False Front

False Front live @ Court Tavern with Bill, Guy, Anthony, George and Marc

False front was a band that was started by Guy heller, Bill Fowler and Anthony Lofaro in 1989, originally named AGIT-8. In the same farm house that ween lived near, False Front would record rehearsal sessions onto tape and shop them around to labels. The tracks on these tapes are unknown but it could be assumed that it contained demos from Dude and Criminal Kind. Around 1991 they were signed to Shimmy Disc around the same time as Ween during The Pod era.

Members

Main members:

Guy Heller - Vocals

Anthony Lofaro - Guitar

Bill Fowler - Lead Guitar

George Altonen - Bass

Marc Carney - Drums

Past/temporary Members:

Christopher Griffith - Bass

Tony Sabo - Drums

Joanne Racciatti Parker - Keyboard, Saxophone

Brad Smith - Drums

Mickey Melchiondo - Guitar

Aaron Freeman - Keyboard

Mark Anderson - Drums

Release history

Both albums, Dude and Criminal Kind were released in 1991. Both Albums were put on CD and Vinyl format.

Dude’s Album Cover

Dude’s Vinyl release has a different track listing to the CD version to shorten the album so it can fit on a vinyl record. Johanna Racciatti would play keyboards for their track “Encore”. A cassette release of Dude exists allegedly but no photos circulate.

Criminal Kind’s Album cover

Criminal kind had a different lyrical style to Dude and featured Johanna Racciatti on the title track , who played saxophone. The album was released a few months after Dude. Unlike Dude, the vinyl and cd releases don’t differ in track listing

The covers for both albums were illustrated by Joseph Rose.

Around 1994, George Altonen would leave the band and be replaced with Christopher Griffith on bass. The band would record a session tape at a practice space at Brookridge Farms for an incomplete 3rd record. This tape was recorded on ADAT by Mickey Malchiondo and shopped around to labels as a demo. They were rejected by all of them, as most labels didn’t see the appeal in their sound. This is the last know material the band had ever recorded.

Live

In August 1989, Guy, Tim, Anthony and Bill formed the band and entered a Battle of the Bands at the Bucks County Playhouse by submitting a fake tape that consisted of pink Floyd songs and songs from another local band. This show booking was where they uttered the name False Front, and stuck with the band name.

Summary of Guy Heller’s recounts of their 1st night:

After some mucking around with alcohol and cigarettes though out that day, Guy would pass out before their set, shirtless and lost his stage pass. He would then push his way through the venue to get to the stage mid-performance of their track “Only One”. Guy would then break the rules against profanity, smoking and drinking in front of the all ages crowd. The band was then cut off by the soundman which resulted in the crowd being riled up and angry.

False front was then disqualified from the battle of the bands, wasn’t paid, and had their rented gear confiscated by the organizers. This resulted in Anthony and Guy having to threaten legal action, where the organizers decided to pay them 100 dollars, return their gear and tell them to never return

During the 90s, false front would usually open for Ween at places in New Brunswick like City Gardens and Court Tavern, playing a hand full of their songs. In 1992 False Front would join with ween to play Pink Floyd’s track Echoes, they would do the same in 1995 without guy heller

From 1994 and onward they would end every live show on The Locust, which they would extend  Their live career would last until 2018