You want the Pixies reunion tour? At-the Drive In is back together? Nix all that! I want The Get Up Kids back together, and fortunately for me, they temporarily are reunited, and for hundreds of fans in Austin, we got the chance to live in memory lane, at least for one glorious night. Read More
Sure, we love the in-house sessions on Daytrotter, but they’ve outdone themselves, at least in our nostalgic eyes. They just ran The Get Up Kids session, which includes classic tunes like “I’m a Loner Dottie, a Rebel,” not to mention the inclusion of a Vitreous Humor song. To top it all off, there is a brand new song, said to be one of nine. Could it be? Are they back for good? I hope so!
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Download: The Get Up Kids – Your Petty Pretty Things [MP3]
Looking back at my sad excuse for a life, I realize that my obsession with music had to begin at some point. I flirted with metal, as I alluded to last week, but mostly I found my love in classic California pop music and punk rock. Along the way, I meandered a bit off the path, as most did during the late nineties. Where did I land? I landed in the wonderful world of emo. Sure, you’re thinking that I shopped at Hot Topic and couldn’t get Fall Out Boy out of my head, but I’m talking about the predecessors to the entire scene; well, the predecessors of the predecessors. I’ve devoted this week’s Top 5 to my one true love, emo. We’ll call it my Pop 5 Emo Records, and the countdown is after the jump.
Austin Town Hall caught up with Matt Pryor before his solo show at Stubb’s on Saturday night to talk about The Get Up Kids, Reggie and the Full Effect, family and the current state of music. Interview after the jump.
Admittedly, I was way into that new-Emo that came out of Lawrence back in 1997. I was hopelessly devoted to The Get Up Kids, and traveled to see them over a dozen times. I followed Matt Pryor, the lead singer, onto his New Amsterdams project. Now, he has a solo release, done completely on his own. I couldn’t be more excited. It comes out July 29th on Vagrant. You can listen to the album Confidence Man at Matt’s MySpace page.
I bought this record at the store the other day because for some reason I sincerely hold fond memories of this band. The first few records were great, and then the band slowly lost its appeal. Congratulations Nathan! You’re an adult.
Listening to this record all day today, and last night, it was hard to remember exactly what it was about this band that I really enjoyed. I went back to the old records from my younger days–when I was 20. There was the answer–the remnants of pop-punk and emo. Don’t smirk! You liked this stuff too!
Anyways, in the beginning, James Dewees–keyboardist for now defunct The Get Up Kids–he blended comedy along with really solid melodies. He tossed me a few solid keyboard solos, and even through samples of hilarious clips into the album. They were seamless, and honestly, I thought they were special–still hold a spot in my heart.
Of course, there was some remnants of hardcore on the old albums, clearly remaining from Dewees days in Coalesce. It was just a small enough dose to go well with the feel of the record. Now, that is all that remains.
There are few moments on this record that are redeemable. The incessant screaming is so 99′ and I just don’t have the patience for it. And, the lyrics I could decipher were simple, though I never considered Dewees to be much of a songwriter.
For me, this was his last gasp–his “last stop” if you will. For me, this was my last stop. This album reminded me of where I have been, and who I have become–frankly, I’m an adult. This record brought that to a head. Thanks Reggie, for that you get half a star.
Former Get Up Kids keyboardist and Coalesce James Dewees is set to release his 5th album as Reggie and the Full Effect. Sure, James doesn’t take himself seriously, which is how he comes to mesh the hardcore with that pop goodness–but who said we always had to be so serious? At the very least, you can tell your little brother or sister to listen to this instead of that boring radio! Take a listen to his newest song at this beautiful web site.
©2010 Austin Town Hall, a venture of Paravel
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