The Dickies: Second Coming/Idjit Savant

I feel like I should probably proof-read this or something, but I like to live dangerously...Sticking my schlong in the edge of disaster...Danger is my middle name...Well, it was until I had it legally changed to Edward...Anyway, Gosh Darn the torpedoes, today we're finishing up the Dickies section...Yee-hawwww!!!






















The Dickies: Second Coming

1989

Enigma Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Hair  2. Monster Island  3. Town Without Pity  4. Cross Eyed Tammy  5. Going Homo  6. Dummy Up  7. Booby Trap  8. Magoomba II  9. Caligula  10. I'm Stan  11. Monkey See, Monkey Do



One hundred years after "Stukas Over Disneyland," the band released "Second Coming"...There was an EP in between that long stretch that featured their theme song from the "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" film , which I think snagged a couple Oscar Nominations for Glenn Close's breakthrough role as "Clownzilla"...

...but I don't have that EP, so we're skipping it...

Anyway, the band moved over to Enigma Records, and I think I've mentioned before that Enigma Records always seemed to have great bands at the wrong time...They had TSOL during the hair metal days...They signed Wire just in time for the band to release dollar-bin disco albums...They signed Montrose in 1987!!! And "Second Coming" falls into that same pattern...

I just can't fully get into this album...It's incredibly hit or miss...I think it's the only Dickies album that's probably ruined by the cover songs...Instead of using their earlier formula of taking a WTF song and turning it into Eureka! pop-punk, this time the band takes the WTF songs and play them WTF...So their cover of "Hair" sounds like a slightly sped-up Broadway musical and "Town Without Pity" is doomy, big-band schmaltz..And these both turn up within the first three tracks making the album a real head-scratcher at first...Sandwiched in between the covers is "Monster Island" which is  straight Beach Boys surf pop that's really only punk if you consider the Beach Boys a punk rock band (which there might be a valid argument for)...The end result being that it takes 4 tracks to run into anything that resembles the Dickies trademark power-pop-punk style...But when it does finally happen on "Cross Eyed Tammy," it's a wonder to behold...The chorus is a knockout...

The remainder of Side One is similarly strong..."Going Homo" would probably be a no-no in today's PC market, but it's actually pretty funny...Leonard can't find a girl so he decides to switch teams as if it were as easy as changing socks:

"I can't find a dame
they're always the same
  I'm going to shame my family name
'cause I'm going homo

I always used to flirt
my feelings got hurt
now I'm going out with Kurt
'cause I'm going homo..."

Side One ends with one of my favorite tracks, "Dummy Up" that finds the band stretching out but hitting it out of the park for a change...It's blue-eyed soul pop that reminds me of Wham! or something until it hits that dreamy Brian Wilson-esque break...Suddenly, I find myself 100% warmed up to the record...It was a rough start, but they've straightened it out...Alright, let's check out Side Two...

Aaaad Side Two is just alright-ish...Fine pop songs like "Booby Trap" clash with icky Power-Metal tracks like "Caligula," and they chose the yuckiest keyboard tones possible...I love keyboards, but you know those settings on a cheap Casio that are so tacky sounding that nobody with even a shred of musical taste would ever use them? Well guess what? The Dickiest manage to utilize every last one of those...I would almost admire it if the cheesy sounds didn't succeed in destroying otherwise enjoyable tracks like "Magoomba II" (which I still recommend for the spoken word section where Leonard sentences his mother for her myriad crimes against Magoomba)...And Leonard's keening counter-melody in the "Hail Claudius, Hail Flavius..."section of "Caligula" is pretty awesome...

Yea, that's the problem...It alternates between awful and amazing so fluidly that I ultimately have a hard time determining how I feel about the record...I think it's definitely the band's weakest album, but if you're a hardcore Dickies fan you can't miss "Cross Eyed Mary" and "Dummy Up" so all I can recommend is locating a cheap copy, if possible...My used vinyl copy was pretty pricy and I'm not so sure if I would pay that much for it again if I ever lost it...

