Love Radiation: Talking With Electric Bunnies

For the first time in I don't know how many years something exciting is happening in Florida, and I'm not talking about Hanley Ramirez. From Miami to Orlando, bands like Shit Eagle, Jacuzzi Boys, Slippery Slopes and most notably Electric Bunnies are uniting against the bad metal and booty music that has plagued the Sunshine State for years. The tight-nit scene down South is anchored by Rich and Jean of Florida's Dying, who not only release the records for these bands and put on the majority of shows in Orlando (now attracting groups from across the globe) but run one the best little mail-order stores in the nation. But this isn't about Florida's Dying. This is about the best little band on the FD roster, Electric Bunnies.
Based out of Miami, Electric Bunnies are only two singles into their hopefully illustrious discography, but that is about to change. The trio, who experiment will all forms of pop, hardcore, psychedelic and noise, are about to unleash the first non-Columbus record on Columbus Discount Records, the Fantastic Metal Eye 7". It's an exciting release for all parties involved and just the tip of the iceberg for what is to come from the Bunnies in the coming months. Recently, I bothered the band enough for them to punch some keys on a board and respond to my stupid questions. Needless to say, their answers fared better. Thanks for doing all my dirty work, Electric Bunnies.

Okay, please state who I'm speaking with here and what you do in the band?

I’m Eldys. I mostly play guitar, although I occasionally fiddle with the various knob-laden items that we use as well (synths, samples, etc.). I also sing some of the songs and cut Victor’s hair when I have time.

And the other members are? They play?

Thomas almost always plays the drums; he did play guitar with us once, though, so I would describe him as a multi-instrumentalist of Prince’s caliber.

Victor plays bass and writes the songs. We have some songs that have no bass guitar; I don’t really know what he does on those. I did see him play a recycling bin full of broken glass once, which he was really good at. Victor should play that thing more often.

How long ago did the Electric Bunnies form, and how exactly did the members meet?

We’ve been together for about four years now. I can’t remember how we met, since that was a long time ago and my memory for things that aren’t related to fruit trees or panda bears is very poor. I do remember, however, that the original lineup featured a female keyboard player, which we were very hopeful about at the time since everyone knows that having a girl in the band is your ticket to making untold riches. Unfortunately, she couldn’t play very well and Victor made her cry all of the time at practice so she quit. We decided to settle on having our friend Jose play keyboards, but he got really nervous about having to impersonate a beautiful lady at shows and stopped answering our phone calls. I like to believe that if he had stayed on as a she we would all be famous right now.

Victor clarifies: Eldys got it wrong. We've been together longer than four years. We probably formed in 2002 or 2003.

Did you begin recording right away, or was it more of a live thing?

We started recording just about immediately, since Victor had already written several songs. We played very few live shows early on, largely due to the fact that there weren’t many venues in Miami that would book us. We played our first show at a strip club called Gumwrappers that had been converted into a go-go bar; I don’t think they wanted us back there, since by the time we were finished the place was covered in birthday cake and soil. We’ve been lucky in that people are more willing to book us now – too lucky, in fact, since we can’t really take most of those offers.

I hear that all of you have serious day jobs. Care to elaborate on what you all do for a living?

Thomas gets paid to tell computers what to do, which from what I understand can be frustrating if they’re uncooperative. Victor sells people conversations that he’s had with other people he considers interesting; it’s hard to believe there’s a market for that sort of thing, but then I guess that’s the sort of opportunity that made our parents want to come to this country in the first place. I put people in cages for a living; sometimes they’re covered in their own filth, and they almost always cry. It’s very satisfying work.

And do your jobs play into what the band can and cannot do? Do your jobs influence the songs and style of music you play?

I suppose I would say yes to both questions. The fact that we all have steady jobs allows us to play whatever we want, since we don’t have to worry about selling records to eat or buy decent pants; in that sense we have much more freedom than most full-time bands who are forced to make concessions in order to make their music profitable. The drawback to our position, of course, is that we can’t play quite as often as we would like and we tend to have to plan our shows out very far in advance.

