Metal Mixtape: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Australian album cover

AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" has taken up literally hours of my life. It's strange for a single - the breathing sounds on beats 2 and 4, rare singing by Malcolm Young, ridiculous lyrics about being a contract killer. When I tracked down covers of the song, I discovered that AC/DC tribute records are a huge cottage industry. (See here for an exhaustingly exhaustive list.) I have not included every cover of "Dirty Deeds" below, as there are far too many mediocre rock versions. Instead, I've highlighted some of the coolest, strangest, and worst covers. First, the original for reference.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC)

Bay Area thrashers Exodus covered the song as a bonus track on 2004's Tempo of the Damned. It's a surprisingly good fit; Steve "Zetro" Souza's sneer slots in nicely between Bon Scott's and Brian Johnson's. Trixter's version is as bad as you'd expect. It comes from the Undercovers collection, which also takes on Nine Inch Nails' "Terrible Lie" and the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)." I have not dared to go there.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Exodus)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Trixter)

Oddly, two women have covered this song. Interestingly, both are avowed/alleged lesbians. (Note how each alters the line "For a fee, I'm happy to be your back door man.") Girl group icon Lesley Gore ("It's my party and I'll cry if I want to") does a rather bubbly version. It appears on the compilation When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear, which includes, among other things, a duet by Ani DiFranco and Jackie Chan on Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable." Joan Jett's cover kept me awake many nights during my adolescence. It's hands down the best cover of "Dirty Deeds," amplifying the menace of the original with over-the-top reverb, keyboards, and a friggin' sax solo. That vocal melisma at 2:47 is so hott.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Lesley Gore)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Joan Jett)

Even more oddly, "Dirty Deeds" has yielded not one but two bluegrass versions. The first, from the Back in Bluegrass tribute, is a yawn. However, Hayseed Dixie's cover on A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC is a barnburner. (The rest of the album is worth a listen; "Hells Bells" translates surprisingly well to bluegrass.) I've also included an acoustic version from If You Want Strum, You've Got It. (Tribute album titles kill me.) It's a coffeehouse rendition that bowdlerizes the third line to "You want to graduate, but not this bad." Lame!

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Back in Bluegrass)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Hayseed Dixie)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Acoustic)

"Dirty Deeds" has also inspired a fair bit of schmaltz. A recent cover on Lullaby Renditions of AC/DC (from the Rockabye Baby! series that includes infant-appropriate versions of Tool, The Ramones, and Metallica) hides the melodies in a miasma of flatted and sharped thirds. On the other hand, a holiday version on Hell's Bells of Christmas is straightforward. The as-advertised cover on The Rock-A-Billy Tribute to AC/DC is enjoyably bouncy.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Rockabye Baby!)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Christmas version)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Rockabilly version)

Electronics and "Dirty Deeds" don't mix well. Buddha Lounge Renditions of AC/DC has a bhangra-style take that isn't too far from the "Macarena." 16 Volt turn in an industrial metal atrocity that so wants to be Nine Inch Nails. Even worse is the cover on 2005's Hip-Hop Tribute to AC/DC. It's just the song with the lyrics poorly rapped. Who greenlighted it???

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Buddha Lounge)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (16 Volt)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Hip-hop version)

Finally, parodies. Seattle radio personality Bob Rivers did a lovely piss-take called "Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep." Queercore icons Pansy Division didn't cover the song, but they spoofed the album's artwork on their Dirty Queers Don't Come Cheap 7".

Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep (Bob Rivers)

If you've gotten this far, you might as well download the whole shebang. You know you want to hear 54 minutes of "Dirty Deeds."

Metal Mixtape - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap [79.0MB .zip]

Fight Amp, Avenger of Blood, Brutus, and more

Fight Amp

At Pitchfork, I've reviewed Fight Amp, a '90s AmRep throwback whom I suspect has a Danzig fetish. The recording is tough; the guy-girl vocals are tougher. At All Music Guide, I've reviewed Avenger of Blood (German thrash from Las Vegas), Barbara (artful Israeli sickness), Bilk (Croatian drum 'n' bass 'n' rock), Brutus (Caesar-slaying Dutch death metal), Cypher 7 (Bill Laswell-helmed IDM/dub), Last Chance to Reason (Maine calculus-core), The Phantom Family Halo (retro with a capital R), Primordial (the pride of Ireland), PureH (electronic desolation), Ratos de Porão (the pride of Brazil), and Shinjuku Thief (a soundtrack to Kafka's The Trial). You can also disregard this list and window-shop in the sidebar.

Fight Amp - Bound and Hagged
Avenger of Blood - Death Brigade

High on Fire, Glorior Belli, Inked in Blood, etc.

High on Fire

When I saw High on Fire recently, I was astounded by the number of females in the crowd. Only Enslaved in Berlin had more girls - go figure. Actually, I kind of get that. Europeans invented metal, so it's in their blood. There, black metallers actually have Norwegian names, and girls go to the local Saturn (the German equivalent of Best Buy) in full metal gear, spikes and all, and shop in the "Hard 'n' Heavy" section like it ain't a thang. I think I just gave myself a boner.

