Offside

by Dick Dent

Boston Brit-pop. It sounds like the oxymoron of the week (replacing last week’s winner, “alternative integrity”), but that’s just what Offside is, a four-piece of English/Irish expatriates hoping to take back a piece of their oldest colonies. And why not? With the footsoldiers of the latest (what is now, the sixth? Seventh? Where is that Culture Club box set? But I digress…) British Invasion sending constant volleys across the pond, it only stands to reason that some junior Cornwallises would look to splatter local blood on their redcoats from within our bounds. Better these lads than those illiterate plebes in Oasis, I’d say. Their four-song demo is unshy of wearing its influences on its fringy sleeve even more than the aforementioned eyebrow ridges – “Bulldogs” is a full-on rewrite of “Diamond Dogs,” only 20,000 leagues less pretentious; “Truckdriver Pills” cops a bridge from Elvis Costello’s “This Year’s Girl” – but they don’t perform any disservice to the sources, so wha’da fuk? The lyrics are pretty funny in a ’90s Ray Davies kind of way, too, delineating the lineaments of alt.culture with a friendly scowl: the titles “Let’s All Have a Disco” and “Post Mod Pat” should serve as indication enough of that. So, to quote English football hero Jimmy Buzzard, Offside hit the ball first time and there it was in the back of the net. I’ve fallen off my chair, Brian.
(6 Otis Place Apt #2, Boston, MA 02108)