Yuppie Pricks

Listening to the Yuppie Pricks on disc is like reading a screenplay. Without the visuals, it's hard to imagine what actually happens behind the camera. However, with the bills pouring from the Pricks' silk-lined pockets, it's shocking that Brokers Banquet, their debut on Jello Biafra's notoriously silly Alternative Tentacles, wasn't paired with footage of the millionaires' famous themed parties. If that were the case, maybe the redundant nature of the generic four-four punk rock songs – aside from the brilliant lyrics, natch – could be ignored. However, knowing that both a cover of the Motards' 'Paycheck' and a reimagining of the Geto Boys' legendary 'Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta' await the listener at disc's end is enough motivation to wade through the first 20 minutes of megalomania. They never said they were nice guys. Opener 'Coke Party' marries the Dead Kennedys with Offspring, implementing the intro that's no stranger throughout the disc. Triple wishful thoughts ('Hummer in My Hummer,' 'Rich Bitch,' 'Gonna Die Rich') are followed by glimpses into the lives of the rich and famous ('Cherry Red,' 'Day Spa'), but what's a Tentacle without cynicism? Enter 'Prick for President.' With women, drugs, and C-notes at their disposal, the Yuppie Pricks should have many a chance to stretch their character creativity into something that stands alone on disc. 'All I gotta say to you wannabe, gonnabe, cocksuckin', Honda-drivin' flunkies, is when a model sits down, what the fuck you gonna do? Damn if feels good to be a Yuppie.' The easily offended need not apply. - Darcie Stevens - Austin Chronicle - February 11, 2005

Answering to no one, save maybe Wall Street's Gordon Gekko, where narcissism, arrogance, and loutishness are concerned, Austin's Yuppie Pricks are those rare punks giving big ups to the GOP, the NRA, and the Dow Jones. Naturally, it's all by design, as the Pricks have constructed an elaborate mythology of pharmaceutical fortunes and perpetual coke parties when they're really just four dudes whose previous bands used to play places like the Bates Motel and the Blue Flamingo. Wall Street, Washington, and suburbia may not be the most original targets, but the fact is there's not nearly as much satire in the world today as there should be, and those eternally bloated sacred cows are always ripe for skewering. The Pricks are hardly too upscale to refrain from writing a song about the 'fat parade of ho's' that is your average Tijuana donkey show. Musically, Initial Public Offering is rudimentary but effective, a jerky (imagine that), mechanical boogie that chains the Stooges and Devo together in the Buzzcocks' basement. Just like most slime balls, the Yuppie Pricks are most engaging when talking about themselves, making 'Loser,' 'Song About Me,' and their 'Anarchy in the UK' update, 'Prosperity in the U.S.A.,' blue chips in this portfolio. Consumption doesn't get more conspicuous than this -- the CDs were reputedly manufactured in Canada for the cheap labor -- so rack up a few lines of Initial Public Offering the next time you feel like being a complete tool for the man. (Ocean's 11, Saturday, midnight) 3 Stars - Chris Gray - Austin Chronicle - 3/7/2003

Scene Stealers: Yuppie Pricks

Finally, a band Fox News Channel anchor Bill O'Reilly can believe in. Austin's Yuppie Pricks are passionate about capitalism, the NRA, bombing Iraq, and helping local punk rockers lead more meaningful lives. In true Bret Easton Ellis fashion, the Pricks are featured in the February issue of style bible GQ -- written up by new local scenester Neal Pollack -- and consist of former prep-school quarterback and pharmaceutical heir Trevor Middleton; his best friend, Deuce Hollingsworth, divorce lawyer; stockbroker Preston Hetherington; and mercenary drummer Darin Murano, who drives a Honda Civic and makes a flat $500 per gig. Contemplating his Stoli Vanilla at the Brown Bar downtown, Middleton sighs, 'Really, this whole fame thing is just a hobby for us.'

TCB: Why should anyone care about the Yuppie Pricks?

Hollingsworth: We're the best punk rock band in town. We're the best rock & roll band in town, period. Everybody else is fucking boring. We're it.

TCB: What do the Yuppie Pricks say to people who might call them sellouts?

Hetherington: The best thing about this band is that you can never question our credibility as far as whether we're doing it for the money or not, because we tell you up front we're doing it for the money. Plus, we have so much cash already it doesn't even matter.

TCB: Are the Yuppie Pricks a political band?

Middleton: I wouldn't say that any of us care about politics unless they're politics that are going to make us more money or more famous.

Hetherington: If the rest of the world were more like us, then the world would be a better place.

