A successful side project is a conundrum in and of itself. Matt Sharp left Weezer to push out a pair of Rentals records. Subsequently Sharp was sucked into pop”s Bermuda Triangle and vanished from the face of the earth taking his moog-flavored synth-project with him. The creative urge must be causation for musical side-projects. Artistic need to create pulls musicians away from groups where they are not be the central songwriter (i.e. the Weezer/Sharp paradigm) driving them to their own, often fruitless pursuits.
- Paul Wong
- The boys are back in town. The Boys Choir of Harlem, that is!<br><br>Courtesy of UMS
Even worse than starting a side-project though, is a musician starting a side project while staying in his main band. Venturing from a band completely, as Matt Sharp did, is somewhat respectable. It says Sharp had some confidence in what he would create with the Rentals.
However, when an artist doesn”t leave his central band of operation and starts a side-project it”s an admission of said project”s mediocrity. Surely, if the side project was going to be worth listening to, the artist would leave the band that had, in all likelihood, brought about their success and ability to have a side-project in the first place. Frankly, without a previous recording contract, and/or name notoriety, a side project is simply a person or group of people recording into a four-track for no real reason other than to have something to give their respective better halves for an anniversary.
With Para Toda Vida, Matthew Pryor has the perfect unthought-out gift to give to his better half. The album (the second from The Get Up Kids co-frontman and songwriter) rehashes sonic themes of sadcore visited on The New Amsterdams” debut Never You Mind. Fans of The Get Up Kids less-propulsive tunes (“Action and Action”) will appreciate much of the thin acoustic droll that permeates throughout the record. Instead of potentially propelling acoustic-pop, the New Amsterdams drizzle too-slow tunes dragging in front of a band that sounds completely empty. Fortunately for Pryor, he still has The Get Up Kids to fall back on.