Proverbs by The Shut-Ups
Proverbs is a double album full of dubious advice for a stiff-necked people.
Stylistically, the album is a sprawl; the band hurtles through familiar Power Pop and New Wave territory but not without taking detours through nearly every other genre, including, but not limited to: Outlaw Country, Sloppy Jazz, Regressive Prog, Progressive Lounge, Lunch-Pail Americana, The Great Armenian Songbook, Simpering Folk, Homesick Mediterranean Sea Shanty, Third Wave Anti-Skiffle, Socratic Monologue, Dilapidated Yacht Rock, Lethargic Protest, Incitement To Animal Cruelty, Unduly Tentative Awards Show Exit Music, and World Music Tape Loops Baked In Layers Of Bureaucracy And Weaponized Against The Forces Of Specificity.
The album’s patron saint is Shakespeare’s Polonius, "Hamlet"’s comically inept and pompously gratuitous dispenser of dubiously wise sayings.
Tracklist
| 1. | I Got This Way From Kissing Girls | |
| 2. | Signs Along The Road | |
| 3. | Wronger | 3:35 |
| 4. | I Will Not Be Moved | |
| 5. | Heaping Coals of Fire | 3:22 |
| 6. | Say It With a Sigh | |
| 7. | The Filth May Have Settled On Me | |
| 8. | I Need Your Cologne (Tonight) | |
| 9. | Lie Low | |
| 10. | You Know Not What The Day Will Bring | |
| 11. | He Weeps | |
| 12. | Hide Your Horns | |
| 13. | There Are No Worse Words Than Curse Words | |
| 14. | Remember Me Wrong | |
| 15. | Donny Hates to Love | |
| 16. | It Says Here | |
| 17. | Animals Must Not Be Trusted | |
| 18. | Give Me My Old Crown of Thorns | |
| 19. | Some Go To Wars | |
| 20. | What I Should Look Like | |
| 21. | To The Ends of The Earth | |
| 22. | Not Every Thorn Has a Rose | |
| 23. | To My Children's Children's Children's Children's Children | |
| 24. | Friends With Bruce | |
| 25. | Before It Begins | |
| 26. | I Will Speak of Wonderful Things (But Obliquely) | |
| 27. | Like a Dog Returning To Its Vomit | 4:10 |
Credits
Recorded February 2023–August 2024 at Chase Park Transduction, Bel*Air Studio and elsewhere.
Mastered September 2024 at Chase Park Transduction by Jason NeSmith.
Produced by Don Condescending and Jason NeSmith.
Engineered by Jason NeSmith, Ben Hackett and Annie Leeth.
All songs written and arranged by Don Condescending, ©2024 and ℗2024 Down Syndrome Superhero Music (ASCAP).
Album design by Jen Carter with help from Don Condescending and his robots.
Don Condescending: Vocals, keyboards, programming
Ben Spraker: Vocals, guitar
Thad Thompson: Bass, backing vocals
Jason NeSmith: More guitar, keyboards, programming, vocals
Ballard Lesemann: drums
Special thanks to Matt Latocha for playing trumpet on Say It With A Sigh and flugelhorn on Before It Begins.
License
All rights reserved.
We're a five-piece new-wave power-pop band from Atlanta and Athens, GA and practice daily at 6AM. We do more before 8AM than most bands do all week.
We're not about Pleasure or Fun. You may enjoy listening to us. You may not. You may pretend to enjoy us because others you respect seem to. They may be pretending, too. In which case you may want to consider what else they're pretending about.