This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“I wanna destroy indie-rock snobs / Holier than thou with no taste at all,” complain SoCal modern rockers U.S. Crush on their self-titled debut.
A little harsh, perhaps. But you can’t accuse these guys of calling the kettle black. It’s obvious from this 14-track offering that the boys in U.S. Crush have plenty of musical taste — and no qualms whatsoever about wearing it on their deliberately torn sleeves. From The Sex Pistols, they’ve borrowed the crunchy guitars and punky riffs that drive tracks like Debutante (basically a rewrite of Bodies); from power-popsters like Lit they’ve nicked zippy melodies and peppy harmonies; from R.E.M., singer Danny Lake swiped his phrasing and nasal sound; from Beck, they even nicked the song title Loser. But despite all these influences — and all the kinetic energy in these tracks — these guys can’t manage to produce a spark. Five seconds after these songs end, you can’t remember what they sounded like. Better to be an indie-rock snob that an amnesia-rock mob.
