Start getting excited, people! The new album is called Final Boss and it drops from unreachable elevation to the very depths of availability on November the First. Just in time for the new national tour with MC Lars! More on both topics soon.
Does our good MC return from San Diego ComiCon relatively unscathed? He does! Does he come bearing many a sordid tale of off-hours tomfoolery, and assurances that these tales feature more comic-book-creating superstars than one might comfortably shake a stick towards? No comment. Well, some comment. Let’s find out how much.
We’ll cut straight to the glamour: on the Tuesday night prior, Front arrives in San Diego and proceeds to fold tee shirts for about five hours. The Japanese two-second method aids greatly in this, even though it is more like a twelve-second method when translated through Front’s ninjitsu-deficient fingers.
Wednesday! Front oversleeps, missing 99% of the laborious booth build, but the Dumbrella crew pretends to forgive him. Speaking of Dumbrella, there is not a finer bunch of ComiCon veterans from whom MC Frontalot could have hoped to score an invite. Andy Bell, r stevens, Sam Brown, Meredith Gran, Jon Rosenberg, and Mr. Karlsson treated Front (and his SDCC co-n00b Chris Yates) with wondrous generosity. By the time doors open for “preview night,” Front feels as comfy as a longstanding Dumbrellist behind the glittering silver countertop.
Thursday. Our MC forces several talented comics artists to dance behind him while he ruins the end of their panel by performing Indier Than Thou. Scott at Mimobot hooks Front up with a lovely Gary Baseman designer thumbdrive. Then, in the eveningtime, it is off to Jade for the G4 party where he shares a tantalizingly brief trio of sets with Lars and YT. In the audience: the inimitable Baddd Spellah, the Kingdom of Loathing crew,Zealous, Nomad, Scott Campbell (who is nearly done with Front’s new album cover), and a couple of high-rent Slave Leias, who Front, in a moment of shameful boy-osity, goads onstage for dancing during guess which song.
Friday. Hangover number one! Wil Wheaton and Scott McCloud are guest-starring at the booth, and their fans swarm so thickly that it becomes difficult to see PVP and Penny Arcade across the aisles. Frontalot escapes occasionally to visit the Dayfree crew (hotel-roommate David Malki, doctoral ninjamaster Chris Hastings, king of post-physics stick figuration Randall Munroe, and the questionably spelled Jeph) and to nap fitfully under a XXXL shirt at the KoL booth. Later, MC Lars rocks a packed House Of Blues for his pre-Aquabats set, with YT guesting. Front’s heart cockles get warmed. Further warming is provided by round after round of The Glenlivet, courtesy of a Chico Heights entrepreneur who wants Spellah and Front to explain the comic book industry to her. For free Scotch, Front will explain industrial adhesives, string theory, the history of clam farming, anything you want. Veracity of info obtained in this manner is not guaranteed.
Saturday. Hangover number two! Luckily, Rich stocks eight kinds of brain medicine and a flat of warm energy beverages. One of these two things makes Front feel better. Near the Flight booth, our MC is quite deeply flattered to be recognized by Jhonen Vasquez. Turns out Twitter is good for something after all. Front does Pr0n S0ngat The Comic Book Club’s panel. In the later hours, Kurtz, Tycho, Munroe, the Dumbrella posse, various other titans of webcomix, and the lowly MC Frontalot all arrive at an undisclosed hotel bar for the annual ComiCon VIP Scotch Tasting. In the corner are Sisko and Riker, drunk as hell, grinning, hoping all these ComiCon kids aren’t going to cause a scene. Or at least not before they’ve had the opportunity to cause one. They take command of the bridge grand piano and spend about 45 minutes doing showtunes and jazz improv, causing a messy swell of multiple nerdgasms across the room. Comixers must eventually escape to the lobby for the Scotch, where Al (the benefactor) provides education, libation, and cigars. Not too late for the afterparty: Keith Knight, Steve Notley, and Nick Gurewitch (upon whom Front goes a little fanboyesque, sorry). It is the late late part of the night when our MC discovers that he has had too many drinks. In the task of comforting rappers thusly enfeebled, Randall proves himself to be more adept and patient than any sufferer could hope. All parties concerned pass out comfortably on the floor.
Sunday! Final hangover! Gabe rocks the new Final Boss shirt over at the PA booth. Whaddaguy. Both of Front’s video directors (Jasons Scott and Thomas) visit Dumbrella. Other things probably happen, but at this point Front’s ability to organize new experiences into memories is pretty much shot. Booth striking, pallet wrapping, and fatigue-ridden farewells ensue. Write this down for next year: booth 1335/1337 is the place to be. Assuming you’re already in the larger cartographic envelopes of ComiCon, San Diego, California, USA, Earth. Make it so.
