Seminal Little Rock DIY Queer Tweemo Outfit EVERYONE ASKED ABOUT YOU Releases “A Better Way To A Broken Heart” The Next Single Off Upcoming ‘Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts’ Compilation Of The Cult Favorites’ Complete Recorded Works
Available As Vinyl 2xLP (+ Digital and Cassette) on September 8 via NUMERO GROUP
Including Band’s ‘Let’s Be Enemies’ LP and Their Two And A Half 7″s Released Between 1997-2000
Remastered from the original DATs for maximum nostalgic crunch, this deluxe 2xLP is housed in a gatefold tip on sleeve and includes a 20-page book crammed with flyers, photos, lyrics, and an extensive essay on this crucial missing link between Midwest emo and the Moog synthesizer.
Band Playing Brooklyn Shows September 8 & 9 at Saint Vitus
Sept 8 Show Sold Out; Limited # Of Tix Still Available For Sept 9
Watch The Visualizer for “A Better Way To A Broken Heart” Here
Pre-Save/Pre-Order Here
Stream The Album Teaser Video
Get Tix To The Brooklyn Show Here
“There was never another band that was able to replicate Everyone Asked About You’s sound. The Little Rock, Arkansas, four-piece introduced elements of twee pop into emo throughout their all-too-brief tenure, but thankfully Numero Group is doing a full remastered reissue of the band’s catalog, titled Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts. The first single “Sometimes Memory Fails Me Sometimes,” is one of the longest tracks in the band’s discog–and one of the most forceful, showing that they could stand up to any other band in the genre in terms of muscle.”- The Alternative
“It’s perfect in it’s imperfect state.”- Blood Makes Noise
“If you have a fondness for late 90’s emo, this is going to be gold to you…”Sometimes Memory Fails Me Sometimes” has that awkward beauty and left-of-center pop hooks that you’re going to adore.”- If Its Too Loud
“A Better Way To A Broken Heart” Visualizer
“Paper airplanes, paper hearts
Always wind up being torn apart”
Seminal Little Rock, Arkansas queer tweemo band Everyone Asked About You has unveiled “A Better Way To A Broken Heart” the next single off the upcoming Numero Group release of ‘Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts’, which compiles the band’s complete recorded works.
“A continuation of the same story, “A Better Way To a Broken Heart” and “I Will Wait” were recorded during the same session with the s/t ep. The six songs from that recording session were the first six the band ever wrote and made up our set list for the first several months of shows, back when a tight 20 minute set would suffice,” says founding member Chris Sheppard.
“If one wanted to create a narrative timeline of those songs, this song would fit between “it’s days like this” and “everyone asked about you”. ABWTABH is a brief vignette of a late summer night escape before the onslaught of fall responsibilities descends. The drum machine and moog coda sound the shortened days of early September.”
Stream the visualizer for the track “A Better Way To A Broken Heart” HERE.
The Deluxe 2xLP vinyl release of ‘Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts’, includes the band’s ‘Let’s Be Enemies’ LP and their two and a half 7″s released between 1997-2000. The release is now available to pre-order/pre-save (including digital and cassette).
Pre-save/Pre-Order ‘Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts’ HERE.
Stream the album teaser video HERE.
To celebrate the release of ‘Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts,’ Everyone Asked About You will play two record release show at Brooklyn, NY’s Saint Vitus on September 8 and 9th. Tickets available here:
September 8 Show w/ Death Party SOLD OUT
September 9 Show w/ Caithlin De Marrais
Penned between heated sessions of MarioKart64 and Goldeneye, Little Rock high school quartet Everyone Asked About You developed their own take on the emo sound that was sweeping the midwest in the late-‘90s. Built around the twin guitar attack of Chris Sheppard and Collins Kilgore, the band was held together by drummer Lee Buford’s pulverizing drums and dusted with Hannah Vogan’s twee-adjacent vocals. Channeling Rainer Maria’s earnestness, the Promise Ring’s knack for melody, and the Rentals’ penchant for synth, Everyone Asked About You the biggest secret to come out of Arkansas since Whitewater.
