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| The Hissyfits |
Rock-O-Meter Rating: 9.4
by Will Robinson Sheff
10.25.2000
Seeing as one of the Hissyfits’ highest-profile fans is Joey “Do Your Parents Know You’re A” Ramone, I decided to prepare for this review by plugging the Hissyfits single “Something Wrong” into the office Rock-O-Meter. This bulky, analog device, invented in 1979 by one Evelyn Togar, has been a fixture in the Audiogalaxy home offices ever since, delirious from having spent a weekend smoking an entire ounce of loco-weed while watching “Rock and Roll High School” 46 times in a row, I burst into my boss’s office, foaming at the mouth, and demanded we purchase one at any cost. Used to measure relative degrees of Rock and Roll, the Rock-O-Meter has proven invaluable over time, and has even saved lives during tooth-and-nail in-staff fights as to whether or not Joan of Arc “rocks.” (Rock-O-Meter rating: 1.3).
So anyway, I plugged “Something Wrong” into the Rock-O-Meter. Just what I thought: 9.4.
"With fans ranging from [Joey] Ramone to Greil Marcus, you don’t need a Rock-O-Meter to divine that they're doing something right." |
But with fans ranging from Mr. Ramone to rock-critic Godhead Greil Marcus, you don’t need a Rock-O-Meter to divine that the Hissyfits are doing something right. What they’re doing, really, is simply playing pop-punk like it’s supposed to be played - skimping on portions of neither. Unlike the crop of Californian prettyboys that most people think of when they hear the phrase “pop-punk,” the Hissyfits don’t treat punk like a cosmetic decoration or pop like a record-company obligation. Their punk side is all thrashing, menacingly dark energy, and their pop side is given over to the perfect crafting of The Song. Example: “Something Wrong,” which Marcus called “perfect,” registers a 9.4 on the Rock-O-Meter, but also functions as a perfect pop tune, and, with the distortion turned down and the perfect vocal harmonies turned up, would sound right at home on a record by the Go-Go's, or even the Ronettes.
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| Live! |
Just as the Hissyfits’ pop crafts(wo)manship sets them apart from their pop-punk peers, so too does their sense of rock history. While Blink-182’s conception of punk history probably begins with Operation Ivy, the Hissyfits meld Riot-Grrrl influences with the influence of cutesy twee-punk bands like Tuscadero and Cub. Then they go back a little bit further in time to take a cue from New Wavers like Blondie and (especially) the Go-Go’s, travel back further still to the virtual invention of punk by Joey and his “brothers,” and wind up their backwards tour of Rock History at girl group ground zero with 60s bands like the Chantels and the Ronettes (in fact, the group has even played with the amazing Ronnie “Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh” Spector).
"The Hissyfits don’t treat punk like a cosmetic decoration or pop like a record-company obligation." |
Just to make sure my analysis of the Hissyfits was accurate, I ran a promo copy of the Blink-182 track “Man Overboard” through the trusty Rock-O-Meter for comparison. A measly 2.6. I am vindicated. These girls make Tom Delonge look like Vince Van Patten.
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