News From The Front

Springtime encroaches on our Frontalot’s corner of Brooklyn! He hides from it fearfully, clutching DJ CPU, hoping against hope that his new album of fairy tales will get done in time for PAX Australia.

Also on the horizon: Florida Supercon on 4th of July weekend! It will be the first visit ever to Miami for Front and bandmates. Won’t you join them there?

And before that? Front flies solo in Charlotte NC on June 7th and 8th for Heroes Con and the SouthEast LinuxFest. Comics, okay, sure. But that other thing? Front sure plays a lot of events associated with an OS that he’s basically too dumb to use! Be certain to drop by and heckle him about that, about his trousers, about any other deficiencies he brings to the table.

Front’s impossibly talented flatmate Meredith Gran is currently up for a Reuben and an Eisner! If you are someone who gets to vote for those things, vote wisely. She has to win everything so that she can spend less time fretting over her career and more time getting drunk and watching terrible car movies with Front in the living room.

We enter year ten of Frontalot’s frolicsome stage antics at the Penny Arcade Expo. Front will be on the Saturday program in Boston, with our beloved JoCo, Paul & Storm, and Sam Hart. Also be sure to catch Front at the hip-hop panel Friday morning and at his booth in Bandland all weekend long

And were you aware that your likely inability to score a PAX badge does not entirely hinder your weekend’s excitements? Front and the Protomen are onstage in Cambridge at the Middle East on Sunday evening, to destroy any hope you had of peace and rest.

Then? Frontalot (and indomitable nerdcore rapmaster Random) hop a flight to San Francisco to perform at a party for GDC. You’ll need a con badge to get in, we think. You can RSVP for free or buy a VIP ticket for about what a Midwesterner spends on rent. We assume the VIP area will include solid platinum ecigs and a free backrub from Gavin Newsom.

Hey, our MC wants to thank some folks who made SXSW such a slam-bang wham-doodle this year: Tim for hosting the whole band, Kat Jones and Minor Birds for letting Front hog the best room in the mansion all week,Rico and Mikey and Ian and crew for being fine concertgoing companions, Schaffer and Int0x80 and kHilland Jesse and the WB and Les and Lars and Ran and Adam and Tribeone for keeping the stage live and the crowd explosive throughout the official nerdcore showcase, Adam A and Plaidlad for showing us yet another great time around town, and Lynda for making the whole thing happen. And are you ready for the full report on Front’s music venue traipsery? He managed to see (big breath): Reggie Watts, Chaos Chaos, Seryn, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kyle Kinane, Hasan Minhaj, Amanda Palmer, DJ Spooky, Protomen, Louis Logic, Open Mike Eagle, Prince Paul, Ultramagnetic MCs, Geto Boys, Earl Sweatshirt, Linkoban, Lucy Love, Tribe Called Red, Heliotropes, Death Grips, Big Freedia, the Pharcyde (well, Imani and Booty Brown), and Mos Def. Sorry about how there’s no hyperlinks in that list. Internet probably has enough hyperlinks already. We don’t want to mess things up.

Here’s Front talking to Rapstation about hip-hop stuff very recently.

South By Southwest! Front brings the whole band down for their official showcase Tuesday night, with DJ CPU in tow for a free show Wednesday afternoon (RSVP required). Might additional performances materialize throughout the week? Seems kind of likely! Keep abreast with a subscription to Front’s bird squeak distro.

To celebrate this excursion, we offer you a new video presentation for Nerd Vs. Jock, from Solved.

If you missed your Frontalot on NPR’s Science Friday, the audio is here, and a whole ‘nother video segment isover here. It is not actually possible to miss things any more, because internet. So don’t.

PAX East is so soon, people. So soon.

Hot darn! Front joins Science Friday on NPR for a chat on March 1st. Tune in.

Our own MC Frontalot’s a guest judge on King Of The Nerds on TBS this Thursday, 2/21! Look how fancy.

Is the frontalot.com news post troubling you with its infrequent updatiness? Front’s social media nonsense accounts are a bit more active. Seek him at twitter, facebook, google+.

SXSW Official Showcase is Tues, 3/12. Other Austin happenings to be announced sooooon.

Front teamed up with the fine folks at New Relic for a brand new song and video, on the topic of Nerd Life. Avail yourself of the MP3, lyric, andaudiovisual glory.

New York! Our MC performs one song at the Video Game Critics Circle Awards on Tues the 5th. It’s free! It will be fun. Come sit in the back and yell “Mario Cart! Give it to Mario Cart!” Or something.

