Hit the Ground Running – A Long Summer in Ohio

Pop group Hit The Ground Running might appeal to fans of Hedley. If that sentence doesn’t instantly nauseate you, feel free to read on. 

These guys hail from Cleveland, Ohio and play the kind of pop rock that plays between cartoons on the channel that my 5 year watches in the mornings. There really is nothing remotely punk about this group, but for an independent band, they do what they do well. Their songs are catchy and designed for radio play. I imagine their videos contain 14 year old kids on the beach running in the sunshine, with some shots of the band bouncing on some stage and a vague story line where the guys are trying to impress a girl. This is nothing like the music I would normally listen to but, as a fan of independent artists, I am determined to give this EP a proper review.

The release starts off with the whoa oh heavy Everyone Knows Virgins Don’t Go to State Colleges. This song has a faint pop punk sound to it, in the vein of the aforementioned Hedley or that Josie & the Pussycats movie. It is pure bubblegum and I feel like I’ve heard it on the radio in the supermarket before. The vocals are smooth and complement the sound well. The lyrics are surprising since they focus on being so drunk they can’t remember anything from the night before, including the girl that they apparently woke up beside. So, maybe they aren’t 14 years old. Firefly is a smooth pop rock song. They know the formula and they follow it well. They sing about love and keep choruses catchy. On Falling Apart, the guys have written yet another pop rock radio friendly song, with some whoa ohs tossed in for good measure. The album is well produced and it sounds better than the amount of money the band likely had to put into it. Often upstart pop groups recordings are a mess because they can’t afford the expensive studio gloss that they need to compete in the scene. On Papercuts, the vocalist is reminiscent of that guy from Mariana’s Trench, another radio pop rock group with a nice clean cut image. But it throws a curve into the mix with it’s brief breakdown, stretching their sound in an attempt to appeal to neo-pop punk fans. 

The worst part about this EP is that it is actually good. Hit the Ground Running are a far cry from anything that I would normally listen to, but they are on the right track with their chosen style. Their soaring pop hooks and sing along choruses are exactly what sells. It is impossible not to imagine a large crowd of screaming teenage girls when listening to these guys. Someone call Kevin Lyman, these guys are destined for next year’s Warped Tour.