Song Premiere: Mixtapes, ‘Happy & Poor’

Listen to Mixtapes' "Happy & Poor."

Indie-punk trio Mixtapes are satisfied with being "Happy & Poor" on their brand-new single.

Money can't buy happiness, right? RIGHT?!?! Well, according to Cincinnati indie-punk outfit Mixtapes, it can't. Even if that means eating a lot of Top Ramen and sleeping without a bed frame. But if you're young and plan to enter the music business, then it's kind of a given that you'll have to be poor for a while -- at least until you hit it big, join a major label, and start getting invited to all kinds of swaggy award shows. But on the other hand, not every band measures success by how much cash they have lining the drawers -- a concept Mixtapes know all about on their new track, "Happy & Poor."

Listen to Mixtapes' "Happy & Poor" after the jump.

The first single on their upcoming album, Ordinary Silence, "Happy & Poor" leads with sharp percussion, a punk-tinged bass line, and bittersweet, distortion-filled guitar melodies as vocalists Ryan Rockwell and Maura Weaver trade verses about the uncertainty of youth and going without certain creature comforts. "I'm poor and I'm happy/ I'm tired and I'm cranky/ I'm poor and I'm happy, at least most of the time/ I feel young/ I feel restless/ I'm a fool/ and I'm reckless/ but I'm poor and I'm happy, at least most of the time." Sucks when you don't get paid to do what you love, right? Unfortunately, too few of us do. But Mixtapes don't seem too bent out of shape about it.

"'Happy & Poor' is a song about making decisions in your life and remembering past ones," Mixtapes' Ryan Rockwell told us. "It's a song about looking back at the decisions you've made and seeing [how they've] made you who you are."

And though he may not necessarily be rolling in cash, Ryan (and we're guessing all of Mixtapes) tries to keep success in perspective. (#DownToEarth) "I might not have any money, but I've gotten to do things over the past few years that my teenage self would think are the coolest things on the planet. We focus too much on bad days and nights, negative people and things. I liked being a kid, I liked all the memories, smells, and music attached with that time period. I also like that it's made me who I am. I'm poor, and I'm happy."

Grab Mixtapes' Ordinary Silence when it drops June 25, check them out at Vans Warped Tour this summer, and view the rest of their summer tour dates here.

+ Listen to Mixtapes' "Happy & Poor."

Photo credit: Ryan Russell

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