Hi-Standard

Love is a Battlefield (Fat)
by Scott Hefflon

Anyone who’s heard Hi-Standard probably loves them. They’re happy, Japanese, write criminally-catchy songs, and seem to have so much fun, you just can’t keep that punk-ass sneer on your face! “This is Love” and “My First Kiss” pretty much set the tone of this four-song, eight-minute EP: la la las galore and Ryan Greene mixing, but it’s the luscious BB harmonies that open the manic “Catch a Wave” that adds “Oit! Oit, oit!”s and finishes in under a minute before you can wrap yer mind around whatcha just heard. But their giddy mock cover of “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” (you know, “Wise men say, Only fools rush in,” my favorite cover of which was in the The Snapper) takes the cake and mashes it in your face, getting plenty of frosting up your nose as the video cameras capture every moment, but you’re laughing too hard to be angry. You have the rest of your life for that, kid…
(PO Box 193690 San Francisco, CA 94119)