Premiere: Listen: Big Ups Stream ‘Eighteen Hours Of Static’ LP In Full

Barely a second into 2014 and Big Ups are wasting no time in introducing the world to their sweat-drenched, frustration-laced debut record ‘Eighteen Hours of Static’.

The NYC group have signed up to Tough Love after starting out in 2010 and releasing two 7’ singles - including a split with Flagland - in between then and now. As the clock strikes on the present day, their unrelentingly moody take on post-punk sounds more vital than ever. The basement venue rooted blues of their debut links up with fellow Brooklynites Parquet Courts, but there’s a further grit to this first work, a bark and a bite that commands attention.

DIY’s bringing you the first listen of Big Ups’ ‘Eighteen Hours of Static’. We also asked Joe Galarraga from the band a few questions about how religion and brutal honesty feed into their first work.

Pre-order Big Ups’ debut LP on Vinyl through Tough Love.



When did you start writing the LP? Was it a pretty seamless process?
It all came about pretty slowly. I don’t think we ever were considering making an LP, but then we had the opportunity via Dead Labour & Tough Love. So we took the songs that we hadn’t recorded and built an album around them. There were a few songs that came together almost at the last minute. Ultimately, I think we’re happy with the final product, even though it was a buzzer-beater.

Are there any prevailing themes that tie the debut together? Would it be right to say there’s an overriding sense of frustration?
The ideas that come up the most throughout the record are the notions of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’. It’s a record about coping with things that are very real and often disturbing.

‘Goes Black’ is one of the most downright honest songs going. Have you always been this unafraid to stick your neck out and put thoughts like these to tape?
When writing songs, I don’t really have any problem speaking my mind, even if I’m writing from a vulnerable place. But now, it’s on a record; it’s archived forever. That makes me a bit nervous. Maybe I’ll look back on my lyrics and cringe from embarrassment, but hopefully it will remind me of the things I was dealing with at the time. In that way, it’s kind of exciting; it’s like looking through an old journal.

You’ve tagged the debut album as ‘punctual punk’ - is this a tongue-in-cheek reference? What makes it so punctual?
It’s actually a very literal reference. We coined the term years ago. When we first started playing shows, we found ourselves arriving and loading into the venues before all of the other bands. We were very eager.

Is there a story behind the song ‘Atheist Self-Help’? With a title like that, there must be.
That song is oddly personal, even though it’s this weird, convoluted extended metaphor that doesn’t really make sense. I had a teacher in high school that planted this idea in my head that I was responsible for everything that happened to me. Not necessarily that I should blame myself for misfortunes or tragedies or anything like that, but rather that I was in charge of my future, and that no one could change that. It seems very obvious, but it was very motivating and empowering, and it’s really stuck with me. So that became the line ‘No one’s going to save you, you’ve got to save yourself’. I don’t mean to say that I’m solipsistic, but rather that I am in control of the decisions I make. There’s no deus ex machina; I have to work through my problems. I’m not fundamentalist atheist or anything, but this is a ‘religion’ that works for me.