Sammiches

Lately I've been enjoying a sandwich phase, I've had a lot of bread laying around the house and what do you make under those conditions? Sandwiches. You know it.

I started with the classics; peanut butter and jelly and another #1, grilled cheese.

It went well and life seemed okay so I decided to kick it up another notch to salami sandwiches on a toasted bun, club sandwiches fitted with tomato, lettuce and turkey and the occasional BLT.

But just recently, I've been auditioning cucumbers, french breads, exotic cheeses, hot mustard, banana peppers, jalapenos, green peppers, etc..

I've learned that you can put anything on a sandwich, and once you cut it in half, it's looks pretty good.

The November Post

Bird Day has come and gone. The Front attended a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner, hosted at Nick's apartment, where we splurged on broccoli casseroles, mashed potatoes, turkey, sheppard's pie, cornbread and several other "mystery" dishes. I personally contributed to the feast by cooking the broccoli casserole.

Here's my recipe (I'm well aware that it's a pretty white trash dish, but I like to represent my Missourian roots come Turkey Day):

1. Boil 4 heads of broccoli for about 5 mins or until crisp-tender
2. Place a column of Ritz crackers into a plastic bowl and using the bottom of a glass, mash the crackers into small pieces (don't overdue it, we aren't looking for cracker dust, just small chunks of Ritz goodness)
3. Melt butter and pour over the cracker chunks. You want to slightly coat all the cracker pieces, soggy is no good.
4. Butter a glass cooking pan and equally spread out the brocolli pieces to cover the bottom of the pan at about a half inch deep.
5. Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese over the broccoli, the more merrier.
6. Sprinkle butter coated cracker pieces over the broccoli and cheese.
7. Sprinkle a little bit more cheese to melt on top of the cracker pieces. Sprinkle a little bit more after analyzing the dish, realizing you really love the taste of cheese and swear to run an extra mile tomorrow on your daily jog.
8. Place the pan in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 5 mins or until the cracker pieces start to brown.
9. Crack open a budweiser. You've earned it bud!
10. Share the dish with friends by placing it at the table, yet place it close to you so you can hoard it when the time comes.
11. You have a stomach full of broccoli. You might experience sharp abdominal pains and if you're considerate by nature, you might want to hang out in a room, alone, for about 4 hours.

Next stop: Christmas. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was walking around the Glendale Galleria, pondering the brainwashed consumerism Americans exhibit this time of year. As I grow older, the years are just flying by. I guess it all has to do with your frame of reference. When you're 5 years old, a year constitutes 20% of your existence, it's 20% of your entire life and thus it seems like a sizeable unit of time. When you're 26, a year represents about 4% of your life thus far. Year after year, that percentage decreases more and more and thus when you consider "a year" as a unit of time, you show an ever decreasing awe toward it's scope. The years tick away.

In Front news, we are writing. November has yielded yet another song to throw into The Front Catalogue and we have set a goal of recording a new EP by late January, early February. More van payments have been made and thus we are getting the itch to tour, so expect that soon as well. Nick is headed to the Northwest this weekend and for much of next week. Kelly's been in Las Vegas for the past weekend; I'm sure she hasn't been drinking at all, probably just nursing a cranberry juice and quietly sharing with her friends her deep desire to bear children in the upcoming year.

Personally, I've been slowly cleaning my apartment. One day I scrub the bathtub, the next day I take out the trash. Today, I cleaned two skillets that were in my sink and placed them on the stove. It's a never ending process I tell ya. Baby steps.

I've been revisiting a few records that meant something to me a few years ago. My Morning Jacket's "Z" and The Walkmen's "Bows and Arrows". Neither album is "OK Computer", but what is?

The Walkmen "Thinking of a Dream I Had" (live)


My Morning Jacket "Gideon" (live on Letterman)

We've Been Sick.

Please pass the NyQuil and kleenex box. The Front has been sick over the past 10 days. You'd figure 10 days would be an ample amount of time to ingest a virus, take appropriate measures to combat it and enjoy success, but the amount of soot in the air combined with changes in weather have suppressed our bodies immune systems from working as efficiently as usual. Either that, or this is one bad ass virus all up in my business.


