Florida's Dead, Long Live Florida

To be perfectly honest there hasn't been too much in my world over the past two weeks worth blogging about, save for a mysterious CDR I borrowed from the one and only Matt Whitehurst of Psychedelic Horseshit fame. On our way to see TNV/YLT down in Cinci, he immediately demanded we listened to "the greatest band in America right now", Florida's Electric Bunnies. It played through twice before we hit Jeffersonville and I was convinced Matt was onto something.
I'm not exactly sure what is on this disc - Matt said they were "demos" - but I'm pretty certain it contains their brand new 7'', Eskimo, and most likely a rough version of what may become thier debut album. You see, there's not a whole lot of anything anywhere on them besides the fact that they're from Miami and have some ties to Florida's Dying, a great little Orlando label that could very well be South's version of Columbus Discount. All I have to go on is the music, like it should be and used to be, and damn if it isn't some of the best Acid/Punk in years, maybe longer.
The Electric Bunnies are a psychedelic band first and foremost, at least this is what I've gathered from this CDR. They can play really nice three-minute punk numbers, some of them as catchy as an Exploding Hearts song or as swingin' as any of those by-the-numbers garage punk bands, and I'm sure they play alongside and in front of mostly Goner-worshipping collector-scum groops, but the truth is this stuff is all of that and then some heavy trippin' thrown on top. Much like the Urinals back in the day, or more recently our beloved Horseshit, or before all of that maybe Simply Saucer, the Bunnies use the three-chord new wave/diy template as a springboard for a holier, more acidic sonic trash.
They're unafraid of vocoders, buzzing keys, fucked solos, extended jams and deconstructed breaks, all the while retaining a wonderful pop-song structure. Hell, some of this borders on bubblegum it's so melodically catchy. All of it amounts to a perplexing package that warrants repeated listening and your deliberate interest. I'm going to the label site immediately to get an actual copy of the 7'' and to beg for an answer to their riddle. You can go here to listen to the Flipper-meets-Bomp! genius of "Eskimo" and we can all keep our fingers crossed on the rumour of an upcoming Midwest tour.