"The best albums are all compilations, anyway. Why? Because they're made up of SINGLES, duh,"
Mick Collins
writes in his liner notes to the
If You Don't Already Have a Look
collection of various 7" sides, compilation tracks, and unreleased items, and you've got to admit that
Collins
walks it like he talks it.
The Dirtbombs
have released three albums and about twenty 7"ers (by themselves or as splits) during their first decade of doing the
rock
thing, and while the 2001 album
Ultraglide in Black
still stands as their most impressive sustained effort, if you're only going to own one
Dirtbombs
item during the course of your lifetime,
may well be the way to go. Disc one features 29
originals, disc two offers up 23 inspired covers, and if you want to hear
and his partners in crime letting loose with the full range of their sonic possibilities and influences, this set boasts a little bit of everything they do. You want
punk rock
? Cue up
"Words That Hurt."
You wanna hear some cool neo-
Britpop
? Try
"Encrypted."
Need a deliciously sleazy ode to the joys of summer, teenage style?
"Cedar Point '76"
fills the bill. How about some straight-up noise?
"Brucia I Cavi"
merits your attention. Gotta have a kick-ass car song? You need
"High Octane Salvation."
In the market for a glorious non-electronic
Rolling Stones
mash-up? The cover of
"No Expectations"
will make you smile. Solid '60s-style
R&B
your thing?
"The Sharpest Claws"
should be on your list. Wanna hear the greatest
Lou Rawls
cover ever?
"A Natural Man"
is track nine on disc two.
has ruffled the feathers of a few fanzine writers here and there for loudly insisting
the Dirtbombs
are not a
garage
band, but while there's plenty of loud, fuzzy, sweat-soaked
on
, this set captures the group's almost schizophrenic eclecticism in grand style, and proves he's got a point -- this is band that can head out in five directions at once while still maintaining their sonic identity and rocking the house, and you can hear that on each track of
. Points added for a derisive
Tori Spelling
reference. ~ Mark Deming