High on Fire - Rumors of War
Glorior Belli - Sinister Resonance
Inked in Blood - Somewhere Familiar
Sebastian Bach - Back in the Saddle (feat. Axl Rose)

In American record stores, though, the only long hair in the metal section is male (admit it, guys - you've checked out fit longhairs before, only to have them turn around and be male - oof). I'd basically resigned my American metal life to "bro'ing down" until I saw High on Fire. There were so many women, it felt almost wrong. It was seriously disconcerting. And they were totally getting down. The sight of a girl throwing the goat is a mighty aphrodisiac indeed.

Here's my theory: girls like 3-over-2 accents. You'd see them raise their fists, as one is wont to do at High on Fire. But Matt Pike's guitar playing is mostly strumming, so there's actually not much to pump your fist to. Drummer Des Kensel is a fucking force of nature, and he's cranking out thrash and d-beats like his singer's named Lindberg. So it's a tug-of-war, this percussive onslaught with mushy strumming and the molten river of distorted bass. Thus during the verses, fists are raised but not pumping. They're just drifting.

But when the 3-over-2 accents come, it's indeed like coming, a simultaneously orgasmic vice grip of synchronicity. Fists pump involuntarily - then go back to drifting. High on Fire probably know this, as they dish out 3-over-2 accents with much greater frequency than any other band. The 3-over-2 accent is normally reserved for punctuation at the end of phrases (e.g., "time for primal concrete sledge"). High on Fire practically write entire songs around 3-over-2 accents. And this is why girls love 'em.

At Metal Injection, I've reviewed High on Fire, as well as French black metallers Glorior Belli and Deathspell Omega, Dutch death metallers Severe Torture, hair metal pinup Sebastian Bach, and the mammoth new live DVD set from AC/DC. At Decibel, I've reviewed ancient thrashers Overkill and Christian metalcore outfit Inked in Blood. The latter surprised me - extremely clichéd good cop/bad cop elements, but arranged with creativity, skill, and passion. It's the most uplifting record I've heard this year, and I find myself returning to it often.

Ignitor, Sanctity, Portal, Chiodos, Audiopain

Occasionally, a record comes along and grabs my "too many releases these days," "illegal downloading is cheapening music," "tired of wading through Blabbermouth's endless Aerosmith and KISS news, not to mention every single Megadeth micro-update," "will vomit upon hearing another deathcore album," "will vomit upon hearing another retro thrash album," "Metallica should pack it in" jaded metalhead ass so much that I can only sit back and go: "Damn, this is good." Ignitor's Road of Bones is that record. I've reviewed it here.

Ignitor - March to the Guillotine
Sanctity - Beloved Killer
Chiodos - Lexington
Portal - Omnipotent Crawling Chaos
Audiopain - Holy Toxic

Also on the traditional tip, but with a modern edge, is the excellent debut by Sanctity. I never thought I'd big up Roadrunner releases so much, but this one has been doing it for me. A new metal band that writes actual songs - imagine that! At Metal Injection, I've also reviewed bizarro death metallers Portal and everything-core outfit Chiodos. At Decibel, I've reviewed Norwegian thrashers Audiopain.

Devolved - Technologies

I don't know why Devolved sent me its debut album (MGM, 2001) for review, instead of its more recent effort, Calculated (Modern, 2004). I also don't know why it included a sampler CD containing two tracks each from Technologies and Calculated; no non-radio entity would want such a truncated offering. Finally, I don't know why this Australian band relocated to Los Angeles (trading in two members along the way) "to pursue a larger audience." I suppose America is a much bigger metal market than Australia. But, dude...Los Angeles.

Progress
Distorted

Baffling business decisions aside, Technologies is interesting because it mines a rather anachronistic sound. Monolithic machine-gun riffs in lockstep with double bass drums, samples and melodic keyboards, lyrics about technology - sound familiar? We're talking early Fear Factory, before they started sucking big balls.

But Devolved doesn't merely imitate Fear Factory (unlike certain bands today). Instead, it plays straightforward death metal, with melodic tangents and Suffocation-esque slower parts. The band is extremely tight. Hooks come here and there from keyboards, solos, and clean tones, though these bits are too brief. "Functional Conflict" and "Emergence," tucked away at the end, explore varied tones and experimental structures - more like that, please!

The faceless vocals are the Achilles heel here, but Devolved has a new singer now, and its current demos suggest that more diverse vocals are forthcoming. I miss this type of technology-obsessed death metal, so maybe Devolved will pick up where Fear Factory left off. You can find Calculated for cheap at the band's MySpace.

Rainfall / Umbra - Arboreal Eternity

Arboreal Eternity is a split featuring Florida's Rainfall on two cuts of black metal and Australia's Umbra on four tracks of dark ambience. Despite their frequent juxtaposition, the two styles don't fit together well here, though they share a lyrical affinity for nature themes.