Here's "Cross Eyed Mary" by the Dickies...Enjoy...

The Dickies:Idjit Savant

1995

Triple X Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Welcome to the Diamond Mine  2. Golden Boys  3. Toxic Avenger  4. Zeppelina  5. I'm Stuck in a Condo (with Marlon Brando)  6. Just Say Yes  7. Elevator (In the Brain Hotel)  8. Pretty Ballerina  9. Make it So  10. I'm on Crack  11. Oh Boy!  12. Roadkill  13. House of Raoul  14. Song of the Dawn



I think the mid 90's pop-punk explosion really lit a fire under the Dickies' collective ass because I see this is a total rebound from the iffy "Second Coming"... It's the one album where the band's many styles and diversions all come together for one harmonious moment...

You want early 1979 style pop-punk? Try out the opener "Welcome to the Diamond Mine," which bounces all over the walls with its hyperactive hooks...

 Also be sure to check out the Star Trek: TNG tribute "Make It So" (Best Line: "Kunta Kinte's blind and he's at the controls, oh no!"), "I'm on Crack" and "Just Say Yes." The latter two songs are particularly hilarious considering how often the band's career has been derailed by drugs...Anyway, these are all fine pop-punkers that stand up to anything from the band's first three albums...

Then there's "Zeppelina" which is a "Second Coming"-style  WTF-er that somewhat reminds me of a loopy, distant relative of Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" with its bongos and whistles...Maybe the similarities are intentional, considering the song's title...I don't know, but the line, "I can't wait 'til Halloween, so that way I can see you in disguise," seems particularly sweet and moving for some reason despite its inherent creepiness...This song must have been around for awhile since the songwriting credit bears Chuck Wagon's name (who had been deceased about 14 years at this point)...I also think that "Toxic Avenger" succeeds where "Caligula" failed...It's still bombastic metal but pared down enough where the Dickies can effectively handle it...They even get in a "Killer Klowns" style circus romp with "House of Raoul."

Where the album really shines though is the cover songs, which I believe are the best batch the band ever put out...Whereas "Hair" and "Town Without Pity" were ill-fitting and incompatible with the band's sound, the selections on here are so perfect that they almost bring tears to my eyes sometimes...First we get "Golden Boys" which I knew from the old Ruthensmear album...

 

Punk legend has it that this track was the last song written by Darby Crash before his overdose/suicide, but to be honest it sounds waaayyyy beyond his skill level...If this song was any indication of what lied ahead had Darby Crash lived then it's a bigger loss than anyone ever suspected...I can't help but shake the feeling Pat Smear did most of the heavy lifting on this song...And the Dickies version is the best version of I've ever heard...It finds the song's sweet spot and the whole thing is truly transcendent and beautiful while managing to rock like a motherfucker...Their covers of Grapfruit's "Elevator (in the Brain Hotel)" and the Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina" are the most inspired Psychedelic AM choices possible...Those delicate, intricate melodies set against the jackhammer riffs are pure pop heaven...The best shit out there...

Man, I love this record so much...This album seems to have been somewhat overlooked in the tsunami of glossy pop-punk albums released in 1995, but don't miss out on this if you're a fan of the genre...The AM radio touches might overwhelm some of the more stone-headed punks but anyone who can appreciate a fun pop hook should appreciate this...

Since "Idjit Savant," the band has only released one other full-length album to date...I don't own it but 2001's "All this and Puppet Stew" was another good record that found the band getting back in touch with their inner Ramone...I don't currently have a copy but as soon as I find it I'll cover that one too...But until then, the Dickies section stops here...I feel like I should have more to say...Maybe I'll say "peanut."  Yes, I believe that sums things up quite nicely...

This peanut is a male because it has two nuts...

Let's check out "Elevator (in the Brain Hotel)" by the Dickies...Enjoy...

