Fuckin’ commies. For only officially releasing three singles, the Dils left pretty deep slashes across the chest of LA punk. It doesn’t sound groundbreaking today, but the Dils burst the US punk scene’s hymen when it came to politics and were not-very-arguably the first west coast band of their kind, sorta like a state-side Clash in a left-leaning flashpot. And they went for the jugular. “The Sound of the Rain” may sound a little Peter, Paul, and Mary-ish until you listen closely to the lyrics: “I don’t listen to the cops. I wish they were all dead.” This is a re-release of the Dils first demo version of “Blow Up,” The 198 Seconds of the Dils Dangerhouse single from ‘77; (“Class War” and “Mr. Big”); and the Les Dils single from Vancouver’s Rogelletti Records (“Sound of the Rain,” “It’s Not Worth It,” and “Red Rockers”). Falling into a strange pattern of the last two Dils collections I’ve stumbled over the years – this is the third record of theirs that’s half very good studio, half sorta poopy live recordings (still weirder yet, the one from Lost Records, was called Dils Dils Dils, too, but it has a couple of different live songs, but Lost Records is out of business). My personal bias is that the studio stuff rules, the live stuff – it’s okay, but not essential. So, Dionysus knows what they’re doing and/or they know what you want. Not on here is the smoking pressure of the “You’re Not Blank” / “I Hate the Rich” single. Those are on theClass War Dionysus reissue. Woo. Sorry about the geeking out. FYI, the Kinman brothers are still around – after becoming Rank and File, after Blackbird, and currently as Cowboy Nation – but this is what the punks’ll remember ‘em by.
–todd (Dionysus)