Dirty Penny-Take it sleezy

Dirty Penny-Take it sleezy
2007

All too often all 80’s hair metal gets lumped into one category, but I don’t agree with that. I think there were some really good bands and some lousy ones. I also believe that the period from about 1983-1987 was better than the period from say 1988-1991 and there was a difference. I think there were far more sappy and less talented bands emerging in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s and the scene suffered from it. Where am I going with this? Dirty Penny (formerly Antidote) are a new band, but they look and sound like they came right out of the mid-1980’s. The main influences that I hear are Motley Crue, Ratt, Black -n- Blue and maybe AC/DC by way of Rhino Bucket. Yet Dirty Penny seem to have enough confidence and energy to take their influences and at least begin to create their style. The top two stand out tracks to me are “Sleeze Disease” and “Vendetta”. Both stand out because the band makes the effort to go beyond the one-dimensional approach that so many bands of this genre abide by. The lyrics are the same slices of cheese that were so big twenty some years ago, but the music and the presentation help them to pull it off. They know when to move and how to weave some fairly tight songs. They are not treading in any new territory, but they have taken some old ideas made them fun and that’s what this kind of music should be. Dirty Penny plow forward and, don’t take themselves too seriously and that approach has resulted in one of the better hard rock albums of the year.

http://www.myspace.com/dirtypennysucks