The Hazzards

“Their peppy, girly songs, including the hilarious, ‘Gay Boyfriend,’ are sweet and seemingly innocent, but we can just tell those two precious, uke-strumming gals in front are up to something.” - Time Out NY

The Hazzards (formerly the Ukes of Hazzard, until the trademark lawyers caught up with them) pulled off quite a coup last year when - armed with little more than a discount-store CASIO keyboard, two ukuleles, and a hilarious, made-on-an-iMac video for their single “Gay Boyfriend” – they crashed the UK pop charts at #67. A near-perfect novelty song, “Gay Boyfriend” has the Hazzards (Anne Harris and Sydney Maresca) singing the praises of men who know how to dance, appreciate romantic comedies, and do everything else an ideal boyfriend should, except sleep with women. The video, meanwhile, shows our heroines parading the decks of a computer-generated cruise ship and frolicking amongst digital flowers with a pair of conspicuously well-groomed gents. “Gay Boyfriend” rightfully earned the Hazzards a warm reception in alternative nightclubs from San Francisco to London, plus 15 minutes of television fame on the Comedy Central network.

Since then, the Hazzards have gone back to their pile of demo tapes, in hopes of assembling an album-length follow up worthy of their surprise cult hit. The results come in the form of So Pretty, a 6-song EP. When I first read through the liner notes for the album, I was a bit unnerved by Sidney and Anne’s decision to enlist a full backing band – after all, half the charm of “Gay Boyfriend” and their other, early MP3s were the ridiculous, rickety ukelele-and-CASIO arrangements. However, once I noticed the rather oddball list of instruments (glockenspiel, harp, saxophone), my fears that the Hazzards had gone rock subsided.

“So Pretty” opens with “Girl Beer”, a breezy paen to wine coolers, spritzers, and other un-macho alcoholic beverages (“Girl beer… / it tastes like candy and it works like wine… / when I drink it, I dirty talk and try to touch your underwear”). It’s followed by “Just a Temp”, which maintains the same goofy, faux-calypso shuffle as the lyrics compare office politics to schoolyard popularity contests (“I eat lunch at my desk / I have to man the phone / Work is just like high school / and temps sit all alone”).

The requisite online-dating rant “Sexy Spirit 4U” (is it just me or have songs about online dating become a genre unto themselves?) bobs along on a folk-rock beat with a brief Billy Joel, NYC-circa-1974 saxophone solo. “Shut Up & Make Out” slams overeducated boys who talk too much (“you’ve got better things to show me than your poetry”) to a clicky-clack electro beat and slinky ska horns. “Gay Boyfriend” is just as funny as it was the first time, though thankfully it doesn’t completely overshadow the other songs. “The Business” is the one track where the Hazzards and their gay boyfriends shift into full-on alterna-rock-radio mode, complete with distorted guitars and filtered, raspy vocals… and, good golly, it’s not half bad!

Of course, not everyone is likely to be as charmed by Sidney and Anne’s brainy, awkward pop as I am. Even though there’s no question that the Hazzards are a legitimate indie-pop band, and not just a stand-up routine, the comedy quotient is high and it helps if you share their sense of humor (which is to say it helps to be a college graduate with a degree in liberal arts, an under-stimulating office job, and at least one gay friend, if you aren’t gay yourself). But for those who qualify, “So Pretty” is a delightfully silly, sugary piece of brain candy.

A-

-Emil - Plug in Music

A saucy song about the joys of girls having gay boyfriends is about to storm the charts after becoming an Internet sensation.
Comics Anne Harris and Sydney Maresca – who perform as The Hazzards – wrote Gay Boyfriend after having them because they were too ugly to pull straight blokes at college.
The lyrics include: I want a love who’ll never stray/When he sees other girls he looks away/And if he never kisses me well that’s alright/’Cause we can just cuddle all night.
The New Yorkers wrote the song after a boozy night out and the video has become a cult hit on the Net, being downloaded a MILLION times.
Now Mike Stock, formerly of Kylie Minogue’s hitmaker trio of Stock, Aitken, and Waterman, plans to turn it into a chart success too.
Sydney, 24, says: “We both went to colleges that had lots of beautiful women and tot many straight men. All the straight blokes had girls queuing to go out with them.
“We didn’t get a look-in so we had to get gay boyfriends. But we found gay boyfriends are much better. Straight boyfriends disappoint you all the time.
“Gay Ones will do all the fun stuff that normal boyfriends won’t, like shopping and getting your nails done. And they don’t make you watch action movies.
“They are better at everything but the bedroom stuff.
“It’s cool to have a gay boyfriend – Madonna’s got loads.”

Anne, also 24, met Sydney at a cocktail party three years ago and they discovered the shared another passion – for the ukulele.
They formed a double act, The Ukes of Hazzard, but shortened the name to The Hazzards because they feared being sued by the owners of American Seventies TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard.
Mike Stock has remised the track, which will be released in the UK on November 10. The girls arrive here on Saturday and will debut the song at London club Astoria’s GAY night on Monday.
Anne, who also works as a comedy talent scout, said, “It is annoyingly catching, but truly dreadful. You can’t get it out of your head.
“We’d like to think mike stock will make us the next Kylie Minogues. We can wiggle our bottoms too – but they are a damn sight more wobbly.
“We’d like to make a million quid. I really need some new clothes.”

The girls cast their real-life gay boyfriends in the video. Sydney’s best mate Blair Blanchard, a former drag queen, and Anne’s play David Carney.
Other lyrics include: “It’ll be a great romance/We’ll go shopping and buy tight pants/You don’t care how big my ass is/Just how fabulous my dress is.”
The girls are not worried that the song will upset people. Sydney explained: “I don’t think we are going to offend because it’s all pretty positive.
“It is a little edgy and people get a little shocked by it b3ecause we use words like ‘fag’.
“But I can’t see parents getting upset because their kids are singing it.”
Anne added: “We use some inappropriate words but it’s done with love.
“we are really surprised at the way this has take off. But we can’t wait to come over to Britain and plain London’s GAY night.
“At least we’ll get some new English gay boyfriends.”

By Emily Smith - The Sun (UK)