Rockers from Frontier Natural Products head to Los Angeles
Unlikely band selected for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame competition

by Sustainable Food News
May 26, 2009

A motley crew of employees from Frontier Natural Products Co-op, the nation's largest supplier of bottled organic spices, is heading to Los Angeles next month to compete in Fortune magazine's 9th annual Battle of the Corporate Bands.

The band Aeroroot was selected as one of 16 corporate bands to compete in regional semi-final events to perform at The Key Club on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood on June 20.

Up against corporate titans like NBC, Symantec and Johnson & Johnson, the band is staying focused on the prize: a chance to play in the final competition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland on Oct. 3.

LISTEN: To the band.

“To be honest, if we thought we really had a chance, we would have been too nervous to even record our entry,” said Clint Landis, lead vocalist and guitartist, and chief marketing officer for Frontier.

The band formed on a lark five years ago during a lunch break at Frontier’s on-site organic café. The name Aeroroot comes from the herb arrowroot, with a nod to rock legend Aerosmith.

Other Aeroroot members include: lead guitarist Brett Karminski, Frontier brand manager; drummer/back-up vocalist Steve Krusie, director of public relations; and bassist/back-up vocalist Tracy Tunwall, former vice president of Human Resources for Frontier (now ass't professor at Mount Mercy College).

The band was intended to just play at the annual holiday party but with the performance "an overwhelming hit", the band decided to stay together and began playing for charity functions, including fundraisers for the American Cancer Society and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Norway, Iowa-based Frontier - the first U.S. certified-organic spice company - is a major manufacturer, distributor and marketer of natural and organic products and carries about 9,700 items across 290 brands including several thousand items under its own four brands – Frontier, Aura Cacia, Aura Cacia Organics, and Simply Organic.

Before heading to Los Angeles, for the semifinals, Aeroroot is slated to play June 13 at the Floodstock Festival in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, an outdoor benefit concert to assist in the recovery of the devastating eastern Iowa floods of 2008.