Diamonds in the Rough, But I like it that way - V
Awhile back I posted a track by the mysterious Chicago 5-piece band, The Dirty Diamonds, on our column, The Weekly Everything. Well, school’s out for the summer and The Dirty Diamonds have been keeping themselves busy and are releasing their first EP.
There’s a certain kind of excitement in the air when you get to hear the very first project a band has poured their time and hearts into. Sometimes this band comes out of nowhere backed by a major label and cleans up the Grammys via a bit of talent and a lot of connections and cash. And other times, they record their first project in their friend’s shitty apartment, closer to a 6-pack of PBR than a Mark Ronson-manned soundboard.
The Dirty Diamonds first EP, Meet the Dirty Diamonds, isn’t perfect, but that’s exactly why I like it. There are no false pretenses, what you hear is what you get. And with The Dirty Diamonds, what you get is 5 kids with a penchant for doo-wop and a drum machine. You can’t help but love these guys. They exude the kind of fun you had in high school when the future was an unwritten book and you lived for the moment.
Listening to the Dirty Diamonds EP got me a bit nostalgic for the era when everyone released, collected and traded 7inch records. The vibe was 100% DIY. The sound was often a bit unpolished. The bands made their own album covers. The Dirty Diamonds would have fit perfectly into this era of music. My Meet The Dirty Diamonds 7inch would have been at the top of my stack, right next to the Prima Donnas’ She Had Alien Written All Over Her.
The Dirty Diamonds will be releasing Meet The Dirty Diamonds for free tomorrow, August 1st, through their myspace page. Below you can check out my favorite of the tracks off the EP titled, Just Let Me Know. And to clear up a bit of the mystery behind these guys, here is their backstory:
The Dirty Diamonds - Just Let Me Know (160 kbps)
Joy and Austin met while getting wasted to Squeeze at Austin and Arash’s grimy Humboldt Park apartment. They realized that both of them had the same dream… write the sort of music that has been stuck in your head since age 3. They stayed up all night drinking Sparks and writing the first few songs on what is now Meet the Dirty Diamonds… Arash (guitar), Halley (backing vox), and Alistair (backing vox) joined soon after, bringing their respective and amazing quirks to the band, and the Diamonds became the wacky family it is today. Austin ended up saying ‘fuggit’ and enlisted his computer as full time drummer. You can now find The Dirty Diamonds about the Windy City, playing house parties, Quennect 4 (the hip-hop & poetry open mic where we played our first live gigs), or at our monthly Sweatin’ to the Oldies event with our newfound friends Flosstradamus and Miss Gab.
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