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Flashlight Brown

About Me


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The lead up to Blue was something of a cyclone. After recording My Degeneration (2003) with producer Rob Cavallo, Flashlight Brown set out on an intensive, and sometimes unconventional, tour of North America and Japan. The band spent several weeks playing noon-hour concerts in West Coast high schools, fuelled by cocktails smuggled past suspicious school administrators. For Matt Hughes, the trip was more than just a string of gigs—it was a revenge fantasy fully fleshed. “I was the classic nerd in high school,” he laughs. “I didn’t kiss a girl until I was 18. After graduating as a geek, it felt pretty good to come back as the guy in the band.” Between arena tours with Sum 41 and east coast jaunts with All-American Rejects the band blew off steam with van-to-van fireworks wars and by rolling shopping carts into hotel pools, usually with someone in them.
When the mayhem was over and the smoke began to clear it was time to go back to the drawing board. For the next two years the band retired to their basement studio to write four albums’ worth of material. A lot of these new songs were diverse and experimental, a sidetrack that eventually led the band to realize they were leaving behind what they really loved most about the music they played. Through some careful soul searching this wealth of material was explored and a new voice was exposed that was both fresh and familiar.
Blue (produced by Dave Bassett and mixed by Dave Holman) draws as much from The Clash and The English Beat as it does from Nirvana and the Beatles. The eleven new tracks tell the classic human story about life, love and laughter, and how all three will ultimately gang up to take a giant shit on you.
With a songwriting team made up of an ex-role playing club president (Matt Hughes) and a former English-as-a-second-language student (Fil Bucchino), Flashlight knows that there’s a lot more to underdog slacker anthems than rich suburbanites bitching about the first girl that broke their precious little heart. This is self-deprecating satire of the highest order, whether detailing depression with a caustic wit, or, as in leadoff track “That’s My Problem”, singing about hangovers from rock’ n’ roll decadence with “chicks on crack rocking out to Nickelback”
The characters in the songs might be losers, but as in any good after school special the chronically uncool underdog always has to win in the end. Witness the new songs “I’m Not Sorry” or the self-help anthem “Party By Myself,” a “Pictures of Lily” homage that’s not entirely metaphorical. “I actually do like to party by myself,” says Matt. “Set me up with a six-pack and some video games and I’m set.”
The band is well aware of how easy it is to fall into a trap of self-pity. “If you complain in the verse, that’s fine, but if you complain in the chorus, you’re whining. One thing we never want to come off as is chronic malcontents”.
Most of the songs on Blue throw a lyrical twist on traditional rock themes. “Sicker” is a classic love song from the point of view of an asthmatic, allergic, pharmaceutical addicted hypochondriac. “Sickness and heartache are really one and the same,” says Hughes, “and for me, both are usually just a product of my own paranoia.” “Ugly Baby” was inspired by a study done at a university that found parents treat pretty babies better than ugly ones. “I know it sounds depressing, but we couldn’t stop laughing.”
Hughes never has to look far for inspiration. Songwriting partner Bucchino, who was born in Venezuela, raised in Italy and then eventually moved to Canada, has what Hughes describes as “that English-as-a-second-language problem.” According to the vocalist, in addition to providing hours of entertainment, Bucchino’s mangling of the language has also been known to spark some unusual lyric ideas. Case in point: new song “Get Out Of My Car,” whose title came about after the bassist misinterpreted the Rolling Stones hit, “Get Off Of My Cloud.”
“We’re aware of the fact that there’s nothing sexy about us,” says Matt, “but in the end most sexy things sag anyway. This is rock and roll.”
As Fil puts it, “Styles come and go, but no one can get rid of us. When the world is finally flattened by nuclear Armageddon, there’ll be the roaches and Flashlight Brown. We don’t plan on going away.”
Brockport Studios - Toronto Rehearsal Studio Space
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/24/2005
Band Website: flashlightbrown.com
Band Members: VIDEOS

Sicker
from Blue
BUY ALBUM | WATCH VIDEO

Ready to Roll
from My Degeneration
BUY ALBUM | WATCH VIDEO

MEMBERS

Fil Bucchino
Vocals/Bass
Matt Hughes
Vocals/Guitar
Tim Thomson
Drums

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Record Label: Canada: Union/Warner | Japan: Avex
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Vintage Track .12

Fatso is loosely based on an incident in which i got the shit punched out of me by a 7 foot tall Neanderthal outside of Van Gogh's Ear in Guelph Ontario.  Can't quite remember what i did to provo...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:17:00 PST

Sicker added to MuchMusic

Sicker has just been added to rotation on MuchMusic!  Never thought anyone would go for a video with a bunch of idiots barfing on each other, but stranger things have happened i suppose. So pleas...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:39:00 PST

Sicker on Much

Want to finally see all the splatter in HD?  Tune in Saturday night at 11PM for the punk show on MuchMusic to catch the world TV debut of Flashlight Brown's Sicker! Or click here for mo...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 09:15:00 PST

Sicker added to MuchLoud

Sicker has officially been added to MuchLoud!  Tune in to watch, or request it here: [email protected]
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:36:00 PST

Vintage Track .11

Okay, truthfully i'm already forgetting which songs i've put up, so bare with me if there are repeats.  I THINK this one is new (new OLD that is).  New Boyfriend is definitely one of the ea...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:31:00 PST

Vintage Track .10

... and now the REAL Crash Baby, brought to you by the ORIGINAL flashlight line-up, straight out of the basement at 111 Waterloo Ave, Guelph Ontario.  (If you live in this house now, or know who ...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Sun, 25 Feb 2007 08:00:00 PST

Vintage Track .9

Technically this isn't a vintage flashlight song, but it is a vintage song that's a flashlight song.  Following?  Anyway, this is one of a string of flashlight covers put together by a shor...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:54:00 PST

WARNING: Watch before lunch.

Hey everyone!  As you may have seen, our new video for SICKER is online and ready to watch.  This one was created by director Davin Black and his amazing team of movie makers.  Extra pr...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:40:00 PST

Vintage Track .8

This week's vintage track is undeniably vintage.  In fact, this track is so old it was recorded on TAPE!  Vocals on Blindsided were provided by original Flashlight guitarist Tristan O'Malley...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:11:00 PST

MTV Performance on YouTube

For all of you Americans, Mac Users and assorted foreigners (who were previously having problems viewing it), someone has been kind enough to post their copy of our MTV performance on YouTube.  T...
Posted by Flashlight Brown on Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:24:00 PST