"Dirty Grind" by The Scummies: Art Punk Fun Wrapped in a Melody That Rollerblades Through The Brain
The last album review I put out was for Taylor Swift’s Folklore, a perfectly produced piece of pseudo-indie faux-rustic pop. Yeah, I wrote it for the internet views – get off my back! Today’s commentary is on a true indie band, a band with a punk rock name that makes me want to melt down candy corn and aggressively gel it onto the plumbing under my sink. We’re talking “Dirty Grind”, the new single by The Scummies.
Some background, The Scummies is a bass and drum art-punk duo out of the Chicago area fronted by Alex and Rowland Smelly and are currently working on their first EP. Rowland singlehandedly produces the Weird Smells Zine, a DIY production that writes on the indie/punk music scene. Its last issue interviewed artists like Cheekface and Ariel Pink. “Dirty Grind” is The Scummies first single.
I haven’t yet listened to the song – this is a real-time reaction commentary, similar to The Audio Glow’s album reviews. So, let’s get into it and see what areas of the emotional spectrum are provoked in the next two and a half minutes.
“Dirty Grind” by The Scummies.
The upbeat bassline kind of makes me want to stroll around town in the sarcastic montage of a nihilistic comedy show with the offbeat oddball protagonist. Does that show exist?
The first impression I get from the vocals is an echo of David Byrne of Talking Heads. I appreciate the sing-song fluctuations of his voice over the spastic drums and bouncing bassline – gives the song kind of an “I don’t care because life is whimsical” vibe. Infectious is a solid word to describe the bass. It’s like a carefree beat on rollerblades with an ice cream cone. An orange sherbet ice cream cone.
Lyrically, the song seems to be a critique of the standard of content produced in television and music right now:
“Now I hate to talk about what I’ve seen on tv
it’s too easy to call it lazy”
And:
“Laugh because the friends I know
have better taste than who I follow”
My immediate reaction is to compare Rowland Smelly’s musings about the quality of mainstream creative output to the struggles of a writer sending stories to esteemed journals. I’ve seen stories win first prize in major contests, and read it thinking “is this better than mine?” Then the winning story is about a guy birdwatching on the beach having a pretentiously cryptic conversation with his intern, and somehow that constitutes high art. The question The Scummies provokes from me, then, is what constitutes art quality and if art is subjective for everyone, who holds the power to decide what constitutes “good” art?
Go check out “Dirty Grind” by The Scummies, or do it up big and go rollerblading with an orange sherbet cone while listening to “Dirty Grind” by The Scummies.
Your neighbors might call you weird –
I call it art in motion.
Artist Links:
The Scummies Instagram
The Scummies Bandcamp
Weird Smells Zine Depop