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