++ALBUM++ review by Richard S Jones
Richard S Jones recommends you whip off your belt, tattoo your mind and set fire to your school with the new album from this Detroit based punk-blues band...
It really grinds when I hear garage bands that kick out the proverbial jams (sic) ironically. The sort of groups that spend an eternity in the studio, layering bum guitar notes one after the other, onto endless tracks that feature music played so badly it’s all too perfect.
The main reason being of course, that besides their clear ineptness as they foolishly splutter their oxymoronic whimpers of fashionable trends, these shit bands instantly discredit the real good ones. They put people off paying soulful respect to records like ‘We Have You Surrounded’.
"it's the meanest, most danceable punk song you’re ever likely dance privy to... "
You’ll be forgiven for thinking on first listening to The Dirtbombs that their fluid licks and harsh growls (that borrow heavily from blues and early roots-punk acts like The Kingsman, The Standells, and The Electric Prunes) are attempts to gain illustrious credence. Likewise, if you’ve never given them a glance, you’ll be unaware that Mick Collins is a man who's never played an insincere bum note in his life as leader / pastor of the coolest band on the planet.
Having fronted The Gories, a Detroit based death punk group from the mid 80s, Collins continues to carry on relentlessly and without a hint of dishonesty. An echoed version of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ (anyone for a bit of Sparks?) is the best cover The Dirtbombs have peddled since the glorious Motown shake of ‘Underdog’ on their cover-specific, and definitive ‘Ultraglide in Black’. Meanwhile, ‘I Hear The Sirens’ is the meanest, most danceable punk song you’re ever likely dance privy to.
In the same way that Iggy rocks the, “too drunk let’s fuck” sound on ‘Fun House’, Collins’ distinctive and animate voice fires every waking second on ‘We Have You Surrounded’ like an earnest bullet, from that unmarked cannon he calls a career.
++ Richard S Jones ++
Artrocker rating: 4
The newest sounds as heard in the Artrocker Office and our Resonance FM podcast.
++ full details ++
