The Front Bottoms released their fantastic debut full-length album this past Tuesday on Bar/None Records and lead singer Brian Sella was kind enough to write-up a Track-By-Track guide for PropertyOfZack to share with fans of the band. The Front Bottoms are definitely a name that you’ll be hearing more of in the future, so be sure to check out their album and to read up on the guide!

It’s not usually our style to tell people what the songs are about it’s more about connecting to the listener and having the listener draw their own conclusions about the meaning.  We look at it as a way to vent and once someone hears our music, it becomes a way for the listener to vent about their own shit.  It doesn’t matter anymore at that point what the song is written about.

Flashlight - it’s about someone having a hold over you. this is a recurring theme throughout a number of songs on our album. Our favorite line from the song is “I can hear your dog whistle from my bedroom”

Maps - This song is pretty self-explanatory.  It’s about the idea of not knowing what’s next. Accepting the fact that your life won’t be as comfortable as everyone makes it out to be when you’re younger.  It’s about finding out life is a longer road than you had expected.  Favorite line: “Let me be a raft on a blue sea I’ll blend right in”

Looking Like You Just Woke Up - This was the quickest song we wrote.  It happens to also be the shortest on the record. Same idea as from Flashlight - just someone having a hold on you. (One of our good friends fell in love with this girl that still had a boyfriend and so in order to make time with the girl, he hung out a lot with the boyfriend and her.  He slowly found out that the girl he thought he loved was kind of a bitch and he found that maybe the one he really loved was her boyfriend. They have somewhat of a romantic relationship now. And they are living together.) The vibe of this song comes from that situation. Favorite Line: “It probably won’t get easier, just easier to hide”

Mountain: This song is actually about buying drugs in Pennsylvania.   The line was originally “I bought weed.  A big  bag in Pennsylvania.  I’m gonna light it up when I get home to Jersey”  We changed it because none of us have bought drugs or smoked ganja. ever. Favorite Line: “They’re gonna ruin my whole summer.  Stop taking pictures with your phone. Stop taking pictures with your phone.”

Rhode Island - we met a kid at a punk rock festival we played in Rhode Island. He didn’t do much talking and we called him the Zombie Kid because he was passed out in a pile of sticks.  The next day when he came out of his coma, he was asking us about directions on the best way to get passed NYC on a bike.  His summer plan was to ride from his home in Vermont to Florida.  All that he had with him was a backpack full of drugs.  No joke. Drugs.  Then we shook hands and he went on his way.  On that same tour - two months later - one of our last shows were in New York City, and guess who we fucking see? Zombie Kid. Backpack empty. We asked him what happened and he said he made it down to South Carolina and had to turn around and come back.  Favorite Line: “She says you gotta promise not to break not matter how far you are bent, she says you gotta shift my position and try to get comfortable again”

The Beers - It’s about the same deal.  Someone having a hold over you, so much so that you’d be willing to put yourself in danger, to change yourself in order to make them like you.  But the song is all over the place and that’s just a small part of it.  Favorite Line: “And it’s an aerial view from your house to my room”

Father - I put myself in someone else’s body and I wrote this song about my life.

Swimming Pool - The voicemail in the breakdown is from one of our friend’s dads to our friend about some dumb shit about a girl. He saved it and we added it later on to our song. Months later, the girl’s mom cornered me in the grocery store and asked me if we could take that voicemail out of the song. But we’re punk rock so we left it.
Favorite Line: “There’s comfort in the bottom of a swimming pool”

The Boredom… - I got stranded in Germany one time and I missed Thanksgiving. Side note:  On Thanksgiving, I ate a hot dog with some weird potato shit on it in Amsterdam but it was still mad good. As I was walking around Berlin, I found this circus of freaks - it was more or less a sideshow act but it was free so I went in.  I met a dude who was a gangster drug dealer, he let me stay at his house and was actually super nice.  He cooked me food and went to Amsterdam with me.  But while I was staying in his house he explained to me the rules of the streets in Berlin. Everybody pays, everybody’s head is in the noose, everyone is part of the program.

Bathtub - There’s so much in this song.  Take it for what it’s worth.  Favorite line: Please take me off speaker phone, this is a private conversation.

Legit Tattoo Gun - This song was originally called “MJ” because when we put it out we gave it two different names on two different websites.  If you know this song as “MJ,” you’re way more punk rock. At one point, I was making out with a woman who was making out with a lot of other people.  It was a mutually beneficial relationship. Favorite Line: “I am not a dirty god, I don’t have a dirty body”

Hooped Earrings - This is about a friend of mine that asked me to be there with her when she came out to her mother. Favorite Line: Curly hair don’t look good cut short.