Halloween weekend was fun. We all drank too much beer and played an outdoor show last Saturday. We suffered through some technical difficulties but it was an enjoyable experience to play guitar in a clown costume nonetheless. Kelly and Nick were convincing "hit-and-run victims" that even Jesus couldn't bring back to life.











Hopefully, we'll roll our sleeves up and kick some viral ass this week. Then we'll get back to our activity of the moment: writing. For now, I leave you all with this video that we've been captivated by for the past week. R Kelly manages to sincerely tap into the mentality of a young American male in the midst of a dispute with his difficult lady friend. The moral of this song: Buy non-flammable clothing.





God bless you R Kelly. Thanks for keeping shit real.

Yeah, well...........

So the fine folks at Indie Radio Chattanooga were kind enough to dedicate an entire show to The Front this past Sunday. Indie Radio Chattanooga host, Jimi Lee, dialed me up on my devil machine and I spoke through it with him for a short amount of time. Check out the interview if you get a chance; notice that I answer every question with a "Yeah...Well....."


Jimi could have easily asked me, "So Michael, we hear you like to have sex with dead people while eating mint chocolate chip ice cream?" and I would have most likely responded, "Yeah...Well....I like ice cream..........it's good". In all seriousness, thank you Jimi Lee for the support and showing the interest in the band. I hope I had something interesting to say.


I've been up for the past hour doing shots........of NyQuil! Bam! I don't if it was the fires, the new radiator I had installed or the Chipotle, but something popped into my routine today and made me sick. I woke up from a nap feeling like complete hell but forced myself to go to the Echo and I am damn glad that I did. I learned a valuable lesson tonight: Good music can help battle the common cold. The Monolators and Castledoor are two of Los Angeles' best new indie rock bands, I left the Echo with a slight headache, stuffed up nose and sore throat, but I left with a smile on my face and I's abouts to feels bettah tomorrow.


In Front news, we are playing a Halloween party this Saturday! Go here to access the flyer and for more Front dates. I have to go to the dentist during the day on Saturday, hopefully my mouth loses it's numbness in adequate time for me to rock and roll during the night. I'm looking forward to drinking with the 15 year olds and relating about how parents can get all up in one's shit and cramp one's style.


Glenn Close played a convincing bitch in "Rendition". It was a pretty decent flick; hopefully it'll stimulate and stir the torture debate in the U.S. It's pretty hilarious that we have a debate currently taking place in American society that asks the question, "Should we torture people?" I don't know exactly where I stand on the issue. I mean the people we are torturing, most of the time at least, aren't Americans, so who cares, right? Me, myself and I. Get some more gas for my Hummer please. Torture people and get them to tell us where they're hiding the oil. I hate paying too much for gas. I hate Arco's 45 cent charge. Torture, torture, torture. Should we torture? I just don't know. Really, I don't know. Really, I don't fucking know. I don't know if we should throw 5 year old children off cliffs either. Anyways, Glenn Close has been taking on a number of "I'm a bitch" roles (Rendition, Devil Wears Prada, etc...). For some odd reason, I think I'd decline the opportunity to meet with her, drink tea and chat.


Alright, I'm going to bed now. The NyQuil is doing what it does and I'm going to do what I do, which is sleep. Keep up the good fight and see you all on Saturday night. It's going to be a "Spooktacular" night!

Excuses Excuses

Everybody's got an excuse.


"Well, ya see, I've been meaning to start that project I've been fantasizing about for the past 10 years of my life, the project I've hinged my whole existence on, the project that will complete me, the project that will allow me to finally die and feel as though I've left something significant behind to be remembered by and thus I can die peacefully, I can depart yet feel complete, I can die knowing I created something that entirely encapsulates who I am and thus my physical presence is no longer necessary, but I really have to do laundry tonight....but I haven't seen this particular friend foreeehhhver.........but I just don't feel good."


