The Dirty Denims – ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ (Ghost Highway Records)

The Dirty Denims – ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ (Ghost Highway Records)

Dutch rock ‘n’ rollers The Dirty Denims follow up 2017’s ‘Back With A Bang’ by releasing their brand spankin’ new long player ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’. It sees singer/guitarist Mirjam and guitarist Jeroen joined by a couple of new, denim-clad players aka Marc on bass and Suzanne on drums.

Continuing their tradition of releasing their albums in stages, 5 tracks were released as singles over a period of 6 months, this they entitled ‘Part 1’. Now, July sees the band release their full new album on CD, download and of course lovely vinyl.

 

This Eindhoven based band has been at it for a decade now and sound-wise they follow on where The Donnas left off. The Dirty Denims combine the traditional rock ‘n’ roll sound of The Runaways, Suzy Quatro and The Sweet with a slew of AC/DC riffs thrown in for good measure.

They claim to play ‘Happy Hard Rock’ and don’t take themselves too seriously.  Lyrically, we ain’t talking ‘The Wall’ here, the likes of last year’s single ‘Last Call For Alcohol’ is a testament to that. What they do deal in is upbeat, powerhouse rock ‘n’ roll with a sound and energy that makes you want to turn the dial up a notch and party with the best of them.

With its powerhouse 80’s drums, rumbling bass and tongue-in-cheek lyricism ‘Thunder From Down Under’ tips its hat to AC/DC in more ways than one and they even throw in the riff to The Cult’s ‘Wild Flower’ for good measure. ‘Roll The Dice’ follows a similar path, with killer riffs emanating from each speaker, stabs of piano, high-powered hollerin’ and cool, gang backing vocals.

‘Turn off The Radio’ will incite you to do just that and put a damn record on! Today’s radio tunes are boring anyway, right? The Dirty Denims know that and so do you!  Here, we are in prime power pop Donnas territory. Urgent, anthemic and melodic, just the way we like it. Elsewhere, ‘Creatures Of The Night’ is not the Kiss classic, but it crunches nicely and powers through, a solid traditional 80’s rocker that stands on its own two feet.

‘Band Not a Brand’ is killer, bubblegum pop full of handclaps and organ riffs. It’s their Saturday morning kids TV theme, a  middle finger to high street stores that sell Ramones shirts to Instagram influencers who wouldn’t know ‘Road To Ruin’ if it smacked them in the face. It’s also the best and most commercial song they have released to date.

‘Messin Around’ adds cool handclaps and percussion to the sound. This mixes well with Mirjam’s high octane hollerin’ and Jeroen’s token AC/DC riffage to give 70’s footstomping glam nostalgia.

They like ‘Last Call For Alcohol’ so much they played it twice! The album closes with a ‘Hangover Version’, stripped back and laid bare with acoustics and percussion, it’s the Sunday morning hangover remedy to the Saturday night party.

 

‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ is a fun, party record that does exactly what it says on the tin. The Dirty Denims are doing nothing new, they aren’t here to change the world or preach a message in these uncertain times.  But if you want escapism, if you desire something old school to kick your ass into next week and to blast from the stereo while you hit the highway to Hell, then you could do no better than visit Eindenhoven Rock City for 40 minutes or so.

Buy ‘Ready Steady Go!’ Here

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Author: Ben Hughes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various Artists – ‘A Fistful More Of Rock & Roll, Vol 3’ (Screaming Crow Records)

Various Artists – ‘A Fistful More Of Rock & Roll, Vol 3’ (Screaming Crow Records)

A Fistful More of Rock & Roll, Volume 3 contains Twenty Six of the best Rock n Roll bands from all over the world! Originally slated for release in January of this year manufacturing problems and a pandemic pushed it back to July 31, 2020. Although all the bands/songs are sweaty, beer-soaked denim dripping Rock n Roll, Available on CD and gatefold double LP.

Liner notes from Producer Sal Conzonieri of Electric Frankenstein.

A Fistful MORE of Rock & Roll – Volume 3 continues in the same tradition that the original 13 volumes of A Fistful of Rock ‘n’ Roll did from 2000 to 2007. 

It’s the Return of the Return of Rock ‘n’ Roll,Call it what you like Action Rock Punk n Roll does it really matter? It’s Straight down and dirty, Loud n lustful, Action Rock revolution, High Energy Punk Rock ‘n’ Roll yadda yadda yadda.

Action Rock, Punk N Roll, Hard Rock now we’ve established that you can actually call it what you like if its good I’ll give it a spin and if it’s not then no thanks I’ll pass.  This new age of “Action Rock” is churning out records at a rate of Knotts and for the convenience of keeping all these alternative bands under one umbrella, I happen to think its in rude health.  Having covered a lot of these bands over the years I find it warming that they’ve been brought together  thanks to the super hard work of Sal.

