Dirtbombs: Here's Mud In Your Ear
The Washington Post
Thursday, May 5, 2005; C05
Issuing a singles collection after just a decade of recording might seem a little premature, but for the Dirtbombs it's overdue: a double-disc set due at the end of this month collects a staggering 52 tracks.
The only figure that might approach that prodigious total is the number of people who have passed through the Detroit band since Mick Collins made it his full-time concern in 1995.
The singer-guitarist (who formerly led the Gories) had the standard two-drummer, two-bassist Dirtbombs lineup behind him at Iota Tuesday night, and though the faces of his backup players often change, the stew of garage rock, soul and Motor City muscle sounded as timeless as ever.
<img src="http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/05/04/PH2005050402326.jpg" alt=" - " />
Even those familiar with the Bombs' extensive catalogue -- which also includes three full-length albums -- might have had trouble differentiating songs in the rapid-fire set, but it was impossible to mistake the twitching, pummeling groove that flattened everything in its path. So whether Collins was howling his own garage-soul visions ("Underdog," "Here Comes That Sound Again") or scraping the insides from versions of Curtis Mayfield's "Kung Fu" and ESG's "My Love for You," the band rumbled like a runaway garbage truck. Collins's slashing guitar leads were the flash point, but the double-barrel rhythm section did the dirty work.
It was fitting, then, that the hour-long set ended with a furious rave-up and the kind of garage rock scene that is pure Dirtbombs: a stage littered with cymbals and drums that had been kicked over in the climactic melee.
-- Patrick Foster
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050402323.html