TCB: What's the Yuppie Pricks' drug of choice?

Hollingsworth: Cocaine, my brother.

Middleton: Oh yeah.

Hetherington: Bolivian marching powder!

TCB: Who are the Yuppie Pricks' role models?

Hetherington: You mean other than ourselves?

Hollingsworth: I would say my father and my grandfather. They're both divorce lawyers, they never lost a dime to a bitch, and it was just get paid and get laid.

Middleton: Burt Reynolds.

Murano: Richard Avedon.

Hollingsworth: Who? Is that some gay porn star?

The Yuppie Pricks play Emo's Friday with the Briefs, release their debut CD Initial Public Offering at the Flamingo Cantina Saturday, and appear on KVRX's Local Live 10pm Sunday. - Chris Gray - The Austin Chronicle - Feb. 28, 2003

Yuppie Pricks, now appearing everywhere The Yuppie Pricks frontman--he's there at every single show, watching everyone. Always standing by himself. Always wearing his tennis outfit with a white headband that says I LOVE COKE. (And I don't think he's saying that he's a soda lover.) Always carrying his briefcase. Never speaking. The fear rises in everyone who sees him: This dude is not really a rock star. Bret Easton Ellis has sicced American Psycho's preppie-killing, Huey Lewis-loving lunatic Patrick Bateman on the SXSW crowd. If someone doesn't play Hip to Be Square soon, we're all doomed. (MAERZ) - City Pages

After a short break, the Yuppie Pricks took the stage. Ty, the lead singer, wore a white leisure suit and uncomfortable-looking sandals. He sang into a microphone attached to a tennis racket.

The Yuppie Pricks cannot be done justice in this space, but onstage they play a bunch of obnoxious rich preppies that ridicule the modest, shabbily dressed slackers who come see them play. Ty's singing voice owes more than a little to Jello Biafra. My favorite song of theirs begins: 'COKE PARTY COKE PARTY COKE PARTY COKE PARTY!'

I got so excited that I smashed an empty bottle of Wild Turkey on the floor. Elana quickly brought me a broom. 'That was a great punk rock thing you did,' she said. 'Now clean it up.' - Neal Pollack - MSN/Slate

Yuppie Pricks/Balls: Chicken Ranch - "Former clean cut, vest-wearing honchos from Alternative Tentacles, these Austin punk ramblers stab out an approach that is more like the Fleshies than their fellow citizens Complete Control, producing rambunctious hybrids like “G.O.P.” which actually sounds like Jello Biafra singing for the late period Buzzcocks (actually the tune hijacks the ‘Cocks’ “E.S.P.”). To keep things grounded in blatant localism and Texas fun punk pride, they also unhook a hell raising, big guitar swagger version of the Big Boy’s “Frat Cars,” just to expose their relished roots. “Male Models” strikes a match that burns like Southern California punk, sing-along slobbers and all, though it’s actually a butch version of the Undertones song (and not the Sleater Kinney song of the same name!). Their own swan song of pride and punctiliousness, “Loser,” unloads lines about guys pumping gas, empty pockets too big and blank to pay for cocaine, while the yuppies like the band fill the nation with a portfolio of white lies of proper world order. The irony drips like bacon fat, even flooding back into the song “Greed is Good,” which reads like a rampant and raging treatise by Adam Smith, cataloging how we should “squeeze every dollar from ever deal,” squeeze the hell outta lemons for lemonade, and avoid the wasted work of lunch time. “Prick4Life” could even make a fan of the Supersuckers bang their dirty hair across the floor in Budweiser bellows. Lastly, note how they really churn the machismo sex sauce and steal the swagger from the Black Crowes on the album cover. Get your Izod collars up and prepare the naked girl sushi, the time is ripe for raking in the fortune!" - Left of the Dial Magazine

The Yuppie Pricks may be a gimmick band, but their gimmick works so well and they rock so hard you won’t even care. Posing as conservative millionaire douchebags, the Pricks deliver ironic, scathing and often hilarious indictments against the ruling class. Vocalist Trevor Middleton sounds like Jello Biafra at his snottiest, and the rest of the band takes more than a few cues from the Dead Kennedys and other early-80s punk rockers. "Greed is Good" and "Fraternity Days" are funny, if a bit predictable, but one of the best tracks is "Collars Up." Who ever would’ve thought there would be a punk rock song that advocates the ever-so douchey practice of collar-popping? Protest songs are all over the place these days, but they’re rarely as clever or effective as the 10 tunes found on Balls. –Ricky Vigil - SLUG Magazine

