Charmed offensive

UK electro-rockers Does It Offend You,
Yeah? on fame, shame and the name game

GUITARS OVER GADGETS: Does It Offend You, Yeah?

By ERIK LEIJON

When longtime friends James Rushent and Dan Coop uploaded their first collaborative track, “Battle Royale,” on their shiny new MySpace page, the Reading, UK residents still didn’t have a band name. Upon picking the first thing they heard on a nearby television (a quote from the British Office series), the correct-punctuation-adhering dance-rock group Does It Offend You, Yeah? was born, destined to receive confused stares whenever introducing themselves.

“When we picked the name,” recalls vocalist/bassist Rushent, “we didn’t think anyone would ever hear our music. If someone had told me we were going to get a record deal from [the MySpace page], then maybe we would have changed the name, because it is a bit weird.”

What’s in a name, you ask? The group, now a quartet, has found getting the word out about their infectious electro-rock debut record—the aptly titled You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into—to be difficult, as many music fans tune out, ironically because they find the moniker offensive. “We get emails from people who say they’ve never heard our tunes, but hate us because they find our name is so shit,” says Rushent. “They don’t seem to see the joke in that.”

Name notwithstanding, the group’s sound and original purpose were about as inoffensive as possible. After working together from a mix of electro sounds Coop had composed, a mutual love of electronic/rock crossover group The Prodigy gave Rushent and Coop the idea to trade in their turntables for guitars. Once their MySpace page caught the eye of record labels, guitarist Morgan Quaintance and drummer Rob Bloomfield were added to the fold to complete the rock star dream.

“The DJ thing was being done already, and it was being done well by Justice and Simian Mobile Disco, so we were thinking, ‘does the world really need another couple of guys playing laptops?’” recalls Rushent. “We didn’t want to be known as being club DJs, we wanted to be known as a dance act that could get away with playing on a main stage.” He adds that without Bloomfield and Quaintance, they’d “probably be playing a tiny club in Moscow right now.”

Although the group initially gained exposure through their remixes for Bloc Party and Muse, Rushent has personally retired from remixing. Their debut album further separates themselves from their past by emphasizing the guitars; Rushent says they initially tried to force out electro tunes but eventually decided to spread their musical wings.

One area where the group tends to be more deliberate is when it comes to giving titles to the songs themselves, which mostly reference their favourite movies. Tracks like “Dawn of the Dead” and “Weird Science” are obvious enough nods, as is “Battle Royale,” which features samples from the eponymous Japanese film. They’ve also allowed their love of monster movies to influence them musically on “Attack of the 60 ft. Lesbian Octopus.” Weird Science director John Hughes also served as the inspiration for “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good.”

“‘Being Bad’ was written while watching that scene in The Breakfast Club where they’re all stoned and dancing,” Rushent says. “We found the video on YouTube, and we wrote the tune so that it would fit perfectly with that scene.”

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
WITH GUESTS AT LES SAINTS,
SEPT. 2, 8:30 P.M., 12.50$