The History:
By 1997, emo was in the early throes of its first evolution since erupting out of the D.C. hardcore scene a dozen years earlier. This new wave was less concerned with its post-hardcore forebearers’ political peccadilloes and blood curdling shrieks, favoring instead a light-weight, mix-tape friendly, and hyper-sensitive version of pop punk.
Bands like Promise Ring, Get Up Kids, Braid, Mineral, Christie Front Drive, and Rainer Maria were at the forefront of this evolving sound. Little Rock, AR had Everyone Asked About You.
The band formed in 1996 and consisted of Chris Sheppard, Lee Buford, Collins Kilgore, and Hannah Vogan, who bonded over a shared love for bands like Unwound. John Beachboard and Matt Bradley joined in 1998 contributing to the 1999 release of ‘Let’s Be Enemies.’ Eventually, they incorporated synthesizers into their sound, influenced by bands like The Rentals and Rainer Maria.
They released their self-titled debut EP in 1997, which featured songs like “Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts,” “Me Vs. You,” and “It’s Days Like This That Make Me Wish Summer Lasted Forever.” The EP received mixed reviews, but the band’s dedicated fans supported them.
Lyrically their songs explored the trials and tribulations of adolescence, as well as Sheppard’s own journey in discovering his sexuality (“Boston”) and coming out as a gay man.
Sheppard, says, “If there’s a theme through all of our songs, it’s emotional and physical distance, challenging goodbyes and misunderstandings and terrible communication.”
Everyone Asked About You broke up in 2000, but their music continues to be influential to emo fans around the world. With fewer than 2000 records across their entire recorded output floating around, fans flocked to YouTube and MP3 blogs to download needle-drop rips and sing the praises of Hannah and Chris’s adolescent poetry. And now younger generations have begun discovering the band through social media– a lost chapter in emo’s pre-mainstream history.
Everyone Asked About You reunited for their first show in 23 years in the winter of 2022, and plan to tour more in the months ahead.
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NUM217lp – Black Vinyl
NUM217lp-C1 – Broken Heart Numero Group webshop exclusive baby pink vinyl
NUM217lp-C2 – Paper Airplanes white vinyl
NUM217lp-C3 – Failed Memory light blue vinyl
NUM217cass – Cassette
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‘Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts’_ 2xLP Tracklist / Credits
A
1. Paper Airplanes, Paper Hearts
2. Me Vs. You
3. It’s Days Like This That Make Me Wish The Summer Would Last Forever
4. Everyone Asked About You
B
1. A Better Way To A Broken Heart
2. I Will Wait
3. Sometimes Memory Fails Me Sometimes
4. Handsome, Beautiful
C
1. Crazy
2. Boston
3. Song For Chris
4. Letters Never Sent
5. Taxi
D
1. Last Dance
2. Let’s Be Enemies
3. Solitaire
4. Across Puddles
5. Greek To Me
6. Outro
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Produced for reissue by Ken Shipley & Rob Sevier
Coordinated by Jana Gautschy
Original recordings engineered by Barry Poynter
Additional engineering by Jim “Watts” Vereeke on B3-4
Mastered by Jeff Lipton & Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering
All songs written by Everyone Asked About You, published by Songs Of Numero Group
Lee Buford – drums, programming
Collins Kilgore – guitar, keys
Chris Sheppard – vocals, guitar, keys
Hannah Vogan – vocals
John Beachboard – keys on C1-5, D1-6
Matt Bradley – bass on C1-5, D1-6
Additional personnel:
Kristin Wanek – handclaps on A3
Story Matkin-Rawn – flute on B3
Chris Wilson – glockenspiel on B3
Carrie James – violin on C4
Photos courtesy of Adam Heathcott & Sara Padgett Heathcott
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Socials
Instagram www.instagram.com/lets.be.enemies
Twitter https://twitter.com/letsbeenemies
Numero Group
Website https://numerogroup.com
Instagram www.instagram.com/thenumerogroup
Facebook www.facebook.com/numerogroup
Twitter https://twitter.com/numerogroup
Photo: @ danielbergeronphoto; Daniel Bergeron 2023
