In the back corner of Sunshine Records, beneath a hand-drawn cardboard sign boasting “Local Artists,” sit stacks of cassette tapes.
Displaying every color from hot pink to neon yellow, they all feature bands from across Gainesville. The majority are created and brought to the store by Floating Skull, a freeform local cassette label.
The label is run entirely by Waylon Thornton, a 38-year-old local musician who has been playing shows in Gainesville since he was 13.
For Thornton, cassette tapes seemed like the perfect option to capture music created by him and other local bands, he said. The format allows him to produce cheaper, smaller batches than CDs or vinyl, so Thornton can keep prices as low as possible for fans.
“I don't want to profit off of it,” he said. “I keep things as cheap as I possibly can … I don't want it to be a business or a job. It's a thing that I do as a passion project.”
Cassettes are like business cards, Thornton said, and their accessibility and compact design allow artists to give fans physical music they can easily put in their pocket, even in the middle of a show.
In addition to its online store and the tapes sold at shows, Floating Skull cassettes can be found at Sunshine Records on Northwest Eighth Avenue.
Thornton makes most of the tapes’ cover art himself, and their designs range in style from drawings to photos to collage.
The tapes also give bands an easier way to acquire physical proof of their music in an age that prioritizes online uploads.
Digital platforms always hold a risk of losing content entirely, Thornton said. In instances like the MySpace crashes in late 2017 and early 2018, many bands’ music disappeared forever.
Physical versions of a band’s music give them longevity in an entirely different way.
“Twenty years from now somebody's going to have [this] in a shoebox,” Thornton said, “and somebody's teenager or whatever's going to be like ‘Oh, what is this?’ and hopefully still have a tape player to check it out.”
The first cassette Thornton officially released under Floating Skull was a demo for Gainesville punk band Curleys.
“We just gave it to Waylon, and he was like, ‘Hey, cool if I master this and put it on a cassette?’” said Sam Metro, Curleys’ 39-year-old guitarist. “And we were like, ‘Sure.’’’
Collecting physical media like records and cassettes is an integral part of the punk world, Metro said. The format also gives musicians a tangible trophy to validate the work that went into a project, he added.
He said seeing a project all the way through to something you can hold always seemed like an important part of the process.
Although Floating Skull is beginning to branch out of Gainesville and Florida as a whole, the operation still keeps its roots in town, with Thornton often working with local bands and friends.
Pez, another Gainesville-based punk band, also started its relationship with Floating Skull when Thornton asked to release the band’s first demo in 2019. It’s since released a full EP titled “Killology” on Floating Skull.
Ryan McDonald, Pez’s 35-year-old guitarist, said he sees physical media as a way to preserve everything from movies to music. He collects VHS tapes and DVDs.
Online streaming just isn’t as rewarding as consuming physical media, he said.
“As we kind of progress in the way that we consume media … there isn't a sentimental attachment that one gets over consuming things on a streaming service versus consuming things that are tangible,” McDonald said. “So, I think that's crucial to all art mediums, not just music.”
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior at UF and the music and reporter for Fall 2026. This is their second semester on The Avenue. Brandy enjoys reading, going to shows with friends, and writing in their free time.
