It's strange to believe that Giving Up's latest and greatest effort "Garner Cardinals" 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.
Like their label co-conspirators and spiritual siblings State Champion, Giving Up is a geographically challenged unit. With membership ranging from Minnesota to Kentucky plus a couple places in between, a bulk of the creative grunt is handled by head songwriter / visual artist Mikie Poland and his key collaborator / key boarder Jenny Rose (w/ additional contributions by Sean Roth, Aaron Osbourne, Dusty Van Ness)—trading ideas over the years by phone, mail, smoke signal, psychic will, home recordings, home visits and the like.
But very much un-like their earlier outings in the LP format—the charming yet head-scratchingly produced debut "Gthrowing Up" (2009) and better but nearly aborted follow-up [peace sign / frown face] (2012), both cursed with more coincidental oddities and studio mishaps than a tragi-comedy classic rock mockumentary—"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 Poland's idiosyncratic song-kraft.