First of all, let’s establish who we’re dealing with here. Even if I tried to dislike Evan Weiss (the man behind the awesomely named Into It. Over It.), I would be unsuccessful. In 2007, he wrote and recorded a song a week, and then released the result as a double record. Plus, he’s from Chicago, and has an EP of strictly Chi-Town neighborhood song titles. The deadly combination of obsessive-compulsive scheduling tendencies, as well as the same hometown (kind of), means that Evan could be playing a washboard and a glockenspiel, and I’d still eat it up.
Fortunately, the man’s angry/depressed music is better than that. Well, I think it is, at least.
Proper, Into It. Over It.’s latest release, is catchy, short, and emotive—pretty much exactly what a pop-punk album should be. Strangely enough, I couldn’t stop thinking of early Fall Out Boy while listening to this record. Normally, I’m sure that’d be quite the turn off, but, perhaps for reasons previously discussed, the whiny lyrics and not-special guitar playing hit the spot.
It’s not just FOB that comes to mind, though. There’s definitely some Ben Gibbard in the vocals, some Manchester Orchestra in the instrumentation, and even a little bit of Telekinesis in the lyrics and delivery.
I only heard of this guy because he’ll be opening for Andrew Jackson Jihad (who will be opening for Frank Turner) at an upcoming Chicago show. Based solely on Proper, that’ll be a fun concert. Well, except for the headliner.
Swole Ear 
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