Jello is back at it. After having a blast on the last release I heard from him (Jello Biafra and the Melvins) I was anxiously awaiting for another great ride on this CD. After all, who the hell has not worn out their Dead Kennedys records? This time out Jello teams up with a bunch of Texas punk rockers for some fun yet provocative punk rock. It brings me back to great punk rock of the Reagan era well, like the DKs! Throw in some early punk, a dose of the commercial end of The Sex Pistols and The Yuppie Pricks with a guest appearance by Jello are what you have got. This is perhaps the coolest punk rock CD I have played in quite a while without pulling out something from my personal collection. - Brad Michtell

(4 Stars) - Caustic Truths - April '05

Over their six years together, Austin's Yuppie Pricks' role-playing punk schtick has depreciated somewhat, their eponymous stereotype now supplanted by the hipster douche bag as pop-cultural whipping boy de rigueur. Fortunately, the Pricks compensate for their decreasing timeliness by being a better band. Balls. is tighter and beefier than 2004's Brokers Banquet, and in a daring test of the old saw that risk is necessary to good satire, vocalist Trevor Middleton continues to proudly flip the bird at irreverence as he leaves it in the dust of plain obscenity. The Pricks hedge (har!) their bets with gloriously ripping performances of songs by the Undertones, the Chumps, and Big Boys – charitably overlooking the anti-yuppie message of "Frat Cars" – and do the music world a final service by festooning their disc with a hairy man's flag-clad nether regions. Now nobody else needs to do that. - Daniel Mee
- Austin Chronicle - Aug 8, 2008

BY CHRIS PARKER

If you can't beat them, join them. This is the message of the Yuppie Pricks, who have set aside their usual sloth and self-indulgence to raise the consciousness of those who have not yet submitted to their cultural dominance. They've already secured the support of Dead Kennedys frontman, former San Francisco mayoral candidate and liberal political agitator Jello Biafra, who's released the yuppie-punk band's debut album, Brokers Banquet, on his label, Alternative Tentacles. 'Jello got ahold of some of the mixes from the album he just put out, and came to see us at South by Southwest in 2004. His label was in pretty shitty shape and he recognized the great marketing tool we could be for his label,' says guitarist Deuce Hollingsworth. 'It was a way for us to get some street cred with where he has come from and what he's done, and for him to become financially successful.'

Hollingsworth, who lives in Austin, Texas, enjoys the benefits afforded by the annual hometown regional music shindig. He expresses little of the frustration most residents do about the week-long party of flacks, suits and rockers whose pursuit of buzz mimics a locust infestation of biblical proportions.

'It shows how god-like and rocking we are when you're going up against other bands that suck, have bad haircuts, and smell. It magnifies what we do and the great entertainment value we provide,' says Hollingsworth. 'Sure, maybe there's an extra 15-20 minutes of traffic, but it doesn't bother us because we're driven everywhere. So I'm still in my nice ride with my ladies, my scotch and my coke. What do I care?'

It's easy to see the appeal of the Pricks to Biafra (beyond their large trust funds). Their raw, shouted punk rock carries an echo of the Dead Kennedys, though the attack is more stripped-down and straight-forward than East Bay Ray's warped, reverb-heavy surf-punk riffs. Both bands share a similar playful sense of homage, as evidenced by cuts such as 'New Rolls' (a take-off on The Damned's 'New Rose') and 'Damn It Feels Good To Be a Yuppie.'

The latter, which boasts to 'havin' coke parties on my yacht...let those stupid ass gangstas smoke pot,' and offers advice to the 'wannabe, gonnabe, cocksuckin', tux rentin' flunkies' from no less than the conservative head yuppie, our president.

'A movie house in town that does revival shows, were doing a thing with Office Space and asked us to play a set to open it off and help these office space type-people try to get ahead in life. Of course, we relish the opportunity to preach our message. As a result we decided it would be amusing for us to do a parody of the Geto Boys song 'It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta' for the show,' Hollingsworth says. 'We are a fan of the parody and like to pick up on the songs that we consider classics in any genre. Because they're popular, they're great teaching tools and help get our message across.'

Coming out of Austin, which would be communist China compared to the rest of Texas, the Yuppie Pricks have had to deal with their share of hardship.

'There's a bunch of patchouli stink hippies that live in this town and a lot of liberals but we get to bash them every time we go out and every time we play a rock show. They show up to our gigs and spew their liberal filth and rhetoric. And we try to keep them straight with our lyrics and our educational teachings from the stage. We usually win over a few people,' Hollingsworth opines.