So.............Blog posts have been infrequent. I can explain. Really. I have good reasons. You don't understand. My mom was in town for a week and we went to Las Vegas and then Big Bear. Then the van's wheel blew out and I had to get it fixed. My car has a cracked radiator. I've been busy with work. I worked a 14 hour day yesterday. I went back to Big Bear last weekend and drank too much and felt horrible. Anxiety. Panic attacks. Medicine. Grease. No exercise. Too many questions. Mind racing. Can't sleep. Excuses, excuses, excuses.........


I'm here though now and I'm posting, hooray! Radiohead released an album last week. It's fucking phenomenal. Videotape is by far the most important track released in 2007, you won't hear it on the radio, wedged between a My Chemical Romance song and Rise Against, but you should do yourself a favor and download the album (for free if you must) at www.inrainbows.com and listen to the last track immediately. Videotape to my ears is like The Gospel of John to Benedict 16's.


The Eagle Rock Music Fesitival was awesome. Hopefully, we'll be invited to play again next year. We played in the American Tire Depot's parking lot to a rowdy crowd of Eagle Rocktonians, they were all kind, full of compliments and made the entire experience one of the best we've ever had as a band. Kelly is back from Portland, I'm back from Big Bear, and Nick is back a wild acid trip that lasted 5 days (joke!).


We've scheduled a couple shows for the next month or so. We are playing a Halloween party near Zankou Chicken on Sunset in Hollywood on October 27th. My guess is that we'll play around 10pm, it'll be packed, kegs of beer will be present, and we will rock your world because that's just what we do these days. We have another show mapped out for The Scene on November 20th with Tweak Bird and The Pleasure Boaters. Both Tweak Bird and The Pleasure Boaters are amazing bands; it'll surely be a great night of loud rock and roll. There's recent Front chatter about a possible tour in the near future. I'll keep you posted if anything happens. For right now, we are focused on writing new songs.


Hmmmmmmmm........What else can I say? The Radiohead Album has consumed my life the past week. I just went and saw the movie Michael Clayton starring George Clooney and it was a great flick. The ending scene makes me want to smash a fucking guitar to bits at the end of our next show. I appreciate a well defined climactic point. I can sense that it's brewing, simmering, festering inside me. I've always imagined a situation where I would smash a guitar but had notions that when things like that happen, they are often contrived and more detrimental to your audience's perception of your band than helpful or impressive. We'll see what happens. Don't be surprised if you see a Stratocaster in ruins after an upcoming show and don't say I didn't warn you. I'd leave you with Videotape by Radiohead but my last post has the version recorded for "From A Basement" so I'll leave you with a solid Bruce video instead. Until we meet again...........






mb

Radiohead- Videotape

I realized late last night that I've been feeling a void in my life for about 2-3 years now. I quit listening to Radiohead shortly after college because I felt like I was becoming too heavily influenced by them; I was singing in my yet-to-be finely tuned falsetto voice, playing quirky chords on guitar, and every song I wrote made me want to cry. At about 1:30 am last night I came across this video of Thom Yorke performing "Videotape" (the last song off the upcoming Radiohead album "In Rainbows") and I watched it 7 times in a row and felt human again. I hope you enjoy it. I've decided to dust off my OK Computer, Kid A and The Bends albums. It's comforting to know someone's out there making music like this today, it makes me want to stay out of bed.

Eagle Rock Music Festival

Eagle Rock Music Festival is this weekend!!!! It should be a great, community friendly, inexpensive time. The Front plays at 10pm at The Tire Depot Stage. Our friends The Pity Party play the main stage at 8:05. The Monolators play at 6:20 at the main stage and Bodies of Water hold it down at 7:05. The full lineup is below.





