The Shut-Ups Make Noise Again

Athens power-pop new-wavers The Shut-Ups haven’t been heard from – on record, at least – in something like eight years. Yet here they are again, back with their fifth album, Just Another Generation, that hops and bops along with peppy tempos, punchy execution, all-in harmonies and quirky idiosyncrasies as if we took a tumble back to a 1981 skinny tie one-hit wonderland where The Vapors, The Producers and Greg Kihn are playing a dorks-only dance at the high school gym.

But it’s adult concerns, from the cosmic to the mundane, that propel Just Another Generation, all wrapped around the theme of time passages. Speaking of, it took a shitload of time for the band to complete this thing. Recording began in 2009 with the late Bill Doss (The Olivia Tremor Control, The Sunshine Fix) engineering, and was completed last year. To the relief and delight of the band (Don Condescending, Thad Thompson, Ben Spraker, Jason NeSmith, Tony Jenkins), it’s finally being released on April 13th.