Dicks: These People

Dicks: These People

1985

Alternative Tentacles Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.The Police  2. Off-Duty Sailor  3. Executive Dive  4. Sidewalk Begging  5. Lost and Divided  6. Dead in a Motel Room  7. Cities are Burning  8. Doctor Daddy  9. Decent and Clean  10. Legacy of Man  11. Little Rock n' Roller  12. George Jackson




Sorry, I haven't posted much lately...I'm hoping to change all that soon by altering the laws of time and space and adding 5 more hours to each day...

So join me here everyday at around 15:45 PM and read the latest post. Today we're checking out the Dicks on this here firefighter...

YUM!!

Nah, we're checking out the Dicks on this here record...Their 2nd and final (as far as I know) album...This time they skipped right from sounding like the Dead Kennedys to actually hiring one of the Dead Kennedys to produce the album...And oddly enough they sound less like the Dead Kennedys than before...Whereas on their prior releases the band had elements of hard rock in their hardcore punk, I'd say a lot of this stuff would be hard rock with elements of punk...Very anti-police, gay-friendly hard rock with a rough approach that might freak out most fans of hard rock, but hard rock nonetheless...I actually prefer this to their previous album, because this approach de-emphasizes their debt to DK's sound...They sound like the Dicks...Plain and simple...

So I'm calling "These People" their masterpiece...Every single song is fantastic and it all seems very heartfelt...The curtain of blatant offensiveness is dropped away and Gary sings more directly about the subject matter...And their go-to topics were probably so controversial at the time (police brutality, homosexual hook-ups, etc) that all the over-the-top shock value was probably unnecessary...Take the heart-on-sleeve tribute to George Jackson that closes the album...This was something that I can't imagine the band pulling off a mere two years ago, but they nail the shit here...He just states the facts, shows some love for the man, the band tightens things up for the chorus, ramping up the intensity and that's it...Simple and effective...And calling George Jackson your hero is still enough to get any self-respecting suburban whitey all clammy, so mission accomplished...

Yea, this is the Dicks album to get...And it comes bundled with the "Peace?" 7-inch which rules almost as hard...I guess if you're a dumbo hardcore purist, stick with "Kill From the Heart," it's faster or something, but this is way, way better..Isn't there some kinda vinyl revival going on or something? Get with it, then! Run down to your local record store and pick up the latest Dicks reissue and while you're at it grab a $35.00 vinyl reissue of Kiss' "Asylum"! Whoo-hoo!

Here's  "Lost and Divided" by the Dicks...Enjoy...