Dickies: Stukas Over Disneyland/Great Dictations (The Definitive Dickies Collection)

Dickies: Stukas Over Disneyland

1983

PVC Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Rosemary  2. She's a Hunchback  3. Out of Sight, Out of Mind  4. Communication Breakdown  5. Pretty Please Me  6. Wagon Train  7. If Stuart Could Talk  8. Stukas Over Disneyland




Happy Friday, kids! Is it just me or are there not enough Fridays in a week? I think there should be at least three or four...Here, let's make August Official Friday Month...

So, let's all agree to use this calendar...So don't forget to turn off your alarm clocks and buy some extra beers this month...And don't forget to visit the Friday Night Record Party Brand Blog almost everyday cos it's always Friday here!  Anyway...Let's make with the Dickies...

There was a four year break between "Dawn of the Dickies" and "Stukas Over Disneyland," which is understandable...The band actually started recording the album in 1980, but halfway through the recording Chuck Wagon committed suicide, which halted proceedings, as you'd imagine...The band eventually resumed the sessions and the album was finally released in 1983...Despite the terrible circumstances, this is my personal favorite Dickies album...

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if this is considered an EP or an LP...There's only 8 songs and the whole thing barely clocks in at 20 minutes, but I think its brevity is a virtue...There's not a single weak track here...The album kicks off with "Rosemary," which is a perfect slice of power-pop with gleaming chrome harmonies and precision hooks...They've perfected their AM-radio punk to such an extent that when I first heard it I figured it was one of their covers, since it hits every mark so flawlessly...I can't stress what a perfectly executed pop-song this is...Same goes for "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" that has a chorus so poppy it almost makes me woozy...

I also love "Wagon Train," which never comes right out and says it, but has to be a tribute to Chuck Wagon...A pop-punk/Country& Western hybrid that manages to be melancholy and fun:

"Wagon train what's my name,
Can you guess my crime?
Wagon train ease the pain,
And leave the world behind...

A brave new world for all those boys and girls,
A universe for us to roam.
They cast us out and left us with no doubt,
They're never gonna bring us home..."

 There are a few cover songs too...A boppy, harmonized run through Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" and a cover of the Quick's "Pretty Please Me," which was a song I first encountered on the Redd Kross album "Show World" album back in the 90's...What a freakin' amazing song BTW...The Quick were essentially just a local Los Angeles band that quietly wrote one of the greatest power-pop anthems of all time and this style blends seamlessly with the rest of the album...Most of the band's covers songs up to this point had an air of winking absurdity, but not this time...They give it a very straight-faced,  reverential reading...

The record goes out on a high with the final two tracks: The awesome "If Stewart Could Talk" which has a melody that seems to foretell 90's pop-punk...For the longest time I was under the impression this song was about a puppet, but on closer inspection, it turned out I had it wrong...Check out Stewart's mid-song monologue:

"Yes my name is Stuart and I assure you i can speak,
and lately i find myself astounded
at the sort of company you keep...
Something further i must mention,
of this fact i cannot understand
is your insatiable attention at annoying me with your hand...
And in closing may I offer this point must be succinct,
my purpose is for procreation
and not facilitating in your sin..."

Stewart is clearly a penis! With a British accent! But wait! I was watching videos of some of the band's live shows and look at this!!!
 

It turns out Stewart is both a penis and a puppet...Listening back to it, I don't know where I got the idea it was about a puppet...Who knows...

The album closes with the title track, which imagines a Nazi invasion of Dineyland set to 50's doo-wop...It's surprising how effortless this all is...This album doesn't seem to get the love that the first two do, but I have to disagree...I hear a band at the top of their game delivering an airtight hits-filled set...I'd even go so far as recommending this to someone looking to get into the Dickies..

There was a later reissue that re-sequences the track lising and inserts three bonus tracks dead-center in the middle of the record...I haven't heard the album, but I know the extra tracks and I can't see how they wouldn't screw up the flow of the album...So I'd stick to the original 8-song version, or pick up the reissue and just re-sequence it back into the proper running order yourself...

