Dirtbombs Away

Music fans are used to making a fuss whenever the traditional rock band configuration gets tinkered with. We’ve seen enough bass/drums combos to last a lifetime. We’ve been dumbfounded by the bands who forgo the bass altogether. We marvel at bands who play keyboards instead of guitars.

So let’s just get this out of the way, shall we? The Dirtbombs have two bass players and two drummers. And why not? If the rhythm section kicks and shoves a song into motion, doesn’t it make sense for your band to have two arms and two legs?

Mick Collins, the ultimate creative force behind the band, is at the center of it all on guitar and vocals--the head and torso of this rock-and-roll Voltron. His twin rhythm section isn’t a gimmick or a slight on the traditional guitar, drums and bass configuration. When the Dirtbombs began, Collins simply set up the sandbox in which he’d like to play. He started out with a little extra, because cellos, marimbas and virtually everything else was off limits from then on out.
“I want to see how far I can go with this particular instrumentation...without adding,” said Collins. “Because you know most bands, after a certain amount of time they start adding keyboards; they start adding strings. I want to keep it with just this lineup, this instrumentation. I want to see how far I can go, and also I want to see how many different types of music I can make.”

According to Collins’ liner notes in 2005’s sprawling, wonderful singles collection “If You Don’t Already Have a Look,” the original idea was to create fifteen seven-inch EPs and quit. He’d try something different every time, emulating the adventurous attitudes of Wire and the Swell Maps. The single was a perfect format to quickly blaze through any given style, or explore one theme or another, and move on. Once Collins had said everything he needed to say with two drummers, two bass players, a guitar and his voice, he could do something else entirely.

Despite the experimental attitude, the Dirtbombs have a consistency from record to record, and a gift for maddeningly catchy, soulful rhythm-based rock: Collins’ deep, powerful voice, a rumbling, fuzzy audio attack that’s like a fleet of melodic planes buzzing overhead, and an endless supply of hooks that hook deep. And once they work their way under your skin, you’ve got a new favorite band.

Eventually, the demand for long-players forced Collins to change his concept. Most fans had no idea that he’d crafted three acts for the band, and only he really knows exactly where they’re at right now.

“Once the Dirtbombs became an ongoing thing, I have to have a beginning, middle and end with this,” Collins explained. “Because the other bands I’m in, they happen when they happen… But the Dirtbombs, as they say, it’s got legs, so I figured I’d better get a plan together here.”

Collins knows everything he wants to do with the Dirtbombs. He’s got a list of the records he wants to make, and when he’s checked off everything, it’s the end.

“Once I’ve exhausted that list, that’s when it’s done, said Collins.”

So what has he said so far? “Horndog Fest” came first, a raw, grimy, punk-infused blast of rhythm and blues. They followed with “Ultraglide in Black”, which was, for the most part, a collection of soul and funk covers. 2003’s “Dangerous Magical Noise” is a recklessly intoxicating, rock/pop album. The band called it their “car-commercial record.” Throughout it all, the Dirtbombs have used countless singles to try on many different styles, from noise, to new wave, to punk, to pop.

Which brings us to the latest album, “We Have You Surrounded.” It’s a darker, dystopian shot of paranoia and social upheaval. It sounds like the troubled times may even have caused Collins to modify the Dirtbombs trajectory ever so slightly toward oblivion.

“I guess the source would be American news, really,” Collins said. “Pretty much every song… they started out being about something else but they turned into this rant about America’s slide into a corporate-dominated police state.”

Dark times never sounded so good. The album is supposed to have delayed their long-awaited “Bubblegum” record, but “We Have You Surrounded” could be the most fully realized incarnation of the Dirtbombs sound outside of a live show. It’s moodier and more intense than previous efforts, but it’s still laden with their legendary catchy chords and hair-raising choruses.

So does a band with two bass players and two drummers and a guitar sound all that different from any other rock band? Well yes, but not in the technical sense. The average fan (myself included) really can’t distinguish two drummers and two bass players on the records any more than you can tell when a band doubles up on guitar tracks. It’s just great rock and roll.

But it makes an impression live. Anyone who saw them in the final days of Ralph’s Corner knows what I’m talking about. And that brings us to Sunday’s performance at the Aquarium. You won’t truly experience the Dirtbombs until you’ve seen them live. When you see the coordinated, awesome madness of two drum kits going at once, and you hear those buzzing riffs gel together and gently yank the little hairs on the back of your neck to attention, you’ll wonder how Fargo got lucky enough to get a band this cool on a Sunday night, and for the second time.

“Hopefully there’ll be more than thirty people,” said Collins.

Good Lord, there better be.

If You Go

WHAT: Dirtbombs
WHERE: The Aquarium
WHEN: Sun., May 4, 10pm
INFO: (701) 235-5913