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Dirty Streets, White Horse: Gotta be Plain

Posted in Reviews on December 31st, 2015 by JJ Koczan

dirty-streets-white-horse

Memphis trio Dirty Streets, who dropped a “The” from their moniker with their 2013 third album, Blades of Grass (review here), set their foundation early in a blend of classic heavy rock and blues. Since coming together with the consistent lineup of Thomas Storz (bass, percussion), Justin Toland (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Andrew Denham (drums, percussion) and issuing their 2009 debut, Portrait of a Man, and its 2011 follow-up, Movements (review here), before signing to Alive Naturalsound, the three-piece have pushed toward a style built on organic instrumental chemistry and soulful delivery of their material, put together in a songwriting process traditional in its structure but given a vibrant energy by the three-piece’s performance, rhythms and melodies.

Their latest outing, the easy-boogieing White Horse, runs a bit deeper lyrically than did Blades of Grass, dealing with issues of drugs on “Good Pills” and “White Horse,” loneliness on “Good Kind of Woman” and “Dust” and a general longing for things to be better across opening duo “Save Me” and “Looking for My Peace” and the later “When I See My Light.” None of this is new territory for blues, but it’s darker than Dirty Streets have gone before, though set up in a contrast to the band’s generally upbeat instrumental modus. Even the acoustic-led “The Voices” and “Dust” seem to find some resolve or at least catharsis in their own efficient runs, and in any case, at 11 tracks/36 minutes, White Horse hardly sticks around long enough — either in its individual songs or front-to-back course — to wallow. There’s dancing to do.

That brevity and a general forwardness of purpose — Dirty Streets have always eschewed pretense and their fourth LP is no exception — work greatly to White Horse‘s favor. Denham‘s kick sets the pace immediately on “Save Me” and Toland‘s vocals start the first of several sing-along-ready parts the record has on offer, and before the listener really knows it, the track is underway. Something the band has long excelled at is gracefully walking a fine line between heavy, motor-ready riffing and a generally laid back, good-times atmosphere, and while the Matt Qualls-produced outing pans lead guitar from left to right channels on “Looking for My Peace” and peppers arrangements there with piano and on “Dust” with harmonies and wah-soaked notes from Toland to go with Storz‘s “Freebird” bassline, the songwriting ultimately gains as much from what it holds onto from prior outings as from what it presents as growth from the last couple years and/or elements that otherwise flesh out the material and add variety to the album as a whole.

dirty streets

So, a track like “Accents” (the longest inclusion at 4:09) takes cues from psych rock circa ’68 and through a melding of acoustic, guitar, piano and gang-contributed room-vocals charts a diverse trajectory and accomplishes what it sets out to do without a wasted moment. The same could easily be said for White Horse as a whole, an 8-track-ready groove like “Think Twice” meeting head-on with a percussion jam in its second half before Toland begins “When I See My Light” on solo vocals, a gospel nod maybe, before Storz holds together a relative guitar and drum freakout en route to one of the record’s most resonant hooks.

Denham delivers a highlight performance there and it once again holds true for all of White Horse that while Dirty Streets have more to offer melodically than they ever have before, it’s the rhythm, the groove, that carries the listener across the fervent flow between tracks. To wit, the roll of “Good Kind of Woman” into the relatively minimal “The Voices” — even that has a shaker in behind the acoustic guitar — and the raucuousness following with “Good Pills.” The band covers a lot of ground in under eight minutes, tossing out catchy choruses one after another and winding up even showing a bit of cynical edge as the two-minute “Good Pills” rounds out with the lines, “Don’t forget now to take your pills/I know you won’t because you can’t stop.”

In combination with the closing title-track, a masterful groove in the band’s post-Blue Cheer tradition, the theme of drug abuse is clear — not that they were masking it, given the album’s title — but the raw-rocking “Plain” and Hendrixian-psych-meets-’70s-prog of “Dust” provide a buffer while keeping the flow steady between them. Toland‘s vocal performance on “Dust” highlights the singer he’s become, but really, there isn’t one single member of Dirty Streets you might listen to who doesn’t show progression from where they were even two years ago, and much as White Horse as an entire work benefits from the strengths of its individual tracks, so too does the band become stronger for what TolandStorz and Denham bring to the material. “Plain” tries to make it sound like this is all very easy and simple in its chorus, “Plain/Gotta be plain/I can’t hide it,” but the truth is that chemistry like Dirty Streets‘ doesn’t just happen, and they do right by making the most of it throughout.

Dirty Streets, “Good Pills”

Dirty Streets on Thee Facebooks

Dirty Streets at Alive Naturalsound

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The Dirty Streets Complete Work on New Album White Horse

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 11th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

Memphis heavy blues trio Dirty Streets (the The seems to be optional at this point) have finished work on their new album, White Horse. This will be their fourth full-length and their second for Alive Naturalsound behind 2013’s Blades of Grass (review here), which also served as their label debut after their breakout with 2011’s Movements (review here) and their could-stand-to-be-reissued 2009 first album, Portrait of a Man.

Like Blades of Grass, the forthcoming White Horse was tracked at Ardent Studio — where one can see the band performing “Stay Thirsty” below. The band began the process in June, and if past is prologue, a fair bit of the recording will have been done live. That’s been the feel of their past work, anyhow, and the process certainly wasn’t broken last time out.

Their quick announcements and more background from the label follow:

the dirty streets

Our new record is finally mastered and now we’re getting ready for a release this fall on Alive Naturalsound.

Our new album “White Horse” will be available this fall on Alive Naturalsound Records.

About Dirty Streets:

Formed by Thomas Storz (bass, percussion), Justin Toland (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Andrew Denham (drums, percussion), and originally from Mississippi, the power trio Dirty Streets now calls Memphis home. That’s where they recorded their second album “Blades Of Grass,” at the legendary Ardent studio, under the guidance of sound engineer Adam Hill. The core trio also enlisted the talents of Lucero’s Rick Steff on keys for that effort.

“Blades Of Grass” is heavy music bathed in blues, folk and psychedelia, with chops to spare and a working class point of view. The band already has two independent releases under their belt, including an album with renown Memphis producer Doug Easley, and has toured extensively in the Southeast, with a couple of East Coast runs, and an eight week U.S. tour with Radio Moscow.

https://www.facebook.com/thedirtystreets
http://www.alive-records.com/artist/the-dirty-streets/
http://dirtystreets.bandcamp.com/album/blades-of-grass

Dirty Streets, “Stay Thirsty” Live at Ardent Studio

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