(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Midtown are back with another brand new tribute to one of their favorite bands for their forthcoming EP, We’re Too Old To Write New Songs, So Here’s Some Old Songs We Didn’t Write. They’ve shared their take on Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair”, streaming now here.
Shares frontman Gabe Saporta: “Our goal in making this EP was to give people insight into the different music we listened to growing up that ultimately led us into doing Midtown. Believe it or not, Rob Hitt and I butted heads when we met as 14-year-olds. He teased me for wearing striped socks—which he considered 'grunge' and clearly not as cool as the ska revival argyle socks he was donning.
“A few years later we would make up and start Midtown, but in those days I was taking the bus into the city every weekend to see bands like Superchunk, Sonic Youth, and one of my favorites, Pavement. I remember being at the Pavement show at the Roseland, looking around, and realizing that I was probably the only 14 year old kid in a crowd that was mostly college kids. And as much as I loved Crooked Rain, I was just a little twerp and something inside of me wanted to break shit. When I discovered that there were hardcore shows happening in VFW halls 15 minutes from me, I stopped taking the bus into the city every weekend and started immersing myself in the world that eventually spawned Midtown. But still, the records I listened to when I was first falling in love with music must have shaped my journey because I keep going back to them year after year. 'Cut Your Hair' was the first song I heard from Pavement, which turned me on to an album that became one of my all time favorites— thanks for letting us share it with you.”
“Cut Your Hair” serves as a follow up to Midtown’s cover of Lagwagon’s “Know It All”. Both tracks can be found on their forthcoming EP We’re Too Old To Write New Songs, So Here’s Some Old Songs We Didn’t Write, set to be released on May 26th. The four song collection features Midtown’s take on influential songs from their past.
Fans can expect more to soon, though what exactly that’ll be…they’ll just have to wait and see. Stay tuned for more at laylo.com/midtownnj, and catch Midtown this May at Adjacent Festival in Atlantic City, NJ.
Midtown had such a blast playing its first shows in a near-decade that the emo-punk trailblazers decided to stick around. Fresh off last year’s sold out headlining tour – and a string of arena dates opening for old friends My Chemical Romance – Midtown presents its first new recordings in almost two decades. The Jersey-bred quartet’s surprise EP – We’re Too Old to Write New Songs So Here’s Some Old Songs We Didn’t Write – features four supercharged covers of songs seminal to Midtown’s musical DNA.
“It’s a lineage – where Midtown comes from and what shaped us as artists and people,” says vocalist-bassist Gabe Saporta. “We wanted to shine a light on our influences, and keep those influences alive.” Fans who caught old Midtown favorites like “Give It Up” and “Just Rock and Roll” on tour in late 2022 now get a fresh spin on tracks that helped make Midtown one of the most influential bands of emo and pop-punk’s turn-of-the-century explosion.
“The EP peels back the curtain– the songs would play over and over in the van,” says Midtown drummer Rob Hitt, thinking back to the band’s formative years. All four songs were also frequent warm-up tracks, songs Midtown would belt backstage to test those vocal harmonies, as recently as last year. On their reunion trek, Midtown rocked out to a sea of thousands at Chicago’s Riot Fest, to old friends and family at back-to-back sold out shows at New Jersey’s legendary Starland Ballroom, and to arenas full of MCRmy diehards.
The new EP was born in rehearsals for those shows. “Early summer, June and July, in the midst of practicing, we started talking about recording,” remembers vocalist-guitarist Heath Saraceno. “We were getting asked in interviews, Is new music coming out?,” Saporta recalls. Renewed with camaraderie and purpose, the band was initially ambivalent about being able to deliver.
Vocalist-guitarist Tyler Rann explains: “You have kids, you see the world through their eyes; you start to get older …” “and you wonder if you can get back to the place you were when you first wrote these songs,” interjects Saporta, “or if you’d even want to.” The band ultimately decided that sharing these renditions of songs that inspired them would be the best next thing.
Behind the success of 2022’s reunion and this exciting batch of songs, Midtown has found a new cadence. They’re slated to appear alongside Paramore and Blink-182 at Atlantic City, NJ’s inaugural Adjacent Festival this May, and don’t be surprised if more headlining shows appear around the holidays. Same goes for another surprise EP – perhaps with fans getting to vote on which songs get covered. Maybe a March Madness-style bracket to see what makes the cut? It’s all on the table.
“People always say you can’t go back, you can’t do it again,” says Rann, "but sometimes fate has another plan.”
Midtown is: Gabe Saporta – lead vocals, bass guitar; Tyler Rann – vocals, guitar; Heath Saraceno – vocals, guitars; and Rob Hitt - drums.
