RATING: Bad Ass
This Virginia band wears its Tweedy, Britt Daniel, and Robbie Robertson influences on its sleeve, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This earnest and ambitious album is steeped in Americana roots blended with just enough abstract weirdness. “Only Ghost,” with its eerie cascading guitar line, is an absolute gem.
You can hear the influences of Wilco and alt. country weeping into their magnificent arrangements and melodies. Rich and lush in harmonies with brave stabs at guitar-centric indie rock, “Goodbye Dominion” is also blessed with creative lyrics... you’d be hard pressed to find a more gritty, challenging, and invigorating roots rock oriented pop album.
Virginia residents the Burning Dirty Band have crafted a solid album with “Goodbye Dominion.” The record is patient and willing to take its time with the very American melodies, inspired as much by contemporary artists such as Wilco as by old greats such as the Grateful Dead... Listening to “Tropical Depression” near the disc’s end, it’s hard not to feel that some local boys have done good.
The Burning Dirty Band claims its sound encompasses “garage-marinated mutant blues, rollicking roots groove and forward-thinking indie quirkiness.” After listening to the quartet’s sophomore release, 17 Year Sun, I’d call that something of an understatement. The band certainly has a quirky feel not a million miles from NRBQ (not bad, being compared to the world’s best unknown band!) and an addictive quality, not to mention a subtle sense of humor that lurks in the darker regions of its sound. The band’s musical texture is odd, but repeated listening reveals some wonderful instrumental excursions that are surprisingly more structured than one would originally imagine. The old adage of “a bad originator is better than a thousand imitators” certainly rings true here: ’cept these guys are good originators.
While most "indie" bands in Virginia seem to be in some way punk or hardcore influenced... the Burning Dirty Band take their mutated version of the blues and spike it with glam and college rock seasonings... "Libra Fog" finds the band jamming in a way that most Bonnaroo-hopefuls could only wish for... They're above all a rock band with strong blues, folk, and glam influences, and it will be interesting to see what they do next.
The CD ends as it began, with a click, a buzz and some soft guitar in “17 Year Sun,” the last song of the disc. So what does all of this mean? It means that we have a brilliant disc in our hands. Combine a garage band edge with a sharply tuned wit and a Beatles-esque pop sensibility and you get partially there. Add to that an innate sense of tone and time and you’re getting warmer. Finally you need to include a surprising sensitivity combined with an intense musical tautness and you’ve got the whole package. In short Burning Dirty Band is the type of band that should be touring the globe, filling up stadiums and topping out the charts. Maybe in a different time they would be and hopefully our music culture will mature to the point where they can.
Whether it's the bittersweet lyrics of "Letter to Kate" and "Nailed down," the ultra catchiness of "How Our Castle Fell" and "Girls Are Fun," or the musical digressions on "Worms" and "17 Year Sun;" every moment on this album exudes a level of passionate grit that interweaves itself into every track. This is the signature mark of The Burning Dirty Band, playing hard and giving themselves to their music...