Hurry began as a solo project for principal songwriter Matt Scottoline, bassist of band Everyone Everywhere. He wrote the first ten to twenty Hurry songs as a way to write his own material and play guitar rather than bass. Scottoline decided to release his home recordings on Bandcamp under the moniker "Hurry," chosen as a self-deprecating joke about his writing process; he writes quickly and rarely finishes a song if it is not completed in a single session. After releasing the demos, Scottoline recruited other musicians to perform the songs live, including Everyone Everywhere guitarist Brendan McHugh and Univox bassist Rob DeCarolis on drums. As Everyone Everywhere became less active, Hurry coalesced into a trio, adding DeCarolis's cousin and Psychic Teens/Exmaid bassist Joe DeCarolis to round out the lineup. The band signed to Hot Green Records and announced their first album, Everything/Nothing, which was recorded at The Headroom by labelmate Joe Reinhart of Hop Along. The record was preceded by its first single, "Oh Whitney," as a limited cassette release. Its accompanying music video features the band attempting to set a world record for fireworks launched off a guitar, though the record-setting display is blocked by Rob DeCarolis standing in front of the camera. Though the explosive effects were added in post-production, the fireworks were live and caused some anxiety during filming. The band later released a video for "Oozing Positivity" to coincide with Everything/Nothing's cassette release; the video took director Dave Peterson six months to make and depicts the band as "delightfully retro" CGI characters. Hurry announced their third record Guided Meditation in March 2016 and was released on April 29, 2016 by Lame-O Records. It was recorded at Noisy Little Critter with Mike Bardzik. Prior to release, Scottoline said Guided Meditation will be "more confident" and "not behind noise as much". Their fourth record, Every Little Thought, was announced in January 2017 and was released on February 23.
Musical style
Hurry's sound has been described as power pop, fuzz or noise pop, indie pop, alternative rock and garage rock. They are often cited as early-90s rock revivalists; their influences include Weezer, Teenage Fanclub, Guided by Voices and Dinosaur Jr., though their influences also include older artists such as The Beach Boys and Paul McCartney and peers such as Yuck and Pure X. Yo La Tengo has been cited as a major influence; Scottoline has said their music showed him how an upbeat pop song could be "drenched in noise," which he cites as an important touchstone for Hurry's music. In a separate interview, he said Hurry is "better when loud."