ARTIST: The Dirtbombs                   

TITLE:  Horndog Fest

YEAR RELEASED: 1998

CHART ACTION: None

SINGLES: None

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: I Can’t Stop Thinking About It

LINEUP: Mick Collins, Tom Lynch, Eric Wheeler, Chris Handyside, Joe Greenwald

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Retro garage and soul band, record an album after a bunch of singles. It’s hit or miss in a big way.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: After releasing a bunch of singles, and before they found their groove in the early 2000’s, the Dirtbombs mastermind Mick Collins accepted an offer to record an album and treated it like a single, except there was a lot more B-side material than A-side stuff.

“I Can’t Stop Thinking About It” is one of those coulda shoulda songs that really should be rescued (it was in a TV commercial, though). There are a couple of other tracks that deserve to hang around, but most of the rest is a bit puerile or obtuse, or way way overcome by noise. Though I dig Joe Greenwald’s guitar settings.

They’d get their mojo around the turn of the decade, but this one is a pass except for a couple of tracks.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: They had released five singles by the time this was put out, and had an EP come out in 1999 as well.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

 GRADE: C-: A couple tracks save it from total ignominy