Here's "Rosemary" by the Dickies...Enjoy...

The Dickies: Great Dictations (The Definitive Dickies Collection)

1989

A&M Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Hideous  2. You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)  3. Give It Back  4. Paranoid  5.
I'm OK, You're OK  6. Got It At The Shore  7. Sounds Of Silence  8.Banana Splits  9. Rondo (The Midget's Revenge)  10. Nights In White Satin  11. (I'm Stuck In A Pagoda) With Tritia Toyota  12. Manny, Moe & Jack  13. Fan Mail  14. Attack Of The Mole Men  15. Gigantor  16. Eve Of Destruction


I think I got one more in me...Let's give "Great Dictations" a spin...

God, what a drab, ugly cover...Luckily the back of the booklet has an alternate cover you can use...

Ahhh, much better...This is a great little compilation...It cover their A&M Records era, which covered...what...a year? But what a year!! Two albums and a smattering of EP's and singles...Due to the short time frame this covers, a large chunk of "Incredible Shrinking Dickies" and "Dawn of the Dickies" are represented, but the real reason to pick this up is all the rare single and EP tracks that didn't appear on the full-lengths...

 From the "Paranoid" single, we have the kitschy pep-talk "I'm OK, You're OK,"  that features some groovy electric piano...Boy, this makes me miss Chuck Wagon...

We also have their pop-punk spin on the Holiday standard "Silent Night" that makes me want to get hammered on eggnog and pogo around the Christmas Tree...If you're anything like me and have a hard time stomaching the usual holiday fare, this is a life-saver...The B-Side is even better...It's a cover of the classic Simon & Garfunkel weeper, "Sounds of Silence"...It starts out exactly like the original, with that delicate acoustic opening, but suddenly with a few spiraling stabs of an electric piano,  the band steps on the gas...On first listen it might seem irreverent, but you start to notice that the band takes the fighting spirit that meekly peaked its head here and there in the original and brings it to the forefront...The results are so excitingly grand that I honestly think they end up improving the song...The band has done many covers, but I'd put this one in the top five, easily...

 Oh yea, I almost bought this EP a few months back but I skipped over it for something else...That beautiful white vinyl was very hard to pass up, but ultimately I already owned all the tracks on it...But if I run across it again, I'll probably pull the trigger on it...The main draw here is "Hideous," which didn't make it on the debut...It's a straight-up Ramones style steamroller-punk...Not my favorite, since the hooks are a bit basic, but a good track nonetheless...

 This compilation also includes their cover of the Banana Splits theme which thrills me to no end! I love the Banana Splits...Especially that weird, furry elephant thing with raw hamburger in his eyes...

 Their version is the best! No wonder this became one of their most popular songs...Leonard's counter melody in the chorus "Tra-La-La's" is a thing of wonder...The B-Side, "I Got it at the Store" is alright too..Pretty standard early Dickies...

 To finish things off, we have the band's cover of the "Gigantor" theme song...I have a soft spot for the Gigantor theme...I remember being a teenager and watching re-runs of the show on the Sci-Fi channel during the summers...A longtime favorite of mine, and they do the song justice...It's a pretty faithful cover...It just rocks a bit more...

Y'know, this would also make a fine introduction for newcomers...If you pick up this and "Stukas Over Disneyland" and play them back to back you just might be convinced that for a brief period of time, the Dickies were one of the best punk bands in the world...Or at least the most fun...I can't think of a better night of listening...

Here's "Sounds of Silence" by the Dickies...Have a good Friday Night everyone!...

The Dickies: Incredible Shrinking Dickies/Dawn of the Dickies

For some unknown reason it's taken me a hundred years to write this post, and I'm just kind of abandoning it at this point...Forgive me if it reads a little forced and rough...I feel like we should make this a drinking game to liven this up...For every typo and/or awkward, ill-constructed sentence you should do a shot....Prepare to be goddamn plastered somewhere around the second paragraph...






