EMERGING MAIN STAGE (indie):

5:00 - 5:20 - THE FRIMPS (Eagle Rock High School Battle of the Bands winners)

5:35 - 6:05 - TEDDY'S CHEER CLUB

6:20 - 6:50 - THE MONOLATORS

7:05 - 7:50 - BODIES OF WATER

8:05 - 8:50 - THE PITY PARTY

9:05 - 10:00 - DENGUE FEVER

10:30 - midnight - UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF GIANTS


GLOBAL MAIN STAGE (world):

5:00 - 5:45 - MARIACHI DIVAS

6:00 - 6:45 - JESSICA FICHOT

7:00 - 7:45 - MICHELE GREENE

8:00 - 8:45 - TUESDAY NIGHT SQUAD

9:00 - 10:00 - BLACK SHAKESPEARE

10:30 - midnight - CHUCHITO VALDES


PANANG (rock/punk):

5:00 - 5:45 - THE SUNDOWNERS

6:15 - 7:00 - DC4

7:30 - 8:15 - THE MORMONS

8:45 - 9:30 - THE MAMA SUKI

10:00 - 10:30 - VIRGINIA CITY REVIVAL



WOMEN'S 20th CENTURY CLUB (experimental torch songs):

5:00 - 5:45 - B IS FOR BARONESS

6:00 - 6:45 - LESLIE & THE BADGERS

7:00 - 7:45 - WEYOU.

8:00 - 8:45 - MIA DOI TODD and ANDRES RENTERIA

9:00 - 10:00 - HECUBA


WELCOME INN (zydeco):

8:00 - 9:30 - BENNIE & THE SWAMP GATORS



BATEMAN WATER & HEATING (punk/rockabilly):

6:30 - 7:30 - THE CURS

8:00 - 9:00 - THE SIRENS

9:00 - 10:00 - THE CURS



COLUMBO'S (tropical folk pop):

6:30 - 7:15 - THE RONDALLA CLUB OF L.A.

7:45 - 8:30 - PRINCETON



CITY HALL (industrial percussion):

8:30 - 9:00 - GLANK

9:00 - 9:30 - BELLY DANCING

9:30 - 10:00 - MODERN DANCE

10:00 - 10:30 - GLANK



RANTZ (dub/Latin/IDM):

6:00 - 7:00 - DUB 8

7:30 - 8:30 - DED PIGEONS

9:00 - 10:00 - CAFE FUEGO



RenArts (kids/teens/tweens):

5:30 - 6:15 - ELLEN AND MATT - BEST FRIENDS

6:30 - 7:00 - CORNELLI ORCHESTRA

7:00 - 7:30 - DANCE AND STRING ENSEMBLE

7:30 - 8:00 - RenArts HONOR CHOIR



CAMILO'S (jazz):

6:30 - 7:30 - J. VEGA & FRIENDS

8:00 - 9:30 - KATHLEEN GRACE BAND



SWORK (folk/acoustic/Latin):

6:30 - 7:30 - ESTEBAN LEON

8:00 - 9:30 - LAURA WEINBACH and SIVAN SADEH



AMERICAN TIRE DEPOT (local ER/HP/LA rock):

5:00 - 5:45 - GET OUT

6:15 - 7:00 - PALE BLUE MORNING

7:30 - 8:15 - SEASONS

8:45 - 9:30 - TSK TSK

10:00 - 10:30 - THE FRONT
(YOU KNOW IT BITCHES!!!)



DIVINE FORCES STAGE (hip hop/funk/soul/breakbeats/world):

5:00 - 6:00 - DJ CARLOS NINO

6:00 - 6:45 - EAGLE ROCK UNDERGROUND DJs

6:45 - 7:00 - DJ ORATOR

7:05 - 7:30 - REBELS TO THE GRAIN

7:30 - 8:00 - OLMECA

8:00 – 8:10 - MIKE THE POET

8:15 - 8:45 - EL-HARU KUROI

9:05 - 10:00 - PACHAMAMA

10:00 - 10:30 - SPECIAL GUEST

It should be a great time so come out, bring the kids and eat popcorn! We just played with Bacchus and Oaks at The Scene last Sunday and it was awesome. We put a few pics up on our myspace page if you would like to give it a gander. The new songs are sexy, smart, and better than our previous output. Hope to see you Saturday and get your opinion.


MB

The Monolators' cd release party is tonight at The Echo. The show starts at 8:30pm and is only $5 if you bring this flyer. I'm excited to see them, we played with them earlier this month at Mr T's Bowl and it was an incredible time. It's so nice to see a band on stage that's completely sincere and loving every minute of what they are doing; completely devoid of pretense. I love them dearly.


