Give me something hard and fast and short and sweet and sounds like I’m riding a shopping cart through a drugstore window. Most people would mistakenly believe that sounds a lot like screaming and a shattering of glass, followed almost immediately with all kinds of alarms and sirens. The truth is that it sounds a lot more like 2002, the rush of hormones and, more recently, The Follow Ups. For a brilliant minute and a half they’ve captured the sense of being seventeen again with their single, “No Remedy.”
The Moncton band get to the point right away. After all, with that short of a timespan there’s not a lot of wiggle room for mucking about. String together a couple of ideas and then mash the gas pedal. The Follow Ups get full points for their piss and vinegar alone, not to mention the appropriate number of “ooohs” and “ahhhhs.”
“Mental illness,” deadpans Greg, the band’s drummer, as he explains what he feels The Follow Ups are getting at with “No Remedy.”
“Most our songs are about the age old struggle of girls, or anxiety,” says Greg. “For me, mainly, it’s basically just old school heartache and never feeling good enough.”
The Follow Ups’ lyricist and lead singer Mike Kizer says that he prefers that people interpret the song in their own way, but explains, “It’s telling the people that hate everything and feel like everything’s shit that they’re not alone.”
The band are heading back to the studio for fresh music in December, and in the meantime you can catch them live during their mid-October tour.
Tours Dates:
10.11.18 – Scanner Bistro, Quebec City, QC with Dirty Work
10.12.18 Mademoiselle, Montreal QC with Sprankton and Friends
10.13.18 Blackout Fest, Brantford ON
10.14.18 TBA
10.15.18 – Taco Pica, Saint John NB with Dirty Work
10.19.18 – The Well, Miramichi NB with Which Witch is Which