Oh Yeah No
Self-Released, 2021
9/10
A band whose roots go all the way back to 1980 at the University of Kansas, Get Smart! put out a handful of records and made quite a name for themselves in the post-punk scene up until 1990 when they broke up. Now back together with the original line up of Marcus Koch, Lisa Wertman Crowe and Frank B Loose, Oh Yeah No collects 6 tunes recorded in 1987 that were never released before, and they sure do sound great 34 years later.
The title track starts the listen with Koch’s razor sharp guitars and Loose’s thumping drums aligning with the bouncy bass lines from Crowe that benefit from her pretty backing vocals in the New Wave friendly opener, and “Rhythm Empty” follows with both grit and melody meeting at a place of nostalgic post-punk that sounds right at home in the ‘80s.
The middle tracks offer us the rapid fire drumming of the alt-rock flavored “Under The Rug”, while “Blonde Goes West” shuffles with a slight jangle that sounds quite current with today’s indie-rock scene and welcomes soothing vocal harmonies, too.
Arriving near the end, “Painted Floor ”is the calmest track present and flirts with both pop and punk textures, and “Paradise” ends on a lively rocker that’s both rugged and tuneful, and fits perfectly with the college rock sounds of the early ‘90s.
Steve Albini and Iain Burgess worked behind the scenes on these tracks, and it’s rare that those legends are ever involved with anything that isn’t first rate, and Oh Yeah No is no exception. Get Smart! had some shows planned for their 40 year reunion in 2020, but those were sidelined by Covid. Thankfully, these 6 tracks do a fine job of letting us revisit their under appreciated brilliance, and serve as a great starting point for the first time listener.
Travels well with: Too Much Joy- Mistakes Were Made; Pluralone- I Don’t Feel Well