In an attempt to grease up the wheels and iron out any wrinkles prior to our September 30th show at The Scene, The Front will be practicing a shit ton this week. We debuted a brand new song entitled "Neo-Con" at Mr. T's earlier this month and we'll be debuting another new one on Sunday. Two songs managed to make it past our stringent filtering process this month; quite an accomplishment for us. Hope to see you all out tonight at The Echo and at The Scene on Sunday.


mb

Letters Always Get Burned

here at front headquarters we thought we would share with you the music in our hearts over the past 24 hours. stay bitch and don't do anything you wouldn't do if you were sober.











i love. therefore i won't be throwing myself on interstate 5.

mb

There is No I in Threesome

Jesus Christ this song is great considering the circumstances.
Interpol- There is No I in Threesome

If Only Those Compton Kids Had Taser Guns Instead

So there's a video circulating the "Internets" right now showing a University of Florida student being physically removed from a town hall style event with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. The student is carried out of the university theatre by a number of police officers, eventually dragged to the floor and tasered after he clearly pleads "What did I do? Don't taser me bro. Don't taser me."





First, I'd like to state upfront, that kid was fucking annoying. No one likes a know-it-all or smug sarcasm so why present yourself in that fashion? The whole "You won the election! Isn't that great?" comment was unnecessary, distracting from the question at hand and ultimately ineffective in getting his question asked and answered. Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern shows in the video below how to confront a government thug in a tasteful, effective, stern and intelligent manner. McGovern was short, direct, forceful and understood that instead of prefacing questions and then asking 3 separate questions, all at the same time, he'd just fire off one firecracker at a time, allow speech to transfer back and forth and actually get a dialogue established, eventually pinning his opponent into a debate where he was unable to squirm out of.





Back to the university student incident, isn't it illegal to assault someone for being annoying? Those campus cops were pathetic. There were at least 6 campus cops(in the shot of the camera, who knows how many outside of the camera's viewpoint) and they had to taser one guy for being annoying and asking too many questions. I'd like to taser most people that sit behind me in movie theatres and kick the back of my seat the whole show, but I don't because it's illegal. Hopefully the dipshit campus cops get fired and charged with assault. The thing I can't get over is that there were six of them. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six cops couldn't turn one guy on his stomach and handcuff him without the taser? I think they just wanted to test out the taser to make sure it was working. I keep reading on several news sites that the student "didn't receive any lasting injury". I think that's irrelevant. I'm guessing that none of those campus cops know what it's like to be tasered and if it is so harmless, before any campus cop gets a taser gun, he or she should be shot with it so they can know exactly how it feels and be less hesistant to use it on someone else, especially when you have 5 of your dunkin donut buddies standing by your side. At Truman State (the college I went to in Missouri), our campus police organization was called DPS, initials for Department of Public Safety. The Truman students and I knew the initials to stand for something else, "Dumb Pieces of Shit". Glad to see that the situation is as similar in Florida as it was at Truman.


The Front had practice last night. We were all pretty exhausted but gave a little more definition to the new songs. One of the new ones is called "Johnny Super Cop 5000", it's a song that serves as a training manual for becoming a police officer in this great police state we live in. We all went to The Happy Hollows last night at The Echo. It was the third time I've seen them this month, the best time I've seen them thus far. The crowds have grown week by week, word is getting around the neighborhood nicely.





More practice for The Front tonight. I'll keep you all up to date on exactly how many beers were drank, what we fought over and how many times I sighed in a very Napoleon Dynamite-like manner. Keep on rocking in the free world....... before your ass gets tasered because you're annoying the shit out of someone.

I'm Tired Today

Whew....No sleep for the wicked.


I was skimming youtube today and found a video that strangely displayed (at about the 6 second mark) exactly how I felt getting out of bed today. The past two nights have been rough on sleep and I'm pretty much "checked out".






