The Get Up Kids

Olathe, Kansas is about 15 miles from downtown Kansas City and is the boyhood home of James David Suptic, Robert Steven Pope and Ryan Michael Pope. Jim, Robbie and Ryan all attended Olathe South High School where their old band,Kingpin, was the talk of the Olathe indie scene. Meanwhile in KC proper, Matthew Patrick Pryor was playing in a series of bands around the KC area...sometimes making it to the famed Gee Coffee in Olathe to see Kingpin play. Jim, Robbie and Ryan became fast freinds with Matt since they all had at least one thing in common...their age. Every member of the get up kids has been playing in bands since he was 14 or so. Jim and Robbie were 17, Ryan was 16 and Matt was 18 when Kingpin broke up and Matt and Jim formed the short lived punk rock (which was the style at the time) outfit called Secret Decoder Ring. SDR lasted about six months when Matt and Jim decided to start a band with Robbie. Ryan had already started playing in other bands since Kingpin's demise so enter Nathan Shay, a friend of Jim's from The Kansas City Art Institute and The Get Up Kids were born. The Get Up Kids played their first official "show" in Pat "the head's" basement in December of 1994 on a moment's notice when the band Shift's van broke down outside of town. It was ridiculous, and we've got pictures to prove it. Everyone in the band was in school but they still found time to play a few shows and record a 7" at Whoopass Studios in Lincoln, NE. Robbie and Matt funded the recording and release of the 7" on the short lived Huey Proudhon Records, named for Nathan Shay's roomate at the time. Nathan went back to his home in St.Louis, MO for the summer to study sculpture and basically put more time into school so, he and the band parted ways in April of 1996. Ryan was brought in originally as a substitute drummer because there was some concern about having the brothers in the same band and about Jim and Ryan not getting along, which was one of the reasons that Kingpin broke up. Ryan's first show with the band was May 20th 1996 at the Daily Grind in Kansas City with Boys Life and Karate. Uh...Boys Life and Karate were really good at that show....we weren't. The Huey Proudhon 7" sold 2000 copies and got pretty good reviews. The band made their first trips out of town to play in Fayeteville, AR and Chicago, St. Louis and an overcrowded show at the Slant House in Madison, WI with Mineral and The Promise Ring. On the success of the Huey Proudhon 7" the kids went into the studio to do two 7"s, one for Contrast Records out of Rhode Island and another for Outback Records out of Florida. They recorded four songs at Red House Recording in Lawrence, KS with Ed Rose in November of 1996 and sent tapes to all the rock labels in The Muscian's Guide To Touring and Promotion and got the attention of Doghouse records out of Toledo, OH. Doghouse was interested in signing the band but wanted to put out a 7" ep to set up the record. Rather than put out a fourth 7", the band decided to payback Outback and put the 7" out on Doghouse. The Contrast 7" was added to the CD version of the 7" and it became the &"All Stars" ep which was released on Doghouse in June of 1997. The kids kept playing shows around the KC area and going to school. Ryan was still in high school but he took some time off for the band to drive to Chicago to record their very first full length album. "Four Minute Mile" was recorded and mixed in two and a half days at The Chicago Recording Company with Bob Weston (of the mighty Shellac) in April of 1997. The band packed up and drove back to Olathe to take Ryan back to high school. Since the kids had a "real" record coming out, they decided to "take a year off" from school to give being a full time band a try. In June of 1997 they hit the road with new friends Braid and Ethel Meserve. The highlights of that tour included playing a split set in Rhode Island and the legendary CBGB's with Monster X and Spazz...it was a trip. It was also on that tour that the band played the Wilkes Barre, PA with Grade, Converge and KC locals Coalesce. It was at this fateful show that James Dewees (coalesce's drummer) thew his floor tom into the crowd and hit some girl in the head. It was chaos. Coalesce and the Get Ups became fast friends after that. In Spetember of 1997 "Four Minute Mile" was released and the kids recorded "I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel" for the Tree Record's Postmark Stamps split 7" series. The Kids 7" was split with new best friends Braid. Also, they recorded "Burned Bridges" a reworked version of Coalesce's "Harvest Of Maturity" for a split 7" with Coalesce on Second Nature records. Coalesce did a monsterous rendition of "Second Place" called "I'm Giving Up On This One" ... how evil. The next year is a blur of basements, friends floors and interstates as the band hit the road. The tours included the east coast and south with Mineral and Jejune in Spetember of 1997, The west coast with No Knife in Ocotober and November 1997, the northeast with Jimmy Eat World in December of 1997, Europe with Braid in February and March of 1998, the south in April of 1998 and the west coast with Braid in May of 1998. The Kids also did a crazy road trip from Kansas City, MO to NYC to play with Rocket From The Crypt and then straight to Austin, TX to play South By Southwest and then home. It was a 2,000 mile trip for two shows...what were we thinking. The band played over 200 shows in one year, got to see most of Europe and the enitre US, made friends, went to weddings, and tour Graceland. It was a blast but we needed a break. The kids decided to take the summer of 1998 off to work on writing their next album. Instead they learned a Motley Crue cover for a metal tribute record on Triple Crown Records, a Pixies cover for a tribute on Glue Factory Records, a Metroschifter cover for a tribute record on Initial Records and two songs for a Sub Pop singles club 7". Still busy when on vacation. In the meantime the band had decided that the time had come to make the jump to a major label. No other agenda than that, they just thought it was the right time. So, during their time off they started to meet with labels and finally decided on Mojo Records out of Los Angeles, CA....yeah yeah home of The Cherry Poppin'Daddies...whatever. In October of 1998 the kids hit the road again with MXPX and Homegrown...it was their first supporting tour. The get up's had only played baements and small clubs and were now playing to 1,000 screaming kids a night...it was kind of a strange tour but believe me...we got down. We spent most of the money we made in Canada at the Niagra Casino, but...well...he he he.... So, from December of 1998 to April of 1999 the band wrote a batch of new songs and waited for the Mojo deal to pan out. They practiced every day and wrote a bunch of new songs but time kept dragging on and the Mojo negotiations kept taking too long. After six months of butting heads with the label over everything the band decided that maybe it wasn't the right time to sign to a major. In the meantime, Coalesce decided to go on hiatus and the get up's decided that it was time they got a keyboard player. Matt had been doing a side project with James Dewees (coalesce's drummer who hit the girl with the drum in Wilkes Barre, PA) and the kids asked James if he would be interested in being the keyboard player in the band...he begrudgingly accepted. In March of 1999 the band recorded the "Red Letter Day" five song 10"/CD for Doghouse. It is James' get up kids debut. It was released in July of 1999. In April of 1999 the band (now a quintet) started Heroes and Villains records and signed themselves. Heroes and Villains then signed a deal with Vagrant Records out of Santa Monica, Ca to run the show. So, in a nutshell, the get up kids are on Heroes and Villains / Vagrant Records. They left KC in June of 1999 to drive to LA and record what would become "Something To Write Home About" and that's where we are right now. I'll keep you posted as more things come up.