The cover of POISON CONTROL issue #5

What’s the state of the hardcore scene in FLA in 2024/25? Looks like there is some life to it, as evidenced by the robust zine POISON CONTROL that we had handed to us after our panel discussion at the Miami Book Fair in November. Reminds us a little of the infamous CHEMICAL IMBALANCE mag pubbed by the great Mike McGonigal back in the day–kind of, though not as word heavy, literate, or expansive.

PC includes interviews with current HC/FLA bands like Android, Nosferatu, NSA, and more. It has art and lyrics and even a flexidisc–a trademark of CHEMICAL IMBALANCE–with decent tunes by the bands Real People, Dog Boner, and Sociedad Bastarda. Great to see and hear the youngins banging it out.

Android singer Javier Borges Ramirez even references Churchill’s: “That’s like Miami’s CBGB’s. Like it’s a shame to see that store the way it is…. I remember we used to–well I only climbed it like twice but the rest of the homies used to climb the back of the Churchill’s wall there that they had ’cause if you were there before you saw that there was barbed wire, that wasn’t there before. They did that because of us and everyone else that used to do it too.”

Props to the publisher, and thanks for sharing–Tony?

The flexidisc–check out the perfs at the top and grooves on the right