Big Ups have shared Hope For Someone, the third single lifted from their forthcoming album ‘Before A Million Universes,’ on FADER. Following the record’s first teaser Capitalized (which appeared online before Christmas alongside plans for a spring UK/EU tour), and the video for National Parks, Hope For Someone is the band’s ode to idealism, a reoccurring theme throughout their body of work. As FADER puts it, “Big Ups are asking hard questions with all of their heart.”
After their long awaited Brooklyn release show on March 5th, Big Ups will travel south to Texas for SXSW and then fly to Europe for a month long tour. See below for dates and stay tuned for more in the months ahead!
Big Ups’ second LP, ‘Before A Million Universes,’ is at once a fist in the face of complacency and a sonic affirmation to, in Walt Whitman’s words, “let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.” Pretty heady subject matter.
Joe Galarraga (Vocals), Amar Lal (Guitar), Carlos Salguero Jr. (Bass), and Brendan Finn (Drums), met studying music technology at NYU. Five years later, the city’s notorious crucible of garbage, money, and humanity has had a profound and delightful impact on their art. “Tell me what you’re worth / Salary, two weeks off work?” Galarraga screams on Capitalized, as the bassline frantically roams our conscience like a wet-nosed dog. Galarraga’s vocals burn with the heat of a thousand day jobs.
Yet all this righteousness is worth as much as a Che t-shirt if it lacks humility, and more than any of the band’s previous work, Before A Million Universes plumbs the depths of self-deception in wickedly clever ways. Who doesn’t own a coat made of “The Feathers Of Yes”? “Count the ideas in my head so I can love every one,” our protagonist coos before Lal’s guitar tosses lightning bolts through his cloud. “And it feels so warm / wrapped in self-righteous truths.”
Yawp unspools the exercise in futility that is the over-examined life to the tune of a lumbering giant stomping across a field of insecurities. “How many times can you be poured through the still to the point of perfection? / I’ve dropped myself through the coils so many times but always come out with something missing / And the proof’s so high it makes me dizzy.”
The album’s emotional and musical core lies in National Parks, a song Galarraga wrote as a tribute to the sacrifices his mother made to raise him. We’re led through the anger and bewilderment-at his mom’s solitary walks through their neighborhood and the selfishness inherent to childhood-and into a coda where you can almost see the sun streaming through the trees of Galarraga’s park, drums steady and swelling, a transition in tone and mood that this band has nearly perfected. “I think I saw her say to herself / This is everything I’ve missed.”
‘Before A Million Universes’ is Big Ups at their most sincere, urgent, and vital – a salty kiss from the wet lips of Brooklyn’s bard.
Tour dates:
03/05 – Brooklyn, NY @ Shea Stadium
03/09 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong
03/11 – Savannah, GA @ Savannah Stopover
03/12 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
03/13 – Denton, TX @ 35 Denton
03/15-03/20 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
03/28 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast
03/29 – Manchester, UK @ Gullivers
03/30 – London, UK @ The Lexington
03/31 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
04/01 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana
04/02 – Birmingham, UK @ Sunflower Lounge
04/04 – Lille, FR @ La Peniche
04/05 – Paris, FR @ Mecanique Ondulatorie
04/06 – Brussels, BE @ VK
04/08 – Groningen, NL @ Vera
04/09 – Eindhoven, NL @ Area 51 Skate Park
04/10 – Cologne, DE @ MTC
04/11 – Vienna, AT @ B72
04/12 – Bologna, IT @ Freakout Club
04/13 – Mila, IT @ Ligera
04/14 – Munich, DE @ Kranhalle
04/16 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
04/18 – Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia
04/19 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
04/21 – Amsterdam, NL @ OT301
