FBO: 'Favorite New Yakutsk Band: Infinity'

FBO ADOPTS TO-FAIL YAKUTSK METAL BAND
Whilst on a cultural symposiatic tour across Russia's least-developed and least-seen places in the Far East, FBO representative Robert Reid met with Yakutsk's most popular 16- and 17-year-old heavy metal band INFINITY.

All the buildings in Yakutsk, the world's coldest town over 200,000, stand on stilts due to the road-crunching, fence-crashing permafrost, but in June and July temperatures reach the 90s. What does a metal band sing about in such a place? 'This song is Chyorni Lubov,' the lead singer Shipik, said as his girlfriend hugged him. 'Black love -- it's about the pain of love, not having love, bad love.'

This July the Asia Children's Games - a mini Olympics of sorts - came to Yakutsk, and Infinity was invited to play a set near the statue of Vlad Lenin in Lenin Square. It will be their last. Just months old, the band is likely to break up soon, as its members are heading to different colleges and universities this fall.

Important things to take from INFINITY:

* the five-piece band plays all originals; they've made 10 so far, and three days before their likely last show they were working up a new one.
* the band practices in a second-floor room overlooking warehouses and a lake at Kosmos movie theater near the Yakutsk airport, a 20 to 30-minute ride from the center.
* the band wore Kiss-like face paint at a Halloween show. 'The first and last time ever,' said bass player Dima, the most vocal of the band during practice, and with a passing resemblance to Dylan if you look closely.
* Yes, in deepest Russia, when practice is 20 minutes from being done, and you don't know what to do, blues jams and (rather inventive) takes on 'Smoke on the Water' get rolled out.
* The band signed my notebook like a yearbook; singer Shipik signed a 10-ruble note as a souvenir.

The FBO will be compiling 'INFINITY IN YAKUTSK: A Documentary' in coming months.

Good luck to Infinity, even when it breaks apart.


FBO Admin
Mobile HQ -- Komsomolsk, Russia

FBO: 'The FBO Tour: In October'

CALLING ALL FAILED BANDS

Tall Tales has already firmed up plan to for a three-date tour of Oklahoma in support of the Failed Bands of Oklahoma this October. The FBO hopes that the other members -- The Cant/Cinder Biscuits, Soul Shaker and Asylum -- will agree to join soon. And other failed bands, including failed bands from outside Oklahoma, are now invited to apply to either support the tour (ie carry equipment, help with sound checks, film the FBO bands playing) or play in the tour.

A few notes:

1. Tall Tales has officially changed its name for the three-date tour to TALL TALES FEATURING MARK HARDIN. The non-FBO observer, who narrowly missed toppling FBO Top Fan Rich Trott, from his lofty role a couple months ago, will be the newly featured player in Tall Tales.

2. The FBO needs to secure at least one non-interstate date in Oklahoma to the tour. If you have suggestions of non-insterstate livehouses, such as in Pryor, please let us know.

3. We still hope to hear from For the Bands Who Tried to Rock, as we've invited them to coffee -- ie Vietnamese-style invite, WE pay -- and discuss potential collaborations.

FBO Admin
Mobile HQ -- Khabarovsk, Russia

FBO: 'FBO Induces New Failed Band Site!'

THE FBO WELCOME 'FOR THOSE WHO TRIED TO ROCK'!

FBO's successes over the past three years have been manifest:

* cultural symposia with Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Chicago
* adopting places like the Oklahoma panhandle, East Delaware and Székelyudvarhely
* banning bio-pics, TV remakes and sequels in the quest for more original, less 'dumb-downed' past-time leisure activities
* creating FBO projects such as Member #001's EP 'A Place in Oklahoma (Live)' and the video premiere of 'The FBO Is Falling In Love'
* setting tentative plans for a failed bands show in Guymon, Oklahoma in October

Now the FBO have one-upped themselves, by inspiring and inducing a website collective of failed bands called For Those Who Tried to Rock.

Their mission reads:

"Our goal is to capture data about every band to have been formed by teens with that perfect mixture of big dreams and questionable talent in suburban garages, high school music rooms, and college dorms across America."

The FBO grants this a THREE-AND-A-HALF FBO PANHANDLE rating (out of five). While the documentative gesture towards the failures of the past warrants praise, we would have preferred to see some sort of 'forward direction' -- ie not solely for nostalgic purposes, or humor certainly -- and to draw the line with bands that played -- to quote the FBO mission statement -- a 51% ratio of original songs.


--> THE FBO WOULD LIKE TO INVITE 'FOR THOSE WHO TRIED TO ROCK' MEMBERS TO ATTEND THE FAILED BANDS OF OKLAHOMA PERFORMANCE IN GUYMON, OKLAHOMA, ON OCTOBER 20. Certain bands may be elgible TO PLAY. Please contact the FBO at oklahomazeppelin@yahoo.com if you have any questions.

FBO Admin
Mobile HQ -- Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia

** FTWTTR Finder's acknowledgment: Wendy Smith, of California**

FBO: 'Christian Rock Band, Invited to Attend (Not Perform)'

Vladivostok's main pedestrian crawl, named for an Admiral Fokina and usually just called the 'Arbat' here, is a grafitti-filled strip where cars parked on the ped-only road and the city chose gray for the color of brick. The other day I saw an old man, apparently quite drunk for the past 11 years, bleeding from his face, and some drugged-out people hang out on benches during the day. Perhaps one of them was featured in an album cover of a bloodied person shooting heroin I saw at a CD shop recently, a local band recommended by a tall clerk who hated me. It was called 'Masters of Defecation.'

It was in this relatively harmless place (actually), that a Christian Rock Band set up the other day. For a large crowd, they had mothers with children come and profess their faith before launching into a song 'God is Great' (I think). The bass player sang. A woman played a wooden flute that piped too loudly into a mic. A Korean guitar played sly guitar parts. The drummer gave those awkward laughs to the keyboard player bending over his instrument -- one of their first shows.

The FBO adopts KRISTYEN ROK GRUP: KHOROSHO ('good') to the FBO Guymon show on October 20. They cannot play.

In other news, Terry Waska may now attend FBO functions.

FBO Admin
Mobile HQ -- Vladivostok, Russia

FBO: 'The FBO Is Falling In Love'

THE VIDEO PREMIERE!
The Failed Bands of Oklahoma proudly presents the lead-off video/single 'The FBO Is Falling In Love' from its upcoming EP The Failed Bands of Oklahoma Will Play the Oklahoma Panhandle. The video was shot on location in the USSR, Russia and New York State.

It is the first wholly original FBO composition made by the FBO alone. Previously FBO Member #001 Tall Tales recorded a live EP as an 'FBO-induced project.'

--> Enjoy the video:



The FBO is also happy to debut a new 'fallen in love' look to the site as part of the video debut.


FBO Admin
Mobile/Semi-Permanent HQ -- Brooklyn, NY