Fun
© Copyright-The Vitamen
(634479071577)
Record Label: J'MOZ Records
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The Vitamen have been playing together since high school. They weren't in the same band in high school but they were friends and did play together. Now, a few years later, Jesse Blockton, Matt Hyams & Dave "Roz" Rozner have come to their senses and reunited to form New York City's groundbreaking rock trio The Vitamen.
Together for only a short time, The Vitamen have already established an audience from Manhattan to Brooklyn & self released their 15 song debut FUN. Their songs, from deeply emotional ballads like "Dramatic" & "I Can't Say It" to the ultra-catchy pop of "Friendfucker" & "The Richer My Dad Gets," are all instantly unmistakable because of their heavy vocal harmonies, unique musical arrangements & what could possibly be considered the new benchmark with which to measure lyrical honesty.
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THE VITAMEN
Sounds Like: Infectious, upbeat hooks like the Kinks; weird, funny lyrics like the Moldy Peaches; deadpan poignancy like Pavement.
Signature Lyric: Was every girl on earth molested or am I just bad in bed?
The Guys: The trio attended high school together in Mamaroneck, New York, where front man Jesse Blockton and bassist Matt Hyams also attended Hebrew School. Eventually they joined up with drummer Dave Rozner “from a rival temple,” says Blockton. Years later they took their sound to Los Angeles, but found California “to suck shit” and returned to New York City. “People get us here,” says Hyams. “LA is more about suicide. New York is more about having fun.”
The Message: The Vitamen have a particular brand of modern masculine obsessive-compulisive insecurity that you can actually sing along to. But they are also so emotionally potent that whether they are playing an unsentimental ballad about the excrutiating quest to protect one’s mother from life’s disappointments ("I'm gonna do everything in my power/to get money to give to you"), or harmonizing about masturbatory anxiety, you find yourself caring improbably deeply.
NY Magazine, Music Issue 2003
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The Vitamen - Catchy downer music and words that ferret out details funnier and more embarrassing than most twentysomething sarcasts are smart enough to notice, much less write songs about.
Robert Christgau, Village Voice
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The Vitamen are making moves: A competing local weekly (scooped, of course, by the Voice) quoted these Fountains of Wayne-worthy pop-rock wiseacres saying they found Cali to "suck shit"; their songs, about jerking off and loving their moms, all sound equally snarky and sincere.
Nick Catucci, Village Voice
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There must be bigger sourpusses than these guys among the thousands of DIY rockers in this town without pity. But don't be so sure they're this bracing and sardonic.
Robert Christgau, Village Voice
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The Vitamen are three awkward guys with sweet, strained vocals playing some killer cynical pop.
Time Out NY
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THE VITAMEN- Songs turn naturally towards the bleak or the humorous. The Vitamen write bleaker than Nick Drake and funnier than Richard Pryor in the same line.
WNYU.com
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...This prematurely embittered little band the Vitamen, who have now shown off their discomfiting songwriting on two consecutive self-released EPs. Who knows what will become of them? If I were in the neighborhood, I’d go in and try to guess.
Robert Christgau, Village Voice
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Not just another CD release party! NYC based trio The Vitamen like to bare their souls and their lyrics show they certainly aren't afraid to tell us whats on their mind.
Paper Magazine
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BEST UNSIGNED BAND OF THE MONTH—THE VITAMEN
Their lyrics are the kind that you might write down in your diary and then bury in your backyard but as you hear them you can’t help but smile along with the band and shake your head with a grin like you just heard something that you weren’t supposed to. The only difference is that it was witty, funny and absurd all at the same time.
David Lipp, 24/7
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"...There may be better locally released full-lengths this year (though I certainly can't think of any), but there won't be any as immediate, coherent, or moving..."
Tris McCall, Jersey Beat
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Catchy downer music ferrets out details more embarrassing than most twentysometh
author: Robert Christgau - Village Voice
The Vitamen -- Catchy downer music and words that ferret out details funnier and more embarrassing than most twentysomething sarcasts are smart enough to notice, much less write songs about.
Read more...
There may be better locally released full-lengths this year (though I certainly
author: Jersey Beat
THE VITAMEN – FUN (www.thevitamen.com) They don’t try to overwhelm you sonically. Nobody in this group is addicted to heavy wattage, and frontman and guitarist Jesse Blockton doesn’t tend to play big chords, favoring instead the kind of brittle, complicated instrumental parts that will inevitably get this group compared to Steely Dan. No, The Vitamen like to clear space for their lyrics, and since Blockton is also loath to shout, that means pulling back on verses and limiting instrumental monkeying-about. But have no doubt, they’re going to get your attention anyway. Three guys singing lines such as "I’m afraid if I live alone/I'm gonna rip all the skin off my dick" and "was every girl on earth molested/or am I just bad in bed?" in tight harmony will tend to accomplish that. Blockton is the Philip Roth of NYC indie rock, a writer grappling with questions about masculinity, urban life, and the relationship between the two, steeped in a classic tradition (in this case, seventies radio rock and singer-songwriters) and completely uninterested in chasing trends. Like Roth, Blockton can be potty-mouthed, but he compensates by spinning surprisingly moving narratives out of occasionally crass threads. It further helps that the group’s feel for rock song composition is unquestionably masterful. Fun, their debut, consists of 17 songs recorded cheaply on four-track, presented humbly and without much studio polish. Nevertheless, at least eleven of these ought to permanently penetrate the consciousness of any close listener, particularly the breathy, touching "I Can’t Say It", "Dramatic" (I court the horror of the Vitamen by suggesting it sounds like an outtake from Workingman’s Dead, but I mean it as the highest complement possible), bassist Matt Hyams’s absurdly catchy "Pretty Little Secret" and "Please Show Me The Way", and "The Truth", Blockton’s devastating defense of dishonesty. Fun presents the Vitamen’s ideas cogently and courageously, allowing their arguments and worldview to unfold at an easily assimilable pace. There may be better locally released full-lengths this year (though I certainly can’t think of any), but there won’t be any as immediate, coherent, or moving, and those qualities will always trump slick professionalism and the lure of a big sound. - Tris McCall, Jersey Beat
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