Get Up Kids Stand by Emo Apology

Posted on Sep 23rd 2009 4:30PM by Dan Reilly
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Earlier this summer, Get Up Kids guitarist/vocalist Jim Suptic caused a stir when he apologized for the band's influence on today's "emo" culture. While some fans and media outlets saw it as a dig against bands like Fall Out Boy, the recently reunited Kansas City quintet felt no repercussions. "You know, we haven't actually gotten any s--- for it," frontman Matt Pryor tells Spinner. "Everyone's like 'Oh, you're going to alienate people,' but it's almost like everyone was waiting for us to say it."

Although Pryor may not relate to FOB's brand of pop-punk, he accepts the connection. "There's an element of people who have obviously discovered us because of them, but I don't think they're necessarily offended by anything we've said. A kid came up to me at our last show in Italy and was wearing a Fall Out Boy shirt and he obviously found out about us through them," he says. "I used to do that. I found out about a lot of stuff. I found out about the Misfits because of Metallica."

Even after all these years -- the band recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its landmark sophomore album, 'Something to Write Home About' -- the emo label still doesn't make sense to Pryor. "From day one, it was something the hardcore kids and the pop-punk kids would call us to make fun of us," he says. "It's funny now that it's like a marketing term. It's something people strive to be. We just didn't really give a s---."

"Maybe when I was 16 I would've really liked it," he adds of today's music. "You don't want to sound like a curmudgeon, like 'You damn kids and your emo! Get off my lawn!' It's just not my thing. I listen to NPR and folk music most of the time."