Oh, the things we’ll do for women. Lines like this: "I’ll remember the summer as the summer I was taking steroids cuz you like a man with muscles," speaks to the travails of a man in love, set to a cringe-worthy degree of honesty. But The Front Bottoms make it work on a level of nerdiness that most guys can (sadly) relate to all too easily. Like a cross between They Might Be Giants and Why?, Childhood friends guitarist/singer Brian Sella and drummer-bullhornist Mathew Uychich tear across a range of emotional outbursts on tracks like ‘Father’ and ‘Looking Like You Just Woke Up.’ Their self-titled debut (Bar/None) exposes these ups and downs through a maze of punk and folk influences easy to approach, but difficult to wrap your head around. These competing influences might be best on display in their video for ‘Maps,’ which includes hometown NJ farm scenery, Williamsburg street corners, and the band’s Econoline tour bus, all placed next to one another as fodder for noisy tantrums and undeniably catchy keyboard riffs. Self-destructive and assuredly creative, this band just might be their own steroids. See them at the Knitting Factory April 22nd with The Menzingers.
Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)