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The Lawrence Arms

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Chicago, United States (1999 – present)

The Lawrence Arms are a punk rock trio from Chicago, formed in 1999. The lineup consists of Brendan Kelly (vocals & bass), Chris McCaughan (vocals & guitar), and Neil Hennessy (drums). They have released five full-length albums and are currently signed to Fat Wreck Chords. Their music and lyrics exhibit their propensity for juxtaposing references from history and literature with American pop culture. The band takes its name from a building the members resided in (and were later evicted from) called the Lawrence Arms, which was located in a very lower-class area of uptown Chicago.

Members of the Lawrence Arms have also played in The Broadways, Slapstick, Tricky Dick and Baxter.

The three musicians came together to form the Lawrence Arms in 1999. Although punk rock bands in their infancy generally start out by releasing EPs and 7” vinyl singles, the band members used their existing relationship with Asian Man Records to immediately begin recording a full-length album, A Guided Tour of Chicago, which was released later that year. A second album, Ghost Stories, followed in 2000. Both albums focused heavily on the members’ own stories of growing up and living in Chicago.

The band’s next two releases were split EPs with other bands. The first, a split with Shady View Terrace, was released in 2000 and was their first release to be recorded by Matt Allison, who would continue to record and produce all of their subsequent releases. A second EP, Present Day Memories, was released in 2001 and was a split with The Chinkees.

Tagged as:

punk, punk rock, pop punk, chicago, rock
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Oh! Calcutta!
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The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Lawrence Arms
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Cocktails & Dreams
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Apathy And Exhaustion
The Lawrence Arms
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Top Tracks

1	The Slowest Drink At The Saddest Bar On The Snowiest Day In The Greatest City full track	546
2	Demons full track	497
3	Them Angels Been Talkin' full track	492
4	The Devil's Takin' Names full track	480
5	Spit Shining Shit full track	472
6	The Redness In The West full track	463
7	Cut It Up full track	405
8	On With the Show full track	362
9	100 Resolutions	339
10	Recovering The Opposable Thumb full track	319
11	Great Lakes/Great Escapes	307
12	Jumping The Shark full track	299
13	Lose Your Illusion 1 full track	289
14	Key To The City full track	285
15	Like A Record Player full track	281

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TrafficHaze wrote:
Thursday morning

The correct answer is: OC>TGSET>B&T>C&D>A&E>GS>AGTOC

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poppunknerd182 wrote:
Wednesday evening

For me it'd be Oh Calcutta>Apathy & Exhaustion>Cocktails (if I can include it)>Greatest Story>Ghost Stories>Guided Tour. EP would be pretty high on that chart as well haha.

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TraumaSponge wrote:
Wednesday morning

Hey, looks like the rest of the world seems to be in agreement with me that Slowest Drink is the best song on the EP.

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mikeysoundtrack wrote:
Wednesday morning

btw i would put the Shady View split EP somewhere between Calcutta and Guided tour and chinkies split between the same spot (two splits next to each other)

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mikeysoundtrack wrote:
Wednesday morning

@ Codename: just to set you straight: Greatest story>Oh Calcutta>Guided tour>Apathy & Exhaustion>Ghost stories. Just keepin it real, that's all.

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Marchelo88 wrote:
Monday evening

I've never found the feeling with the band, but now I found it with the EP. Amazing!

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Mycodenameis wrote:
Saturday evening

Okay, let's be bold: Oh! Calcutta! > Ghost Stories > Apathy and Exhaustion > A Guided Tour of Chicago > The Greatest Story Ever Told. I won't put the new EP here because that wouldn't be fair, though if they were the first 5 tracks on a new album I would be seriously fucking impressed.

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Mycodenameis wrote:
Saturday evening

I've bought a lot of new music recently but the new EP is the best release this year, simply brilliant.

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ooorxbanditsooo wrote:
last week

Meh. Like I wish Guided tour and Ghost Stories were combined into one album. Like best songs from both. I dunno.

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breathingvictim wrote:
last week

not everyone.

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acrowemerica523 wrote:
13 days ago

Everyones gonna hate me for this, but, A Guided Tour of Chicago ftw

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Mycodenameis wrote:
14 days ago

Finally just bought the new EP from my favourite band.

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rockandpie wrote:
17 days ago

LOVE the fucking Half Baked reference on the new EP! was about to come comment about it but it looks like someone beat me to it.

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bertality wrote:
18 days ago

fuck you. you're cool. fuck you too.

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Scream_Out wrote:
20 days ago

New ep is EPIC!

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Cawnur wrote:
20 days ago

bummed that they did nothing since 2006.

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breathingvictim wrote:
21 days ago

how could you ever not be stoked on them?!

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Cawnur wrote:
23 days ago

new ep rips. i'm so stoked on this band again.

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Rowley87 wrote:
25 days ago

I'm so conflicted. It's Buttsweat and Tears Vs Hold on Dodge (Menzingers) for EP of the year for me.

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TheViz wrote:
26 days ago

The new EP is so good. But it's so damn short. It's a fucking tease.

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Recent Activity

Handycaptain, crapski, CommetBoxJunky and 19 other people added The Lawrence Arms to their libraries. 4 hours ago
mari0rdinary tagged The Lawrence Arms with ‘punk’. Monday evening
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