Some people come to the Bay Area for a job. Others come for love. Falyn Walsh had a different reason.

“I was really into East Bay punk,” she says. “I came to start a band.”

Walsh discovered Green Day at a young age and proceeded to teach herself guitar by tearing through their discography. In 2015, while still a teenager, she and a friend planned a trip to see the region that spawned Green Day, Operation Ivy and Crimpshrine. And that’s all it took. Not long after returning home to Massachusetts, she bought a one-way plane ticket back to the Bay.

That July, she arrived in Berkeley, where she worked as a live-in nanny. By November, she met Lalo Gonzalez Deetz, a guitarist from Albany who was trying to get something started.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted to play guitar,” Deetz says. “I met Falyn and was like, ‘Hey, I want to play music. Let’s see if we can make songs together.’”

The connection was natural.

“It was super natural,” says Walsh. “I showed him some songs I’d written, then he showed me some chord progressions he’d written. We were like, ‘Wow, we wrote the same song.’”

Last month, Grumpster released their first full-length, Underwhelmed, via the South Bay’s premiere punk label, Asian Man Records. Across 10 tracks, Grumpster lays down some brutally honest pop-punk, staying remarkably on-subject as they pogo their way through songs about depression, anxiety and being let down by others.

“I like to be really transparent with my lyrics,” Walsh says. “If I feel some way, I just write about where I’m at in that moment.”

Lead single “Crumbling” is a perfect example. A sugary pop-punk tune with hints of the Ramones and Alkaline Trio, it features lyrics like “These days I’m always in pain,” and “All my bones are made of glass.” The chorus ends by declaring, “There’s no use for me, and there’s none for you.”

Arguably, this is the most positive song on the record. The whole album is unflinchingly dour, but there’s catharsis in its bleak outlook.

“It’s an outlet not just for me, but also for the audience,” Walsh says. “It resonates with people. We’ve gotten a lot of responses like, ‘Oh man, that song really hit home for me.’ If there’s people up on stage who’ve dealt with something emotionally, people realize they’re not the only one.”

Given their thematic content, it’s a little ironic that Grumpster come to San Jose for one of the cheeriest events of the year: Get Married’s annual holiday show at Art Boutiki. Perhaps the most wholesome band to ever come from San Jose, Get Married specialize in pop-punk by way of the late ’50s and early ’60s teen ballad—songs that sway as much as they rock and deal almost exclusively with chapel bells and true love. Get Married does, however, happen to share a label with Grumpster.

“Get Married are the angels of Asian Man,” Walsh says, adding mischievously: “We’re the devils.”

Devils or not, Grumpster has already found more success than either Walsh or Deetz expected. Their record release show at 924 Gilman sold out. Orders for Underwhelmed have come in from as far away as New Zealand and the UK. And with an opening slot on tour with political punk band Anti-Flag this spring, the perpetually pessimistic pair are faced with the one thing they weren’t prepared for: bright skies.

“We’re in the band that we want to be in, and we’re exactly where we want to be,” Walsh says. “But now that the record is out and the release party is over, it’s like, ok, LP2. What’s it going to sound like? Where’s it’s going to go? We’re hungry.”

Grumpster
Dec 19, 7:30pm, $12+
Art Boutiki, San Jose

There’s no place like home for the holidays. Just ask Get Married, San Jose’s local pop-punk six-piece. They’re fresh off of a national tour and a festival appearance in Florida and back home in time for their second annual holiday party extravaganza at Art Boutiki. Supported by San Jose punk staples Stickup Kid, Small Crush and New Fossils, the all-ages show is a special chance to hear a sampling of the local punk scene all under one roof—and maybe even catch a few Christmas covers. Pro tip: Wear a Santa hat and you may be invited to join in on the caroling on stage.

Get Married Holiday Party
Sat, 7:30pm, $10
Art Boutiki, San Jose

Those who know a bit about San Jose indie rock quartet Get Married will tell you that the band was formed as a tribute group before evolving into a rock-a-doo-punk outfit. The group’s first several shows consisted of strictly Elvis Presley songs.

