Send "Get Up Kids " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Perhaps no band has gone further to disassociate itself from emo than the Get Up Kids, which shouldn't be a huge surprise: Their brand of pining pop-punk, which became the predominant sound of early-2000s alternative rock, was probably more despised by punk and indie kids than any other chart-toppers at the time-- post-Disney pop, nu-metal, big beat electronica. No one got it worse than the Get Up Kids, attacked with the vigor of a scene that finally got to pick on someone its own size. Existing somewhere between the Promise Ring and Jimmy Eat World-- but lacking the former's jittery roots and the latter's obvious pop ambitions-- they once worked with Bob Weston (Mission of Burma, Shellac) and chose not to leave Vagrant, and yet somehow an air of dishonesty was projected on them. Considering they were just some guys from Kansas City who wanted to write songs called "Anne Arbour" and cover Mötley Crüe, I'm not sure the churlish punishment fits the crime.There Are Rules isn't a return to form sonically-- neither to the limp, acoustic bowouts of On a Wire or Guilt Show nor to the eager-to-please effervescence of Something to Write Home About-- but a return to results, a just-all-right record from a band that always felt a step behind even in their own genre. The announcement that Weston was brought back in certainly perked some ears, but anyone expecting his gnarly edge to improve much on their material is destined to be disappointed. "Tithe" and "Birmingham" are the most obvious beneficiaries of Weston's imprimatur, and they snarl more than anything the Get Up Kids have done in the past. But these dudes just can't do menace, in large part because Matthew Pryor's vocals are the literal embodiment of "snotty," emanating almost completely from his nostrils. What they can do is momentarily remold themselves in the form of borderline-emo go-getters Hot Hot Heat on spasmodic word puzzles "Automatic" and "Pararelevant", or regain some of their caffeinated buzz on "Regent's Court". And though they have dabbled in synth-pop before, "Shatter Your Lungs" is a legitimate surprise-- Pryor's vocals soften and let the tumbling melody come to him rather than force it, hinting at the sort of maturity There Are Rules should have aimed for....full text |
| Pinnastorm |
| When I was asked to review the new The Get Up Kids album, There Are Rules, Amanda prefaced it with “so, I heard you’re the number one Get Up Kids fan.” Naturally, I was horrified. How did she know? After all, I said goodbye to my vast collection of emo relics long ago. The studded belts. The patches. Every album Barsuk ever put out. All gone. Apparently it’s a past I just cannot escape. So, let’s just get it all out in the open, shall we? I have seen The Get Up Kids live kind of a lot. I would listen to them, cry hysterically, and then put them on mixes for boys who wrote poetry about dropping acid and breaking mirrors. I made a character collage for my 10th grade theater class built around the quote “old enough to know better, young enough to pretend” from the song “Stay Gold, Ponyboy” off of their 1997 album Four Minute Mile. All of these things are 100% true. Let’s move on to the review! This album is definitely pretty bad. I couldn’t listen to most of the songs all the way through. Between Matt Pryor’s chewing-on-foil voice, lyrics that rhyme “slaughter” with “water,” and unimaginative guitar riffs, the whole experience is kind of unpleasant. And while I wouldn’t expect the band to totally abandon the sound they cultivated in the late 90’s, this whine rock thing is really annoying in 2011. To be fair, though, their sound has changed a bit — they’re certainly tapping into some of those dance-folk Shout Out Louds-y vibes. But it’s not quite right. I mean, The Get Up Kids are just not from Sweden. Just, no....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| At this point in time, “kids” is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to The Get Up Kids. For the last fifteen years we've been growing up along side them, and while the term maturation gets thrown around much too often when it comes to bands coming into their own, that is exactly what they have done. Unfortunately for the Kids, this has come at a price. Their 1999 debut full-length Something To Write Home About basically defined an entire generation of bands stuck in the coming of age, heart on your sleeve world of pop punk, and still to this day is one of the most emulated releases on stages across the Warped Tour universe. Not ones to retread old ground, every subsequent album put out by The Get Up Kids since Something To Write Home About has drifted farther and farther away from the sound that so many found so endearing. Up until their dissolution in 2005, The Get Up Kids tinkered with expanding their sound by getting in touch with their roots. Everything from folk, country and classic rock could be found in traces on On a Wire and The Guilt Show, and when the band reformed for the tenth anniversary of their seminal debut, it seemed that they would be continuing in this direction with the Simple Science EP. Well, we assumed wrong. The Get Up Kids' newest long player There Are Rules is still unmistakably a Get Up Kids album, you can thank the distinctive voice of Matt Pryor for that, but it is far far different than anything the band has ever released. This is understandable given that they are all now in their 30's and trying to recapture the youthful nature of their earlier albums would be as genuine as faux fur. Where past Kids albums were driven by Matt Pryor's ridiculously catchy choruses and the constant push of overdriven power chords, There Are Rules takes influence from long stay college-rock acts like Spoon and The Flaming Lips, working in heavy rumbling bass lines and spaced out synthesizer leads. It's a bit jarring at first, especially with tracks like “Shatter Your Lungs” that take these new ideas a little bit too far into left field and just end up sounding confusing for the sake of confusing, but it all ends up working out in the end....full text |
Get Up Kids lyrics
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