Brian Sella, lead singer of the Front Bottoms, tells the following story in the commentary track for the song: It is a song that changed drastically from demo time to the actual recording time. We gave [Front Bottoms guitarist/keyboardist] Ciaran a copy of the song, the demo version, on a cassette tape, because he decided he was going to move into the woods. So he moved into the woods but all he has is this cassette tape with this demo song on it, then when they finally found him about two years later, he comes out and he’s got this idea, he totally remodeled the song, kind of. You know, he had a lot of good ideas, we incorporated a lot of them into the song. So it went from like thirteen minutes to like four minutes, I think? It’s one of our favorite songs to play in the band live. It’s one of the songs we knew we weren’t going to be able to wait until the album came out to play it live, so we just started playing it, like at our shows. And people seemed to dig it, and we dig it, so, rock and roll.
Independent corroboration that Ciaran lived in the woods for two years is so far elusive."Talon Of The Hawk" (2013) Swear To God The Devil Made Me Do It Funny You Should Ask About The Front Bottoms The Front Bottoms are an indie rock band from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Vocalist Brian Sella and drummer Mat Uychich founded the band, having first started playing together at high school talent shows. After several lineup changes early in their career, they rounded out their lineup in 2012 with Tom Warren (bass) and Ciaran O'Donnell (keyboards, guitar, trumpet). The Front Bottoms have released three full-length studio records and one EP, as well as several self-recorded releases earlier in their career. They are currently signed to Fueled by Ramen Records. Talon of the Hawk Slow Dance to Soft Rock I Hate My Friends The Front Bottoms are an American indie rock band that originated in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.[2] The band consists of Brian Sella (vocals, guitar), Mat Uychich (drums), Tom Warren (bass) and Ciaran O'Donnell (keyboards, guitar, trumpet).
In August 2007, after Brian Sella (vocals, guitar, lyricist) finished his first year of college, he and childhood friend Mathew Uychich (drums) began playing together under the name The Front Bottoms. Soon after, Uychich's brother Brian Uychich (keyboard, vocals) began sitting in on their practices. Brian asked to join the band, playing an old keyboard he found in the Uychich family attic. This completed the original lineup, with which the first two albums and EP were recorded. The Front Bottoms spent the next few years playing locally around New Jersey and eventually doing extensive tours around the country. In between tours, Sella worked at a grocery store and Uychich worked in landscaping. During this time, they put out a self-released album titled I Hate My Friends in 2008, an EP titled Brothers Can't Be Friends the same year, and a second album in 2009 called My Grandma vs Pneumonia. Additionally, a 5-song cassette was handmade by the band in 2009 called Calm Down and Breathe which featured three songs that would later be on their self-titled album ("Father," "Swimming Pool," and "The Beers") as well as two other tracks ("More Than It Hurts You" and "The Bongo Song").
Only 30 of these tapes were made. Around 2010, the band started writing material for what would become their self-titled album. They released an EP called "Slow Dance To Soft Rock" which contained six tracks later remastered for the LP. A second EP, "Grip N' Tie", was planned to be released later that year but was cancelled. The songs that were on it were instead combined with the previous EP to produce an entire album. In late 2010, the band filmed a music video for "Maps" and posted it on YouTube, which gave them great exposure. On June 2, 2011, the band had announced that they signed with Bar/None Records and would release their self-titled debut studio album on September 6, 2011. As of fall 2010, Brian Uychich left the band to concentrate on school full-time. He then started a new band known as Zak Spade and The Love Enemies, of which Sella and Mat Uychich & Lee Hartney are alleged members. They replaced him with a new touring member, Drew Villafuerte, who also plays bass in addition to keyboards.
Around 2012, Villafuerte stopped touring with the band as well, citing the extensive touring as too difficult. He was replaced by Tom Warren and Ciaran O'Donnell. In March 2013, The Front Bottoms released a video for "Twin Size Mattress" on YouTube in promotion of their next record. The Front Bottoms' second studio album, Talon of the Hawk, was released on May 21, 2013. The Front Bottoms performing in Columbia, South Carolina on March 19, 2016. On June 17, 2014, the band released an EP entitled Rose, a 6-track record that contains 6 songs previously heard on their early independent releases which were re-recorded. As Sella claimed, “These are the songs that people ask for when we’re on tour. They’re songs that we've either played live at shows or we've had kicking around that we couldn't let go of. These songs were also Mat’s grandmother Rosemary’s favorite songs, so it was kinda fittin that we named this EP Rose.”[3] The music video for "Twelve Feet Deep" shows the band, along with members of the audiences shown, wearing masks depicting the drawing of Rosemary's face that is featured as the album cover.
[4] In an interview, Sella stated that "the idea is to do sort of a 'Grandma series", record a bunch of old songs and release them," going on to say that the next in the series will likely be entitled "Anne". On April 18, 2015, Run For Cover and Bar/None Records released two songs by the band, and two songs by rapper GDP on a split EP[6] entitled "Liberty and Prosperity". It features the songs "Wolfman" and "Handcuffs". In June 2015, it was announced they had signed to the label Fueled By Ramen[7] The Front Bottoms released their third studio album "Back On Top" on September 18, 2015 via Fueled By Ramen The band is on the line-up for Coachella 2016. On March 7, 2016, The Front Bottoms released a new song titled "Noodle Monster" on the Fueled By Ramen YouTube Channel. On June 26, 2016, festival website Pitchfork released a music video for the song "Ginger" from the album "Back on Top." The video was directed by Marlon Brandope and shot in Cranston, Rhode Island. In November 2016, The Front Bottoms went on their UK/EU tour with support from Apologies, I Have None and Gnarwolves.