LAST SHOW FOR THE FRONT: FEBRUARY 14TH THE PROSPECTOR LONG BEACH

I'm sorry baby, but it's true. The Front is breaking up.

Our last show is scheduled for February 14, 2008 at The Prospector in Long Beach, CA. We will be rocking out one last time and are extremely lucky to have our very good friends The Monolators joining us on stage along with Long Beach's own, Joshua Lanes.

There's no juicy gossip to pass along really. We are all still friends, still drink PBR together; we just hit a point in the road where creatively we wanted to do different things and songs weren't being written at the necessary pace in order to grow as a band. I'm sure we'll all be in bands again very soon. Kelly just got a double bass pedal that she's been practicing diligently with in order to master. Nick will be teaming up with his boyfriend David Klein (aka Billygoat) to produce music to David's stop motion film "Dioscuri"; here's the link to David's page Billygoat. I will be starting a new band called The Useless Keys. We have one demo up, a song we wrote over a year ago, but you can listen at this link: The Useless Keys.

So, I guess all good things have to come to an end eventually. We played our first show at The Silverlake Lounge on February 13, 2006, so it looks as though The Front will have lasted exactly 2 years and 1 day.

YOU SHOULD ALL COME OUT TO THE PROSPECTOR NEXT THURSDAY. It's your last chance to catch The Front before we move on to different pastures. I have about 60 Front T Shirts that I don't know what I'm going to be doing with, I'll probably give them out for free, might put out a donation bucket and prey upon your sympathetic tendancies. The Monolators will be rocking with us that night and I'm sure we'll bring a ton of chocolate and candy hearts to comfort our broken hearts on Valentine's Day. Thank you to all our fans, friends, and acquaintances that have helped support us along the way. We really appreciate you all coming to our shows over and over and over again.

See you all next Thursday night.

Michael.

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.