TWENTY2
“The Dudes of Hazard”
(New School Records)
I listened to this CD twice, thank God, because I was about to pan it. My initial reaction was, okay, I’ve heard this before when it was called Strung Out. But on second listen I couldn’t help but think, damn, this is actually pretty good stuff. Lyrically, it’s a bunch of mumbo jumbo about girls, but musically, these guys can play. Fast, hard, loud. The drums alone are so kick ass I thought I was going to have a seizure when I cranked it up in my car. True, the sound is rehashed, but they’re wise enough to change up the style from song to song, and even within the songs themselves, so that just when you think it’s getting old, here comes something new. Think of the bastard child of NoFx, Strung Out, No Use for A Name, and pretty much all those other Fat Wreck Chords bands, that’s Twenty2. The singer Jonh (yeah, it’s spelled that way) is not the best punk singer I’ve heard, but he’s got energy, and in punk that counts for a lot. I longed for some more backing vocals to fill out the space, but other than that, these guys have got a good thing going.
