All Trashed Up

Onetime Angry Samoan and Vox Pop member Jeff Dahl has long been a torchbearer for a small subset of American rock 'n' roll bands that were weaned on obscure '70s glam and punk—and that, through relentless touring and DIY recording, have earned pockets of fans around the world. Hence 1999’s All Trashed Up is crammed with musical winks to those under-sellers that obviously populate Dahl’s record collection: from The Dictators (“Goin’ Down in Flames”) and Slade (“Silver Star”) to Milk ’n’ Cookies (“Desert Rose”) and The Heartbreakers (“Miss Thang”; dig the tortured, Johnny Thunders-y guitar breaks). Recorded in Dahl's own sunbaked studio in the Arizona desert, the album sounds like its title. Hard-luck lyrics sidle up to heartbeat-altering wallops of bass, drums, and fist-in-face walls of distorted guitars (with assistance from one Michael Brooks, a gifted rock 'n' roll guitarist for another overlooked American band, Beat Angles). It all works because Dahl’s sturdy, snotty vocals (a strangely appealing blend of Wayne County, Stiv Bators, and Lou Reed) carry the tunes well.