Hinder

Hinder (verb): 1. To be or get in the way of. 2. To obstruct or delay the progress of. 3. To interfere with action or progress.

Let nothing "hinder" your appreciation of the subtleties purveyed by this Oklahoma City fivesome, who are collectively dedicated to bringing back the good old decadent days when sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll weren't dirty words, but a way of life.

Produced by Brian Howes (Closure, DDT) and engineered by Mike Fraser (Aerosmith, AC/DC) in Vancouver, BC's Armoury Studios, Hinder's debut Universal Records effort, Extreme Behavior, is filled with flick-your-Bic moments of arena-rock grandeur, all crackling dual lead guitars, ethereal four-part harmonies and soaring beat-your-chest rock vocals, taking a page from timeless groups like Bad Company, Aerosmith, and the Rolling Stones, among others.

"I loved all that sh-t," explains rollicking lead singer Austin Winkler, a gravelly-voiced howler who counts such in-your-face front men as Steven Tyler, Vince Neil, and Buckcherry's Josh Todd as his inspirations. "Four people singing and putting on a big rock show--We want to bring that back. It would be wicked if we could."

"We're hoping to be the band to get people into rock again," says drummer Cody Hanson, who writes the bulk of the band's material with Winkler.

Hinder was formed in Oklahoma City more than four years ago, when guitarist Joe Garvey and Hanson discovered Austin singing for a cover band at a college dorm party. "I heard him and was blown away," says Cody. "He has the kind of charisma very few people have and that unique voice. You can't really compare him to anybody."

Indeed, it is Winkler who infuses Hinder's often-bitter sentiments of regret and forgetting the past on songs like the tongue-in-cheek "Bliss" and "Better Than Me" with flesh-and-blood humanity. "It's more about getting things off our chests," he says. "And it's lyrics you can understand, not this dark sh-t."

"We didn't want to be just another faceless rock band playing depressing, 'I hate my dad' music," adds Hanson. "We wanted to go out there and kick ass like they did in the '80s."

The band--also featuring guitarist Mark King and bassist Mike Rodden--often overturns expectations, especially on "Get Stoned," which, rather than the party anthem its title implies, is really a song about not being able to leave your pain-in-the-ass girlfriend because "the sex is so much better when you're mad at me."

"That line actually started as a joke, but once I sang it, we said, 'F--k it… let's keep it,'" laughs Winkler. "It's like you've got this girl you can't stand, but the sex is so good, you can't bring yourself to break up. So let's get wasted and go have some make-up sex.' Everybody's been there, right?"

"Bliss" is about getting so obliterated to forget a ruptured relationship that "I can hardly see what's in front of me/Because the vodka's running on empty/I can't stay sober/If it's over."

"I love the lyrics to that song, because when you're hammered, you lock all that stuff out," says Winkler. "You don't have to deal with it because you're not even thinking about it."

Other songs on the album include the raw up-tempo party rocker, "Room 21" ("Basically about a guy getting hammered and sleeping with some random chick," according to Austin), and guaranteed-soon-to-be-classics "How Long," "By the Way," "Nothing Good About Goodbye," "Homecoming Queen," and "Shoulda Woulda Coulda."

"When we first got together, we were in a negative state of mind, recovering from personal problems," says Cody about the band's name. "We had our issues. They were different issues, but we were all trying to overcome them."

Cut to almost five years later and the band has built a healthy regional following, released an independent album, Far From Close, which sold out 5,000 copies, was the object of an honest-to-goodness bidding war between three different major labels that resulted in its major label debut, Extreme Behavior.

"We live the lifestyle," explains Cody. "That's what rock is supposed to be about--rebellion and having fun. We've been blessed with the opportunity to play music as a career, so we might as well take advantage of it and have a good time.