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Providence, Rhode Island band Get Him Eat Him is breaking up. Fronted by ex-Pitchfork scribe and former Guided By Voices superfan Matt LeMay, Get Him Eat Him has been around for about five years and put out two pretty great records on Absolutely Kosher Records. Notable for being well ahead of the curve on bringing back the frantic guitar pop of the early '80s and using vocoder-processed vocals, today they sound like a precursor for the trendy new wave of spazz-pop bands. They owed a lot to their forebears in bands like the Dismemberment Plan and Chisel, and their albums Geography Cones and Arms Down are great listens for fans of indie rock with a new-wave bent.
Why the sudden breakup? According to a statement on Stereogum, real life started to get in the way. Does this mean that the kids from Get Him Eat Him are going to disappear into faceless day-job lifestyles forever? Probably, but we'll probably hear more from Matt LeMay at least. He is apparently joining the band of fellow former GBV superfan Graham Smith, Kleenex Girl Wonder (my fave of 2008). This gives me high hopes for the future of Kleenex Girl Wonder because LeMay has a real knack for pop hooks, and his style is a good match for Smith's hyper-verbosity and sense of melody. One of my GHEH favorites is "What We Do" from their second album Arms Down. It tones down their normal frantic guitar attack to allow for a more roomy pop dynamic that builds nicely to a big finale and features some nice lovelorn lyrics. I wish the GHEH guys the best - I had a chance to chat with them after a great gig they played in town a few years ago (to a crowd of ~10 people), and they were really cool people who loved the music they were playing.
"What We Do" by Get Him Eat Him
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