Dealing with the inevitable approach of conceptual adulthood, the foursome choose to stuff the stress and absurdity of everyday living into songs described as "twitchy punk rock," "Replacements-like …and Sonic Youth-ish," and "punk rock quelque part entre Sebadoh" by the press, prompting one reviewer to posit the question "what if Gang of Four did nothing but cover the Dead Kennedys?" As one might assume, Captain Vs. Crew drives down a rollicking road of punk rock and noise, but with a decidedly undecided direction.

In a scant four years of fooling around, playing up and down the West Coast, taping songs in basements and friends' studios, Captain Vs. Crew piled up plenty of fantastic experiences. In 2000, they produced their first EP, My Body is a Radio, on Jealous Butcher Records, a five-song EP of early ruminations. That recording made the rounds at CMJ in the same year, and found its way down to Northern California for some fun rock shows in. In 2002, the five song EP My Flesh Has Been Torn From Me and I'm Running For My Life, supported another West Coast tour, and as we've entered 2003, a fantastic seven-inch, Anatomy of a…, a four band release by four Portland indie labels raised the flag for the ship to come to port. And so it will, as the first full-length album, Sometimes Up is the Only Direction. reaches fruition. This album fuses some of the past brash silliness that sparked the beginning of Captain Vs. Crew, and witnesses the path into an inevitable maturation that comes from a life spent frolicking in a town full of hard-driving rock friendships.