Blizzerd Frunt's Bio

Blizzerd  Frunt was founded in 2006 in Willard, Ohio by guitarist Doug Blasidell, drummer Norm Steinmetz, and vocalist Justice Gonzales, all high school friends. In our band's earliest stages we were only beginning to learn songs together, mostly covers. The name of the band was hotly disputed for several weeks and limbs were lost. In the end we went with Resistance after a lobster. Don't ask. After attempting to add ourselves to Myspace we realized what a popular name that was for bands and quickly decided to change it; yet again we couldn't decide. One day we were gathered at Blaisdell's house sitting around and watching the weather channel as Steinmetz sang his favorite song at the time "Eminence Front" by The Who. We mixed together that year's "Blizzard" with The Who's "Front" and converted the spelling perhaps to honor Led Zeppelin. We don't really know. And so we were born! 

Around 2007 we recruited rhythm guitarist Anthony Luppino and began practicing in Doug's home. The stint was short lived however and Luppino ultimately left the band. Soon after we added bassist Mike "Meatloaf" Jones to the trio and we started playing together on a relatively regular basis. The first songs we started learning included Sum 41's "With Me," "Hell Song," and "In Too Deep," Weird Al's "Smells Like Nirvana," The White Stripes', "Seven Nation Army," and "The Hardest Button to Button," and finally Wolfmother's, "White Unicorn," and "Joker and the Thief," the latter of which is still a Blizzerd Frunt staple at every performance.

Around 2008 or so we changed line up again when the vocalist left the band and we added vocalist Dee Jai Rodriguez and rhythm guitarist Matt Belmares. With this line up we would play one of our first public shows at a wedding reception (relatives of our drummer).  Musical differences would cause the vocalist to leave rather quickly and Belmares...just never showed back up. Once again we found ourselves down to a trio. Our largest show to date would be the our high school assembly where we performed "Joker and the Thief," which was well received (due to Blaisdell's screaming solo). We'd play at every assembly until we graduated save one Christmas assembly. (Where we were cheated out!). Once again Gonsalez returned to the band and we began work on original songs, many of which are based off of Blaisdell's notes. Early on we created "Margle the Great," and "The Not So Great Gatsby," the first official Blizzerd Frunt songs. 

2009 would see a major step in Blizzerd Frunt's performing career. The band wanted to create a concert based on local musical acts and perform in town for all to see. They aptly named it "NormStok" and Jones planned the show which featured us with our sister band Escape From Arkham led by our savior of a friend Joe Diaz who has helped us every step of the way. The show was not a huge attention grabber but nonetheless we managed to enjoy a boat ride and get shut down by the Willard Police due to a noise complaint. Some people can't handle the rock!

After the show we returned to our studio, which was and is to this day, Doug's home. There we scrapped our setlist in hopes of learning a more complicated array of music and starting to perform some original tracks as well. Our new set included the Foo Fighter's "Monkey Wrench," The Beatles, "Eight Days of Week," and "Daytripper," The Raconteurs, "Steady As She Goes," Limozeen's "Because, It's Midnite," and Iron Maiden's "The Trooper," Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," Green Day's "Holiday," and Priestess's "Lay Down." With this new set we'd play a number of small shows most notably NormStok II which we held the following summer right in town. Alongside us there was McKenzie Maudsley and Steve Allen, Hello Goliath, Inculta (previously Power and Efficiency). The show was a success reeling in over 50 local people into our crowd (a big deal for Willard). The same summer we took part in another collaboration concert put together by Escape From Arkham. The show, called Escape Jam, featured performances by EFA, a former band including members of Arkham, an acoustic duo, and Power and Efficiency (which at the time still included our drummer Norm!), among others.

After that summer we buckled down hard on writing our own material. Our inability to meet very often and slight tension within the band caused a slow process in writing but nonetheless we ended up with around 10 original songs. By then we'd greatly improved from what we were in the beginning and our music was a reflection of that. We experimented on several covers but for the most part we chose to stick with our songs although we never quite gave up on "Joker and the Thief."  By the next summer the time had come to plan the 3rd Annual NormStok and we aspired to make it bigger and better than previous years. By the time of the show we had put together a multi-genre show including IPS, Hannah Newmyer, McKenzie Maudsley, Steve Allen, Inculta, TBD!,  Escape From Arkham, and we played the finale. The show was as successful as the second year bringing in the same numbers.  With the success of NormStok we teamed up with Arkham's Joe Diaz to start recording our first album "They're Here," an album we'd had in the making for a long time.

During recording Jones and Steinmetz teamed up with a member of Inculta to form TBD!, a side project based on literally the most simple music ever. They created ten albums all of which have yet to exist and their cover of Disney's "Under the Sea," from "The Little Mermaid" became a fan favorite. Meanwhile Blaisdell joined Escape From Arkham as their full time bassist after theirs went into politics. Later on in the Summer Willard Park invited us to display our talents in front of the town yet again. Teaming up with TBD! and Escape From Arkham we performed a 2 hour slot in front of at least 50 elderly people, assorted hobos, and ten of our peers. That show marked the unveiling of our first album from start to finish along with a couple of our favorite covers.

That's the last show we performed up to now and "They're Here," is expected out this Fall. We all went to college so we're kind of on hiatus now. Be looking out for NormStok IV Summer of 2012!!!