Many years back, a co-worker asked me if I was familiar with a band called The Offs. I was not, and when I eventually got around to listening to them, I was impressed. Their only album was 1984's First Record (cover art by Jean-Michel Basquiat), a great hybrid of R&B, ska and reggae. To me they sounded British, but they were from San Francisco and, later, New York.
Why Boy? has a great horn section and clean slashing Miss You guitars. Lead singer Don Vinil acrobatically delivers the lyrics with great panache and precision, singing about getting hassled by people everywhere he goes. At 1:23 he gets into this phenomenal "push down pull up" section for about fifteen seconds.
Tragically, Don Vinil died of a heroin overdose in 1983, and the lights were turned off on the Offs.
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