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The Dirtbombs
You'll Never Catch Them Alive!

Ben Blackwell is sitting adjacent to me on the couch in his mom’s house on Bishop Street in Detroit. He isn’t just the world’s most famous nephew, he is also the owner of Cass Records, a journalist and a skinsman in The Dirtbombs. The last of which will release their new album, We Have You Surrounded, in the coming weeks on their long time record label, In The Red.

What does a band that has done three full-length records and released so many out of print singles you could lay them from the Gold Dollar to The Magic Stick have left to prove? The answer to that question is We Have You Surrounded. This group has been a punk band, a rock band, a funk band, a soul band and everything else in between. Yet, have The Dirtbombs ever truly been themselves for one whole record?

We Have You Surrounded is the epitome of The Dirtbombs wrapped in the cold harsh blanket of Mick Collins’ urban paranoia and panic. Everything that you have come to expect in the band’s material, from Mick's soulful voice and jagged noise guitar to Ko Melina’s fuzz bass and Troy Gregory’s rambling bass lines to Pat Pantano and Ben Blackwell's powerful drums is there. This is a hook to rest one’s hat on. “It’s like Dirtbombs 101,” Blackwell says. “It’s nice having a record that is just The Dirtbombs. It’s nice having a record that can be a calling card for the band.”

Through his Uncle Jack and while out on the scene, Blackwell would meet Collins, the undeniably great leader of The Gories and Blacktop. Hot off the release of his new band's, The Dirtbombs, debut album, Horndog Fest, Collins was looking for a drummer around 2000 when he called Jack White. Jack handed the phone to Ben. “Just talking to him on the phone ... he has that big booming voice. ‘Hey, how’s it going?’” Ben says, channeling Collins' deep bass voice. “At the time there was this single released from the Netherlands … that was really hard to get here … So I had one and thought I was all cool and started talking to him about the b-side, 'Theme From The Dirtbombs.' I said, ‘I really love that line you cribbed from the Jackson Five.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, you’re the first person to mention that.’ In my mind, I like to think I impressed Mick with my deep musical knowledge and that’s why I’m in the band.”

The living room we are sitting in is tidy, yet unkempt with boxes of Blackwell’s obsession: vinyl records. Whether purchasing them (a box of random 45s lays on the floor) or releasing them (boxes of Kelley Stoltz records wait to be mailed to lucky recipients), Blackwell loves the flat, black and circular discs of wax. It’s evident in his record collection that takes up much of his office space as well. Amongst the rare backdrop of a White Stripes Virgin Airlines poster and Stooges s/t poster is a veritable history of Detroit garage rock. From the new Terrible Twos record to the ultra rare Wildbunch eight track and even the MC5’s “Lookin’ at You” single. It's essentially all here.

Unlike most his age, Blackwell witnessed the wild nights of shows that occurred during Detroit’s rock 'n' roll heyday of the late-'90s when he was only a young pup. “It just seemed like every band I heard in town was the greatest band in the world,” Blackwell says. “There were all these bands that didn’t sound alike, but they were playing the same clubs and they were trying to do the same thing and I was just there trying to watch it and soak up as much as I could.” With Blackwell at the helm of the drums for The Dirtbombs, the band would become one of the biggest in the Detroit scene. Getting tons of loving press from British and American rags, the group capitalized on the hype and released fantastic records in Ultraglide in Black and Dangerous Magical Noise. Somewhere along the way though, Detroit dropped off the map in the eyes of many and returned to its pre-White Blood Cells state. “When the dust settled, the bands that are still on the same level as they were when that was going down stayed there,” Blackwell states. “No one is still going at that same fever pitch level.”

In a year that will see records from SSM, The Dirtbombs, Von Bondies, The Muggs and The Go firing on all cylinders, this looks to be the year that Detroit could come back to national prevalence. The table settings seem to be in place, yet Blackwell thinks that it won’t work out. “Back in my day,” Blackwell jokes like a jaded scenester, “you would go to basically two places to see shows. What’s happening now is there are so many little places to play. Nowadays, it's like are you going out to Detroit or are you going to Ferndale or are you going to the Crofoot?” Although Ben isn’t so sure that the scene can return to its national prominence, he points to his boss' old band, The Gories, and explains that just because you aren’t famous now doesn’t mean you won’t be later. “In town, The Gories were totally hated and they played a ton,” Blackwell says. “They did some shows in New York, some shows in Chicago and a three-day tour in Missouri and that was it. That was The Gories U.S. touring.”

Yet, with the 2008 release of We Have You Surrounded, The Dirtbombs stand to make a message. One spin of the new record will tell you that the band is at the top of their game and taking back their rightful throne as kings of Detroit. “As a Dirtbombs fan,” Blackwell says, “I think it is my favorite record ... it’s the best overall record. I didn’t come to that conclusion until I heard other people saying it and then I felt comfortable saying it. It was a jury decision.”  | RDW

The Dirtbombs • 2/16 • Magic Stick


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