YUPPIES
I don’t even know when we first heard of Yuppies or how. They seemed to come out of the ether in a cacophony of fuzzy snarled vocals, discordant guitars, poppy major-key keyboards and tape hiss. Their songs hit you with a youthful exuberance and tracks such as “Sunglasses” with its first verse of “I like girls that wear Sunglasses/ I like girls that cook big breakfasts/ I like girls that get good grades” is an unabashedly fun teen anti-anthem that seems to revel in its own inanity. There is, however, an impassioned core to many of Yuppies songs, helped by vocalist, keyboardist and guitarist Jack Begley’s intense delivery that recalls the sneer of John Lydon and the swagger of a young Henry Rollins. Songs such as ‘For the Future’s sake’ rage against apathy, pleading to anyone who will listen; ‘For the future’s sake stay alert,’ though only after tempering that urgent call with ‘For the future’s sake inhale deep’.
Yuppies’ mix of fuzzed-out garage rock and late 70’s punk, combined with a distinctly lo-fi aesthetic, has seen them christened with the Shitgaze tag by some, indeed they were once referred to as ‘Psychedelic Horseshit fucking Thomas Function while Times New Viking plays on the stereo and TV Ghost hide in the closet and watch.’ Whilst this gives an idea of the band’s contemporaries, Yuppies are too enthusiastically awkward to be pigeon-holed into any one scene and on their side for 12PALM02, a split with Bitches, they navigate everything from sprawling post-punk to stumbling anti-folk, often within the same song. Completed by Kevin Donahue (Drums), Jeff Sedrel (Bass Guitar) and Noah Sterba (Guitar and Vocals) Yuppies have released a 7” entitled ‘I’ve Been Touched’ on Grotto Records, and a split 7” on Dutch Hall with recent tour buddies Noah’s Ark was a Spaceship. They have an enthusiasm for playing live that you would expect when listening to these records, and it has been amazing to hear from a whole range of American bands we’ve been talking to how they saw Yuppies playing some dingy bar one time and how good they were. We’re just jealous we can’t be in the U.S this year to see them on a mammoth tour that sees them criss-cross the country from May to June.