Rainfall - Moonlight
Umbra - Drawn to Rotting Caverns

Rainfall's black metal is plodding, one-man business, with a harsh, raw recording. The riffs are somber and enjoyable, but there's no reason for them to carry on for nine and seven minutes. "Long" does not necessarily equal "hypnotic." The vocals are jarring, with powerless rasps that feel unnatural and affected. If you sing about casting yourself "into the fires of the astral plain," then sound like it!

Umbra's tracks fare better, though they're undercooked. They're truly "ambient" in that they don't command foreground attention. Instead, they rest on vaguely foreboding pads with occasional environmental sounds. Percussive sounds drop in at times, but instead of taking flight into, say, industrial territory, they inevitably yield to soft pads. A track called "Awakening of the Forest's Malevolence" should sound like the wrath of the Ents! There's potential here, especially in the processed vocals, so hopefully future efforts will be more challenging.

You can download the split for free here; a CD-R release is due out shortly on Greek label Daemonokratia Productions.

Wax Audio - Metal Mashups

Speaking of Sabbath, Professor Nicola Masciandaro of Brooklyn College-CUNY has published a gloss (.pdf file) on the song "Black Sabbath." In this case, "gloss" does not mean "a brief, often shitty explanation," but "a long-ass philosophical commentary." It's 18 pages, more than one for each line in the song! Honestly, most of it goes over my head (it literally took me hours to work through it; for some reason, the odd-numbered pages go down more easily), and no doubt I would fail Masciandaro's classes. However, he's no nigel hipster; he goes to academic conferences in full medieval finery, which of course is quite metal.

Whole Lotta Sabbath
Thunder Busters
Stayin' Alive in the Wall

And speaking of Sabbath and Maiden, Australian producer Wax Audio (aka Tom Compagnoni) has posted some great mashups for free download at his MySpace.

Normally, he deconstructs more political sounds (unsurprisingly, Negativland is in his Top 16). With these mashups, though, he's using pop, rock, and metal sources. I know mashups are so 2001, but some of these are extremely, extremely well-done. Some are not - avoid the Public Enemy/Iron Maiden one, which sounds like it would be interesting, but made me want to smash my computer into bits. Michael Jackson vs. Metallica also fared quite badly.

However, three were downright spectacular.

"Whole Lotta Sabbath" is perhaps the best mashup I've ever heard (next to Fugazi/Destiny's Child). It had me headbanging and throwing goats, no joke. Unbelievably, the sum is greater than its parts, "Whole Lotta Love" and "War Pigs." Sabbath may have been the first metal band, but I've always thought that "Whole Lotta Love" had the first metal riff ever - palm-muting + machine-gun articulation. This mashup creates a rather surreal supergroup with Page and Iommi as a guitar tandem. Lyrics are the only obstacles to complete cohesion. Ozzy's singing about how the war machine keeps turning, while Robert Plant's faking an orgasm. You can't win 'em all.

In "Thunder Busters," The Razor's Edge and Ray Parker, Jr. make for a cheeky but seamless union. Brilliant move layering the best one-handed riff of all time over, ahem, thundering syn drums. What stands out is the quality of the production, which isn't the "two radios at the same time" mess that mashups often are.

"Stayin' Alive in The Wall" isn't metal, but I had to include it because it's so damn good. This is an amazingly logical pairing. Both songs have very similar grooves - why didn't someone think of this earlier? "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" must be one of the strangest #1 singles of all time. I can't think of any occasion (school dance, wedding, bar mitzvah) where someone would request it from a DJ.

Elysian Blaze - Levitating the Carnal

I've seen "funeral," "doom," "depressive," and "suicidal" (and in various combinations thereof) used to describe the black metal of Elysian Blaze. Such labels don't particularly interest me, although this interview with this Australian one-man act is provocative with regards to that last label. What interests me is what comes from the speakers, and on Levitating the Carnal (on Asphyxiate), Elysian Blaze indeed crafts sounds that make Joy Division seem happy.

The feeling is quite deep, though, and not just one of dreariness - Mudvayne's a better ticket to that. Since its inception in 2003, Elysian Blaze has shifted from simpler, guitar-oriented sounds to more baroque structures and wider soundscapes. But the core feeling is constant - cold, distant, foggy. As the artwork suggests, it's like hearing far-off rituals in an endless cathedral.

Elysian Blaze - Macabre Be Thy Blood

Previous Elysian Blaze offerings were well-crafted, but Levitating takes a big step up with great use of piano. Pretty and eerie, it contrasts nicely with the guitars, which are less important this time. Instead, drones and much reverb, particularly on drums, take precedence. What stands out is the skill in both the piano playing and layered production. These aren't the usual buzzsaw scrapings.

This is a beautiful release that deserves a place in the same sentence as Xasthur, Leviathan, et al. Hide your sharp objects, and get this at Asphyxiate or The End.