Prick Up Your Ears: A Brief Review Of The Debut Album From The Gerunds (Dag Nasty & Dot Dash Spin-Off)

A few years ago there was a hint of this album in a Dot Dash performance. That bass player up there on the left, Hunter Bennett, and the guy on the mic, Peter Cortner (Dag Nasty, Field Day) combined their talents at a Salad Days DVD premiere gig to run through gems by The Damned and Kirsty MacColl. The new album from The Gerunds, Hunter Bennett and Peter Cortner, is reminiscent of post-punk from the era that gave birth to The Damned and Kirsty MacColl, but rather than offer up imitations of similar post-punk pioneers, Hitsville, PA serves as a sampling of a new, idiosyncratic approach to this genre.

While single "Prick Up Your Ears" has a Joy Division-ish churn, and album opener "Gill" works at an almost lyrical run through Magazine and Buzzcocks forms, most of Hitsville, PA is delightfully and unexpectedly iconoclastic. Flashes of things like Stan Ridgway seem to have influenced some of this ("The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles"), while lots more owes debts to Seventies Iggy ("Wild Wives"), The Kinks ("There's Something Wrong with Arthur"), and possibly The Chameleons ("Native Tongue"). All that being said, Hitsville, PA succeeds enormously because it sounds so little like Julie Ocean, Dot Dash, Dag Nasty, or Field Day. Cortner and Bennett consistently indulge their own instincts as musicians here, and not a single moment feels like the easy option was chosen. None of this is fan service to old hardcore heads, for example.

Almost a concept album, though I'm not quite sure the story behind it, Hitsville, PA suprised me. There's versatility here, risks taken, and tangents pursued. What transpires over the course of the record is two guys and a few guests here and there going in whatever direction they want, while reigning in themselves within the constraints of the genre. It's indulgent, yes, but mannered and modulated too. That's why so much of this has snap and power. And all along, the sinewy twists, turns, and detours from the obvious make Hitsville, PA such an engaging release. I'm looking forward to hearing more from The Gerunds.

Hitsville, PA is out now via Uranium Rush.

[Photo of Dot Dash and Peter Cortner by me, 2015]