rancid, Blatherskite, did a few hardcore festivals with Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and mostly just did local shows with our friends. We recorded the 7" in 1993. It got a pretty good review in Maximum Rocknroll. We split up soon after that because it was mainly just for fun and we had milked it dry.

The best times were spent playing shows with other local bands like Assück, Manic Dose, Ima, No Fraud, The People's Court, Toilet Birth, Scrog, Pink Lincolns, and dozens more awesome bands.

We split up in '93 and never really looked back. We played a set on WMNFs "Harmful Emissions" show, hosted by Steve Heritage of Assück. It was the last time we played together.

Of course there's more to it than that but that's all I can remember. It was fun."

Thanks to Doug for all the information. As far as I know, this is the first time these recordings have been posted online. This download also includes scans of all the inserts and artwork on the Sheep 7".

d/l here:
Mistaken Identity - Sheep