Throwback Tuesdays' Must-Read Blog: South Florida Music Scene Past and Present

This humble blog, South Florida Music Scene Past and Present, is on CrossFade's blogroll, but it's such a wealth of local music history goodness that I wanted to highlight it for this installment of Throwback Tuesdays.

I sat down to delve into the entire archive of posts last night (good thing the site's only been around since February), and as a prodigal Miami native, I seriously got misty-eyed at the memories that some of these entries jogged. The blog focuses way more on "past" than "present," and the "past" here is pretty recent, mostly the mid-Nineties to the early-00s. But if you spent any time in the punk-centered scenes in the last 10-12 years, here's a wealth of remember-them and where-are-they-now info on the acts you saw at Cheers, Rose's, any number of crappy warehouse venues, and so on.

The site's author doesn't reveal too much info about himself, but as he signs some comments "Chip," I'm going to guess this was the same Chip who was in Destro, which explains the site's hardcore bent. (Remember when there were lots of real hardcore bands locally? And remember the mid-Nineties when "emo" was not a dirty word related to the mall?)

Anyways, the most awesome thing is that the site is full of downloadable MP3s of vinyl releases, demos, and out-of-print CDs by local acts that later became bigger.

Ever looked at "VV" from the uber-popular British band the Kills and wondered why she looked familiar? You might remember her from when she was named Alison and played in the slightly crusty-looking pop-punk band Discount.

Want to know what New Times favorite Jose El Rey was up to ten years ago? Click here.

Want to hear Against All Authority's out-of-print Destroy What Destroys You? It's here. (Wow, did I have fun angrily cleaning my room to that one.)

Want the background on the long genealogy of Dashboard Confessional? See Strongarm, Further Seems Forever, the Vacant Andys, The Agency...

Enjoy! I'm busy jamming out to the King 7 and the Soulsonics/Jive Step Bunch split 7" I now remember buying in a now-defunct record store in a strip mall in Kendall, circa 1997... -- Arielle Castillo