I love learning about my favourite bands and hearing stories about their lives and career, but I’m really someone that’s only really into it if it’s written by the artist themself.
Enter Matt Pyror of The Get Up Kids and The New Amsterdams and his recently announced Red Letter Days. No, it’s not a rehashed boring recreation of the album of very similar name for purely egotistical and monetary reasons, it’s an actual book and it’s actually got words and stuff inside it of things Matt has really been through (so we’re told).
Matt’s been promoting the album with a series of short reels on his Instagram page so if you want to get a sense of it, like a bit about their early touring experiences with heavy hitter punk rock juggernauts MxPx, you’ll want to check those out.
Red Letter Days hits bookshelves on January 23rd, 2024 and takes you through 1991 and 1999 (NOT 1990 and 2000 like Stereogum would have you believe – Matt said it was these dates specifically and we believe him because he was there).
Catch the book tour, which Matt sheepishly claims is not a real book tour (it is), because he’lll be playing songs inspired by the stories in the book instead of reading passages from it like some book nerd or “real author” and it’s only spread across 4 dates.
Those dates:
01.18.24 Baltimore
01.19.24 Philly
01.20.24 Hamden, CT
01.21.24 NYC
Go to mattpryorsongs.com for tickets to the show/book appearance and to pre-order the book through polyvinylrecords here.
Before you go, get into some tunes.
Crooked Forest 