Toting around an endearing moniker, if not more confusing than lovable at times, Frank Jordan (a band, not a guy) certainly left a deeply lasting impression on a widely unsuspecting music loving audience. One of those few bands that wore an unsolicited Jeff Buckley-esque tag everywhere they went, without actually ever even having heard Buckley prior to reading the reviews of their own records. Often they would end their set with a 5 to 10 minute long instrumental that would warp acid country music and late 70’s British Prog-Rock. Where this trio of high school friends from Carmichael, CA would head musically was something many of the devout salivated for.

Perhaps far too beyond convention and classification for their own good, Frank Jordan ran into too many of those things that keep a good indie band down, and they hung it up in 2004. By this time, their fan base was rapidly multiplying; the non-stop touring allowed Frank Jordan underground notoriety. Records had been licensed to foreign territories, they’d begun planning some international touring, performed with bands such as Grandaddy, Jimmy Eat World, Dr. Dog, Hella, the Paperchase, Mike Watt, Jason Lowenstein… and it was time to record the band’s defining album. With help of Eddie Ashworth, whom co-produced/engineered the band’s last album Milk the Thrills, the band would record in Athens, OH. An album to be engineered by students at Ohio University under the guidance of Mr. Ashworth. Once again, co-produced by Ashworth and Frank Jordan.

While the band did actually record this album, it was never finished. It was an incredibly difficult time for the three members of Frank Jordan. Personal debts had caught up with the band, all the hard work had yet to pay off. It wasn’t as easy to be optimistic anymore.

In the midst of this production, singer Mike Visser & bassist Matt Ontjes inadvertently drove their 2001 Ford Econoline off a mountain road and into the brush. The van rolled several times and the band barely escaped alive. Pressure, emotions, and debt all stacked up. The band dissolved as they left the studio with an album unmixed. Frank Jordan died.

Fast forward; with the members of Frank Jordan advising, Ashworth has mixed the entire “lost” Frank Jordan album, now titled OHIO. The album sounds better in 2007 than it did in 2004, and will have a limited pressing release. On July 14th Visser, Ontjes and drummer Devin Hurley, performed their first show in three years, and Frank Jordan fans received a long overdue sense of closure, and a truly memorable evening.

Record labels slinging around the cutesy phrase “a band, not a guy”, it stuck with people. Truth is, the legacy they’re leaving is so much more than that of “a band”. In true David Chase fashion, they seem to be ending this journey with this masterful recording and one last show, and prove they are more than “a band”, in full retrospect what they are is… (cut to black).