Status: Updates every Sunday and Wednesday!
We're Not Listening
Yeah We're Alright - Put'emup, Put'emup, pt. 4
Dumb and Dumber – er, Anthony and Andy – graduated from the University of Chicago in the spring of 2009, honing degrees in computer science and visual arts, respectively. The shit-ton of money that their higher education demanded certainly didn’t go to waste, or at least they thought, since all four members knew that they had viable fallback plans if this whole “band” thing didn’t work out. They didn’t really care about where they were headed at that point. They just knew they were bound to go upwards – and even if they fell back down, well, hey, it was worth a shot.
Rai hooked them up with a crew and even recommended a few managers to the band so they could decide for themselves. Almost immediately after all of the “official” band stuff was sorted out, the most important thing had to come first – recording their first EP.
Put’emup, Put’emup can’t really stick to one signature sound. They’ll make a song that repeats itself and drives the hook into the listener’s head, and then they’ll craft a song that’ll change genres within the verse. The constants were there – a general fast pace, harmonized vocals, and clear-cut guitar work that clearly came from a professional. During the recording process, they took their time, focusing on a smaller group of songs to work them to perfection and make them into masterpieces they could never get tired of.
Anthony had a poetic way with words and could come up with some pretty creative insults on the spot. Andy was a little more straightforward in his writing, since he was used to creating comic book characters and writing adventures for them. They came together and made the lyrics as a starting point – then Chance worked out the guitar melodies, Anthony wrote his bass parts, and Mick made drum tracks that suited the music. It was an odd process, but it worked for them.
Recording down in Miami ate up their summer, and in September of 2009, “Smile This Out,” their first EP, was officially released. A month later marked their first tour ever, alongside Violence Ladies, and it was the first time certain members of Put’emup, Put’emup had ever seen some parts of the USA.
They documented it in photos and made sure to post them all on FlySpace and Facenook, and even nowadays they probably still have every photo of the Grand Canyon and the Fountain of Youth. Nobody ever realized just how sheltered they were, growing up in Illinois suburbs, even if two of them came from the outskirts of a major city. Nobody had ever travelled further south than Tennessee, further west than Nebraska. On top of that, they were playing their music – and people liked it!
2009 was a good year for pop-rock, apparently. Even though they were doing what they loved, they were doing something that a lot of people also still liked, even though the overall popularity was lessening. It’s always a wonderful thing when mainstream success coincides with personal passions.
And they didn’t quite “explode” until 2011, but they were still covering lots of ground at an admirable pace. After a somewhat slow beginning, everything was picking up, and almost immediately after their first release, the band went to work writing what would eventually be their first full-length record.
Rai hooked them up with a crew and even recommended a few managers to the band so they could decide for themselves. Almost immediately after all of the “official” band stuff was sorted out, the most important thing had to come first – recording their first EP.
Put’emup, Put’emup can’t really stick to one signature sound. They’ll make a song that repeats itself and drives the hook into the listener’s head, and then they’ll craft a song that’ll change genres within the verse. The constants were there – a general fast pace, harmonized vocals, and clear-cut guitar work that clearly came from a professional. During the recording process, they took their time, focusing on a smaller group of songs to work them to perfection and make them into masterpieces they could never get tired of.
Anthony had a poetic way with words and could come up with some pretty creative insults on the spot. Andy was a little more straightforward in his writing, since he was used to creating comic book characters and writing adventures for them. They came together and made the lyrics as a starting point – then Chance worked out the guitar melodies, Anthony wrote his bass parts, and Mick made drum tracks that suited the music. It was an odd process, but it worked for them.
Recording down in Miami ate up their summer, and in September of 2009, “Smile This Out,” their first EP, was officially released. A month later marked their first tour ever, alongside Violence Ladies, and it was the first time certain members of Put’emup, Put’emup had ever seen some parts of the USA.
They documented it in photos and made sure to post them all on FlySpace and Facenook, and even nowadays they probably still have every photo of the Grand Canyon and the Fountain of Youth. Nobody ever realized just how sheltered they were, growing up in Illinois suburbs, even if two of them came from the outskirts of a major city. Nobody had ever travelled further south than Tennessee, further west than Nebraska. On top of that, they were playing their music – and people liked it!
2009 was a good year for pop-rock, apparently. Even though they were doing what they loved, they were doing something that a lot of people also still liked, even though the overall popularity was lessening. It’s always a wonderful thing when mainstream success coincides with personal passions.
And they didn’t quite “explode” until 2011, but they were still covering lots of ground at an admirable pace. After a somewhat slow beginning, everything was picking up, and almost immediately after their first release, the band went to work writing what would eventually be their first full-length record.
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I gotta say, I wasn't expecting for this story to be so well-received, and I'm eternally grateful for the amount of comments and recs I've gotten. You guys make my day. :,)