The Dirtbombs: We Have You Surrounded

Label: In the Red

If you read any interview with Detroit fuzz heroes the Dirtbombs, it becomes apparent they hate it when people call them “garage rock.” This might have been a little hard-to-swallow when it came to their earlier work, but on We Have You Surrounded, the band’s fourth studio full-length, they’re really pushing the point. That’s not to say it doesn’t rock, ridiculously and irreverently, because it does. The songs, however, range dramatically from modern-day Nuggets jams to Europoppy tracks like “La Fin Du Monde,” the Fall-inspired “It’s Not Fun Until They See You Cry” and the free-form psych jam of “Race to the Bottom.” Combine that with killer cover versions of Dead Moon and Sparks, the Dirtbombs put their own stamp on it all, defying genre and attempting to show you, violently if necessary, that there’s more to Detroit than the Stooges and murder. (Fred)