Dicks: Kill from the Heart

Dicks: Kill from the Heart

1983

Alternative Tentacles Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.Anti-Klan (Part One)  2. Rich Daddy  3. No Nazi's Friend  4. Marilyn Buck  5. Kill From the Heart  6. Little Boys' Feet  7. Pigs Run Wild  8. Bourgeois Fascist Pig  9. Purple Haze  10. Anti-Klan (Part Two)  11. Right Wing/White Ring  12. Dicks Can't Swim ( I. Cock Jam  II. Razor Blade Dance)



I'm not afraid to say it! I like Dicks! Make mine Dicks! Forever and ever! Dicks as far as the eye can see...

I was fairly oblivious to the Dicks' existence, so what made me buy all their albums in a single day? I think it might have been my love of this album cover's color scheme...That striking electric blue and deep red brought back nostalgic memories of Gang of Four's "Solid Gold"...

Oh and the band was called "DICKS"... and the album was called "Kill from the Heart"...SOLD!

And it turns out it's a good album..It sounds like a murkier, bluesier,  Dead Kennedys...It's hardcore, but not restrained by hardcore's usual, narrow mindset...For example there's a bit of a cowpunkish gallop to a lot of this...It's also interesting because they were one of the few bands in that early, super-macho hardcore era to be fronted by an openly gay vocalist and feature openly gay lyrics...This Gary Floyd guy just doesn't give a flying fuck what anybody thinks...The motherfucker sings about killing cops, licking little boys' feet, dropping N-bombs, threatening the Klan...And this dude was doing this shit in Texas during the early 80's, which I understand wasn't exactly a hotbed of liberalism at the time...Oh, and he did it all looking like this...

God bless 'im. I can't imagine that shit could have gone over well...But that's what I love so much about all this...Gary Floyd could have easily just gotten himself a cushy office job, worked all day keeping his thoughts to himself and then come home and quietly watched Knight Rider every night...Instead he decided to go onstage, looking like Divine's unkempt sister, shouting "DEATH TO THE USA!!" to folks who probably didn't care much for the sentiment (and I'm sure, many who did)...

I also like how they're not shy about using redneck musical forms to deliver these messages. "Anti-Klan (Part 2)" is straight-up scruffy country...Blues-rock pops up throughout and they even tackle classic rock radio staple "Purple Haze"... Surprisingly they give it a relatively straightforward reading...Reclaiming some of Jimi's original outsider status in the process...The album even ends on an epic 11-minute blues-funk workout called "Dicks Can't Swim." You can almost imagine all the barflies, jeans tucked into their cowboy boots, getting up and shaking their stone-washed booties, totally oblivious to all the S&M overtones...

Yea, I recommend this to fans of punk in general and early 80's hardcore in particular...Some of the overt Dead Kennedy-isms make wish they'd develop a bit more of their original style but it's all solid, gritty stuff...On second thought, I'd almost consider turning DK into a blues-rock hardcore band a fairly original style, all things considered...Or maybe the only DK they'd heard at this point was "Rawhide"...Who knows...Rules anyway...

Let's listen to some Dicks...Here's the ridiculously awesome title track..."Killing From the Heart"...Enjoy...