The group’s early music definitely hews closely to these founding principles. Their last EP, Four Songs, comprises four King-inspired, doo-wop-infused rock tracks that owe as much to mid-’90s pop punk as they do to mid-’50s Sun Records. But according to Get Married frontman Jaake Margo, there was always another influence swirling around beneath the pompadour grease—glam metal.

“His favorite thing in the world is guitar harmonies, or, as he calls them, ‘guitarmonies,’” Margo says of the band’s lead guitarist and co-founder, Randy Moore. As Margo tells it, Moore’s favorite group growing up was Kiss. “I was never into that.”

These days, though, Margo can abide Moore’s love of dueling guitar leads. And it shows on Get Married’s new EP, Into The Cosmos. Moore shreds on every track—from opener “Dream Boy” to closer “New Neighbor”—infusing the band’s already propulsive sound with an extra, these-go-to-11 kick.

“It gives us the Weezer guitar solos, as opposed to me just playing the blues scales again and again,” Margo says of Moore’s high-flying guitar flourishes. “We’re like Joe Strummer and Mick Jones,” he adds, explaining why the combination of punk and glam works. “We’re the team that makes the crazy shit happen.”

Released late last year, the band will celebrate Into The Cosmos with an official hometown release show at Art Boutiki this Friday. The EP is the band’s second release through Wiretap Records. The band signed with the L.A.-based label over the summer, and Margo says the relationship has already paid dividends.

“We made some really cool connections, which otherwise I wouldn’t have had any idea about,” Margo says, explaining that Wiretap helped the band book several key dates on their most recent nationwide tour.

All of this—plus a strong new lineup—has Margo optimistic about what the future holds for Get Married. “I’m really excited,” he says. “Really cool stuff keeps happening to us. We hope it keeps happening.

Get Married
Feb 3, 7:30pm, $10
Art Boutiki, San Jose

Some relationships drag on for years, never really going anywhere, before unceremoniously sputtering out. Though it’s impossible to say exactly what the future holds for San Jose indie quartet Get Married, things are certainly looking up.

Formed just last year, the band is already taking things to the next level, inking a one-year deal with Wiretap Records. The L.A.-based label will help Get Married reissue and distribute their excellent debut EP, Four Songs.

The aptly titled four-song set showcases Get Married’s potent synthesis of classic sounds plucked from the recent—and distant—past. Recorded last January at Panda Studios in Fremont, Four Songs is fueled by a nostalgia for early rock & roll and doo-wop, as well as first-wave emo and shoegaze.

Influenced by the likes of late-’80s and early-’90s acts, such Galaxie 500 and Sunny Day Real Estate, the members of Get Married are equally enthralled with the work of Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys. In fact, frontman Jaake Margo started Get Married as an Elvis cover band, before the group started writing their own songs.

Merging a no-frills aesthetic with bright, catchy chord progressions and vocal arrangements, Get Married build songs that ride high on waves of fuzzy guitar tones, shoot the curl through a compendium of doo-wop, swing and rockabilly flourishes, and come out the other end in a glistening mist of Sun Records-style harmonies.

“Grenadine,” which follows a story of unrequited love, feels like a Grace Kelly-starring, malt-shop romance—only punctuated with revved-up guitars and snotty, punk melodies.

This summer Get Married are taking their show on the road, playing a string of dates in the Pacific Northwest before returning home to play the Art Boutiki on July 28. After that, plans are in the works for a national tour and a new EP, currently titled Into the Cosmos.

While San Jose certainly holds a special place in their hearts, looking forward, Get Married have their sights set beyond their hometown.

“We’ve been talking as a band about moving to L.A.” Margo says. “We’re all in our 20s and if we’re going to do this, then we need to be closer to the action.”

Get Married
‘Four Songs’
Various Digital Outlets