As he has often done in interviews, Mick Collins makes it very clear in the liner notes for If You Don’t Already Have a Look that the Dirtbombs are NOT a garage band – never have been, never will be. And you know, I can understand his insistence on this point – garage rock, like any other style or label, can be as much of a straitjacket as a line of separation from other kinds of music. And if you’re an eclectic dude like Collins, who over the years has played broken blues (with the legendary Gories), trash punk (Blacktop, The Screws), arty skronk (Yeti Section, King Sound Quartet), and whacked ‘70s funk (Voltaire Brothers), being pinned down as part of a single music genre is probably as enjoyable as involuntarily root canal, and doubly so in regard to The Dirtbombs, which in the course of its erratic career, has tackled all of the aforementioned styles, as well as a dogpile of others. And 52 of those efforts, which previously had been available mostly in 7” format, have been corralled and pressed into service on this double disc set. Now, I hear what you’re saying: “It all sounds like garage rock!” And yeah, it does – you’d be hard pressed to describe the rawboned stomp of “Cedar Point ’76,” “Tina Louise,” or “Trainwreck” as anything else, but listen closer, and you’ll hear other influences pushing their way through the electric snarl like worms burrowing through the dirt after a heavy rain. Yeah, there’s freakfuzz crawling all over “The Sharpest Claws,” “Natural Man,” and “What You’ve Got,” but there’s plenty of gutbucket soul in Collins’ voice (one of the most distinctive in underground circles) and the hip-swinging rhythm; likewise, dig the brash pop licks cooking under the wall of noise on “Encrypted” (some smart MTV band oughta cover that tune quick, ’cause they’ll make a million off it), and if you want noise, brother, you’ll get it by the truckload here – just dig “Infra-Red” or “Brucia I Cavit” (which sounds like what you’ll hear in your head if you stick a wet finger inside your TV). Likewise, there are forays into amphetamine punk (“They Hate Us in Scandinavia,” “Words That Hurt,” a Minutemen-esque “Refried Dreams”), weirdo alt-rock (covers of Yoko Ono’s “Kiss Kiss Kiss” and Flipper’s “Ha Ha Ha”), and electrified funk  (the Ohio Players’ “You Don’t Mean It”). And it’s to the credit of Collins and his ever-rotating crew of players that these sonic safaris retain what makes the Dirtbombs’ music so damn addictive: an unstoppable house-party groove under ferocious do-or-die playing. That’s called dedication, baby – other bands might wanna look it up.

Aside from having 52 great tracks, the other reason for picking up Have a Look is the extensively annotated liner notes by past and present members of the band themselves (including Troy Gregory from The Witches). If you’re a hardcore Dirtbombs fan, you’ll want it for the behind-the-scenes info, but newcomers and casual listeners will find the wealth of gripes, hardluck stories, and tales of barely survived disasters an engrossing read. Either way, you’re a winner by picking up this double set. Just don’t call it garage rock. Seriously.

Band website: thedirtbombs.net

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