Coming from Ohio, Miami is a fairly exotic locale to be playing the sort of music you play, and by exotic I mean completely different than most of the places that harbor experimental rock music...What is it like playing shows down there? Do you consider yourself apart of any scene down in Miami?

Miami is a nice place to play rock music because you’re never in any danger of becoming popular. You can feel comfortable playing music that makes you happy, since nobody here is going to care anyway. The people have a shallow quality reminiscent of folks in New York and Los Angeles, but with poorer taste. The weather is wonderful, of course, which is much more important. We’re not part of any music scene down here, but I would say that I am part of Miami’s thriving tropical fruit enthusiast scene.

HERE IS WHERE ELDYS GOT BORED AND VICTOR HAD TO STEP IN AND ANSWER THE REST OF THE QUESTIONS

Are you interested in the history of Florida punk at all?

No.

How did you come into contact with the labels who are putting out your music, Florida's Dying and Columbus Discount? Was there are particular reason (or release) Columbus Discount entered your radar?

The first time I saw Rich (of Florida's Dying) was when his band the Studdogs played here in Miami. He was screaming into the mic, naked from the waist down, rolling around in broken glass, out-of-his-mind wasted. Later when I went to see Cheveu in Orlando, he put me up at his house and we officially met. I discovered that he was actually very down to earth, in fact the only guy in the state trying to make cool things happen, setting up shows and doing his label. He had heard of us, so he asked me to send him some recordings. I thought he just wanted to book some shows for us or something, but instead he asked us to do a 7", which was quite a surprise.

With CDR we sent them a demo and they liked it and wanted to do something with us. They had put out that first Psychedelic Horseshit 7", so I guess that's why we sent them the demo.

Are there any bands going right now that you feel a kinship with? Or any groups down in So. Florida we should learn about.

Pink Reason for sure. Before either of us had records out I used to talk to Kevin all the time about music, and we both have a similar mindset when it comes to writing songs. Neither of us are afraid to experiment, even if it means turning people off. The personalities of both bands are really different but I think we understand music the same way.

We love playing with Psychedelic Horseshit, who are friends of ours and very fun guys. Same goes for the Jacuzzi Boys here at home. We consider them like our brother band.

A band you should definitely know about in Miami is HahaHelp! who haven't yet put anything out anything except a CD-R. They're especially great live and are also Dino Felipe's favorite local band.

I know that you have multiple releases due in the coming months. How much of that is recent stuff and how much of it is from the legendary Electric Bunnies archives?

I don't know because I'm not sure what the "legendary Electric Bunnies archives" is.

I guess what I mean by that was think it was Kevin D who told me that you have hours of music to pull songs from and didn't necessarily have to record new material for new releases.

He's right. We do have tons of stuff recorded, a lot of which we never even bothered to mix down. If all goes according to plan NONE of it will ever see the light of day except for maybe one or two songs. We're all bored with that old material. There will only be brand new recordings of brand new songs on the upcoming LP.

Care to map out exactly what you have coming out?

7" on Columbus Discount Records. Split 7" with Pink Reason on Die Stasi. LP on Florida's Dying.

Any chance of a tour in the future?

There is always a chance.

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And now, an awesome video clip of the Bunnies doing "The Stranger" from the Chewing Gum single:

Fantastic Metal Eye is available now on Columbus Discount Records.
Chewing Gum is available now on Floridas Dying.

Damn, 2008! You Have My Heart Already

No sense in wasting time on excuses. I'm going to try and get this thing going again, because there's just too much stuff coming out right now that needs heaps of praise and attention...The first of which is of course...

