Dust: Hard Attack

Dust: Hard Attack

1972

Kama Sutra Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Pull Away/So Many Times  2. Walk in the Soft Rain  3. Thusly Spoken  4. Learning to Die  5. All in All  6. I Been Thinkin'  7. Ivory  8. How Many Horses  9. Suicide  10. Entrance


The In-Laws have gone back home after a two-week visit so I'm cracking my dragging knuckles and getting back to the serious bid-niss of blogging...As anyone who's been to my apartment knows, my record collection was kinda scatted all over, but yesterday we consolidated it and it's now all in one place...Check it out...

On the opposite wall is about an equal amount of compact discs...And can you believe I still often find myself saying, "I don't have anything to listen to?" To me, the highlight of this photo is that on the far left you can see "Dogs Playing Poker"...

But I didn't invite you here today to check out my apartment, I brought you here to check out "Hard Attack" by Dusssss...

I like this much more than the debut...That cover, man, that COVER!!!!

 An icy Frank Frazetta cover depicting a pride of dwarfs hoisting high their mighty battle-axes preparing to brain the craven orcs who would dare sneak into their village to steal away a few dwarven wenches...Have at thee, villain! HAVE AT THEE!

This is one of those albums where you see a cover so glorious staring back at you from the used vinyl bin that you can't help but pick it up no questions asked...Usually this is a fairly pricey record but I found a slightly scuffed cover for cheap...Plays fine though...

And does this album ever rock..."Pull Away" kicks off with wussy acoustic guitar and you think for a moment, "Oh, wuss music..." but no...Suddenly the guitar goes "DAH DAHHHH!!!!" and the drums go "Thoodlythump" and before you know it you're rocking mightily...As I was listening to this the other day, I realized that it's worked its way to the top of my all-time favorite hard rock albums of the early 70's (yes, I have an official list of my "all-time favorite hard-rock albums from the early 70's"...I need to get out more, you say?).  To me "All in All" and " Learning to Die" are some of the best hard rock the 70's had to offer...These are the songs that made me sit up and take notice of what a whirlwind drummer Marky Ramone is...My God, he's just incredible on these, you'd swear he had at least 4 or 5 arms to get in all these warp speed fills in...

And the slower stuff that brought down the last record actually works this time...The one and only bum track on this album is "How Many Horses" which is an endless, Disney blues that honestly doesn't bother me that much...I normally just skip it or daze out to it as I stare at the record cover until "Suicide" comes on and snaps me out of it..."Said it wahhhz sooh-ah-sahhhd! Yay yay yay-uh!" Derr! Da da derr!! Big fat riffs! I like big fat riffs!

 This is the band's final album and you can't help but wish there was just a bit more...Still, set aside that longing and appreciate what's here...Just a big, ass-kicking chunk of fuzzy, hairy-chested 70's-ness...Coming from guys so young, I'm not even sure the chest hair was even there yet...It's really not so surprising these guys were so successful with subsequent endeavors considering they sounded like they were ready to rule the world when they were still mere high school kids...F-ing respect...If you have a big bone-ola for any combination of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Mountain, Blue Cheer, Uriah Heep, or MC5, I'd pick this up if I was you...Lots of good stuff that radio hasn't worn out yet (and probably never will, since every classic rock playlist was set in stone somewhere around 1998)....

Here's "All in All" by Dust...Enjoy...