Sort Of Wylde Times at Washington High

My senior year of college is really where my love for O.A.R. started to take off. I had already bought all of their albums, including In Between Now and Then which came out during summer break, and listened to them on constant repeat. There was just one thing. I hadn't seen them in concert yet and from listening to Any Time Now (their two disc live album) I knew it would be an epic experience. As luck would have it O.A.R. would be making a stop in Massachusetts (I went to Lasell College which happens to be right outside of Boston for those of you who were interested) as a part of the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour during my first month back at school. I know some of you are asking yourself what the hell the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour is, and the answer is a small, one day festival with two stages that only existed for a few years. The tickets were dirt cheap though (I want to say twenty bucks or so) and there were a bunch of good acts on the main stage (Talib Kweli, The Roots, O.A.R., and N.E.R.D.) so it was an easy sell to my roommates. So we packed into my car and headed off to what is now the Tweeter Center, which reminds me of Long Island's Jones Beach Theater except there's no water surrounding it and there are lawn seats.

To kill sometime between acts the four (or was it five?) of us walked around, they had some BMX bikers doing tricks off ramps by the second stage so we checked that out. As that ended we moved over to a free-throw competition and as we finished up with that one of the bands took the second stage. We still had some time to kill between first stage acts so we hung around as the crowd reached a moderate size. The group was the Wylde Bunch and it was this large ensemble of people who just jumped into their set of funk, hip-hop, and a bit of soul. It was contagious and a lot of fun and we ended up hanging around for the full set. They did this song where they sampled (full band mind you) and partly covered (chorus only) Billy Joel's Big Shot, and I couldn't believe how cool it sounded. They reminded me of Outkast, not that the sound was the same but they definitely embodied the funk spirit of Outkast. The set was a lot of fun and after it was done I bought a copy of their four song EP and met the band (side not Wylde Bunch joined O.A.R. on stage for a freestyle during Crazy Game of Poker and that too was pretty awesome). I walked away with a new band in my pocket and looked forward to when their full album was released.

That unfortunately would take some time, actually a longer time then I had hoped for. So I listened to the EP for awhile and then it slowly worked itself out of my CD rotation, but it did make guest appearances from time to time. I think I actually stumbled upon their full album by accident in a small, local record shop (that sadly no longer exists) a few years later and got pretty excited (there's nothing better than actually stumbling into new music) and bought it. Wylde Tymes At Washington High had all the songs from the EP so it was a no brainer for me to get it (this is before you could download specific songs from albums, which is exactly what I would have done with this album).



Before I get into the song allow me to state that I hate the use of the letter "Y" throughout this entire album. It's not just in the album title but on song titles too where "Y" replaces "I" and I think it's ridiculous and sort of annoying. It's so gimmicky, I strongly disapprove. As a matter of fact I strongly disapprove with a lot of this album, it's just cheesy. That's What You Get is one of the better tracks from the album but even it has a cheese filling. The rhymes are simplistic at best and it's just imitation funk/hip-hop for me. The songs that stand out happen to be the ones from the EP but for some reason the Wylde Bunch strayed away from that and made an album that was cotton candy. I don't mind dabbling in different styles of music cause sometimes it blends really well together, but these guys just throw it around on the album so there is no continuity. Instead of a fun record you get an annoying mix that has no flow. It's all up and down. Nothing like the EP.

I gave it a couple of listens and then it became an afterthought. When it came time to put music on my ipod I took the songs from the EP and one or two from the album and then moved on. I'm not really sure what happened to the Wylde Bunch. I like to believe that maybe they discovered the letter "I", and everyone is happier for it. But I think they really slipped back into obscurity and got lost in the shuffle.

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