Everything starts somewhere. Disco started as Miami club music; green started as blue and yellow; Out Hud started out as a band of hardcore kids. Though it's tempting to romanticize those early days, before everything got big and complicated, they're very often best left to good memories and the comfortable buffer of time. Partially because everyone grows up and out of their various inspirations, and because we're prone to learning from our mistakes, beginnings seem at once thrilling, disastrous and raw. In the some cases, inspiration carries us through rough spots, but usually, the best stuff pours out when we realize what the hell is going on and can do something about it. But then, there's also much to be said for ignorance, bliss and beginner's luck.
Out Hud and !!! began as two Sacramento-based bands having backgrounds in hardcore punk but also interested in experimenting with their own weird, white funk. The two shared members (Tyler Pope and vocalist Nik Offer), so it's no surprise they should begin and hit their strides at approximately the same times. In 2003, each were recipients of praise transcending the usual trendy underground lauding that goes on every year for relatively unknown bands; even when "dancepunk" was supposed to be taking the indie nation by storm, Out Hud and !!! presented music heard and loved by all manner of folks otherwise unimpressed by hipster cred. The bands had released music long before they relocated from Cali to NYC and before this whole angular dance craze was supposed to have begun, but were probably surprises to most of their fans over the past couple of years.
In 1998, Out Hud and !!! released a split single on Gold Standard Labs (GSL), and the following year, they released a split 12-inch EP containing the single and remixes. And, as is so often the case, their beginnings reveal slightly larval forms of what garnered them attention in later years. Chiefly, the music on the CD reissue of this split EP is of modest-fidelity, inspired and amateurish in the way every new idea is amateurish. And yes, it most certainly predicts a day when punks will trade their apathy for j's, and lead sweaty crowds through all-night grinding sessions. If the music isn't as accomplished as it is on later releases like Me and Giuliani or S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D., it's hardly without its charms.
!!!'s "Instinct" is a lengthy punk-funk stomp, and the better of the record's two original sides. It begins with slashed, chicken-scratched guitar. Soon afterwards skittish disco drums and a funky dub line enter, sending no mixed signals about exactly what the agenda is here. Offer's breathy mutterings act more as rhythmic color than melodic device, and when the horns come in on the next verse, the band works up an impressive swirl of near-feverish skank-beat and phased trance. "Instinct" isn't anywhere near the "pop" song that "Giuliani" was, but nor is it unsuitable for a party. Dare I say: it "jams" in places.
Out Hud's three pieces (titled "jgne", "jgdg", and "jgxtc") sound more the work of a "project" than a band, and also sound like they began life as adventures on four-track. The first begins with the mini-pound of a Casio disco preset, and features more funk rhythm guitar given the quick-delay treatment just like all the old punks used to do after they'd heard dub in the late 70s. In a way, Out Hud's songs are actually more reminiscent of the first wave of dancepunks than !!!'s, but their execution is also a lot more ragged here. "jgdg" is a variation on the same groove, featuring Molly Schinct's cello and a little abrasive guitar skronk and feedback to offset the ambience, while "jgxtc" is almost a purely rhythmic exercise in drum machine chaos. So, as beginnings go, this split EP is nice and not terribly ambitious, but there are sparks here, and fans should enjoy the history lesson.
