New Jersey's Half Hour to Go has just released their debut album Items for the Full Outfit (Grass Records) and things haven't always been easy. Plagued with line-up changes, changing record release dates, and an audience who, for the most part, have never even heard of them, Half Hour to Go are geared to change all that. And soon.
Formed in 1993 when core members guitarist/vocalist Vic Marinelli and bassist/vocalist Michael Dutcher decided that the drum machine they used was just not working out (musical differences were cited), they realized that needed a much more human beat. So, they dumped the electronics and picked up Mike Hart, who was doing double duty since he was still very much a member of Kittywinder. In this incarnation, Half Hour to Go recorded the EP Don't Forget the Children in June 1994 which got them a fair amount of press and much-needed attention. With that record firmly in their pocket, they attracted the eye of the acclaimed producer Bob Weston (Archers of Loaf, Sebadoh) and recorded their Items for the Full Outfit in a Chicago studio. Ultra-melodic and widely diverse, the album wanders the same catchy indie rock terrain that Superchunk and Polvo have travelled before them, but adding a little bit of New Jersey radioactive charm to the mix.
In the meantime, their label (Grass) was enduring major changes, which subsequently would delay release of the new album for more than a year. "It was frustrating," says Dutcher about the long delay. "When you finish something, you really want it to come out right away."
Soon after recording wrapped up, the band played a handful of dates testing out the newly recorded material, and making sure it held up (it did). But that is when it became evident that a second guitarist was needed. After a healthy search, Joe Centeno joined on board. When all seemed right, Kittywinder beckoned Hart to return full-time. Subsequently, he announced his resignation from the band and soon replaced by Ernie Intorella, marking hopefully the last line-up change for quite a while.
"We felt like a band the first time [the current line-up] played together," says Marinelli. "It just clicked! I was writing stuff with Joe twenty minutes after we met." Feeling a strong affinity for the new and improved Half Hour to Go, the band decided to rework and re-record some of the songs ("Shave", "Theatre on the Round", and "John Glenn") on their still-unreleased debut, utilizing the energy and freshness that the new members brought into the band.
Booking a tour to coincide with the soon-to-be-delayed-again release date of April 1996, the band practiced and primed their set, itching to put the year-old record out on the shelves. Days before its release, their label informed them that Items for the Full Outfit was plagued with sound quality problems, pushing its arrival in stores back another three months to June. "Again, it was frustrating," says Dutcher. "We had a tour booked all the way out to California and back again, and we didn't even have a record to sell." But instead of tucking tail and sulking, they headed out to road test the songs to vastly unknown crowds in Boston, Orlando, Kansas City, and Austin, people who were, for the most part, hearing these songs for the first time. "Hey, when you don't have a record out yet, everything is new," Marinelli explains. "That'll change now that the album is out," he grins.
With the line-up solidified, the record officially released, and a tour that is already two months old and continues straight through the summer, Half Hour to Go seem to be officially on their way. Their first single, the jagged yet surprisingly melodic "John Glenn," is starting to show some radio play and the buzz that they maintained for the last few months of touring is bound to get louder. With their history, it seems like things are destined to change again, this time for the better. "It's been an interesting trip, I'll give you that" says Dutcher without a hint of irony, "and it's bound to get more and more interesting."
