Anti-Anti

Hooray For Everything (2003)

Adam White

I apologize to this band. Their promo had immediately fallen into my "abysmal
cover art and band name" pile and it took them a while to climb out of it
and into my stereo. From the band's bio and presentation I was really expecting
something in the goofy pop-punk vain, but instead I'm glad to report that
Anti-Anti have a great grasp on speedy punk rock that lies somewhere between the
Bouncing Souls and Screeching Weasel in influence.

This is fast skate punk that wouldn't seem out of place among the crowd
of bands that popularized this style in the early 90s. Suffice to say those
bands really played this sound into the ground, so much so that Anti-Anti may
still be stuck with the stigma of being another skate-punk band. However
Horray For Everything has enough energy and drive that you're
not likely to sit back and consider the "context" of the band while
the album's playing. Unfortunately 38 minutes feels like a long running time
for this type of record, and once I'm 20 minutes into it I can't
help but drift. By that point it really dosen't seem likely that Anti-Anti's
going to throw any curves and the album suffers because of it.

Fickle reviewer attention spans aside, where this album really falters is in
the fact that it doesn't establish enough of an original voice. At the
end of the day, there isn't much here that distinguishes Horray For
Everything from the piles of old Queers / MTX records you have lying around.

Still… there's potential here. After a look at this band's busy
touring schedule I have no doubt they're in it for the long haul.