Of course, the fact is, not everyone is cut out to be a yuppie.

'First of all you have to be born with incredibly good looks. Second, you have to be able to earn a lot of money or you have to be in a situation where you can inherit a lot of money. And you have to be well-groomed, which needs to start at an early age,' Hollingsworth admits. 'A vast majority of the people out there wouldn't even comprehend what it's like to be a yuppie or learn and be able to acquire the talents and wealth that a yuppie has. But they can still buy our merchandise and worship us.'

It seems this is a good time to be a yuppie and, by extension, a Yuppie Prick.

'With the reelection of Bush things are going about as planned. More breaks for people with a lot of money. I can't complain,' he says. 'But please, don't hate us because we're beautiful — love us because we're brilliant.'

The Yuppie Pricks play the Milestone Saturday along with Drat, Skull Soup, Legbone, Lived Like Murder and EMOTRON. - Creative Loafing Charlotte - 3/30/05

Austin is distinct for many oddities. We are known to have a homeless transvestite who lives in a 5,000 square-foot house and aspires to be mayor. Austin is known to have a colony of bats that use our bridges as a refuge. And now we are known for a band that plays punk true to its early British roots, but espouses a far different message of conservative capitalism. The Yuppie Pricks may one day, according to the international magazine i-D, be ‘the best band on the planet.’

The Yuppie Pricks have been playing local venues for the past two years to constantly growing crowds. At each show, the band is adorned in the trappings of their upper class status, ranging from Italian suits to tennis wear, in an attempt to demonstrate to their working class fans the proper way to dress, while belting out songs such as ‘Coke Party,’ ‘Poverty Sucks’ and ‘Boo Fucking Hoo.’ Attendees of their shows have been treated to such events as having golf balls full of cash swung at them, ‘Hit a Hippie With a Pie’ booths and the infamous ‘Kissing of the Ass.’

‘One of the things the audience needs to learn to get ahead is how to kiss ass. There's no better way to start than humiliating yourself in front of a group of your peers to gain cash. That's what it's going to be like in the workplace. I have someone come up on stage, I pull down my pants and they literally kiss my ass. They plant their crusty nasty lips on my ass to kiss my ass,’ Trevor, The Yuppie Pricks' lead singer by night and a CEO by day, said. ‘It's not just kissing an ass and getting $20; it's doing whatever it takes to get ahead in the world.’

While their shows have brought a lot of attention to the band, the founding of The Yuppie Pricks is the stuff of legend.

‘It was about two-and-a-half years ago when I went through a strange phase in my life. My parents didn't have money when they were young, but they made their money by the time that I was growing up, so I was always rich,’ Trevor said.

‘There was this time when I became disillusioned with the money and the status, so I just left and traveled around the country with my credit cards, living a Bohemian lifestyle until one night I wandered into a punk rock club and saw this shit that I had never seen before, and I just loved it. I didn't know what they were singing about, but I loved the energy. I woke up drunk at the side of the club, and this guy threw some changes on me, and I realized I needed to get back to reality.’

‘I went and found Deuce, and he cleaned me up, but hanging out with those punks made me realize that they could change their ways and still listen to this great music, but actually live productive lives,’ he said. ‘Deuce brought his stock-broker Preston in. We couldn't find a drummer. No one with our kind of money drums. We pay Darin $500 a show, which is more than we ever made at a show, but we have the money. After a couple of bumps, we came up with he name The Yuppie Pricks. I like the name.

It shows that we're cocky and that we understand what we are, and we're not ashamed of it. We're young, we have the money, we're assholes, and we're fine with it.’ According to The Yuppie Pricks' guitarist, their live shows stem from a court-ordered mandate.

‘I had gotten picked up for some coke, and the judge asked me what I did in my spare time. I told him that I have a band, and he told me that I was going to play in the band because it would demean me and bring me down to the commoner's level. The shows were packed. We made people's lives better just by being pricks,’ Deuce, the Pricks' guitarist - who also works as a divorce attorney - said.

Upon first hearing The Yuppie Pricks, you may be transported back to the 1970's by their sound, which seems as if it would fit in perfectly with the time of Malcolm McLaren and The Sex Pistols. They even have a reworked cover of ‘Anarchy in the UK,’ reworded ‘Prosperity in the U.S.A.’

‘Those guys couldn't play a fucking note. They were horrible,’ Deuce said. ‘They were the original boy band.’

The Yuppie Pricks have already established a fan base in England and are looking to expand it in the near future.

