***Thirteen years since the release of Dirty Fences’ debut album, Too High to Kross, Planet Earth’s perennial bad boys of good time rock ‘n’ roll maxing — that is: built tough, to weather thick and thin — are back with a new record, Off the Rockers. It’s their fourth full-length album, and you gotta ask yourself, How many bands make it that far? Or — more to the point — How many bands make it to Four and actually leave you wanting more? Exactly! But Off the Rockers ain’t no senior slump. In fact, depending on who you ask, it’s their B.O.Y. (Best One Yet.)
After three marriages, one divorce (at presstime) and kids in the mix, the ‘Fences are moving forward, forging a path all their own — if only in the footsteps of their punk rock forebears (The Ramones, The Mats and their Patron Saint, P.P. Lynott) — undeterred by smart-ass trends, ass-backwards politics and how far the dollar can get ya (not far.)
To get it done, the band convened earlier this summer a hundred miles north of the city, up in the Catskill Mountains, to hunker down at Old Soul Studios, a historic 5-bedroom Greek Revival, Italianate-Style present day hit factory. Five days and five nights later, the ‘Fences returned like Moses from on high, with ten absolute bangers.
Now, nine years since Goodbye Love, the ‘Fences are back, baby, and the refocus has served our ‘Fave Four’ well. You get Dirty Fences’ trademarked, eternally-spirited rippers, joined here by a meditative glam rock overture (“Tension”), a soulful tearjerker (“Marionette’) and a radio-spectre would-be smash hit (“Not A Place You Can Go”).
New Dirty Fences record = Best Dirty Fences record, I think. But feel free to tell me I’m wrong. I’m known to be off my rocker.
