Such is Life first took shape around 1994 or 1995, when Niel and Angry Midget Boy (Tim) played in garage bands together. This would've placed them in the 7th grade at the time...they jammed alot on weekends and got the cops called on them alot due to the obnoxious amount of noise made in their suburban middle class neighborhoods. The band jammed several house party gigs with no name and also an 8th grade talent contest under the name of Lloyd (the resident Vince McMahon impersonator), which got confused as "rhoids" as in hemorrhoid by the announcer. Much to everybody's confusion, the band (featuring Adam Selby on Bass and Mark Anton on 2nd guitar) soldiered through a version of Nirvana's "Breed" to little fanfare. (They finished with a participation award). The 9th grade saw the band performing Rage Against the Machine covers (now under the name of Such is Life) with Matt Bargnesi on vocals and also Joey McCabe on faux Bulls on Parade vocals. The band had a bit of original material that was quickly forgotten about due to the allure of playing cover songs in front of girls to look cool. With three of the band members subsequent withdrawals/expulsions from school the following year, Such is Life did not unite again until the end of 10th grade for a performance of (you guessed it) more RATM songs, with Angry Midget Boy (Tim) somehow allowed back on campus to play drums, Josh "Man in the Sand" Gallagher on bass and Joey McCabe on (once again) faux vocals. The performance was capped off by ridiculous amounts of moshing by a decidedly non metal looking school audience, so much so that the administrators had to pull the plug on the band (mid Bombtrack guitar solo) as the crowd was getting out of control. Angry Midget Boy had met Matt Watson and was playing in a christian type cover band thing at Matt's private school. Later, they formed a band called Grille with a dude named Mike and played super duper speedy punk rock stuff. Niel had joined a band called Lost Cause, which was basically a noise band, who could play mean, but sloppy Butthole Surfers covers. Both bands played a house party at a dude named Mike Lowe's house, who apparently has made a myspace about how famous his house was cause he had bands play there all the time or something. Grille played their set, which actually consisted of songs, while Lost Cause proceeded to get trashed, remove their clothing, play horrible noise, and generally piss everyone off. Grille's Mike later moved back to California and Angry Midget Boy suggested to Matt that Niel join the band.

This constellation formed and became known as Such is Life once again. Original material was written and recorded in Matt's bedroom on a 4 track. The band also frequently jammed at Frank Drelich's wheatgrass nursery thingy out by Lake Pickett. At this point it is around 1997 and for the next two and half/three years, the band goes through literally a dozen different "singers." In 2000, right before the band was going to record a more professional demo at Greg Rike's studio in Florida, Matt met Jack at Full Sail and he joined the band. The band began to play more actual shows around town instead of just house parties and the occasional Ehjay's gig (which is now called the new phoenix or something and has a big neon rainbow miller lite sign on the door). The band played several gigs over the next year and a half with bands like Ignid, Indorphine, Midst of Zool, Noir, Lunatic Candy Kreep, Drencht, O.F. Beatdown, Double Veteran, and others. They played one show with a national band, Darwin's Waiting Room, who went on to thank them in their CD. That was probably about as famous as Such is Life ever got. In 2001 they recorded a single at Sam Verrela's ARS studios in Winter Springs called "Mistaken." Motivation among the band members seemed to wane due to personal issues, and then Niel got married and moved away. There were a few extra shows played afterwards when Niel would come back to visit, but that was pretty much the end of it. Around 2001 there was another band from West Palm named Such is Life as well that began to play around Orlando too. We in no way mean to disrespect them with this page by calling it "the original" Such is Life, as they went on to play together much longer than we did and were probably better anyway, but we did come first, hence the "original" title. Over the years, believe it or not, people have asked the band members if a reunion was in the works. However Niel and Jack have gone on to form DIE and about 734 other side projects, Matt had a job with Lou Pearlman for awhile, and Angry Midget Boy has been in and out of several bands over the years. So this page, as it is, will be the band's final testament, so to speak. N - September, 2007

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