Well it’s none for the money, double price for the show
A quarter tank of gas to drive you home
It’s your turn to place a bet
But you keep telling me you’re all set…
The Big Heist is Matt Farley‘s current full band, including Tom Scalzo, Chris “Pete” Peterson, and Doug “Froggy” Brennan. The band’s debut was the triple-album MO75 released in 2018, followed by Tightrope in 2020, and five albums collectively known as The Fifty in 2023.
Origins
The members of the Big Heist had made music together in various configurations, with Farley as the centerpiece. Farley and Scalzo had made music as Moes Haven. The duo of Farley and Peterson was The Finklestinks. When Brennan joined Farley and Peterson, they were Projection From The Side. (Farley and Brennan would go on to form the duo Brennan McFarley in 2019.)
However, all four friends had only contributed to the same project once: The 2016 vinyl-only release, Motern Heartburn. They did not make music together until the summer of 2017, when they began to play live shows (such as the Motern Extravaganzas) as a quartet. This configuration was called The Motern Manly Band, and was responsible for reviving many of the aforementioned music projects, including The Finklestinks and Projection From The Side.
In December 2017, Peterson and Farley were brainstorming ideas for the next Finklestinks record, having released Double Take Action that August. They decided on a concept album about throwing parties in the woods, especially wild teenage romps that took place well after dark. Farley suggested that the concept was too large for just one album, or even a double album: It was to be a triple album with 75 songs total, or 25 songs for each volume. It would contain multiple characters and events, each of which would pack plenty of emotion and energy.
The massive effort of such a musical statement meant requiring more reinforcements. Peterson and Farley brought Brennan into the fold during the recording of a new Projection From The Side album. At the same time, Scalzo was visiting Boston and was contributing guitar to that album’s songs and Farley asked if he wanted to join the new project. At first, Scalzo was worried that his presence would be awkward, since he was the odd man out of the four and did not know Peterson or Brennan that well. However, after more jam sessions, the quartet began to gel, and any hesitations about moving forward subsided.
The band’s name, The Big Heist, comes from the name of the “great American novel” Chevy Chase attempts to write in the film Funny Farm, which he never completes.
MO75 (2018)
(Main articles: MO75 Vol. 1, MO75 Vol. 2, MO75 Vol. 3) (coming soon!)
The idea for the 75-song triple album came about when Farley saw a SLOW sign and thought about how it said MO75 when upside-down. This gave him an idea that it was part of some secret code among the young characters in the “party in the woods” concept. He tied it in with social commentary, deciding that the friend group in the album would be going through changes, with some choosing to grow up and seek other lifestyles and others desperate to hold on to their youth and fun times. (This is somewhat similar to the concept of the 2009 Motern Media film Monsters, Murder, and Mayhem in Manchvegas, except without the murder part.)
Although each member of the band had main roles — Farley on piano and vocals, Peterson on bass, Scalzo on guitar, and Brennan on drums — each of them would often share responsibilities. For instance, all members of the band contributed to writing, and Brennan would often contribute guitar parts as well. Members of the band would travel to Farley’s house in New England to record tracks, and they also contributed by sending files via the Internet.
Each volume of MO75 covered a different part of the story of the “party in the woods”. Vol. 1 introduces the concept of the album, and follows the parties and characters, including the narrator who is desperate for his friends to keep partying. Vol. 2 describes one final party before the summer ends, and Vol. 3 tells the story of the aftermath, when everyone has gone their separate ways. Even the narrator has decided to leave town at the end, with the song “A Thousand Tries” closing out the three-volume tale.
While the original hope was for MO75 to contain 75 tracks, it ultimately only ended up with 48 total: 12 on Vol. 1 and 18 on both Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. However, the songs across the three volumes are some of the strongest in the Motern Media musical repertoire, with many of them becoming fan favorites and live show regulars, such as “Late Night Fight by the Rock”, “Proof of Party”, “The Longest Day”, “A Thousand Tries”, “Natural Wizard”, “I Didn’t Come Here Not to Fight”, “Loring Ave.”, and “Bucket Seats”.
Tightrope (2020)
Although songs from MO75 got The Big Heist some attention from radio stations (including Boston-based independent station 92.5 The River), the albums received underwhelming attention on streaming services and made little money. Regardless, the band members pressed on with plans for their next album, Tightrope.
