Oh Florida Man, you strange and magnificent creature of legends. Or at least it seems to be something unreal, reading what he did. Who comes up with stuff like that? And now three of these Florida Men united in one band. Nothing good can come from that!
Perhaps you can’t help yourself and you read some of the crazy things Florida Man has done every now and then and it makes you think: “wait, what?”. Well, here are a couple of things that are way less absurd, but maybe will make you think that now (well, probably not, but I can always try, right?). Firstly the Florida Men we are talking about today are not from Florida at all. Hailing from Leeuwarden, the Netherlands they couldn’t be further away from sunny Florida. Secondly, listening to their self-titled debut album I wouldn't say they are that related to Florida's punk scene. They recognize this fact as their promo sheet tells me I should be able to find traces of Ramones, Screeching Weasel, Descendents, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Queers, Chixdiggit! and Teen Idols in their sound.
I can see why they are mentioning these bands. Especially the opening of "Florida" is very Teenage Bottlerocket-like to my ears. However, this is not the first band that came to mind when I pushed play. That honor is for Sun-0-Bathers. Which is not strange considering they share two members with Florida Men. You might expect some shared influences and you would be right. Listening closely you will hear that these bands are two separate entities though, even though both play fast and melodic punk rock. I would say Sun-0-Bathers is more rooted in skate punk, while this band is covering Ramones-core territory. What really links these two bands together is the fact that they share a singer. He has a recognizable voice. So much that if I would have presented this album and you would have told me Sun-0-Bathers altered their course slightly I would have believed you.
I’ve talked about Sun-0-Bathers way too much now. These three Florida Men have experience in other bands as well, namely Drunktank and Age & Mistakes. That last band is a new name to me. The Drunktank influences are kept to a minimum. And that's okay, we already have Drunktank, right? If you want to hear more of them, just pick their album up and put in on the record player again. Which I will do in a couple of minutes.
What is very impressive about this release is that it is written and recorded in a very short time. It took these madmen only two months. In this short time span Florida Men managed to write twelve bangers of songs. There is a sense of melody that is addictive, while playing at the crazy speed gives them a very energetic sound. Oh, and in case you are wondering: did they find enough time and inspiration to write lyrics for all twelve songs? Yeah, sure! Inspiration enough when you want to write about romance, screwing up relationships and of course some of Florida Mans actions.
If you are not into the bands mentioned above, Florida Men will most likely won’t do much for you. If you like even one of these bands I highly recommend you to check this album out. I find it a quite addictive album that will get more than enough rotation this summer (and beyond).
