Megan's Top 18 of 2008 - #13 - Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Throughout the course of history, there have been great poets, gifted wordsmiths who extolled the virtues of love and beauty (most frequently the former) in language so moving and profound that they are still celebrated to this day.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? doesn't quite fit into that category.

But what's to say there's not a time and a place for succinctness? We're a busy population, we don't always have time for forsooths and flowery phrases.

Sometimes, when you see a lady or gentleman you'd like to get to know better, you just don't have time for wooing. And so, friends, there was never a better song for such occasions than the raging, rampant, hormonally-fueled 4 minute modern sonnet: "Let's Make Out". Bratty and ballsy, it epitomizes the Does It Offend You, Yeah? sound. It's nigh on impossible to not dance to the song, given the combination of the simple, base lyrics and the perfectly sassy beats. It's the perfect way to get your beloved's attention, guaranteed.

But "Let's Make Out" is but one reason to enjoy You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into. My other favorite track, "Being Bad Feels Pretty Good", not only has one of the best song titles ever, but it's got that 80s synthy thing working overtime, making it one of the best dance songs of the year. And "Epic Last Song" is just that, a slice of youthful exuberance and cheeky melodrama.

It's not an album fit for being taken seriously, but if you're looking for a good time, you could do a lot worse.

Live Review: Does It Offend You, Yeah? @ DC9, September 5

For those of you that have not yet had the pleasure of attending a show at DC9, I need to impress upon you one very, very important detail about this particular venue: it is small. Very small. Not the smallest venue ever, surely, but small enough to make you feel a wee bit claustrophobic on nights when a hugely, hotly, hyperly hyped band from foreign shores lands, selling out the venue in advance and ultimately pushing the fire code numbers to the limit.

Needless to say, when I ventured up 95 for the Does It Offend You, Yeah? show, the place was quite possibly more jammed than I've ever seen it. Great for the band, great for the venue, bad for any possible notions of personal space. It was a night of ceaseless sweat, endless dancing, and unstoppable awesomeness. Those little scamps came, saw, conquered, and left us wanting more all in the span of just about an hour.

It wasn't the best show I've been to all year, but it just might be the most entertaining. The super full club was enraptured, and jumped up and down so much and with such lustful abandon that on numerous occasions I was pretty sure the floor was about to collapse, killing us all. But hey, there certainly are worse ways to go. While I lost count of the number of times I was elbowed, poked, and kicked, I was just pleased to see people enjoying themselves as much as I was. And the gleeful performance given by Does It Offend You, Yeah? was most definitely worthy of our adulation. They rolled through bits and bobs from the album You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into, such as the synthily anthemic "Dawn of the Dead" and my pair of favorites (perfectly played back-to-back), "Being Bad Feels Pretty Good" and "Let's Make Out." It was as if we were witnessing modern day Pied Pipers, because the kids couldn't stop dancing. Each song was given a welcome you'd expect from a large venue, never mind a tiny one. It was the perfect Friday night show, the best way to kick off the weekend.

When it's all said and done, their song "We Are Rockstars" might be tongue-in-cheek, but on this night, the members of Does It Offend You, Yeah? were every bit the rock star.

Album Review: Does It Offend You, Yeah – You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into

The first time I saw their name, I thought it was a joke at the expense of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. But no, these kids from Reading are for real, and they mean business. Does It Offend You, Yeah? has all the smart ass, thrashing brashness of the dearly departed Test Icicles and all the neon-clad, retro-spiked, unabashedly cocky dance floor appeal of the Klaxons, all of which basically means they’re this year’s model. It also makes them substantially better than most new bands. And their LP You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into is one of the smartest, most danceable, and flat-out best albums of the year, bar none.

How can one count the many levels of white-hot awesomeness that await you on this album? It’s an album made for strobe lights, for dancing with abandon, for better living through chemistry. It’s an homage to the Atari era, but without all those silly Reaganomics (and bad hair). Two of my favorite tracks, “Dawn of the Dead” and the fantastically named “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good” legitimately sound as though they could have been plucked from any of the John Waters flicks any member of the Brat Pack starred in, breathlessly and synth-ishly wonderful. But Does It Offend You, Yeah? has been very clever indeed, because the album doesn’t ever dwell too long in the 80s, sticking around just long enough to nail it and then move on.

“Attack of the 60 FT Lesbian Octopus” could be the theme music to a late-60s b-movie, and not just because of its name. Frenzied keyboarding meets oodles of distortion in a joyous union. And then, the gears shift again, into the undeniable romp known as “Let’s Make Out,” the new favorite song of amorous folk everywhere. It’s in my regular rotation. After all, who couldn’t fall in love the supremely romantic line “I can’t control myself/when I see you there’s no one else/when I get down all by myself/you’re the one that I think about.” Ah, let’s hear it for 21st century romance.

If you’ve been feeling like something’s been missing from your life lately, like you need a little spice, you might just want to try Does It Offend You, Yeah? on for size. They’ve got all the hellfire and damnation you could ask for, in a beautifully acid green-covered package. Which, by the way, if you visit their official site and order the album, you'll get a free live EP. Sounds like a good deal to me.