THE
GET UP KIDS
ay what you will about The Get Up Kids;
they are polite. The pop-punk emp outfit and I had
been playing phone tag for five weeks while they toured the
West Coast, and when I finally called singer Matt Pryor, I half
expected his mother or father to answer. "I'm living with my girl-
friend's parents; it's pretty cool. I'm gone most of the time anyway," he
shrugs. But, despite our repeated near misses and blown appoint-
ments, these guys are as warm and friendly as the first time we
met in the sweltering heat of the New York City summer.
The Get Up Kids are, for those not in the know, the
punk version of The Wonders (or the
Oneders), the fictional band
from the movie, That Thing You Do.
Despite punk's cynicism, these are the kids
that get excited for "rock shows in
Stubinville!" says Pryor. And he laughs at the
comparison: "We got played on the radio,
and our drummer Jim Suptic called
me and started screaming. We all
got in touch with each other
and had the radio on
and were like, 'Kick ass!""
The Kansas City quartet, which
includes brothers Rob and Ryan
Pope, play a Garden Variety-esque brand of math rock.
Think The Promise Ring, only better at sports. But pigeonholing the
band as "emo" or "pop-punk" doesn't really appeal to Pryor. "I don't quite
know what we are. We just have that Midwest sort of thing going." Indeed,
The Get Up Kids-along with bands like Boy's Life, Christie Front Drive,
Mineral and The Promise Ring-make up the scene's less stressed, less serious,
Midwest contingent of kinda-arty, kinda-rock bands. "We know all of those bands,
so it's not like I can say we are totally doing all our own thing, because you get
influenced by your peers to a degree," explains Pryor. "And there's nothing to do in
Kansas City, ever. Plus it's cold."
But less stressed doesn't mean these guys loaf. Although the band has been
together for a little over two years, it has been on a tear for the last twelve
months. In the past year, they've released the Four Minute Mile full-length, a
self-titled EP, and split 7"s with Coalesce and Braid. Look out for them as
they tour again this spring before heading back to the Midwest to
record their new record. -Joseph Epstein
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