Starting in the late 80s and early 90s, a worldwide Rock revival / New Rock Revolution sprang up, from Scandinavia to the USA to Australia to Wales. Spontaneously, around the world, a group of bands developed this new sound, such as Poison Idea, Action Swingers, Bullet Lavolta, Big Chief, The Fluid, Blue Hippos / Otto’s Chemical Lounge, Celebrity Skin, The Kings of Oblivion, Flower Leperds, Fearless Leader, The Lazy Cowgirls, The Donnas, The New Bomb Turks, The Didjits / The Lee Harvey Oswald Band / The Gaza Strippers, Dwarves, Zeke, Supersuckers, The Hookers, Nashville Pussy, Easy Action, Trash Brats, Candy Snatchers, Adam West, The Cherry Valence, Jakkpot, The Upper Crust, Speedealer, B-Movie Rats, The Stitches, The Humpers, Rocket from the Crypt, The Superbees, The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, Zen Guerilla, The Murder City Devils, The Mud City Manglers / The Cheats, D Generation, Electric Frankenstein, The Black Halos, The Spitfires, Danko Jones, American Ruse, TV Killers, Dumbell, Temporal Sluts, Thee STP,  Aerobitch, The Pleasure Fuckers, Safety Pins, The Nomads, Puffball, The Rockets, The Hives, Gluecifer, The Flaming Sideburns, The Hellacopters, Backyard Babies, Turbonegro, The Onyas, The D4, The Datsuns, The Powder Monkeys, The Panadolls, Mustang, Hoss, Teengenerate, Supersnazz, Jet Boys, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, and so on, that were all featured on the first series of the “A Fistful of Rock ‘n’ Roll” compilations.

Today there is a whole new generation of young bands and (cough, cough) not so young bands delivering the goods and knowing exactly where the action is.  they have built upon what the previous bands started, keeping Punk Rock ‘n’ Roll alive and full of high energy. Thus, a second series is necessary to document this: “A Fistful MORE of Rock & Roll”; No mistakes at all when I say this is one of the loudest compilations and no quarter is given not even an inch.  Side one pairs up Deathtraps with Egyptian Gay Lovers both playing loudly but both offer something quite different from each other. As far as Deathtraps go they’ve just released an excellent album full to the brim of loud rock and roll and a leap in quality from the first which was pretty impressive as it goes.

Flexx Bronco opens up side two with a cool rocker ‘Heart on the Floor’ and again it’s sounding quite different from the Elvis meets Danzig rock of Nevadah and ‘Iggy Dog’ but I have to admit I have a soft spot for the most excellent Drippers record ‘Solitary Speaking’  rumbles along like a freakin’ steam train heading for oblivion.  A quite ferocious cut for sure. Then to follow that with Randy Savages Rockin’ and a rollin’ on their single Guilty of Nuthin’ is an exceptional burst of energy and how can anyone not get behind that guitar solo!

Of the bands I’ve never heard before Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre is one with a bit of a mouthful but fear not Rockers the guitars are slung low and the energy levels are in bloom. Moving away from the Punk n roll attitude of a band like Randy Savages you have The Dirty Denims who pray at the altar of DC and all things ROCK!

There are some bands I’ve not heard anything from in quite a while and to be fair bands like The Cheats are kicking serious backside as is Dog Toffee someone I’ve not hear anything from in a while and they sound excellent as do East Coast Low another new one on me and their solid thump.

It might be an idea to listen to this in healthy chunks so as to not overwork your brain and to give your speakers a chance to recover.  Projeckt Daghouse  are kicking up a hellish racket but they are overshadowed by a band I’ve championed since hearing their debut. Poison Boys have got the lot from the pretty faces going to hell. But trying to pick a favourite side is like being forced to choose between the kids.  But don’t tell anyone but the last record is freakin awesome such is the quality of songs on offer.

It’s fair to say I’m impressed and this is right up there with the best for sheer quality and like I said earlier the amount of hard work that went into making this project a reality and all these cool bands delivering the goods on mass is a real Boon to the scene. An honour and a feather in the caps of those who get featured and being associated with such a quality compilation.  I hope Sals turned his attention to volume 14 and I look forward to hearing who and what is on offer because this is only the beginning of the second wave. Now if only this virus would be kind enough to fuck off and let us get back to live shows maybe we can see some of these bands in the flesh tearing it up around the stages of the world.

Pre-orders and limited edition purple vinyl available exclusively Here

Author: Dom Daley