When I hear this album, I instantly want to do what one of their songs is entitled: "Drink, Fight… And Fuck"! Oh yeah, and do all the drugs! Too bad it’s migraine drugs these days...Why do I turn to albums that aren’t current? 'Cause no one makes balls-out rock albums like this anymore. Hailing from Port Huron, MI, this short-lived four-piece on Crypt Records had THE reputation of living the way they played. Booze, drugs, women and rock! The life I always wanted to live! This album was it. Their tours breathed it. I envied it. To the point of where one summer, I met one of these fine gentlemen at a backyard BBQ and got down on my knees and begged like a schoolgirl to ask him to reunite The Dirtys. Although I wasn't (vocalist/guitarist) Larry Terbush, I would've done my best to emulate the man. I don’t know if that impressed or scared him, but I never got a call back. Bummer!
What you get here is 15 tracks of pure fucking rock-n-roll! In your face, booze down your throat, coke up your nose… Whatever, this band is it! Raw, lo-fi, fast and dirty! Thirty minutes after this slab of pure sleaze rock is over, the adrenaline is going, and you're ready to throw it back on and rock the fuck out again!
Produced by the multi-talented Mick Collins (The Gories, The Dirtbombs), he adds that perfect “Nasty Detroit” sound that gets to the grit of this album and contributes his riffs to “Rock It Out Tonight”. Makes you wonder what The Dirtys really could have done with Mr. Collins at the helm full time.
“Midnite Till Noon” gets you started in all its blazin’ glory (“She don't want me no more/She says I’m not what she’s looking for/She’s got me drinking all the time/When I don’t even have a dime”). Loud guitars ripping through screeching vocals of pure unadulterated rock!
“I’m On Fire” gives you something like a modern day Chuck Berry, with guitar licks, swagger and its ringing of “Christine, Justine, Emily…" Wonder if these guys, though, ever had to do time for taking minors across state lines? Naw, those girls probably kept their mouths shut!
“I Ain’t Cheatin’”, an Eddie "Guitar" Burns number, is the only cover song on the album. An old, traditional blues tune, but it fits perfectly with their attitude (“She works hard every day/Stumbles in at night/But I don’t take your money, 'cause that ain’t right/I ain’t cheatin'’’).
The longest cut on the album, "Alive", can also be considered ironic (“Only I survived/Everybody died/But I’m alive”). Only months after this album's release, Larry was found dead from a drug overdose. And thus brings us to the end of, in my opinion (which always matters!), one of the best rock-n-roll bands that never got a chance to really give us a taste of what they really could do. The rest of the band members went on to do other projects, but nothing can withstand the full-on rock glory that is The Dirtys. As I put on their album to finish this up, I think about them and do as they say: "Gonna Rock It Out Tonight"!
-Angie Granado-Wehrle
2 comments:
I can't look at this album's title without hearing the Bee Gees in my head. Is that the case with you, Angie?
Thats so funny. Thats where I came up with the idea...from a Bee Gee's shrine I had on my toilet...You Should Be Loving. ~marc watt
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