Music Nation is a Music Video Competition for Independent Artists

She’s So Heavy What’s a Floozie? She’s the young, so-called harlot that no one takes seriously until her meteoric come hither hits you between your drooped eyes - the nascent Madonna, the budding Blondie who hipsters dismiss and disdain until they find themselves alone with their limped hubris in viscous hand. The band known as Floozie are all full-up, straight male but their career aims prefigure a similar trajectory as the feminized metaphor upon which their new record gets its title, “She Wants to Be Some Body”. A blend of addictive melodies, sweet candy hooks, twenty-something angst, and Beck-like lyrical Dadaism, Floozie is an amalgam of all that is immediately undeniable yet eternally inscrutable in rock music. Hailed by the Buffalo News as “harmonically sound, lyrically ambitious and radio-friendly…adding a tad of “Bends”-era Radiohead in the guitar department and…the work of the Beatles”, these wunderkinds have gone from the latest buzz band with a cool haircut to one of the most vital and critically acclaimed acts in the Buffalo/Niagara region. “She Wants to Be Some Body” (the title of their new record) is codex whose cryptic message implies the eventual heft that our “girl” - our Floozie - desires (no silly, not her actual poundage but, rather, her well deserved gravitas). She wants to be somebody and she wants to be some Body. Our, too often, musically barren orb is about to give way to “her” - coming out of nowhere - musical juggernaut? She’s so heavy, indeed! “She Wants to Be Some Body”, plucked from the lyrics of one of Floozie’s new album’s best tracks, “Going to California”, truly embodies the wanderlust and spirit of the band as it fits and starts its way towards its manifest destiny – “California”, envisioned in all its folkloric majesty. Their fictional heroine, whose picture graces the CD cover, is too journeying her way westward. But, again, she merely represents the band, Floozie, themselves, groping toward this seemingly unattainable goal. If you want to understand this “concept” record – and the Floozie ethos – it is this: the single-minded conquest of the vocational and artistic end-run. The Pacific beckons! And they’re chasing its surf. Regularly selling out mid-sized clubs on its own, Floozie has also appeared with Sponge, Theory of a Dead Man, Default, The Trews, Soul Asylum and more – often making a greater impact and bringing a bigger crowd. What makes Floozie’s music truly special is their lyric’s always archetypal evocations - married with universal, but indelibly original, riffs, arrangements, and hooks. Both sweet and sour, Floozie has blazed its path of musical glory by embracing a smart pop sensibility alongside a very nasty visceral wallop – with experimental tendencies bubbling just below the surface. The main Floozie out in front is songwriter, singer and guitarist Jim Schwartz Jr., whose unrelenting snarl and hiss has become the musical drug of choice among those hip enough to score it. Forming the band at the beginning of this millennium, Jim, along with their veteran producer Nelson Starr, has cooked up a remarkable feast of musical confections. Added to the mix are Jim’s long-time mates, Marty Schebell Jr. on bass, Matt Manera on drums, and uber-guitarist, Michael McGranor. Besides being quite smart looking lads (see myspace photo commentary), these three very able musicians augment Schwartz’s quick-sprout talent with an honest grace and sincere musicality that roots the whole endeavor in deep, rich soil. ...but I'd hold on tight anyway! ~ William Lee ~