King Of The Nerds starts Thursday on TBS! Get familiar with the contestants now so that Front can break your heart by kicking your favorite one(s) off the show in the sixth or seventh episode.

PAX East and PAX Australia and SXSW all impend. We’ll remind you about those again soon.

Front’s ‘greatest’ 'hits’ compilation Favoritism is now available in MP3, AAC, and FLAC, in the album downloading area, for a scant ten dollars. Perhaps you should avail yourself of a copy, to make your i-thing’s song collection more robust? Also makes a great gift, except for being a download-only album that cannot possibly rattle inside of a crisply wrapped box. Our more substantial merch is better suited to that purpose.

This Saturday sees Front w/ DJ CPU in Oakland, alongside Crashfaster, Doc Pop, and MC Lars, for the 2nd annual Ugly Sweater Party. Tickets still available.

Holy down-underness! Front is slated to rock the mic in Melbourne at the first-ever PAX Australia. If you think you might be anywhere near Australia in July of 2013, get a pass. Or if Boston’s more your speed, see Front atPAX East in March, like you usually do.

And here’s one more exciting thing to anticipate: this January, Front will be a ’celebrity’ guest on the new TBS show King Of The Nerds, which, as far as we can tell, is kind of like a cross between IT Crowd, Project Runway,and The Running Man. Hack your DVRs to set themselves as soon as the broadcast schedule hits the database. And if you have a Nielsen box, hack that to report that nobody in the country watched anything else that whole week.

You! You need your ticket to Ugly Sweater Party II in Oakland on Dec 22. Get it. Front will rap there with MC Lars, Doc Pop, et al. Or if you are in a more Bostony locale, how about grabbing passes for Friday and Saturday atPAX East? Front and band will be playing one of those nights. Which? Information is hard to get; don’t be greedy.

Did you catch Front talking zombies with Schaffer and Lugo on the Epic Piecast? Relive the audio glory here. Or, if you do not like to hear voices, you may instead read Front’s zombie flick top-10 at Stand By For Mind Control.

Hot damn: new videos from Brandon Patton, Random, The Coup, Jean Grae, Busdriver. New albums fromRandom, Jonathan Coulton / John Roderick, Sole, Whoremoans, Kid Koala, Brad Sucks.

Front’s favored kickstarters of the moment: Doc of the Dead, Cincy Comic-Con.

Oh! And: a joyous turkey day to you all, Americans! Expect a holiday-themed comic from our pal Jeffreypretty soon.

The election is over, and Front is in a chipper mood! He wishes to thank you for voting, whoever you voted for, however long the lines were. Voting warms Front’s little heart, and every time you do it he gets a blush and a flutter. Keep it up.

He wishes to EXTRA QUADRUPLE THANK Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, and probably Washington (they count votes slowly over there), for being the first group out the gate, and for reminding the whole country that our march toward marriage equality and more fully realized human rights is not merely possible but inevitable. Furthermore! Big ups to Tammy Baldwin for breaking the Senate ceiling, under which 100% of previous gay and lesbian senators have had to stay closeted. High fives to Tammy Duckworth for ejecting flunkwit blowhard Joe Walsh from the House, to Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnely for shutting down the Republican “Get Raped For God” squad, and to Elizabeth Warren, who gave pretty-boy fraud Scott Brown a very satisfying smackdown in Frontalot’s former base of ops, Massachusetts.

Front hopes that the vote suppression experts infesting the state machinery in Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Iowa can be exposed, prosecuted, incarcerated, and forgotten. If you managed to vote in any of those states despite the best efforts of your officials, you are getting the biggest virtual hug right now from the rapper in question.

Shitty weather keeps messing with the northeast! If you are in NY or NJ, here’s some ways to pitch in.

Front is back at work! He is sorting out his next record(s) for you. Buy the older ones so he can continue to eat food and pay rent while the new music percolates.

Hey Bay Area, take note: Front joins MC Lars for a club date on Dec 22nd in Oakland (maybe?). Details to come soon.

And Boston folk? Front will be back for his 13th PAX in the spring… but we won’t know whether he plays Friday or Saturday night until well after all the badges are sold out. Buy both? Or roll some dice? We think you like rolling dice.

There’s an election pretty soon. Frontalot’s moon-batty arch liberalism is well documented, so you are not surprised to hear that his endorsement of our center-right corporatist drone-striking Guatanamo-non-closing domestic-surveiling drug-war-escalating President carries with it a certain relativism. But endorse our Bamz he does, via this weird donation gateway that still shows a dollar thermometer from four years ago. And don’t forget to vote. The polls are already open in the states that matter (Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, etc!).