Dust: Dust

Dust: Dust

1971

Kama Sutra Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Stone Woman  2. Chasin' Ladies  3. Goin' Easy  4. Love Me Hard  5
 From a Dry Camel  6. Often Shadows Felt  7. Loose Goose


This was a largely unknown band whose work has recently been reissued most likely due to the band having members who went onto bigger things...Most notably (for me anyway) is Marky Freakin' Ramone...But this dates from the early 70's, so it sure as hell can't be bubblegummy pop punk...But what is it then?

Why, it's puff-chested, hair-blowing in the wind, man rock...With flailing guitars, propulsive drums and lyrics about gypsies,  ladies, women and soo-ah-saaaahhhhd!!! Delivered in as macho and blustery a manner as possible...If you're being really charitable, you might be able to lump some of it into the same "proto-punk" category as MC5's "High Time" or maybe even a cleaned-up Blue Cheer...There's some pretty intense energy being thrown off here...Still, I'd say "proto-metal" might be the more accurate description if we're tossing around "proto"s....

You may ask yourself, "Would anybody care about this stuff if it didn't have Marky Ramone and the Producer from Kiss playing on it?" I think I can safely say "Yes" if you're into the whole 70's hard rock thing...The first time I heard it on youtube, I had no idea who was in the band, but I do remember asking, "Who is this drummer?!?!?!" It was only after reading a few comments that I saw Marky's name come up and I was like, "No fuckin' way!" I found their second album on vinyl, but could not find this first one, until someone finally got around to reissuing a twofer CD that had both albums...

For whatever reason, the CD starts off with their second album, then the debut is sequenced afterwords...It might have something to do with the second album being noticeably better, but this first one is no slouch either...They're definitely at their best when they set aside any aspirations to becoming bluesmen or sensitive soft rockers and narrow their focus on actively kicking your ass as thoroughly as possible...Which luckily, they stick to most of the time...Songs like "Stone Woman," "Hard Love," and the instrumental "Loose Goose" was probably some of the most butt-kicking material you could get your hands on back then...A pretty notable exception though is the weird, proggy 9-minute epic "From a Dry Camel " that would probably have ruled the universe if they would have dropped that dumb "one hump or two?" lyric...Awesome doomy riff though and an intriguing atmosphere all around...

This is a great find for when you're hungry for some 70's radio rock but you've already burned through all the usual hard rock bands...

Here's "Hard Love" by Dust...Enjoy...