Hopefully this longest-ever news post will in some small way make up for Front missing out on HOPE and Connecticon, which fell/fall as victims to the new album’s mixing schedule. See you instead at PAX!
MC Frontalot is at ComicCon in scenic, non-sweltering San Diego, California! Please visit him at the Dumbrella booth (#1335 – not quite LEET). Do you know how many awesome webcomics peoples are here with him? Neither does Front, because counting is hard. (Take that to mean: a bunch of them). Wil Wheaton and Scott McCloud are slated to appear. The whole D-Brell crew is on point full time. Penny Arcade is right across the aisle, and Kingdom Of Loathing is across the other aisle. Randall Munroe is loitering right at this moment, because UPS lost his merch and so his booth is a barren wasteland. It is like Celebrity Party Town. Drop by.
Front’s expecting to do a song or two at the Dumbrella panel (Thurs @ 2:30, Room 3) and at the Comic Book Club show (Sat @ donno when – check your guide). Plus there’s his set w/ Lars and YT at the G4 party at Jade, but we still don’t know whether or not that thing is “invite only.” Why not stop by Jade and insist that you’re fabulously important, then sneak in the back when they don’t believe you?
Update! Nerdcore show at Jade tomorrow night starts later in the party… 11:30, in fact.
Frontalot and drummer The Categorical Imperative will be playing at G4’s Thursday night party at ComiCon San Diego. More details are on the gig calendar, as they emerge.
Nerdapalooza was a rousing success! Front and cohorts managed to meet about sixteen hundred other nerdcore rappers and enjoyed kickass sets by every one of them. Also, here’s a tip: next time you’re at a nerd rap super festival, stay up at the afterparty until 7:15 in the morning and you might get to see YT’s secret blues guitar virtuosity in action. Front extends his biggest ups to everyone who hit the stages at Taste, and offers his humblest thanks to A Comic Shop, mCRT, Hex, RPGs, the volunteers, and everyone else who made it possible. He also beams regret rays into the brains of those among you who somehow neglected to attend. Don’t let next year’s pass you by.
Billions of flickr pics and yootoobs are sure to trickle up, or already have. Enjoy!
Due to databases being mean, the Nerdapalooza show has been posted as being at 11AM. It is actually starting almost that early! But Front is on roughly twelve hours later, at 11:30PM. We hear that the all-agedness of the show wears off in the late evening, and only those of majority can see Frontalot close shop Fri night. Be advised!Get a ticket.
If you think Frontalot’s privacy is worthless, feel free to violate it by watching Gameplay HD invade his apartment.
The G4 spot that Front taped in Hollywood last month seems to be airing. It’s a little ditty he wrote with Baddd Spellah for the occasion, pertaining to console oldness (and, by extension, rapper oldness). The unofficial title is Twenty-Six Hundred and you can help yourself to various video formats, a yootoob, or the lyric. And let’s all look forward to the rest of the campaign, which is to feature mini-songs by Lars, YT, and (believe it or not) Del. Plus: one with everybody.
So, if you’re all like “is MC Frontalot going to be at San Diego Comicon?” then you can be all like that no longer, since the answer is: heck yes! He will be boothing it up with the Dumbrella crew all extended weekend long, rocking out the occasional Casio-accompanied nerdcore verse, vending things, and just generally being awesome. Stand by to find out if there’s going to be a full-fledged concert somewhere inside the con. We think there might be.
Okay, who’s in Oklahoma on Saturday night? A free showing of Nerdcore Rising: The Movie serves as crescendo to the deadCENTER Festival. Vitals: Saturday June 14, 9:30pm, Corner N.E. 3rd & E.K. Gaylord. Festival site is here. More deets at NR:TM.
Live video posted: Bizarro Genius Baby from the PAX'07 DVD. Get your autographed copy from Front’s storeand enjoy all fifteen of his songs, whole sets by the Minibosses, Jonathan Coulton, and the One-Ups, Wil Wheaton’s keynote, and a trillion hours of other material (5-DVD set’s total length may be slightly shorter than a trillion hours on most players).
Data substitution alert! I Heart Fags (demo) and Livin’ At The Corner Of Dude & Catastrophe (old songfight version) have had their MP3s updated to the album versions. Find them linked in the previous sentence, elsewise on the mp3 page.
Also, here are a couple new wallpapers that are so rad that Front hasn’t even posted them yet.
Front heads to the MoCCA Art Festival in Manhattan today, to kick it with his various Dumbrella andTopatoco webcomix cohort type people. Find him there! Buy him a $750,000 original artwork from an unpublished Calvin & Hobbes! Or whatever they’re vending. It is a museum as well as a comix con.