The Get Up Kids

After years sweating it out in dingy basements and underground clubs across the Midwest, The Get Up Kids helped push emo into the 21st century, influencing bands like Fall Out Boy and Blink-182 with their sticky, heartbreak-heavy hooks. Formed in 1995 in Kansas City, MO, the quartet built up a strong regional following and soon a national one following the release of their 1997 debut album, Four Minute Mile. The unfiltered set brought the band’s live energy to record, but it was 1999’s tighter, more keys-infused Something to Write Home About that took them—and their label, Vagrant Records—to emo dominance. With a desire to grow beyond their yearning pop-punk style, they brought in strings, organs, and touches of Americana and classic rock to 2002’s On a Wire and 2004’s Guilt Show—to the acclaim of critics and surprise of some diehard fans. The band soon called it quits in 2005 but reunited just three years later. The revitalized Get Up Kids continued to build on their sound with 2011’s There Are Rules and 2019’s Problems, touching on more adult woes while retaining the urgency and emotion of their roots.