 The Dickies: Incredible Shrinking Dickies

1979

A&M Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Give It Back  2. Poodle Party  3. Paranoid  4. She  5. Shadow Man  6. Mental Ward  7. Eve of Destruction  8. You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)  9. Waterslide  10. Walk Like An Egg  11. Curb Job  12. Shake & Bake  13. Rondo (The Midgets Revenge)



The enduring unavailability of these first couple of Dickies albums really does the band's legacy a disservice...As did their piss-poor attitude when punk finally broke in the US a good decade and a half after the Dickies had their shot (also see Agent Orange)...And I do feel their pain somewhat...These early Dickies albums really are fantastic and it is unfair that they were so overlooked...To get a rough idea of what the band sounds like, imagine the Undertones OD'ing on Saturday morning cartoons, Z-movies, and AM radio...Oh yea, and Heroin...Sometimes the Dickies OD on that, too...

 I'm having a difficult time thinking of another pre-Bad Religion punk band that recognized the value of a nice three-part Harmony the way the Dickies did...Leonard Graves Phillips doesn't have a conventionally pleasant voice (he kind of sounds like a hyperventilating puppet with bugged-out eyes), but he sure sounds sweet within the band's buzzsaw context...And man, these guys knew their way around a hook...They come and go with such velocity that it usually takes a listen or two to realize how insanely catchy some of this stuff is, but once the shock wears off you start to realize that songs like "Take it Back" and "Shake & Bake" are power-pop classics...

I think the band's biggest contribution to the subsequent generations of punks has to be their wacky cover songs...Basically the formula consists of taking an unlikely song (let's say, the Monkees, Black Sabbath and whoever it was that wrote "Eve of Destruction") and play it hard and fast until the wheels come off...Although I suspect the main reason they pull it off so well is the nagging suspicion that these weren't necessarily funny songs to the band....They arrange them so lovingly that it feels like these were songs the band actually admired and decided to spruce them up in a way that might make sense to their wired punk audience... And they had the talent to back it up...As Ramones-indebted as a lot of this is, the Dickies weren't your average 3-chord punk-rock players...There's a lot of drama and dynamics in Stan Lee's guitar technique and I'm not 100% sure who's playing keyboards (I suspect Chuck Wagon, since this style disappears from their sound after his untimely demise), but I'm singling this album out as a shining example of punk keyboard playing...

"Incredible Shrinking Dickies" is a landmark California pop-punk record and an all-round blast...I had to search for a long time before I was finally able to score a copy, but it was totally worth the effort...Anybody willing to embrace the lighter side of punk will go crazy for this...4 stars...

Waitaminute...I don't think I've ever established a ratings system...Is four stars good or bad? If our solar system had four stars that would be bad because it would get too hot...But if our solar system was four times bigger, then I guess four stars would be good! But wait, wouldn't that just make it four different solar systems?!?!   Plus, some stars are better than others...Sol is pretty awesome on a nice summer day, but on the other hand, that Epsilon Indi A can be a real asshole sometimes...So theoretically, one star could be better than four stars, if it was a really good star....

Yea, this is why I've always avoided a ratings system...They're just too dang confusing...Anyway, here's "Take it Back" by the Dickies...Enjoy...

 

The Dickies:Dawn of the Dickies

1980

A&M Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Where Did His Eye Go?  2. Fan Mail  3. Manny, Moe & Jack  4. Infidel Zombie  5. I'm a Chollo  6. Nights In White Satin  7. (I'm Stuck In a Pagoda With) Tricia Toyota  8. I've Got a Splitting Hedachi  9. Attack of the Mole Men  10. She Loves Me Not

I sometimes go back and forth, but I think I've come to the conclusion that I like this album a little bit better than their first...They ease up the tempos and extend the song lengths, which is usually a recipe for disaster for most punk bands, but the Dickies were so talented that this approach lets their stellar hooks really sink in...And the lyrics paint an inviting portrait of a cartoon world full of wonder...I want to live in the Dickies' world! I want to ponder the mysterious disappearance of Sammy Davis, Jr's eye ("Where Did His Eye Go?" The answer: "I don't know...")! I want to live in a pagoda with Tritia Toyota! For the longest time I wondered who in the hell Tritia Toyota was...Was she the heir to the Toyota automobile fortune? Was it just a made-up name that rhymed with 'pagoda'??

