"mEMOries" Part 20 feat. Sinking

8 years ago, back on the old site, we did start a series called mEMOries. It was all about asking new Emo-bands or other scene affiliates about their all time favourite (Midwest-)Emo-record. It was about nostalgia. And it was about connecting the new with the old. I had big plans for this series, wanted to collect 20 parts and then release some sort of a sampler with an XL-booklet attached, that features all of the text pieces...

...after 7 parts the series was buried, when the end of borderline fuckup 1.0 was on the horizon. I'm still in love with the idea and tried my best to start a relaunch in 2021, but it mainly was a chore. However, I got back on track somehow, with a lot of support by some lovely people. Now, here's part 20 for your reading pleasure!

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// The band // Sinking

Spending their time in various Hardcore-bands, SINKING came together in 2017 with the idea to play something in the line of 90s-Indie/Emo. The four-piece released their debut album "Only Echoes" in 2020 and returned this year with their best material yet, to be found on their EP "Misshapen World". SINKING's own Devan Gardner honours THE GET UP KIDS' "Four Minute Mile" on its 25th anniversary...

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// The record // The Get Up Kids - Four Minute Mile

Release: 1997 // Label: Doghouse Records

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Devan on "Four Minute Mile" by The Get Up Kids

Growing up as an angry kid in the valley of the Berkshire mountains in Western Massachusetts, I gravitated to punk and hardcore at an early age. I had a lot of feelings with no other means to express myself. Stomping around local punk shows with a studded leather jacket and footlong mohawk, pushing my friends around the pit, or just getting into trouble was my idea of a good time (It still is- I’m just too old to dance hard now). But there was this other side of me that craved something different besides just fast paced, angry riffs and screaming vocals. At the time, I didn’t know what that was.

I attended a small liberal arts college when I was 19. My dorm room was in a small hallway suite with a few other rooms. My first day of orientation, I met my neighbor, Tyson, who would help introduce me into a new world of music I didn’t know I needed. We first bonded over our Minor Threat and Black Flag tattoos we had. We both came from punk and hardcore and immediately became friends. I remember sitting around one night talking about records we loved and bands we thought were overrated or shitty (In Pittsfield there is no law). We started talking about bands from the 90’s we were fans of and he mentioned The Get Up Kids. At the time, I hadn’t really heard much from them, other than perhaps “Holiday” and a few other tracks off “Something To Write Home About”. He pulled up a record and proclaimed, “This is the emo bible”. It was “Four Minute Mile”. I told him I would check it out and we moved on with our conversation.

A few days went by. I thought about that record and decided to give it a listen. I threw it into the search bar of my illegal music download site (fuck the cops) and stored it into my iTunes library. It was exactly what I needed in that moment. That other part of me, the thing I craved so much but didn’t know I needed, flooded open. From the moment the guitars in “Coming Clean” rip open, I was in. It was still fast paced and angry in so many ways, but spoke to me in a softer voice than other records I was into at the time. I was falling down a weird path during those years while I was discovering who I was, who I really still am today.

Hearing the record wasn’t some euphoric, cosmic shift. But feeling like I wasn’t alone with how I felt, changed me for better. The Get Up Kids have been a major inspiration in almost everything I’ve done since then. College came and went. I grew up, got married, had kids and got a real job. But I always come back to that record when I need a reminder of where I came from and how I felt when things were shitty.

Sinking takes a lot of influence from bands like TGUK, from wildly simple, but complex octave chord parts over vocals, or three chords songs that sound so huge. I will always be grateful for Tyson- preaching the emo bible to a lost kid who needed help. I’m still a punk kid at heart though.

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"mEMOries" Part 1 feat. Mosey Jones
"mEMOries" Part 2 feat. Daniel Becker (Time as a Color Records, Amid the Old Wounds)
"mEMOries" Part 3 feat. Former States 
"mEMOries" Part 4 feat. Edie Quinn (Middle-Man Records, Coma Regalia)
"mEMOries" Part 5 feat. Human Hands 
"mEMOries" Part 6 feat. Alex Miles (Is this Thing on?)
"mEMOries" Part 7 feat. Boys' Club
"mEMOries" Part 8 feat. Keith Latinen (Mt. Oriander, Parting) 
"mEMOries" Part 9 feat. Villain of the War 
"mEMOries" Part 10 feat. John Szuch (Deep Elm Records)
"mEMOries" Part 11 feat. Flight Mode 
"mEMOries" Part 12 feat. Comic Sans
"mEMOries" Part 13 feat. Joe C (What Price Wonderland?, Plaids, Zochor)
"mEMOries" Part 14 feat. Mentah 
"mEMOries" Part 15 feat. Walking Race
"mEMOries" Part 16 feat. Against Realism
"mEMOries" Part 17 feat. Klaus Axmann (Goddamn Records) 
"mEMOries" Part 18 feat. Atlanta Arrival 
"mEMOries" Part 19 feat. Mary's Letter