Dynamite Hack Superfast (Woppitzer/Universal)
Texas Platters
Reviewed by Raoul Hernandez, Fri., June 30, 2000
Dynamite Hack
Superfast (Woppitzer/Universal)
On the back CD tray of Dynamite Hack's full-length debut, the Bates Motel neon sign stands out in the collage of behind-the-scenes polaroids. Fitting, given this local quartet's Green Day ethos -- snotty, fast, and attitudinal. The now-defunct home of stinky punk rock has since been turned into just another Sixth Street shot bar, but then the Hack has transcended the beer 'n' cigarettes stench of lower class brats and dead end cruisers. Superfast is supersheeny corporate punk, far more Blink-182 at the Frank Erwin Center than Streetwalkin' Cheetahs at Emo's. In this they succeed, "Anyway" sounding ready-made for alt.playlists everywhere, while "Alvin," a fuck-you to small-town Texas, would be right at home at KVRX if the local student-run frequency weren't an avant-garde version of noncommercial beacon KUT. The meat of the album goes down like Hamburger Helper -- filling -- but that's only good in band communes, not on their albums. Two bonus tracks, "Alright, No Vallejo," which starts as a funky jam before stopping on a dime and giving way to much-looped laughter, and the Tori Amos hit-to-be, "Anyway," a lovely piano ballad sung by Emily Kate, may be the best tunes here. There's also a reworked cover of N.W.A.'s "Boyz-N-the Hood," a censored version of the original DIY local release, but the joke only works if you were born after 1975.
