Singles Going Single # 68 - Huffy 7" (1995, Ringing Ear)

I know another band may come to me later, but in all my infinite wisdom, or more accurately, taste, Vermont never spawned a band so striking as Huffy. I fell in love at first listen with this single, particularly the A-side, "Anything Goes," a song that I still rank as one of the ten greatest songs of the 1990s. Possessing perhaps the most compelling guitar riff since Boston's "More Than a Feeling," Huffy's "Anything Goes" ushers you in like few pop-punk songs can. Once you're in the lobby, things become even more sonically spellbinding. By mid-song, you will doubt find yourself in a sublime state of conjecture, as you try to hem together the disparate lyrics entailing milk, steering wheels, and some nonsense about "shaking the way I feel." Yeah, I can't figure out what's going on myself, but it sounds phenomenal. If there's a classic one-liner to be culled from the track, it's surely, "one foot in the door, the other in my mouth." Furthermore, leadman Tim Lauben has one of the single most distinctive voices you're ever likely to hear.

The flipside, "Handlebars" lurks in the toppling shadow of it's better half, but carries on in the same Doughboys/Dino Jr., inflected pattern Huffy would further explore on their full length, No High Five on Me Too Records, still available for mailorder I might add. It was to be Huffy's parting shot, but Lauben would soon resurface in My Own Sweet, and in this millennium with The Red and the Black. These days, he's perfecting his solo muse, which you can sample here. More info on Huffy can be gleaned from an interesting 2003 post on Bradley's Almanac.

The rip of "Anything Goes" was taken not from the vinyl, but actually the Ringing Ear Records, Flex Your Specs compilation CD. I think that covers all the bases.

 

A. Anything Goes

B. Handlebars

 

Hear