Back in 2006 the conquest-of-Florida-themed band Ponce De Leon (John P. Hogan, Greg McKenna, and Dave Reich) decided the appropriate showcase for their latest batch of material would be a rock musical to be written and directed by John and to be performed by Hogan, the band, and some friends. This musical, entitled The Island of Florida: A Foundation Myth, would be performed at CalArts as Hogan’s thesis project for his master’s degree, and a little later at the Velaslavasay Panorama Theater. In the years since, perfectionism, attention deficits, the ebb and flow of life, torpor, and a total absence of financial capital meant that the soundtrack to this work of unequivocal genius laid incomplete for years, but now, as if Brian Wilson, Axl Rose, Samuel Beckett, Stephen Sondheim, and Freddie Mercury had an orgy and made a baby out of steroids and cement, the extremely strong and powerful soundtrack is complete and ready to be distributed in some kind of listenable format (TBA).
You might also listen to the Heretics Lost Podcast by John while you’re at it: http://hereticslost.libsyn.org
