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— Five Iron Frenzy, 'Superpowers' Five Iron Frenzy is an eight-piece rock band from Denver, Colorado, that formed in 1995. Initially they played straightforward ska-punk, though the albums after their first saw them mix this with a more mainstream rock sound (or, on All The Hype That Money Can Buy playing ) while keeping the horn section. On their 2001 album Five Iron Frenzy 2:, they again rebranded themselves with a harder, heavy metal-influenced sound (while still keeping the horn section), and kept this style for the remainder of their career. (They continued playing their old songs at live shows, but in the style of their new songs.) In January 2003, they announced that the time had come to move on with their lives and call it quits before they could start hating each other. They recorded one more proper studio album, went on a nationwide farewell tour, and played their final show before a capacity crowd at the Fillmore Stadium in Denver.

Any rumors of a reunion were almost certainly lies. At least until on November 22nd, 2011, eight years exactly after their final show, the band announced that they were reuniting to record a whole new album, funded by a Kickstarter project, which reached the $30,000 goal in less than an hour, then doubled. Then tripled. And so on, ad nauseam, and Five Iron Frenzy became the highest funded musical Kickstarter project up to that time note An Amanda Palmer project later surpassed them, raising more than $207k before the Kickstarter drive ended. FIF's birth coincided with the late-90s' simultaneous punk-rock boom and Third Wave of ska.

While they didn't exactly ride the wave to outrageous fame and fortune (their greatest publicity was when their song 'Oh Canada' was played on. Two years after they broke up), they did gain a respectable cult following in both the punk scene and the Christian rock scene. Yes, Five Iron Frenzy is, and a good one.

Their lyrics are frequently satirical (and rarely preachy), and skewer society at large, Christian hypocrisy, the punk rock scene, and with equal aplomb. Aside from the departure and replacement of one guitarist, the line-up remained steady for all nine years of their career:. Dennis Culp: trombone.

Nathaniel 'Brad' Dunham: trumpet. Keith Hoerig: bass. Scott Kerr: rhythm guitar (departed in 1998, rejoined when the band reunited in 2011). Sonny Johnston: rhythm guitar (joined in 1998, taking Scott's place). Leanor 'Jeff ' Ortega-Till: saxophone.

Micah Ortega: lead guitar. Reese Roper: vocals. Andy Verdecchio: drums Major releases:. Upbeats and Beatdowns (1996). Our Newest Album Ever! (1997).

Quantity is Job 1 EP (1998). LIVE: Proof that the Youth are Revolting (1999). All the Hype that Money Can Buy (2000).

Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo (2001). Cheeses (of Nazareth) (2003): A collection of b-sides, rare songs, and twenty tracks of random crap the band made up in the studio. The End is Near Here (2003, 2004) 'Near' was the band's final studio album before their breakup. 'Here' was a with an extra studio track, and a second disc containing what was, at the time, their entire final live show. Engine of a Million Plots (2013) Also, four of their CDs ( Our Newest Album Ever, Quantity is Job 1, Proof that the Youth are Revolting, and The End is Near Here) featured some awesomely surreal original artwork. Compare and contrast with their side project,.

Trope articles with FIF song lyrics as page quotes:. Other tropes associated with the band or their songs:.: Played with quite vigorously at their final show: Reese explained how he hated the practice of bands planning to play an encore and saving their biggest hit for it. He then said that FIF would play the best song they've ever written right then, in the middle of the show, so people could go home early if they wanted. Then they proceeded to play 'Pootermobile', which consists of five notes followed by thirty seconds of silence and the title of the song. Dennis then claimed that the rest of the show would be all downhill from there.: 'Handbook for the Sellout'.

At live shows, Reese would simply stick the mic into the crowd and let them sing the entire first stanza for him. Given Reese's poor memory, the audience was probably more accurate much of the time.: Leanor and Micah Ortega are cousins.: 'Someone Else's Problem'.: 'Oh Canada'. Before playing the song at shows, Reese would refer to Canada as 'a mystical, far-off land' or 'part of Minnesota'.: Reese was in an industrial metal band before FIF, so he's capable of this from time to time, but it can be surprising to those who are only used to his regular singing voice. The bridge sections of 'Fistful Of Sand' and 'American Kryptonite' are good examples. Jeff the Girl has some fun with this in live versions of 'When I Go Out'.: Over the years, the band put their own ska/punk twist on songs by, and, among others.: Reese admits in Fahrenheit that he used to think of this way.

The song is basically about him confronting his own homophobia.: Frontman Reese Roper goes by his middle name rather than 'Michael'. In their song 'All the Hype', one of the lyrics is 'My name is Reese, don't call me Mike!' .: 'Eulogy' from Electric Boogaloo. Also 'Blizzards and Bygones' from Engine of a Million Plots.

61 Customer Reviews

It was written solely by Scott Kerr, and seems to be about losing one's religious faith and being unsure of whether you will ever get it back.: Type 2, particularly the uncomfortable ways this attitude tends to get conflated with the Christian faith, is mercilessly skewered in 'Zen and the Art of Xenophobia'.: After Our Newest Album Ever, they would end every live show with the song 'Every New Day'. After All the Hype. They would end every show with 'A New Hope', 'World Without End', then 'Every New Day'. They also made a point of not doing encores.

Even the last song of their last (pre-reunion) studio album, 'On Distant Shores' on 'The End Is Near,' ends with the final coda of 'Every New Day.' This is subverted in their live album, 'The End is Here,' of which the first CD is a reissue of 'The End Is Near' with an extra song at the end.

Only to be played with on the second CD, a recording of their final concert, in which the last track is 'Every New Day,' but it isn't quite the last song in the album.: The song 'Giants' opens with one.: The song 'That's How the Story Ends' wraps up alleged loose ends from other songs, as well as providing a to some others. /: 'Suckerpunch' is about a 'pencil-necked geek' getting picked on in middle school. 'You Can't Handle This' is from the perspective of someone bragging about his geek-fu.: Most of the joke tracks on Cheeses. Also the 8-part rock opera 'These Are Not My Pants'.: Both their live albums. Proof That The Youth Are Revolting was edited together from 11 different concerts. The album's hidden track was a collection of all the times they messed up over the course of the tour, and some of their stranger-than-usual stage banter.

On The End is Here, some stage banter (and a few of the short, silly songs) had to be cut in order for the concert to fit on one CD. Most of this material was added to the end of the studio disc The End is Near.: 'Into Your Veins' makes a potentially disturbing analogy between musicians and drug dealers, with the fans playing the role of the addicts.: There was no script for 'These Are Not My Pants'.

Each band member was merely given a pre-recorded track in a distinctive genre, and a single take to do something funny with it.: invoked Discussed in 'Handbook for the Sellout'.: 'Zen and the Art of Xenophobia', a brutally sarcastic jab at the American habit of mixing the Christian faith with blind patriotism, contains the line, 'Lock and load just like Jesus did!' This is taken in the music video, in which a school play is hijacked by ultra-violent versions of Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, etc.: The End is Here.: Used in their newest musical entry. When put together, also qualify.: 'Blue Comb '78' is an overwrought, dramatic song. About a comb that Reese lost when he was 8.