Thursday, May 6, 2010

Alabama Mysteries pt. II: Hinge - "Offcenter"



I don't remember exactly why I bought this record, but I'm guessing it was because it was released on what I thought at the time was the same Rhetoric Records label that released The Larry Brrrds, Teen Idols and the like (it isn't). I don't recall whether the fact the sleeve states clearly that this band is from Prattville, Alabama had anything to do with it or not.

Only upon listening to it now do I recall that I gave this a good many spins at one time. To look at the phoned-in cover art, you'd never guess this disc holds some pretty rockin'-ass ams. It reminds me a good bit of early Kill Rock Stars bands like Slant 6, Adickdid, Tribe 8, Versus, etc - crudely recorded, dissonant, jangled messes of guitars forging some angsty but catchy tunes.

But the mystery remains, who is Hinge? is this their only record? Are they still playing? Are they in different bands now? Have they grown up, started families, and put punk rock away all together? If you have any information on the history or whereabouts of this band or its members, comment below.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

hey this band is from my home town Atmore,AL. and they went on to form a band called gimcrack which released a CD on stiff pole records and toured with the GOTOHELLS i dont know where you could find it at though check it out on myspace if you want.name is keith and my email is dkgriffith75@yahoo.com

Seth Graves said...

hey.

Yes. Saw Gimcrack once. Posted their 7" on this very blog. I had no idea they shared members. Thanks so much for filling in the blanks.

Anonymous said...

yeah, it's all true. hinge basically morphed into gimcrack. 3 out 4 gimcrack members were in hinge. i can't really attest to what most of these dudes are doing in regards to punk rock/playing music and whatnot. i'm married, live in the pacific northwest with my wife and son. my wife and i play music together in a band called areyougone.

Anonymous said...

oh yeah i didn't say who i am---my name is scott bryant and i played in both hinge and gimcrack. interesting thing about that hinge record---it was recorded by a blind guy.

rudy banes said...

I'm from Enterprise, AL. In the early to mid 90's there was a farm center in neighboring New Brockton that was rented out several times for regional shows. I bought the Hinge 7" at one of these shows and played it a million times in through high school. Forgot all about it until I ran across this post. Those shows had a lot of good bands from the region back in that day; Knucklefish, bERT, Log, Moletree, etc.

Anonymous said...

This is too good...I was thinking about Gimcrack the other day; forgot all about Hinge. I'm from Atmore too and saw these guys do one show at the ice cream shop. Beau almost fell off the railing trying to get up there while he was playing. Good times...another aside, the girl on the cover of the Hinge album is one of the band members' sisters. She grew up to be a very pretty lady IMO!