Hurry-Up Offense

Donald Moore (2003)

Greg

I listened to this twice before I read the bio or visited the website. Here is what I thought:

"Gee, this high school punk band has a lot of tweaking to do, but I bet their friends go frickin' nuts and tear it up when they play the local battle of the bands. They have a lot of youthful energy and they sound like they're having a lot of fun. I bet their next release will be better."

After reading the bio and visiting the spiffy website, here's what I thought:

"Gee, these mid-twenties fellows have a lot of tweaking to do, but I bet some people will go nuts when they play dates on the Warped Tour… how the hell did they get on that? They have a lot of… energy… and they sound like they're having fun. Oh, they've already released a full length and EP and have another EP out since this one…hmm…"

Yup, they fooled me! This CD runs amok with shitty production and comical vocals, which at times are so off-key that they sound like Native American singing (I'm not being insensitive, just that Native American music has a different sense of tonality, using modes other than the popular Western European major/minor keys). If it were a high school band's first release I would understand. No, Hurry-Up Offense has been around since 1999, touring like mad. You'd think all that playing would tighten them up a bit, but maybe they refuse to be tightened.

Think old Vandals or old Blink 182, but not as funny or as good. I did laugh once with the cheery harmonies during "Crystal Meth Girl": "Crystal Meth / is bad for you / Crystal Meth / Girl is good." These brash punk-pop ditties blast by with no regard for the listener's ears. "Invitation" has a vocal distortion that goes for the song's entirety, making you think they did not listen to the song themselves before sending it to disc. At times the guitar tone is so obnoxious, I thank god I wasn't listening on headphones. The rhythm of the vocals tends to trip and/or smash syllable together as if it were a first take, which it very well may be. The psycho sloppy ska of "High Crimes" just makes you think they should know better. "Crowded" is probably the best track on the disc, at least giving us a nice hook in the chorus and a cool simple Blink-esque guitar riff towards the end.

Sure it has energy, but that is about all it has. Perhaps an entertaining live act, Hurry-Up Offense should focus some of that energy on their records.