EAT SKULL! Scrambling ensued to snag a copy of the brand new Skulltones 7", "Dead Families", as I missed their batch of surely incredible SXSW shows, because, like, I wasn't at SXSW. But I heard it was enjoyable. The edition of 300 sold out immediately, as is typical these days when great bands release hugely limited shit. Word on the street in anticipation for this record was that it would be better than their perfect debut and damn if it isn't just as good. All three tracks are round pegs for square holes but still make great mixtape material. The A-side tumbles out of the gate much like "Seeing Things" did, like those dead family members stuffed in the closet, with swirls of LOUD, off-kilter organ, and a bunch of scratchy guitar jangle and drum clatter, eventually settling into a second-half groove that cleans up the mess a bit. Still a little bit of blood on the floor, but everyone is safe. The B-side has a cover whose name escapes me right now, because I have the third song, "No Intelligence" lodged in my head. Is this song about Columbus? Hah. Hope not. It burns a little bit slower than their other jams, which tells me the upcoming LP on Siltbreeze will be a well-balanced meal of epic proportions. Can't wait. Go and listen to "Punk Trips" on their myspace and try not to wet your pants.

While Eat Skull's brilliance surprised nobody, this Box Elders gang are quietly surprising each and every pair of ears who hear their debut on Grotto Records. It could be that their bratty, amped-up live set a few weeks back sealed the deal for me, but I think this record holds up quite well on its own. The double A-side features two understated pop perfections, "Hole In My Head" the winner by a nose. They call it Cave Pop and I can't really top that, very much in the vein of scruffy Sixties anti-heros like the Troggs and The Primitives; dance to their songs as they steal your girlfriend. The drummer Dave (also of the Terminals) plays standing up and keyboards all at once, a MADMAN, and the guitar-bass tag team are brothers who trade vocals and back each other up perfectly. Sounds like a force to be reckoned with for years to come. Looks like they're not touring again 'til June, so go grab the reissue of this record (first pressing with beautiful screened sleeve are all gone) and spin it over and over while you wait. Mine's wearing out already.

One of the more enigmatic bands to come forth in the recent wave of greatness over the last three years is the Electric Bunnies. Their origins unknown, with a sound hard to pin down, all I know is that they come from Miami, they may or may not be Cuban, and they all have consistent day-jobs that will keep them from ever touring for more than a week. They've been around for some time now and apparently have a fairly deep well of songs to draw from, with a handful of releases on the plate for the Spring and Summer (including stuff for CDR and Die Stasi!). Chewing Gum is their second single on their official label home, Florida's Dying, and it trumps their promising debut by a considerable margin. How awesome would it have been if Jesus and Mary Chain circa '86 covered "Yummy Yummy Yummy"? As awesome as the title track to this single. Better yet - nearly impossible, I know - is "Love Radiation", furious and fun, like the Muppet band doing hardcore. B-side is more playful (ie: difficult), the last track a solid take on mid-80's avant punk. Great single and due to its quality a lock to sell out by May. Go get one, and snag that Shit Eagle single from Florida's Dying (hell, check out all their offerings, excellent mailorder they're running down there) while you're at it.

Another single that seemed to pop out of nowhere is the new Nodzzz record, "I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana)" b/w "We Are the Only Animals". Two incredible tracks from this Bay Area trio, who play a rhythmic, stripped-down sort of pop not unlike Half Japanese, early Feelies or fellow San Franciscans Icky Boyfriends. It's quirky, catchy, and bouncy without being the least bit annoying, which is a feat in itself, but they do it with ease. How so? Impeccable songs, my friends. Both tracks are simple, brief exercises in geekery that have kept me entertained for weeks. Great lyrics about day-to-day situations, unafraid and completely original. After much deliberation I've decided I like the B-side a tiny bit more than "I Don't Wanna", though both have been in heavy rotation. Pretty sure the first pressing is gone, but I'm sure the demand for a repress is there so hold tight. In the meantime they have some new songs on their space and a lot of youtube clips of house shows. Anticipating what's next.