Joe Galarraga (vocals), Amar Lal (guitar), Carlos Salguero Jr. (bass), and Brendan Finn (drums), met studying music technology at NYU.

Five years later, the city's notorious crucible of garbage, money, and humanity has had a profound and delightful impact on their art.

Galarraga's vocals burn with the heat of a thousand day jobs. Yet all this righteousness is worth as much as a Che t-shirt if it lacks humility, and more than any of the band's previous work, Before A Million Universes plumbs the depths of self-deception in wickedly clever ways.

The album's emotional and musical core lies in "National Parks," a song Galarraga wrote as a tribute to the sacrifices his mother made to raise himBefore A Million Universes is Big Ups at their most sincere, urgent, and vital- a salty kiss from the wet lips of Brooklyn's bard.

RIYL: Fugazi, Rites of Spring, Minor Threat, Drive Like Jehu, Bad Brains, Shellac.