Every musical era has its megastars, cult favorites and novelty bands that we associate with a sonic moment in time. But when dig deep, we see a wealth of creative voices that got lost in the shuffle or just didn’t have the chance to make themselves heard. FLO was formed in the late 1990s in Orlando, Florida with a sound that was distinctly Seattle in character. The band recorded its debut album Long Way Down but wasn’t able to get it released and the band wound up ending in 2004. It was a tough time to be a grunge band, the sun having long since set on the sound in the mid-90s.
But good music is good music, and so Decibel is proud to help this album be heard. Horror Pain Gore Death Productions will finally give Long Way Down a proper release this Friday, and you can listen to the whole thing here. Immediately, the first name that sticks out is My Sister’s Machine, as the album exhibits that band’s combination of Mother Love Bone swing with Facelift-era Alice in Chains-grit. There’s a fair amount of Tad, Gruntruck and Willard in the mix as well. This isn’t the watered down post-grunge garbage that took over rock radio after 1997. No, this is the real deal with heavy riffs, scorching and catchy vocal lines, and infectious stomping rhythms. Listen to “Numb” and you’ll hear it right away.
Oh by the way, the band featured Rick Rozz on guitar. Yes, that Rick Rozz from Death and Massacre. Here’s what he had to say:
“FLO was formed in 1999 by Lucky Erickson (Drums) Karen Fry (Bass) Harrison Davis (Vocals/Guitar) and myself, the songs were written and recorded between 1999/2000, we played many local gigs and gained a really good following along with the big help of WJRR The Rock Station here in Orlando.
We disbanded in 2004 due to not having the right connections to shop the band, but the cool thing is Mike Juliano at Horror Pain Gore Death Productions is releasing it for us after all these years, how F’in cool is that? We are super excited and we thank Mike very much for doing this, it was a great time in music for me. Enjoy. Cheers & Peace.”
Well, I’m super excited as well. In a sane world, there would be rock stations spinning this non-stop and YouTube would be abuzz with black-and-white music videos of these guys decked out in flannel playing in the woods or something. Listen to the album below and go here for pre-order information.
