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...

Dicks: Peace? 7-inch

Dicks: Peace?

1984

Alternative Tentacles Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. No Fuckin' War  2. Nobody Asked Me  3. I Hope You Get Drafted


This 7-inch came with my copy of  1985's "These People" but since this predates that album, I think I'll cover this separately...I think it's deserving of its own post cos' it's a truly fuckin' great 7-inch. Much more straightforward and serious than their previous stuff...Forget that the album is called "Peace?" The whole 7-inch is a rich exploration on the various facets of war..."No Fuckin' War" is a scary good protest song:

"Where will you send us now?
It doesn't matter anyhow,
As soldiers dig a new trench,
Hey thank you Mr. President, 
We don't want no fuckin' war!"

 Real sludgy and discordant, like prime Flipper...Smell the air as this plays...Is that the pungent stench of burning flesh? Mmmm mmm!

 Side two kicks off with "Nobody Asked Me," which is more the hardcore sound you'd expect from these guys, but it's angrier, scarier and faster than before...

Things close with the brutal "I Hope You Get Drafted" that takes aim at those on the sidelines...Watching as kids are shipped off to war without so much a word of protest...Shrugging and saying, "Better you than me..." Damn, this is harsh though...

I can't say this album is a lot of fun to listen to, but it sure is harrowing...And I think I mean that in a good way...Even though it's only 8 minutes or so, I like this more than "Kill From the Heart"...Long Live Dicks...
Here's "I Hope You Get Drafted"...Enjoy...

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...