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Front Biz Premiere “Little Mutants” Video; Lunch Money out June 14

Posted in Bootleg Theater on June 4th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

front biz (photo by Kiki Vassilakis)

I’ll admit that other than the relative age of the parties involved, I have no idea what makes something neo-psych versus regular-psych. But whatever, I like a good story, and Albany four-piece Front Biz have that as they present their debut full-length, Lunch Money, through Five Kill Records. You can read it below. It’s got intergalactic money laundering and everything, and in that, it sets a decent mood for how Lunch Money plays out across its seven component tracks, whether it’s the frenetic funk of opener “Little Mutants” or the subsequent let-me-slip-into-a-tempo-more-comfortable groove in the second half of “Winter’s Dream,” which follows. Front Biz — the core four of vocalist/guitarist Raurri Jennings, guitarist Peter Lavery, bassist Josh Potter and drummer Erik Pravel, with sundry others partaking throughout — change it up as those with a will toward artistic progression should their first time out, tripping out impulses from Mr. Bungle‘s let’s-do-it-lounge-style jazz surf of “WYCH” and the penultimate “Interlude” to the Funkadelic-via-TalkingHeads-or-whoever hookery of “Dead Ass.”

There’s a mellow stretch every now and then to catch your breath — looking at you, “Lunch,” right there in the middle of the album — but Front Biz are front biz lunch moneymore about keeping their audience off balance, as they do pitting “Interlude” before the buzz-happy “Wolf Mistress,” with the two guitars intertwining in fuzz and sunny shimmer before opening to an uptempo verse that would be dancey if we were all dancey monsters of various colors: greens, purples and the like. Once again, the funk gets strange and the strange gets funky. If you feel like you can dig it, I don’t know, maybe you can. Much to its credit, Lunch Money is less beholden to genre than most of anything that might be psychedelic by even the loosest of definitions, and the sense of personality brought to the material is palpable from “Little Mutants” all the way through “Wolf Mistress,” which peaks with a trippy solo before some puller riffing cuts short after a few measures, ending cold to snap the experience back to reality really the only way it could — cruelly and suddenly.

Standard fare it ain’t, even around here, but the video for “Little Mutants” came my way, and for its Beetlejuice nods and clever animation, let alone the song itself, I couldn’t resist. Sometimes it’s fun to get weird, so let’s do that.

That PR wire info follows the video below.

Please enjoy:

Front Biz, “Little Mutants” official video premiere

Front Biz, LLC, is a shell company for an intergalactic real estate firm, primarily focused on laundering money through an Earth-based rock band. Don’t worry; they’re the good guys in this story. With analog syncopations and guitar riffs algorithmically programmed to stream alongside the Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Chicano Batman, Kenny Rogers, and other psychedelic avatars, the quartet fights fearlessly against the Russian bot-driven influx of sad bands in the simulation. Lunch Money is their debut album, released exclusively on immaterial digital platforms by Fivekill Records.

Endlessly cycling through a quantum time loop, Front Biz first formed around Erik Pravel’s electronic drum kit in 2016 to play glitched mashups of Charles Mingus and Black Sabbath in the basement of a Presbyterian church. The project soon evolved into a double-barrel guitar workout fronted by Raurri Jennings, the holographic result of Rick Moranis singing Prince karaoke, and Peter Lavery, the world’s fattest man. Josh Potter plays himself, also the bass. In their first year, Front Biz shared the stage with White Denim, Naked Giants, Rubblebucket, K. Flay, and won a battle of the bands held at a bowling alley in the mall.

Lunch Money was recorded over three days in an upstate cabin during March 2018. Produced by Ryan Slowey (Maggot Brain) with engineering by Craig Dutra (Aficionado, Hospital Corners), the album was tracked live with virtually everything piped through a vintage Roland Space Echo for that timeless UFO hover. Victoria Rutledge and Anna Lazarou were abducted for vocal support. Deep in the delay chain, the band made first contact with a disincarnate intelligence, entrapping them in a cosmic Ponzi scheme. Lunch Money is the group’s attempt to pay off their debt, and maybe get a bite to eat. Either way, the portal is open.

Front Biz is:
Raurri Jennings – Vocals / Guitar
Peter Lavery – Guitar
Josh Potter – Bass
Erik Pravel – Drums

Front Biz on Thee Facebooks

Front Biz on Instagram

Front Biz on Bandcamp

Five Kill Records on Thee Facebooks

Five Kill Records website

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