Giving Up’s music shares the same treehouses as the Half Japanese and Black Tambourines of the world, with perhaps a more-than-subtle scent of fumes from the Lookout Records catalog burning in the bonfire below.
It’s strange to believe that Giving Up’s latest and greatest effort Garner Cardinals (out now on Sophomore Lounge Records) is only their third official full-length since forming over a decade ago in the unfinished basement bedrooms of rural Iowa. For a band that’s toured no less than semi-actively around the calendar and self-released no fewer than too-many-to-count cassette and CD-R transmissions throughout the course of some Bush Deuce, double Obamas, and whatever the fuck is happening now…one would be misled in thinking the scarcity of their studio output would imply any lack in overall drive.
Garner Cardinals is a statement made on the band’s own desired terms. Engineered by their touring drummer Dusty Van Ness in the comfort of his Minneapolis home, the record is a best-of-both whirlwind delivering DIY bedroom grunge aesthetics with a self-puffed studio sheen. Serving not only as a natural stepping stone from the dumpster-fi fog of a Jad Fair-fronted Screeching Weasel tape boiled to perfection in a roadside hotel tub exhibited on recent tour trinkets but also as a “coming of age” mark for guitarist/vocalist Mikie Poland’s idiosyncratic song-kraft.
Garner Cardinals is both littered with and colored by images of Giving Up’s own little America – an unknowingly large yet strangely intimate midwestern wasteland layered with spray-painted alters, misoriented gravestones, natural beauty, body dysmorphia, hamburger sunsets, small-town bad news, battery-operated memories, haunted mansions, shameless fantasies, forever-friendships, and an ultimate sacrifice of going deaf for what they love.
Today, Ghettoblaster has the pleasure of premiering their video for “Guts” from the album, which you can enjoy below.

Catch them on tour here:
Feb 26 – RICHMOND, VA @ Strange Matter w/ GUMMING + FAT SPIRIT + BASMATI
Feb 27 – CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA @ Magnolia House w/ MARIA DEHART + WINETEETH
Feb 28 – WINSTON SALEM, NC @ Monstercade w/ DRAG SOUNDS
Mar 1 – ATHENS, GA @ World Famous w/ DEEP STATE + THE HERNIES
Mar 3 – ATLANTA, GA @ 529 w/ DEEP STATE + LOW VALLEY HEARTS + CURT CASTLE
Mar 4 – CHATTANOOGA, TN @ JJ’s
Mar 5 – NASHVILLE, TN @ Fond Object w/ ACHY + HAND LINES
Mar 6 – BOWLING GREEN, KY @ Rockys w/ SOFT SELF PORTRAITS + THE CARTOONS