‘We were featured on radio BBC as a 'Must See Band' for anyone going from England to attend the SXSW conference,’ Darin, their current hired drummer, said. ‘We were on radio BBC, and then we were approached by the producer and some investors and have been featured in i-D Magazine, a high fashion magazine based in London. We were also interviewed by The Face magazine during SXSW, so it appears that we are the next big thing to be coming out of the UK.

‘At SXSW, we met a producer from England. He has been in talks with some law firms and clubs from over there, and we are hoping to go over there and show our support for the people of England for their support of our recent endeavor to procure some more fine oil. We need it to keep my Lambroghini fueled. We're going over there to give Tony Blair a pat on the back,’ Trevor said.

In the meantime, The Yuppie Pricks are offering their first album, the aptly titled Initial Public Offering at local vendors such as Waterloo, Cheapo and Interpunk.com.

‘We're trying to keep it real with the first album like most bands do. We're just waiting to sell out. It's a fabulous piece of work. We recorded the music at the studio in my garage, which still has room for my four cars and an Olympic-size swimming pool,’ Trevor said. ‘We recorded the vocals at the studio where Darin works. We've had nothing but great reviews.’

‘I can't imagine a better place in the U.S. for us to play. Austin has plenty of liberals. There is plenty of work to be done here. It is amazing to see the litany of ill-groomed, poorly dressed sad fucks that show up at our shows. The best part is that we get to steal all the women from the poorly-dressed, lesser-educated punk rock bands here. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, man,’ Preston, The Yuppie Pricks' bassist - who also offers stock tips through the band's Web site, yuppiepricks.com - said.

While it may not seem like the domain of fashion magazines like i-D and GQ to name the best band on the planet, Darin leaves us with this thought: ‘Rock n' Roll magazines are for things that have already been done - fashion magazines are for things that are about to happen.’ - Ashok Chandra
- The Daily Texan - April 16, 2003

In your heart, you know the Yuppie Prick$ are right

Austin's Yuppie Prick$ exist beyond the parameters of the never-ending 'What is punk?' debate. Completely. While their music undoubtedly has much in common with the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols, their backgrounds and lyrics do not. Not for them the dead-end jobs as butcher's assistants or fish-and-chips counter help, nor the frustrations of lives in the dole queue. Nope, this is a punk band only Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow could love, or maybe even join. According to their Web site, Yuppie Prick$ lead singer Trevor Middleton -- the heir to a pharmaceutical fortune -- has an estimated worth of $30.5 million; guitarist Deuce Hollingsworth claims to be the only third-generation divorce lawyer in the Southwest; drummer Nigel Smythen-Wesson is the ne'er-do-well scion of a wealthy English family who joined the band after 'pranging' his Bentley into Middleton's BMW; bassist (and Houston native) Preston Hetherington is a multimillionaire stockbroker who lists one of his hobbies as 'hunting endangered species.' (Another of his off-stage pursuits is the operation of an Internet porn site -- he regards the band's shows as fine talent-scouting opportunities.)

That's what their bios say, anyway, so it must all be true. At any rate, as you might expect, the songs these guys write range far from the usual anarchic spleen-venting of the old-school punks, not to mention the 'my parents/girls just don't understand me' harangues of the more recent crop of punks. Instead, they remake the Sex Pistols' 'Anarchy in the UK' as 'Prosperity in the USA,' complete with lines like 'I am the next Bill Gates / I buy and sell real estate.' Then there's 'Boo Fucking Hoo,' in which Sally Struthers and other 'feed the kids' types are brushed off with the blunt 'I need a cup of coffee to stimulate my greed.' There's also a salute to band hero Arnold Schwarzenegger -- in one of their songs, the burly Alpine politico gets a blow job in the most politically incorrect car of all time in 'Hummer in My Hummer.' (Sample lyrics: 'As the Governator / I hereby decree / Wrap your lips around / My Austrian Red Heat.') And they penned the very first pro-suburbia song in punk history in 'Suburban Living,' wherein they boast that 'We don't have drug deals down the block / You won't see crack whores sucking cock / All our drugs are kept inside / Don't keep blow in my ride / Suburban living is the life for me.'

