Fun by The Vitamen

Signature Lyric: Was every girl on earth molested or am I just bad in bed?

The Guys: The trio attended high school together in Mamaroneck, New York, where front man Jesse Blockton and bassist Matt Hyams also attended Hebrew School. Eventually they joined up with drummer Dave Rozner “from a rival temple,” says Blockton. Years later they took their sound to Los Angeles, but found California “to suck shit” and returned to New York City. “People get us here,” says Hyams. “LA is more about suicide. New York is more about having fun.”

The Message: The Vitamen have a particular brand of modern masculine obsessive-compulisive insecurity that you can actually sing along to. But they are also so emotionally potent that whether they are playing an unsentimental ballad about the excrutiating quest to protect one’s mother from life’s disappointments ("I'm gonna do everything in my power/to get money to give to you"), or harmonizing about masturbatory anxiety, you find yourself caring improbably deeply.

NY Magazine, Music Issue 2003

---------------------------------------

The Vitamen - Catchy downer music and words that ferret out details funnier and more embarrassing than most twentysomething sarcasts are smart enough to notice, much less write songs about.

Robert Christgau, Village Voice

---------------------------------------

The Vitamen are making moves: A competing local weekly (scooped, of course, by the Voice) quoted these Fountains of Wayne-worthy pop-rock wiseacres saying they found Cali to "suck shit"; their songs, about jerking off and loving their moms, all sound equally snarky and sincere.

Nick Catucci, Village Voice

---------------------------------------

There must be bigger sourpusses than these guys among the thousands of DIY rockers in this town without pity. But don't be so sure they're this bracing and sardonic.

Robert Christgau, Village Voice

---------------------------------------

The Vitamen are three awkward guys with sweet, strained vocals playing some killer cynical pop.

Time Out NY

---------------------------------------

THE VITAMEN- Songs turn naturally towards the bleak or the humorous. The Vitamen write bleaker than Nick Drake and funnier than Richard Pryor in the same line.

WNYU.com

---------------------------------------

...This prematurely embittered little band the Vitamen, who have now shown off their discomfiting songwriting on two consecutive self-released EPs. Who knows what will become of them? If I were in the neighborhood, I’d go in and try to guess.

Robert Christgau, Village Voice

---------------------------------------

Not just another CD release party! NYC based trio The Vitamen like to bare their souls and their lyrics show they certainly aren't afraid to tell us whats on their mind.

Paper Magazine

---------------------------------------

BEST UNSIGNED BAND OF THE MONTH—THE VITAMEN

Their lyrics are the kind that you might write down in your diary and then bury in your backyard but as you hear them you can’t help but smile along with the band and shake your head with a grin like you just heard something that you weren’t supposed to. The only difference is that it was witty, funny and absurd all at the same time.

David Lipp, 24/7

---------------------------------------

"...There may be better locally released full-lengths this year (though I certainly can't think of any), but there won't be any as immediate, coherent, or moving..."

Tris McCall, Jersey Beat

Average Customer Review: