the Get Up Kids offered up some great songs on
Daytrotter.comAmong other things, they revealed that they wrote and recorded 9 new songs this summer.
Here are the songs they put in the session, along with their explanations. They include a couple new tracks.
1.
2.
- unreleased
Originally written and performed by Vitreous Humor. It appears on their 1998 posthumous release entitled "Posthumous". A really great band that never really got their due but were a big influence on us early on. When we reunited and played a show in Lawrence, KS that we were filming we got Danny Pound (the singer and songwriter from the band) to come on stage and play this song with us. It wasn't until we rehearsed the song with Danny that we learned that the lyric to the chorus was "Smile like you used to...you were stupid and bald". Up until that point we'd been singing along to the song "Smile like you used to...you stupid whore!" There is a big difference there I think. I still don't know what the line means though.
3.
- unreleasedOne of the 9 new songs that we wrote and recorded over the summer. Tried to balance the poppy, peppy-ness of it by having the lyrics be pretty dark. We had our friend Wayne Propst come in to do a voice over on the ending. He's a really cool local character with a great gravely voice and an interesting take on life so we just asked him to come in and riff over the ending. All we told him as that the song was about "failure". He came in with an old 15 second cassette that was a loop of William S. Burroughs doing what I would call a self help mantra. Wayne and WIlliam's idea was that whenever you were feeling "a little nuts" you could just listen to this loop instead of going to a shrink. The loop is just William saying "does it seem to be persisting?" over and over and over again. This version only has the Burroughs sample but the version that we recorded over the summer also has Wayne going back and forth with the loop and getting more intense as the song climaxes. It's kinda nuts.
4.
I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel [download mp3]- original version appears on Something To Write Home AboutWe originally recorded this song in 1997 for a split 7" with Braid and then again for our "Something To Write Home About" record. I think we recorded it for our live record as well. So, this will be the fourth incarnation of this recording and by far the best.
5.
- original version appears on On A Wire
This is one of my favorite songs we've ever written. We didn't really play it very often back in the day so I'm glad to we're bringing it back. I like the way the acoustic guitar sounds through the amp. Jim really likes his own guitar playing. He's a big fan.
