Band Dirty Americans Title Strange Generation Type LP/EP Company LiquorAndPoker Music YOR 2005 Style Hard Rock Popular Reviews 11/17/2005 - Review by: Vinaya Saksena Dirty Americans - Strange Generation - 2005 - Liquor & Poker
Fast forward to 2005: The Workhorse Movement is no more, but three of the former band members (plus a new drummer) have ditched the rap influence, added loads of Me Generation features to their sound and image, and re-christened themselves The Dirty Americans. The band’s press material makes much of their seventies-derived sound (which idiot music critics will likely pigeonhole as ‘80’s-derrived, as they do pretty much anything with guitar solos and intelligible vocals) and the use of retro imagery even on my sparse promo copy of Strange Generation borders on ridiculously self-conscious. So for all those fans (myself included) who clamor for anything that smacks of the surprisingly creative and diverse era of rock that was the 1970’s, are these guys our saviors? Not quite, I’m afraid. Opening cut “No Rest” rumbles along simply but brilliantly with a pounding triplet groove, and a catchy chorus. “Car Crash” really does sound like a musical product of the Motor City, which is repeatedly pointed to as the band’s home in their press material. The title track? What’s this I hear? It sure as hell don’t sound ‘70’s (though the bio once again says otherwise). In fact, it sounds like the best song the friggin’ Foo Fighters never wrote, complete with vocals that are a dead ringer for Dave Grohl for cryin’ out loud! Not bad, but come on guys- you’re supposed to be a seventies-type band (so says your bio, again!). If you’re gonna go around trying to be some sort of living, breathing musical time machine, ya gotta stay in character, damnit! Anyway, much of the rest is predictable, but welcome old-school riffage, although the recording reeks of Pro Tools and digital modeling amps in places. The songs, with the exception of a couple of mellow ones (these guys can’t do ballads for beans, I’m sorry), are fine. The problem, as you might have guessed by now, is the sort of second-guessed nature of its presentation. As much as I enjoy portions of "Strange Generation", there is something safe, predictable, and self-consciously pandering in it’s retro mechanisms, making it seem like a pre-packaged, marketing age imitation, rather than the real thing (kind of like a heavier Lenny Kravitz). Being a ‘70’s rock nut like few twenty-somethings I know, I really wanted to like this disc. And it’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just that for some reason, my cynicism towards modern, demographic-based mass-marketing raises a red flag even as I try to groove along to this stuff. Rating: 5.5 --Vinaya 11.16.05 ALL REVIEWS FOR: DIRTY AMERICANS
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