Huntingtons

Item: Get Lost
Author: Todd Ballard

Get Lost

(1999)

Reviewed by Todd Ballard

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Label Tooth & Nail RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2000

pop punk punk

The underground boasts a few bands that have made a name for themselves through some type of schtick or another. The Make Up come to mind, and although Ian Svenonius looks and sounds a bit like Prince, make no mistake about it, the Make Up are their own "Gospel Yeh-Yeh." Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Huntingtons' previous albums or their latest release Get Lost. How do they make it? Their whole schtick is about being a band that already exists (and still records for that matter).

Possibly the reason for their album sales is because they pull it off so well. Any hardcore Ramones fan could enter a room with a Huntingtons album playing in the background and think it their rock gods themselves. The problem is, once they found out the truth, they'd probably kick the stereo across the room with the CD. No serious Ramones fan can take this seriously, can they? But that is the only thing the Huntingtons really have going for them--they sound just like the Ramones.

The Huntingtons are playing off the fact that the audience who largely buy their albums have never heard the Ramones, and even if they had, that audience is largely limited to what their local Christian bookstore carries because they are not willing to buy a Ramones album. Admittedly, the Huntingtons are progressing as a band, but that progression follows the course of the band they emulate. Right now the Huntingtons have worked their way up to 1986, the year the Ramones released Animal Boy. Get Lost falls somewhere near "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" and never reaches the raw force of "Animal Boy" or "Wart Hog."

With songs like "Annie's Anorexic" and "Joanie's Got Problems," the Huntingtons are trying to delve a little further into the American teenage psyche than their medium allows. The album opens well with "No Pool Party Tonite," but it doesn't take the listener too long to realize that this release is falling short of the raw tenacity that made High School Rock the best Huntingtons album to date. Maybe it's the change in the lineup. Maybe it's the fact that you can only keep a schtick like this going for so long before even the hangers-on start to realize that you're a Ramones wanna-be.

If it's simple hooky pop-punk you're after, this album may keep you entertained for a while. But as a famous poet/king/philosopher once penned, there really is nothing new under the sun. And Joey Ramone really does sound more like himself anyway.