Dirty Rotten LP

D.R.I.

Beer City Records, 2002

http://www.dirtyrottenimbeciles.com

REVIEW BY: Paul Hanson

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/28/2003

I remember seeing the D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) logo sometime in the 1980s, perhaps in the same Circus magazine issue with the Def Leppard Pyromania T-shirt and thinking, "Wow, that band has a logo and they are really 'getting it out there' for the people. They must really rock." I remember spending a couple of weeks looking for their CD, but I never found it, or if I did find it, I didn't have enough cash to buy it. Eventually, they fell into the batch of bands that I never bought.

Imagine my surprise, then, when this CD arrived in my mailbox. Immediately, I recalled the aforementioned thoughts and popped it into my CD player. My jaw dropped, but not because this was a tremendous release. It dropped because I can't believe what a complete waste of time this re-issue is. Bluntly, it is beyond terrible. A bunch of songs that are so short that they don't develop any resemblance of a musical idea, a vocalist so hideous even a Karaoke crowd would boo him off the stage, a guitarist so sloppy the notes sound like mush and a drummer so incredibly untalented that you wonder if it isn't a four-year-old playing upside down Lincoln Log cylinders.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Then you get to the last part of the CD and you have excerpts from radio interviews. The band is asked to talk about how they recorded their CD. They recorded it in their bedroom. The DJ remarks, "Well, that's pretty good sound quality." The band includes a pathetic cover of "Louie Louie" with a guest vocalist, Nikki Sixx from Verbal Abuse. Oh my. I have no desire to ever see that band live either.

The only remotely redeeming value of this CD is the lyrics. They are reasonably well-written, begrudgingly admitted. The track "Money Stinks" includes these lyrics, "Smell the power, smell the health/ smell the poverty of America's wealth/ Money smells of evil, greed/ Capitalist wants and pumped up needs." Typical punk angst, though the "us v. the world" angle is mildy interesting. Unfortunately, those lyrics are preceded by "I stayed at home today/ And I'm not going back to work/ Money stinks/Money stinks/ This city stinks." Wow. Talk about revelations and leaving the listener guessing! What city stinks?? It's a poetic device called "concrete details" and these lyrics are severely lacking in them.

If you have ever been curious about what this band sounds like, you need to know that curiosity killed the cat. You're not a cat, but this crap will kill your sensibilities to good music. Pick up a local band's CD, don't waste your time with this re-issue. Seek out a punk band called Fetal Remains and their 1995 release One Day. That is good and dirty punk. Seek out the self-titled Twits release on Rotten Records. Seek out Dead Lazlo's Place. Seek out any other band except for this one.

By the way, this review is not reverse psychology whereby telling you how awful this release is should make you want to go get it. And even mentioning reverse psychology is not meant as a ploy to generate sales of this pathetic release. I sat through this twice. You don't ever need to -- I took my lumps for you. You can send me CDs, though. I could use some good music to listen to so that I can get rid of the pathetic taste this band has left in my mouth.

Rating: F

User Rating: A-


Comments

 








© 2003 Paul Hanson and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Beer City Records, and is used for informational purposes only.