Mark this day on your calendar because it is the beginning of a mind numbing journey into the past, present and future of all that is punk in the backward state of Florida. Many of us who have found ourselves stuck in a land that time didn’t forget, it just ignored it, have only our music and like minded friends to alleviate an otherwise tragic existence. Most people in other parts of the country don’t realize how desolate the true underground music scene is when you live in an area so far off the beaten path that the majority of touring bands don’t want to bother venturing into the wasteland. For nearly 3 decades, the outcasts, miscreants and deviants of Florida’s nether regions have amused themselves with their local music scenes populated with bands that don’t give a rat bastard’s ass about the quest for fame and fortune instead choosing to drink themselves into a blissful oblivion with ears ringing from high decible squalor and unabashed raunch.
Yes, I love the Florida underground punk music scene (or lack thereof) and all of it’s strange and beautiful nocturnal inhabitants who have laboured on shitty sound systems in dive bars in the middle of such exotic locations such as Little Hati and Ybor City. One quickly learns it’s not all about braving the shotgun toting rednecks or the quasi-nazi skinheads or even the hair twirling, spandex wearing metalheads who will stop at nothing to disrupt the pleasures of being engulfed in a wave of mutilating noise. It’s about the passion, drive and originality that separates those who think in pack mentalities from those of us who think for ourselves.
With that in mind, I’ll leave you with a few quotes to ponder….
“What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs.” - Henry Miller
“Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.” - William S. Burroughs
“Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live” - Charles Bukowski
“The stone that the builder refused, will always be the head cornerstone.” - Bob Marley
Cheers,
David X. Smith
Posted August 20, 2007 
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