Which brings up a paradox. What could be more punk than rebelling against everything punk is supposed to stand for? The Yuppie Prick$ could very well be the most punk band on earth. But how does an obscenely rich, archconservative pharmaceutical heir become a punk rocker, anyway? Racket put the question to Middleton. 'Boy, that's kind of a long story,' he says. 'I had some run-ins with the pops about future control of the company, and I had this disillusionment period where I kinda gave up some of my worldly possessions for a while and hit the streets.' (He also had some burnout issues going; as he put it on the band Web site, 'Three super-models and four grams of blow a day just wasn't cutting it anymore.') 'So then I ended up at a couple of punk rock shows and fell in love with the music. And one time I was kind of passed out outside a club and this guy drove by and threw some pocket change at me. That kind of woke my ass up so I picked up all my credit cards and re-entered the real world, but I believed that people could still enjoy the musical part of the punk rock, without…' He struggles to find the right words, a pithy way to explain the essence of the Yuppie Prick$.

'You don't have to be a poor loser to play good music and have a good time,' he finally concludes. That's the heart of this band. You see, they are something like Christian rockers in that they use music as a Trojan horse, but instead of faith in God, they have faith in supermodels, fat bottom lines, leveraged buyouts, custom-built titanium drivers and towering mounds of uncut cocaine. They see their shows as punk PowerPoint presentations, though few sales meetings are as raunchy and cruel as YP shows, where the wretched losers who come to see them are peppered with abuse, lectured on the wonders of laissez-faire capitalism and showered with dollar bills -- some hurled from the stage, others whacked at them inside stuffed plastic golf balls. Another staple of their earlier shows is the ass-kissing segment, in which Middleton drops trou and offers the first person to kiss his bare butt a $20 bill. (The moral? That it pays to kiss ass in the music business.)

Evidently the Prick$ have smooched some of the right posteriors. They just finished recording their second album at renowned Austin studio the Bubble with Frenchie Smith of Young Heart Attack, and they will be shopping the CD at South By Southwest. One label that has nibbled so far is Alternative Tentacles, the Berkeley, California, outfit founded and run by punk legend Jello Biafra. Middleton believes their signing would be mutually beneficial. 'He needs to have some proper conservative philosophy on his label, alongside that lib-rull hogwash they're usually spewing,' he dryly notes. 'He understands the mass-marketing possibilities -- he has a bunch of bands on his label that probably only sell a thousand copies. He has to be looking forward to a band like us that could actually make him a few dollars.'

The band also has its first sponsorship deal lined up. 'Hoven sunglasses got in contact with us today,' Middleton says. 'They're in the $50 to $70 range, so maybe one out of every ten of our fans could get them, as opposed to the zero out of ten that could afford the glasses we usually wear. Maybe we'll give away a pair every now and then to a lucky fan. Wouldn't that be a treat?'

This show marks their Houston debut, at least musically. Golf's another matter. 'We've played TPC plenty of times, but never music,' Middleton says. And though it seems the Bayou City would be a better hometown than hippy-dippy Austin for a band of Yuppie Prick$, don't expect them to make a habit of playing here, much less relocate. 'All that pollution is damaging to the skin,' Middleton says. 'I prefer Austin.' That may be the only true thing he says in this article.

The Yuppie Prick$ appear Saturday, February 21, at the Axiom, 2524 McKinney, 713-522-8443. Sons of Hercules and Gun Crazy are also on the bill. - John Lomax - The Houston Press

Frankly, the crappy bands that the major music labels are calling punk these days (see Sum 41, Blink 182, etc.) are what the Yuppie Pricks would refer to as 'little bitches'. It is refreshing to know that at least one band has succeded in making punk rock fun to listen to again. But, the Yuppie Pricks are not your average sarcastic and snotty punk band. Instead, Trevor Middleton the vocalist, guitarist Deuce Hollingsworth, and bassist Preston Hetherington are multimillionaire brats. With the addition of their drummer Darin Murano, (who resides way below the poverty level) the Yuppie Pricks have released their first album titled Initial Public Offering. Although they might lack the 'Oi' factor in their songs, the Yuppie Pricks have a sound reminiscent of great old school punk bands like The Cockney Rejects and Cocksparrer. But insteads of belting out songs as a rally cry for blue-collar youths to fight the establishment, these guys want to hijack your chick, steal your drugs and shake their money in your face.

With songs like 'Coke Party' and 'Donkey Show' the Pricks keep the lyrics crafty and the beats steady. There is no need to force your brain to endure endless guitar solos and melodramatic lyrics. Flashing the smile of a court jester, the Pricks supply hilarity and hijincks with their juvenile and potty-mouthed inclinations and crafty guitar-hooks. Other songs such as 'Poverty Sucks' and 'I Need A New' will remind you why hate guys like Sean Hannity and the regular right-wing crew on the Fox News Channel. The band even manages to pull of a rather notable twist on The Sex Pistols classic 'Anarchy In The U.K.' with their own biting version titled 'Prosperity In The U.S.A.'

