It seems as if there are 3 billion "girl" bands out there gunning for your attention. You've got a huge list of names like Hole, Vercua Salt, Juliana Hatfield, The Breeders, and on and on. Well, go ahead and add number 3 billion and one to the list. The Dirt Merchants have just rammed their way onto the national scene with an impressive debut called Scarified.
The album is a collection of songs recorded over the course of a year at some of Boston's most prodigious studios (including the sacred Fort Apache studios.) Scarified charges out of its starting gate with "Bullfight". Like the title suggests, the song thrashes and thrusts with rage until its quick end. After a short minute and 50 second sonic assault, this song really does the trick. PJ Harvey fans will instantly recognize a common thread in style and emotion. Comparisons come easy in the "girl" band genre. Blondie, Blake Babies, and That Dog are echoed at times, but for the most part, Dirt Merchants sound as if the Cowboy Junkies decided to try the punk sound.
After the energy of the first few tracks wears down, Maria Christopher's vocals finally settle out to an airy and seductive cool. At times she sounds a little childlike and on the song "Scarified," she even sounds downright precious. "Trip Trip" even has pretty "la, la, la"'s in it to trick you into thinking the rest of the album is quite. But, by the time they roll around to a live track of "Mindfuck", the emotion has swung back to violent and abrasive.
Musically, Alex Kisch and brothers John and Mike Malone try hard to fit the music to the song. That means there is an emphasis on simple melody tags which get torn up with distortion and cacophony. There's chiming guitars, hazy guitar solos from a blues/alternative hell, shimmering and spooky chimes, and even a banjo thrown in for good measure. Christopher's vocals are swirled into this mix at about the same level as the instruments and it makes for a very distorted but engaging sound.
It's nice to see bands like Dirt Merchants getting signed. PJ Harvey has opened the doors for this mix of aggression and fragility, and the music world is a better place for it. Dirt Merchants are fresh sounding and they seem to do what comes naturally. That makes for the perfect balance between pop perfection and gritty distortion.
