Gas Huffer

The Rest of Us (Estrus)
by Grady Gadbow

This here’s the sixth darn full length from the Seattle’s most talented petrol-snorters. It warms my little black heart to hear a band get this far into their career without forgetting what they were good for in the first place. Gas Huffer is good for twangy, frantic, surfish songs of the garage-pop variety. The Rest of Us is the best one yet.

Any band worth a damn has got a signature sound. Some are more signature than others, and some signature sounds suck from the start. These guys have long been onto something with their rockabillyesque vocal melodies coming out of Matt Wright and that special twangyness. I recall some old Gas Huffer songs having to do with such esoteric subjects as washing dishes, drinking beverages, or determining the contents of a certain mysterious bag, but new stuff is trickier. There are some revenge themes and irreverent denouncements of hypocrisy on the new one, but also a lot of interesting lyrics I’m not sure what to make of, like the really cool death ballad (?) about a lighthouse or something, complete with harmonies and keys and a super-smooth bass line. That one was a bit of a departure, but hell, it works.
(PO Box 2125 Bellingham, WA 98227)