 It turns out she was a local Los Angeles news anchor...I guess it'd be the equivalent of me writing a song about Art Neil or Dick Fabian...I still haven't figured out what a headachi is though...A phonetic pronunciation of headache maybe? It's kind of embarrassing admitting I don't know what it is...I bet everyone else knows the meaning and it'll be like 5th grade all over again, with the other kids giggling, "Bleh, heh, heh...You don't know what a clitoris is? Bleh, heh, heh...Wotta square!!" 

So yea...I don't know what a headachi is...Or a clitoris...

A couple of the band's best songs are on here..."Fan Mail" shows how far the band's songwriting advanced in less than a year (Oh yea, this album came out the same year "Incredible Shrinking Dickies" did...The band would never be this prolific again, that's for sure!)...They explore the complicated relationship between audience and artist, with a chorus so awe-inspiringly bombastic that I'm tempted to actually write them fan mail about it...There's also the band's cover of "Nights in White Satin" that manages to conjure the grandeur of the original without a single 20-piece Orchestra in sight...

Damn, that cover is ballsy...You could really draw the wrong crowd with this...I can't imagine many Klan members being big Dickies fans, either...I remember back in the late 90's-early 2000's when I delivered pizza in Hale, Michigan, I ended up in a Klansman's lair once... I remember walking up to the door and seeing a yellow flotation device on their porch that showed various diagrams of how to tie nooses and thinking, "Huh...That's weird..." Then this big redneck answered the door and told me to come into his house while he got together his money and as soon as I stepped in I knew I made a big mistake...This guy's house was decked out from floor to ceiling in Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia and there were a bunch of other Klansmen gathered around a table playing Uno or whatever..."Oh, shit!" I shuddered...I relaxed a bit when I remembered I was white, but I started thinking, "This guy just knows I'm not a racist...I bet he can smell it on me!!!"... Luckily I got out of there without an incident...Who knows...Maybe I misunderstood them...Maybe they were just burly, backwoods Dickies fans gathering together for their Saturday Night Re-enactment of the Dickies' "Nights in White Satin" single cover...

Alright, enough hillbillery, let's get back to "Dawn of the Dickies"..."Manny, Moe and Jack" is another favorite of mine...I think Pep Boys made a huge mistake not using this in their advertisements...It's such a catchy jingle and it gives you this nice, warm feeling like everything is going to be alright...

 

Another highlight is "Attack of the Mole Men"...Sort of a slower paced number that combines power-pop, punk and heavy metal into one giant B-Movie hook-fest...That "Mole Man...Moh-oh-ohle man..." backing vocal has a way of burrowing deep inside of your brain...Their songwriting structures were getting fairly complex at this point...Take "I'm a Chollo" for example... You wouldn't know it from the unassuming title, but it's a multi-part epic that starts as fairly straightforward proto-hardcore before moving onto a power-pop chorus that breaks down into a Bo Diddley jam somewhere around the 2-minute mark...Not my favorite song on the album or anything, but it's another example of the band stretching out past the minute and a half blasts that were the backbone of their debut...

"Dawn of the Dickies" is just a good, fun, infectious power-pop-punk album that grows in stature everytime I play it...I'm always bowled over by their musicality, their oddball humor and their mastery of the pop form...I think even the crustiest, hardest of hard-core punk rockers would have a hard time not cracking a smile while listening to this...

Here's "Fan Mail" by the Dickies...Enjoy...