This album is a riot and a good first effort. But, if you want to join their club, I suggest you bust out your green Polo golf tee, khaki slacks and brown penny loafers. Otherwise you probably won't be hangin' out at the band's after hours party. - Rank and Revue - Vol. 1, Issue 4

This is fuckin' funny. These guys pull off yuppie prickedness very well. The EP packaging is all snide and business-like, and their cover of 'Fuck You I'm Rich' is awesome. They also do a fine live version of the MOTARDS 'Paycheck' with Paul MOTARD! I definitely gots ta check out their CDs. They remind us to buy low and sell high, so buy this now you fucks! (HM) - Maximum Rock n'Roll #266 - July 2005

Ready for 7 inch math? Two studio tracks + two live tracks + two covers + two originals = four tracks that make an actual 7 inch worth buying. The Yuppie Pricks have a lead singer that may as well be Jello Biafra, or is it? The Chumps cover, 'Fuck You I'm Rich,' is classic punk without any reservations. While on the live side we get Paul Motard of the Motards joining the Yuppie Pricks for a great version of the Motards' 'Paycheck.' I loved the Motards, and the Yuppie Pricks are growing on me. In fact, this single made me pull out their LP and listen to it again and I have decided that it is an actual keeper. At first I was put off by the ripoff of the Dead Kennedys sound and lyrics, but have now decided that this throwback to an era of my youth is what makes the Yuppie Pricks a great listen. This is a refreshing change of pace from other current releases. Please, new bands, don't try this. There is not enough room for you, and the Yuppie Pricks are doing it very well. In fact, they're on Alternative Tentacles, so you aren't going to do this shtick any better. (EA) - Punk Planet #71

The Yuppie Pricks,'Brokers Banquet' (Alternative Tentacles)

Not since the 'theme' band The Upper Crust has there been a band as ingenious as The Yuppie Pricks. While Upper Crust applied their theme of the privileged class to hard rock while wearing powdered wigs and period clothes (picture Mozart rocking out singing about the woes of being rich), The Yuppie Pricks apply a similar method to punk rock in the guise of yuppies! So you have songs about coke parties, hummers, spas, the stock market and Rolls Royce’s. The Damned song 'New Rose' is given new life and new lyrics in 'New Rolls'. And if you need an authentic punk 'stamp of approval', there is even an appearance by Jello Biafra. The packaging of this CD is a must see – featuring a parody of the artwork for the classic Rolling Stones’ 'Beggars Banquet' album complete with a gatefold picture which parodies the Stones banquet.

What better way to show what punk rock is really about, while at the same time executing a brilliant inside joke! And those who don’t get the joke (yes, there can be intelligence in punk music) can still gasp in awe at what GREAT punk sounds like. The Yuppie Pricks have delivered the first classic punk album of the 21st century, pure and simple. - Ronnie

(5 out of 5) - Ear Candy Music Reviews - February 2005

The Yuppie Pricks hold a schtick so ridiculously over-the-top, so laughably bizarre, so comically absurd that you can't really help but take notice. With a press release telling of the band's lavish lifestyles and greed-chasing outside endeavors (multimillion stockbroking, sitting heir to a pharmaceutical fortune), the Pricks accomplish, as their headline decrees, 'Biafra [listening] to America and [answering] the mandate for conservative punk!' Tongue is shoved so far in cheek, reconstructive oral surgery wouldn't settle this mouth.

The band's sound isn't too hard to pin down. It's catchy punk rock with some serious Dead Kennedys worship going on, and though the sarcasm is way more fleshed out than most bands even attempt to meet halfway, the snotty, very Biafra-like bark shouts over rolling drums, clashing three-chord strums and facetiously thrilled backup vocals, although very done before, will be pretty refreshing in the mind of any even slightly-jaded individual in the present day. The band's subject matter ranges from angel dust gatherings to orally pleasing Governor Schwarzenegger to leaving the living world behind with nothing but wads of monetary accomplishment behind them. The first of such is evidenced in the opener, 'Coke Party,' which begins with a mocking of Queen's 'We Will Rock You,' throwing in obvious sniffle noises between the foot stomps before the crescending announcement of 'coke party coke party coke party COKE PARTY! (gonna get high, gonna get high!)'

Oh, did I mention this was over-the-top? I ask, because, 'Damn It Feels Good To Be A Yuppie,' which closes Broker's Banquet, is a rap-ballad about the band's lifestyle, complete with a bridge from a George W. impersonator. Seriously.