Bruce Springsteen has a new record coming out. I know it's entirely uncool, especially in California, but I dig this middle class hero. I have the kind of respect for Bruce that Peter, Paul, Luke and John had for Jesus. In all honesty, if Bruce showed up at my door later tonight with a couple guns and told me that we had to go to Chechnya and join the rebel cause, I'd sell everything I owned and go with him, no questions asked. Where Bruce goes, I go. They don't call him the fucking Boss for nothing. He earned that title, putting out records like Born to Run and Nebraska while I was still learning how to play an A chord and crying myself to sleep like a baby. Here's to you Bruce, I hope you're around for another 40 years to keep us all in line.





Practice tonight for The Front followed up with The Happy Hollows at The Echo. The Happy Hollows are one of the best, if not the best band in Los Angeles. You should do yourself a favor and get to their show tonight or next Monday. Over and out.

There's a Rat in My Ceiling

Well I guess I'm officially a blogger. We'll see how long this lasts; I figure, "you got nothin' to lose".

Last night I woke up at 6am to the sound of a rodent scratching its way along my drywall ceiling. It's a fairly disconcerting noise to wake up to. I determined that whatever it was, (rat, squirrel, bird, lizard, evil demonic zombie child) it was having a great time running from my bedroom ceiling to my bathroom ceiling, fidgetting about, and going back and forth.... and back and forth. I initially laid paralyzed with fear in my bed, clutching my pillow, envisioning that at any moment the minature beast would plunge through the drywall ceiling, land squarely on my chest, and make me pee uncontrollably with fright, but after seeing a few rays of sunshine peak through the sides of my maroon velvet curtains, I decided to strap on some shoes, walk around my back patio area and check for holes in my roof.

I didn't find anything, other than that someone wrote "faggot" with their finger through the dust on my barbeque pit. I decided that whatever this critter was, it was it's world too and I was just as much an invader as he/she/it so I went back inside, took solace in the thought that I was probably at least 20 times the size of the body mass of my new imposing roommate and went to sleep. I killed a spider before I went to sleep though. He was on the wrong side of the drywall.

I get the feeling that this blog will be 50% Michael's ramblings and 50% Front news. Let's continue a little more with ramblings. I rented "The Confederate States of America" today from the local Silverlake Video. I recognize that I rent a ton of videos and spend way more than I would if I just signed up for Netflix but the owners of Silverlake Video are so nice, normal, aspiring that I'm consciously willing to pay an extra $15 per month to support them over Netflix. It's nice to support the local community, help out small businesses vs. just being another lowest price seeking U.S. consumer. As for the movie, I thought it sucked. I was expecting a more artsy type of psuedo-documentary but instead it was a comedy that revolved around how using the taboo word "nigger" makes teenagers and immature adults giggle. That's a pretty brash assessment, it was okay, I was just expecting something more and I was bored frequently.

As for Front news........




We are playing a couple shows in the Los Angeles area in the next couple weeks. September 30th at The Scene, our good friends from San Diego, Oaks, are coming up to play. They recently opened for Big Business at Spaceland a few Fridays back and they killed it. Oaks have a sound reminiscent of the Northwest US (Olympia, Seattle, etc..) in the mid 90's, gritty rock from skilled players. Justin on the drums has impeccable timing while Marc precisely plucks a fretless bass and manages to walk a thin line that few can by providing sincere yet "big rock" vocals. The show should be rad and we encourage all of you to come.


We've been working very hard on new music over the past month. We have about 4 new songs in the works right now, 2 completely finished, 2 with well defined blueprints. We are excited to play them for you. I think we haven't been realizing it until the past week or so but we're writing a new album. All the songs are coming out slightly different but there's a true coherence to the topics we are touching on and it's rewarding and fascinating to see how things just fall into place one day after you've felt so stagnant for a good chunk of time. As for what I've been listening to lately:


1. Bruce Springsteen- Born To Run
2. Elliott Smith- New Moon
3. The Happy Hollows- EP
4. Qui- Love's Miracle
5. The Beatles- Let it Be
6. Interpol- Pioneer to the Falls (just that single track)


I need to get better at this blog thing. It's sort of like reading reality tv. Some dude, completely concerned with himself, writing journals, blah, blah, blah. I'll get better, I promise.