2 out of 5

Here it is: your completely average ska/punk album; local kids who made it past the covers stage to write some original tunes and record a disc.  You remember cheering for them zealously when they would swing back through hometown on their relentless touring.  And now, while you’re doing your taxes and tucking your kids in, you wonder what happened to them – dreams of ‘if only I had pursued my desire to be an ultimate skateboarder…’ bubble up into your thoughts once more – so you take to the internet, google-a-google, and have your dreams slammed back down to reality because Orangetree never went anywhere.  Oh well.  Time to look at porn.

I tracked down this disc because, despite love the Dan Potthast-led mu330, the insane vocal dynamics Jason Nelson brought to the table on that group’s first two discs were insanely pleasing.  He is, by and large, the highlight of Orangetree.  However, the group doesn’t have Potthast’s catchy composition chops, following the ska/punk template to a T, and Nelson doesn’t have anything close to Dan’s lyrical whimsy, sticking to tried and true topics of girls and… girls, with none too many interesting turns of phrase to spice it up.  With Dave Probst on board to produce, the album sounds richer than it deserves, given that meaty and round percussion sound and clean guitar noise that made ‘Chump on Parade’ such an aural delight, but he can’t make magic outta’ nothin’, so after the ear-catching splash of opener ‘Chop Top,’ you’ve pretty much heard it all.

This was your favorite disc when you bought it in college, and got constant spins with mu330’s ‘Press,’ with which it shares a similarly charming amateur vibe.  But mu330 grew and evolved, and I frankly don’t listen to ‘Press’ all that much anymore.  ‘Fixing Stupid’ is an average disc by a group of kids who learned the trade well, but besides having an enigmatic front man with Jason Nelson, didn’t do much to try to make their sound stand out from the crowd.