Event Description

In December last year, former The Get Up Kids and New Amsterdams frontman Matt Pryor released his solo album Wrist Slitter. The album features 12 tracks, including guest appearances from friends Chris Conley (of Saves The Day), Bob Nanna (of Braid), and Steve Soboslai (of Punchline).

When I heard that Matt Pryor was working on a new solo album I half expected it to be an acoustic singer-songwriter kind of record. It seemed appropriate as many artists from the emo punk rock and hardcore scene have recently done just that rather successfully (Dave Hause, Chuck Regan, or City and Color). When this didn’t turn out to be the case I was rather relieved. While Wrist Slitter features some of those elements, As Perfect as We’ll Ever Be features just Matt’s vocals and an acoustic guitar, much of it sounds like it was a The Get Up Kids record. This is of course thanks to Matt’s unique vocals but also because the album features a full backing band and most of the songs are composed in mid-tempo and run under 3 minutes.

Pryor further expands on the origin of album title Wrist Slitter, “I was prepared to write a very sad album, a wrist slitter, but this album ended up being the exact opposite of that.”

Though best known for his work as the primary singer-songwriter for The Get Up Kids, Pryor has a vast musical catalog including his folk-tinged group The New Amsterdams, children’s music project Terrible Twos and indie-rock super group Lasorda – featuring Nate Harold (fun.), Mike Standberg (Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band), and Dustin Kinsey (The New Amsterdams). Never one to slow down, Pryor also contributes to Chicago start-up Downwrite – a website that enables artists to create fan-commissioned songs and connect with fans on a personal and creative level – and performs online concerts for StageIt – an online platform dedicated to monetized live streamed performances.

Support comes from Allison Weiss who made headlines in 2009 when her Kickstarter campaign to fund her Debut Album …Was Right All Along reached it’s target in a matter of hours. It ended up trebling. Stateside, her popularity has picked her up fans such as Lou Reed who took her out on tour in Europe as main support and invited her to perform as part of his touring band. Her new album Say What You Mean was released in April last year and was followed by a tour with The Front Bottoms.

Thanks to the wonderful people of fkpScorpio, Blitzgigs is giving away a double pass to the show! To grab your free tickets, just email us at winwinwin@blitzgigs.de with your full name and the answer to the following easy question:

What’s the name of the new album from Matt Pryor?

Competition closes 12:00, Wednesday February 23rd. Good luck!