“When The Get Up Kids set out to write what would become the album ‘Something to Write Home About’, I never imagined all the places it would take us. From touring around the world, being on MTV’s ‘120 Minutes’, to opening for childhood heroes. When I listen back to these demos it takes me right back to our practice space in Kansas City. We were so young, but we were driven to make something great. When we walked into that LA studio, we were very prepared. This was the first time we actually made real demos for a record and I think it shows in the final product.”, said guitarist/vocalist Jim Suptic.
Originally released via Vagrant Records in the fall of 1999, The Get Up Kids’ seminal sophomore album, ‘Something to Write Home About’, solidified a canon of expansive, pop-leaning emo that would guide the genre’s explosion in the new millennium. Today, the Kansas City-based band of Matt Pryor (guitar/vocals), Jim Suptic (guitar/vocals), Rob Pope (bass), Ryan Pope (drums), and Dustin Kinsey (keys) announces the record’s 25th anniversary reissue via Polyvinyl Records – out digitally on August 23rd and physically on September 20th.
The newly remastered, genre-defining LP will feature expanded music and artwork, including a 28-page large format full-color booklet with handwritten lyrics, photos, and other ephemera from the era. Its second LP contains a mix of 12 rare or previously unreleased demos (including the original four-track acoustic recordings by singer/songwriter Matt Pryor), which reveal the sturdiness of its songs — a tracklist battle-tested in hundreds of live settings. In both the early drafts and remastered tracks contained on this definitive version of ‘Something to Write Home About’, longtime fans will return to places familiar and formative, and rediscover plenty of moments as vivid as they were on first listen.
Additionally, the band share the first-ever music video for album-opener and instant classic ‘Holiday’ alongside its demo version. “It’s like watching your parents’ home movies of you riding a big wheel in the backyard. Just babies. A lot of these are from a time when the record was finished but people hadn’t really heard it yet. We’d just spent a long, frustrating year trying to get it made and when it finally saw the light of day we just came out swinging. I remember a lot of these shows, The Fireside Bowl in Chicago particularly. That always felt like a home away from home for us back then. The kids onstage in these videos really have no idea how much this album will change their lives, that we’ll still be talking about it twenty five years later,” says Matt Pryor, frontman of the band.
‘Something to Write Home About (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)’ 2xLP tracklist:
LP1:
01. Holiday
02. Action & Action
03. Valentine
04. Red Letter Day
05. Out of Reach
06. Ten Minutes
07. The Company Dime
08. My Apology
09. I’m a Loner Dottie, a Rebel
10. Long Goodnight
11. Close to Home
12. I’ll Catch You
LP2:
01. One Year Later (Demo)
02. Close to Home (Demo)
03. Out of Reach (Demo)
04. Holiday (Demo)
05. Valentine (Demo)
06. My Apology (Demo)
07. Red Letter Day (Demo)
08. Ten Minutes (Demo)
09. Central Standard Time (Four Track Demo)
10. Long Goodnight (Four Track Demo)
11. The Company Dime (Four Track Demo)
12. I’ll Catch You (Four Track Demo)