Status: Updates every Sunday and Wednesday!
We're Not Listening
Strawberry Jam - Put'emup, Put'emup, pt. 5
Some people don’t handle pressure very well. Case in point, Andy Allen, co-vocalist and sometimes-backup-guitarist of Put’emup, Put’emup.
Anthony had known this for years, and every time he noticed his best buddy load his plate with too much, he was quick to cut him down. Over time, Mick and Chance had observed their habits and intervened as well, but nobody got through to him more than Anthony did. (Talk about a bromance.)
It happened big-time as they worked on the fifteen-song album, and it was one reason why it took such a long time to come to fruition. Andy liked to jump into things and take on all of his responsibilities at once, and in the end, he’d only end up exhausted. Most of the time, it would end in a huge argument, and even though Anthony and Andy shared in apartment in downtown Chicago, they were far from friendly roommates in those moments.
Eventually Anthony put his foot down and basically told his best friend to chill the hell out and let everything happen naturally. So he did. They wrote fourteen new songs (one song was a remake of a tune from the demo), worked them to perfection in the studio, and in May of 2011, “Cooler Than Cool” had hit the shelves, digitally and physically in the form of CD and vinyl record.
They just kind of blasted off from there. There’s really no other way to put it. Despite getting struck by lightning at a concert a short while before the album dropped, they had their heads in the game and made sure that it was even better than the already-great EP they started off with.
2011 was a great year for Put’emup, Put’emup, with a killer music video release and a killer tour alongside Violence Ladies (again), and it seemed like nothing could stop them – not even the brief touring hiatus they had announced near the end of that year. According to them, personal issues regarding stress were getting to each of them, and a few months home would be the best remedy for that.
One gig they had agreed to was a concert that Not Listening had held at the very beginning of January 2012, and if their performance hadn’t been such a success, they would’ve kissed their record deal goodbye and the four of them would probably be stuck putting their college degrees to use.
It was a complete stunt. That’s the only way to describe it. They went out on a limb and caught attention from every corner of the entertainment industry. Somehow they managed to give the illusion that they were fighting off some alien bug with elemental superpowers – they even wrangled in four teenage winners of a local radio contest to participate! The special effects were seamless and made headlines in newspapers that didn’t even touch music. They’ve never told a soul who organized the stunt, and they even keep it from their crew.
They’re still doing shows where Mick grows flowers from his hands and throws roses into the crowd, where Chance showers sweaty crowds with chilled water, Andy flies into the crowd using the wind from his palms, and Anthony sparks flames, careful to not destroy anything. If they sucked at playing music, it would be a gimmick, but they’ve come too far in perfecting their unique sound for it to be anything other than an enhancement.
Like they’ve said time and time again, Put’emup, Put’emup hasn’t even seen Europe yet. There are big things in store for them, and even though they’re still fairly new to the label, they’re in the middle of leaving their legacy.
Anthony had known this for years, and every time he noticed his best buddy load his plate with too much, he was quick to cut him down. Over time, Mick and Chance had observed their habits and intervened as well, but nobody got through to him more than Anthony did. (Talk about a bromance.)
It happened big-time as they worked on the fifteen-song album, and it was one reason why it took such a long time to come to fruition. Andy liked to jump into things and take on all of his responsibilities at once, and in the end, he’d only end up exhausted. Most of the time, it would end in a huge argument, and even though Anthony and Andy shared in apartment in downtown Chicago, they were far from friendly roommates in those moments.
Eventually Anthony put his foot down and basically told his best friend to chill the hell out and let everything happen naturally. So he did. They wrote fourteen new songs (one song was a remake of a tune from the demo), worked them to perfection in the studio, and in May of 2011, “Cooler Than Cool” had hit the shelves, digitally and physically in the form of CD and vinyl record.
They just kind of blasted off from there. There’s really no other way to put it. Despite getting struck by lightning at a concert a short while before the album dropped, they had their heads in the game and made sure that it was even better than the already-great EP they started off with.
2011 was a great year for Put’emup, Put’emup, with a killer music video release and a killer tour alongside Violence Ladies (again), and it seemed like nothing could stop them – not even the brief touring hiatus they had announced near the end of that year. According to them, personal issues regarding stress were getting to each of them, and a few months home would be the best remedy for that.
One gig they had agreed to was a concert that Not Listening had held at the very beginning of January 2012, and if their performance hadn’t been such a success, they would’ve kissed their record deal goodbye and the four of them would probably be stuck putting their college degrees to use.
It was a complete stunt. That’s the only way to describe it. They went out on a limb and caught attention from every corner of the entertainment industry. Somehow they managed to give the illusion that they were fighting off some alien bug with elemental superpowers – they even wrangled in four teenage winners of a local radio contest to participate! The special effects were seamless and made headlines in newspapers that didn’t even touch music. They’ve never told a soul who organized the stunt, and they even keep it from their crew.
They’re still doing shows where Mick grows flowers from his hands and throws roses into the crowd, where Chance showers sweaty crowds with chilled water, Andy flies into the crowd using the wind from his palms, and Anthony sparks flames, careful to not destroy anything. If they sucked at playing music, it would be a gimmick, but they’ve come too far in perfecting their unique sound for it to be anything other than an enhancement.
Like they’ve said time and time again, Put’emup, Put’emup hasn’t even seen Europe yet. There are big things in store for them, and even though they’re still fairly new to the label, they’re in the middle of leaving their legacy.
♠ ♠ ♠
Well, this is the last "real" chapter of We're Not Listening! I'll post the epilogue tomorrow, and I hope all of you have wonderful days/nights! :DThanks for reading!! :)