Reviewed by Jonathan DeWoskin
Greetings and welcome to Twangri-La. My name is Jonathan and I’ll be your guide on your adventure into new music. Here you’ll read about bands you’ve never heard of, but ought to know about. This is your opportunity to add new music to your library. Pick a few tracks, make a playlist, put it on at your next party and I promise your friends will point to your speakers and ask, “Who is this?” Out of curiosity, of course; never derision.
The Right-Offs hail from Connecticut and claim they’re unafraid to play the sounds that need to be played. What I can tell you is they’re loud, staccato and I can only imagine their stage presence. The songs on Quiet Down vary with the range of punk genre. You will not hear several versions of the same three chords.
So what do you hear when you play them? Oddly enough, the band they resemble closest to my mind is the long defunct British punk band Vatican DC. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. The Right-Offs are joining my regular rotation at the gym. Tracks like Red, Green and Blue are great for a sprint at the gym or a spirited back road drive. It’s the fastest and hardest on the album and really gets your blood moving. Funny though, once I hear the opening riff I start mouthing the lyrics to Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode. This is not a bad thing.
“Break it up” and “Night is a Shadow” also get your attention. They’re a little slower, but as I listened, I found myself captivated either by the rhythm or the clever rhymes. If you like Jet or Green Day, this album is definitely in your comfort zone and a nice change of pace from the mainstream. Some of their songs stretch the genre a little bit. You’ll hear hints of The White Stripes and, if you can imagine, the Caesars or Teddybears without synthesizers.