Just Ask The Boys - Dirt Nap
Like an overexcited kid at a birthday party, Just Ask the Boys comes hurtling towards you headfirst, arms flailing, eyes wide and mouth open, before crashing spectacularly nineteen minutes later, overwhelmed and red-faced from cramming more than the recommended daily allowance of E numbers and unrefined sugar in into its gullet. Though, as Dirt Nap is a group of adults, and the nineteen minutes make up the length of their debut album, the party is much more likely to be a house-gig, the E numbers in alcopops and the sugar straight from a bottle of whiskey. The ‘kids’ that make up this twisted birthday vision are the grown-up Calvin, Raymond, Alex and Dustin, who hail from Springfield, Missouri, and until very recently were collectively called Ethnic Women – a band name that I imagine would cause more issues than the current one. Their sound is reminiscent of the basic, garage-band recordings of late 90s and early 00s, born out of a love for quick, two-minute blasts of noise and the anti-establishment sentiments of the 70’s, admired by big kids in plaid and ripped jeans, with scruffy blonde locks and hand-painted shirts draped over sweaty, beer-soaked bodies. It’s an exciting debut, though it feels more like an EP than a full-length album. The short, sharp songs bleed into one another as the melody rarely changes, and it feels like you've listened to three or four songs rather than ten. Whilst punk isn't known for its epic tales, this approach leaves some of the songs on Just Ask The Boys feeling unfinished, which is a shame, as they are really very good. Dirt Nap have created a fast, economical album that hits all the right notes, kept afloat and energetic by rolling drums, scuzzy guitars and slurred, passionate vocals rather than Haribo, cherryade and marzipan.
