Get Up Kids to Self-Release New Album

Influential Kansas City five-piece The Get Up Kids, who have a song where they sing, "Oh Amy, don't hate me for running away from you," are set to return in January 2011 with a new studio album, titled There Are Rules. It's the band's fifth full-length, and the first on their own Quality Hill Records imprint. A full set of US tour dates is planned early in the new year to support the release.

The group disbanded in 2005 after a decade together. The Kids returned to the studio in 2009, sparked by a spur-of-the-moment decision to start writing songs together again, a choice that they made while they were rehearsing to tour the tenth anniversary edition of their breakout album Something to Write Home About. I prefer Four Minute Mile, but I'm an "I like their early stuff" snob like that.

The result of their writing sessions is There Are Rules, which is twelve new songs that will prove to be both surprising, and familiar. In some fashion, the new tracks mark a return to the early days of The Get Up Kids. The recording involved lots of analog 2" tape – live takes and a feel for the unexpected.

The band has formed its own Quality Hill Records and reignited the DIY spirit that originally launched the band onto the worldwide stage. Said singer Matt Pryor, "We had a really great relationship with [former label] Vagrant but we felt that with the proverbial rebirth of the band we wanted to start our own label. Do everything ourselves like we did in the beginning." And as to naming the imprint? "Quality Hill is a historic neighborhood in Kansas City. It's not far from where we first formed the band. It seems like an appropriate name for the label."

There Are Rules track listing:

1. Tithe
2. Regent's Court
3. Shatter Your Lungs
4. Automatic
5. Pararelevant
6. Rally 'Round the Fool
7. Better Lie
8. Keith Case
9. The Widow Paris
10. Birmingham
11. When It Dies
12. Rememorable

Are you an emo fan? What is your fave emo band? Get Up Kids were considered one of the first emo bands, whether they like it or not.