The Yuppie Pricks, while musically nothing new, have definitely chosen the appropriate vehicle (not a jewel-encrusted, irony-laden BMW) for their almost superfluous image. Recognition is deserving for effort alone, but hell, the music ain't bad either. - Brian

(3.5 out of 5) - Punk News.org

The Yuppie Pricks are what's missing from punk rock: The ability to make fun of everything including themselves, without being ironic about it. From the opening blast of 'Coke Party,' you either get it, or you're a moron. Imagine a younger (ahem, and funnier) Jello Biafra (ex-Dead Kennedys' singer, owner of Alternative Tentacles, and if I needed to tell you that, uh, seriously, brush up a bit, huh?) fronting a lively band, the concept being kids in it for the blow, the blowjobs, and cuz they can. Punk rock, in other words. Not since Strapping Young Lad's Devin Townsend and friends chuckled their way through the criminally-unknown Punky Brüster's Cooked on Phonics has punk rock been so accurately parodied.

Punk rock is easy to play, that's the point of it. Kids who can't play, play punk. A 'punk cover' is basically just faster, with the hard parts skipped or fumbled badly. Punk went from being dangerous 'fuck off, we know we suck' to self-aware 'I want to meet girls like Good Charlotte does.' Punk is scrubbed free of anti-social behavior and making tons of money because it doesn't make you think. If you think Blink-182 and Jackass are trouble-causing punks and not frat boys with spiky haircuts, yer missing something. And it's easy to miss it in an advertising-heavy, mass-marketed culture.

The Yuppie Pricks are a riot. They can play, they write good songs, you can sing along and bop yer head. This CD isn't going to sell well, and there's no ad dollars or promotion behind it. It'll be the secret of real punks mocking the fake punks, the way it should be.
- Scott Hefflon - Lollipop Magazine #68

What do you want to believe: are The Yuppie Pricks millionaires who blast out punk rock? It's more fun to believe yes, so let's say they're rich as fuck. If you had more money than you could spend, why wouldn't you make a record that sounds like a lost gem from the late '80s and release it on Alternative Tentacles? If this came out when the Dead Kennedys were playing and releasing records, then the Yuppie Pricks could have been a lot bigger than they are. 'Coke Party' and 'Boo Fucking Hoo' are two great tracks that both stuck in my head for a few days. Once in awhile a big surprise comes along, and this gem of a disc will get heavy rotation this summer. (EA) - Punk Planet #68

Wild, sloppy, out of control punk rock that will make you reflect on life's complexities (once you stop laughing, that is). No one is safe from the pricks unbridled fury. The Governator gets skewered on 'Hummer in My Hummer' and how can you go wrong with lines like this from 'Rich Bitch' - 'if you can't at least afford Gucci/you'll get snubbed more than Susan Lucci.' Other weighty topics include sex, drugs, rich fat cats, and more sex. Sometimes the vocals veer a little too close to Jello Biafra territory. But that seems to be okay since it's on his label and he even does a guest vocal on 'Damn It Feels Good to be a Yuppie.' 'New Rolls' will probably sound fairly familiar to you, too. The Yuppie Pricks are passing the champagne over, so drink up.
- Sean Koepenick - Razorcake #26

Swaggering, arrogant cockrock seems to be hip with the kids these days (didn’t I just review Thundertrain?), but it’s swaggering, arrogant cokerock that you really need. In the grand tradition of the Upper Crust, these khaki-wearing, snow-tooting, stock-trading madmen are penning ditties ‘bout fucking rich bitches, going to the day spa, laughing at the poor and disenfranchised, and the general pleasure they take from just being, well, yuppie pricks. They even rework the old Geto Boys chestnut into “Damn it Feels Good to be a Yuppie.” Apart from that disc-ending rap, the other songs in this yuppie’s dozen resemble the Didjits meets the Dead Kennedys: music for driving your H2 really, really fucking fast to. Although as landed gentry (and fellow traveler of the Upper Crust), I find their stance reprehensibly nouveau riche, I still applaud their lust for ladies and lucre and loutish self-absorption. But wait a minute… isn’t that Jello Biafra featured in “Damn it Feels…”? Doesn’t he run Alternative Tentacles, a lefty label? Aren’t these boys from Austin, center of Texas libdom? Satire? Say it ain’t so. No matter. I mean, that Swift fellow’s Modest Proposal was intended as satire, when obviously it makes too much sense to be taken as such. I say Huzzah! to the Pricks, and’ve made BB my official line-chopping jewel case in their honor. (Nathan Marsak) - Scram Magazine #21