Frodus
After spending years playing around the world with acclaimed bands,
the Frodus Conglomerate International (FCI) decided to dissolve their
partnership in 1999, but not before focusing their anger, confusion,
sorrow, and disillusion onto the creation of their acclaimed record, And
We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea. FCI members continued to work on
various artistic projects after the band’s dissolution, and in 2001,
Fueled By Ramen Records agreed to release the album to the public. The
album spread like wildfi re over the Internet and the FCI Digital
Generation was born. These highly sophisticated and technologically
advanced music enthusiasts became the FCI’s biggest supporters.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2009. America was held hostage
by the greed of corporate terrorists. Jobs were lost, small businesses
had been shuttered, banks failed, and the housing market collapsed. A
fan petitioned the FCI to re-issue the vinyl version of Frodus’s
diatribe against American corporate excess, Conglomerate International.
Months later, the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C., fl ew in FCI
Swedish affi liates, The Division Of Laura Lee, to celebrate the fine
craftsmanship of Swedish denim. During the first song, the PA stopped
working, and the band’s equipment broke. Enraged, the band threw their
instruments and stormed off stage, leaving a wake of feedback. Founding
members of the FCI, Jason Hamacher and Shelby Cinca, were in attendance.
With a wall of feedback killing the celebration, a friend pushed
Cinca and Hamacher toward the stage and suggested they play. The two
stormed the stage, and Hamacher started playing the drum intro for the
Frodus classic, “Invisible Time Lines.” An old friend picked up the
bass, and the three played a short, loud, and noisy rendition of the
song for the first time in ten years. The audience was shocked into
confusion, but when Cinca began playing guitar, the crowd erupted.
The event’s spontaneity and mayhem embodied the original energy
that led to FCI’s formation. Cinca and Hamacher decided to reunite in
Hamacher’s Washington basement and attempt to play a set list from 1999.
Hamacher photographed the reunion, and Cinca posted a photo online.
Within hours, the band was offered a show at SXSW. The duo reached out
to former FCI bassist, Nathan Burke, but when scheduling did not work,
Hamacher contacted long time friend Liam Wilson of The Dillinger Escape
Plan, thus beginning a new FCI era. After devastating SXSW and playing a
handful of shows on the East Coast, this FCI incarnation entered the
Frodus Sound Laboratories.
