Chin Up Chin Up

Chin Up Chin Up - We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers

Finger picking good art-pop from Chicago. The band draws its audio sensibilities from Modest Mouse and The Appleseed Cast, mostly in the guitars, which drop between jerky picking to sustained chords creating a sweet combination of two different distinct sounds.

The song has a real narrative feel to it. The vocals seem secondary to the melodies of the guitars, bass, keyboard, (and even the drums) that tend to get handed off like a torch from phrase to phrase and measure to measure. Layers and layers go in and out of each other. It sounds like an instrumental with vocals added as an afterthought.

The speak-sing vocals crossed witht he jangly quasi group vocals lend themselves well to the feel of the song.

There's something slightly sad about this song, although there really is no reason for it. A band member's tragic death weighs in on the song (and the rest of the CD for that matter) that actually pulled the band members closer together. This song is excellent in toeing the line between this energetic feeling and the feeling of despair holding it back. While the song was written before the accident, the feeling rings throughout the recording.

We should all the glad and proud for Chin Up Chin Up keeping playing. There's a lot more gems to come out of them (like this song), I'm sure.

The New Amsterdams

The New Amsterdams - We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs (demo)

What happens after you've sold hundreds of thousands of CDs, have a couple of kids, decide that the band has run its course, and then have the urge to write but you're tired of writing songs of heartbreak?

Find a new audience.

Matt Pryor didn't have to look any further than the two little ones hanging onto his legs.

Musically, this song isn't dumbed down for kids. It sounds like, well, The New Amsterdams. Acoustic guitar and thick melodies and harmonies with easy going bass and drums. I respect that.

Lyrically, well....there's nothing like subversive song lyrics for kids. This song gets my vote for best pro-gay-marraige song for kids. I can't think of a better way to explain this to kids.

"One man whose voice was loud said dinos are bound to trample his house. They should be told to leave here. One dinosaur did speak he started to say 'don't push us away because we don't have any intention of wrecking your home. We'd like a place of our own.'"

Two more demos:

When I Get to Eleven

Pizza and Chocolate Milk

Bomb the Music Industry!

Bomb the Music Industry - DOES YOUR FACE HURT? NO? 'CAUSE IT'S KILLING ME!

do it yourself socialism and fuck (with) the riaa. I think I like this "band". Check out their website for more of their manifesto.

Musically the song sounds like Lars Frederickson and Travis Morrison started a angular punk-ska band in 1998. fucking. sweet.

This collective has fairly lofty goals, and I think a lot of people would like to be a part of it. A lot of people would rather do away with it. This song takes Say Anything's Admit It!!! one step further and executes it as it was meant to be - this song is for all the people who don't exactly fit in anywhere in the musical scene spectrum. It is the punk spirit in every sense that has really been lost for a long fucking time. I feel like there is hope. I feel energized. This song does it.

It's an excellent home demo recording that captures the DIY spirit with its dichotomy of loose/tight audio sensation.

Lyrics included below so you can make sense of the vocals, which unfortunately get lost in mix at times.


Take a look at your haircut. You're killing me.
Take a look at your glasses. You're killing me.
Placement of the piercings. You're killing me.
Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.
Take a look at your ripped jeans. You're killing me.
Take a look at your Converse. You're killing me.
Get a shirt that fits you. You're killing me.
Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.

US: Someone the other day was telling me about marketing and how it is so important for a band to sell a t-shirt. I told him that the money goes right back into the same thing and now we're just a breeding ground for more and more consumers. And sellout, shmellout, it's not about that. But I didn't have a problem when I had no cash. Now we perpetuate this need to sell x units every night and if we don't meet our quota, man, we're gonna get into another fight.

THEM: Williamsburg has got the lights turned low and a moron with a laptop is calling this poetry. A singer with a thrift amp brags "Vintage Circuitry". I saw him on the cover of Bop or Seventeen crooning "I'm so lonely/Life is empty/Where's my coke and fucking money?" Tonight at the bar I got a good look at the enemy. He said "My job's looking good and someone else can write the songs for me."

Soon we'll be in the clear
When we get out of here
Where style is function
And our egos make us fight.
For now we'll live in fear.
We're not sexy enough for this atmosphere.
Someone blow it up tonight.
Please blow it up tonight.

Now we're cloning sheep.
Writing garbage in their diaries.
Reading their AP. Watching Fuse TV.
Kill it, c'est la vie.
Fashion show = your scene.
Bomb the industry.
Then run away or watch the blast.
I'm getting out, man, kiss my ass.
I'm going nowhere, nowhere fast.
I'm going nowhere nowhere nowhere.