If you’ve ever been to Jazz Fest or SXSW, you’ve seen these guys, usually looking like they’ve slept under a bridge, climb up on stage and just blow the doors off anything and anybody lurking nearby. Baton Rouge hell raisers Dash Rip Rock play window-rattling, garage/cowpunky bar band rock.
But that’s just a jumping off place. Once this hard-charging trio gets cranked up, they fly off in all directions. Since 1984, singer/guitarist Dash founder Bill Davis has been pinning audiences ears back with funny, in-your–face twangy rock.
One of the band’s most requested tunes is ‘96’s “Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot,” a stoner anthem that name checks a bunch of pot flavored bands including Paul Simon’s wife Edie Brickell and her former band the New Bohemians, sung to the tune of Danny and the Juniors ‘50s classic “Let’s Go to The Hop.”
From their latest, Black Liquor, on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label, “Voodoo Doll” is the main vehicle for comic relief, with Davis telling his witchy girlfriend that every time he sees her, he tries not to cry, going for a more direct, Marie Laveau-approved approach to share his pain : “I grab another needle and stick I stick it in your eye.”
“Go Ahead Baby” is hard-core, hiccup rockabilly with Davis yelping like a coyote with its tail caught in a bear trap. “Possession” is bottle- busting, hell-raising good time music with a hodgepodge of classic rock influences, a snippet of Otis Redding’s “Fa Fa Fa” stirred into a T. Rex framework and shaken well.
“Meet Me At the River” is an irresistible party anthem with a’70s feel, suitable for stoners, rockers and hell-raisers to raise a bottle, let go with a rebel yell or two while they inner tube it down the river or just crank up the attitude at a backyard bar-b-que.
Just like at their live shows, this outing has something for everybody without pandering to any special interest except for encouraging the urge to party.
Grant Britt