Development of the album began in 2019 and came from many different sources. First, as Matt Motern Manly Man, Farley was working on a No-Jokes album titled I Forgot What I Was Gonna Say, while also recording many novelty songs under various pseudonyms. He intended to save some of the best No-Jokes songs from that era for The Big Heist, but decided his writing for I Forgot What I Was Gonna Say was too different.
After completing that album, Brennan reached out to Farley with the idea to call the next The Big Heist album Tightrope. However, Peterson and Scalzo were not ready to record at the time, as they were busy with their day jobs and were still recovering from recording MO75. This led to Brennan and Farley forming their duo Brennan McFarley (named so because it rhymed with another famed songwriting partnership, Lennon/McCartney) and recording Wednesday Night Chronicles. That record, released in August 2019, contained six tracks: Four by Farley (out of thirteen of which he intended for Tightrope) and two by Brennan. Farley would use his remaining tracks for a new solo pseudonym, Caniko Tucci, on its October 2019 debut album These Are The Forces.
The band got back together in the beginning of 2020, when Farley was booked to play a gig at Tufts University. He invited the rest of The Big Heist to perform with him at Tufts, as well as at his residency show at Tapley Hall in Danvers, MA the following night. This encouraged The Big Heist to start writing and recording Tightrope, which eventually released in April 2020. The band finished sessions for the record right as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Several leftover recordings from the Tightrope sessions eventually became Brennan McFarley songs on their September 2020 sophomore album, The Beyond.
The Fifty (2023)
(Main articles: Perfect Crime; Old Route One; This Ain’t Mardi Gras; Sirens; Roller Rink) (coming soon!)
The members of The Big Heist focused on other projects throughout 2021, as well as their jobs and lives and dealing with outside forces; however, they all had rough musical ideas ready to go. At the beginning of 2022, Brennan and Farley scheduled a weekend of recording, and Peterson and Scalzo joined them to begin sessions for what would eventually become The Fifty.
The band had originally conceived the project in June 2021 as The Hundred, with a plan to release ten albums with ten songs each (much like the original concept of MO75, which was originally to have three albums of 25 songs each.) However, after a year of writing and recording, the band realized they were nowhere close to reaching a hundred songs. Instead of giving up entirely or forsaking quality to rush toward completing their original goal, they chose to rename their project The Fifty and release only five albums of ten songs each. This gave them time to flesh out songs and accomplish a more reasonable feat.
The first album, Perfect Crime, came out on May 15, 2023, about two years after the band had conceived the project. They continued to release each following album of The Fifty weekly: Old Route One, This Ain’t Mardi Gras, Sirens, and Roller Rink.
Alongside the music, Farley and Scalzo co-wrote a book about the creation of The Fifty, which includes lyrics for each song. Also, Farley released a special vinyl edition of Roller Rink with four additional tracks from their sessions.
The original concept for The Hundred inspired Farley’s 2025 project of putting out one No-Jokes release per month, although he did not commit to a set number of tracks. He would ultimately release ten albums (one each from January to October) with a total of 98 tracks under different pseudonyms.
A Thousand Tries (2024)
In 2024, Motern Media released A Thousand Tries: The Best of The Big Heist, a greatest hits collection featuring twelve of the most popular tracks from their discography to that point. The collection was — and currently still is — only available on vinyl.
Future
At the time, no news has emerged of any forthcoming projects from The Big Heist. However, the members all collaborated in several different configurations for Farley’s 2025 project, with the parternship of Farley and Scalzo releasing music under three different monikers. Farley has often mentioned that Commit to the Fire!, the October 2025 album from Bee Bee Bo Bo (Farley & Scalzo), is “the final No-Jokes album”, so therefore any new output from The Big Heist (at least in the near future) is highly unlikely.
Discography
| # | Title | Release date |
| 1 | MO75, Vol. 1 | September 29, 2018 |
| 2 | MO75, Vol. 2 | November 11, 2018 |
| 3 | MO75, Vol. 3 | December 19, 2018 |
| 4 | Tightrope | April 1, 2020 |
| 5 | Perfect Crime | May 15, 2023 |
| 6 | Old Route One | May 22, 2023 |
| 7 | This Ain’t Mardi Gras | May 29, 2023 |
| 8 | Sirens | June 3, 2023 |
| 9 | Roller Rink | June 10, 2023 |
| * | A Thousand Tries: The Best of The Big Heist | June 2024 |