The Front Bottoms (2022)

One Liner: Lo-fi emo punk

Wikipedia Genre: Folk punk, indie rock, alternative rock, pop, emo
Home: Jersey

Poster Position: 8
Weekend Two Only.  Saturday.

Thoughts:   I mean, they win the band name war right here and now.  Give them the trophy and move along.  As for the actual music, its kind of lo-fi punk music that sounds very much like the emo bands of 10 years ago - I'm hearing Dashboard Confessional because of the talking/singing style of vocals. I also hear Modest Mouse sometimes.  But this exudes that slacker indie punk feel.  It also has a pretty great lyrical content, with stories and vivid descriptions galore.

They were here a few years ago for the Fest, but I don't recall seeing them.

They've got five full-length albums (2011's Front Bottoms, 2013's Talon of the Hawk, 2015's Back on Top, 2017's Going Grey, 2020's In Sickness & in Flames) and a few singles and EPs (2014's Rose, which is apparently named after one of their grandmothers). Five of their most popular come from that 2013 album, including their top song (by far).  This is "Twin Size Mattress," which checks in at 102.6 million streams (and was at 8 million in 2016 when I wrote parts of this post, for what that's worth).

The band formed in 2006 when two childhood friends and a brother joined up to make some music.  As they toured around Jersey for the first few years, the guitars/vocals guy worked at a grocery store while the drummer worked in landscaping.  Once they started to make it a thing, the brother who played keyboards left the band to concentrate on school.  They added another guy and then replaced him with two others.  But those two original dudes (Brian Sella and Matthew Uychich) are still the core.

The 2015 album has one I liked - "HELP," has a really fun, poppy sound, along with a very well-pronounced F bomb.  10.6 million streams.

That video is kind of funny and weird too.  

With the two newer albums, none of those tunes have really taken off - none have more than 10 million streams or scored a spot in their top ten on Spotify.  That is sad.  But I'll check out their brand new single to see what that has in store for us.  This is "Lover Boy," with 1.1 million streams.

Yeah, they're still living in that same zone.  Kinda loose guitars and rock with some raw vocals and a general groovy vibe.  Pretty good.

Then, just because I love these Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR, here is one with these dudes.

Pretty good.  I kinda like it, but the more I listened to the multiple albums over the last day, the less I want to hear any more of this.  I think its the vocal tone, it has just started to grate on my nerves after a long time.  I generally like the music, especially individual singles of the music, and I have a feeling the live show might be fun.  And with the lack of good rock so far this year on the poster, I'm not sure that a beggar can be a chooser on this thing!