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 Chin Up Chin Up were an American indie pop band formed in Chicago in 2001.

Members

Jeremy Bolen, formerly of Punjab and The Hertzsprung Gap, sang and played guitar. Nathan Snydacker, formerly of Nymb, played guitar. Chris Saathoff played bass and, after his death in 2004, was replaced by Jesse Woghin. Woghin was later replaced by Bobby Burg of Love of Everything, Joan of Arc, and Make Believe. Chris Dye played drums. Greg Sharp played the keyboards.

[edit]History

Immediately after forming, the band spent eight months recording their self-titled EP. After positive local reviews, the band toured with a variety of bands, including:Appleseed Cast, the Mercury Program, Pedro the Lion, the American Analog Set, Broken Social Scene, Smog, Minus the Bear, and Pinback. Soon after, the band began to record their debut album, We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers, with John Congleton. Late at night on February 14, 2004, Chris Saathoff was killed in a hit and run accident as he was leaving a Ponys show at a local bar, the Empty Bottle, with his girlfriend. After their benefit shows in honor of their friend, Chin Up Chin Up regrouped to finish recording their album, We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers, in which some of the bass lines Chris Saathoff had previously recorded while composing the album were used where possible. The album was released in 2004 on Flameshovel Records. Chin Up Chin Up released This Harness Can't Ride Anything on October 10, 2006. They released it on Suicide Squeeze, a Seattle-based indie rock record label.

During most of 2007 Chin Up Chin Up promoted their new album This Harness Can't Ride Anything by performing many shows. Also for the first time they set foot outside North America to tour through Europe. Late 2007, after their last tour through the west of the USA, they decided that they needed a break. In 2008 Chin Up Chin Up kept very quiet, feeding rumours they had broken up. But in June 2008 they denied this. On their official site it was stated that the five of them "have just taken some time off to work on other things in their lives".

However, nine months later, in March 2009 lead singer Jeremy Bolen announced on the band's myspace page that Chin Up Chin Up had indeed broken up. Bolen: "So I am writing this to announce that chin up chin up will be playing our final show, at the empty bottle in chicago on may 15th. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we really had intentions to keep making music together for an infinite amount of time, but just as this band began in a natural way it is naturally coming to an end. Thank you to the hundreds of people who have helped us along the way, we have been truly lucky, and as cliché as it may sound, we could not have done any of this without you. Much love- Jeremy".

Bolen, Burg, and Sharp went on to play in Vacations, and Dye plays in Speck Mountain.