Dirty Kid Discount, 'A Life Amongst the Ruins'

A marriage of Gogol Bordello and a CSquat band seems hard to imagine, yet Dirty Kid Discount appear to be the bastard offspring of such an unholy union, and the world is a better place for it. Insanely catchy yet with surprising depth, if you haven’t heard ‘A Life Amongst the Ruins’ I suggest you rectify that asap. And if you can get to the end of the album without at least tapping your foot along, well, I’m afraid all hope is lost for you.

Any regular readers (and friends) will know that I am a bogan in my soul, and if it’s not metal it’s not likely to be thrashed. I love music, and was raised in the punk scene, but something about metal speaks to me. This album speaks to me in the same way, and perhaps it’s the hint of black metal, but perhaps it’s just really fucking good. And technically, it is really fucking good. Often with such a large group of musicians, you get some discord. However every track on this album (and the live footage) seems to be like some kind of organic beast, making amazing complex sounds effortlessly and cohesively.

 It’s fascinating to watch footage of the band busking, the variation of the crowds that gather around, and the pure enjoyment of the audience; although some of the faces look like they are enjoying it against their will.  You can almost see the thought process; ‘look at these feral scumfux, I should be offended, but damned if I can walk away…’ And that is a thing of beauty to see. Perhaps the beauty of this release is we all can hear what we need to hear in the depths, and so it calls to us all.

Dirty Kid Discount need to hurry up with a tour of the Southern Hemisphere. America is just too small to contain such a sound, and A Life Amongst the Ruins gives such a strong sense of Wunderlust that I can’t imagine it will be contained for too long. In the mean time, check out Bandcamp and grab the album for the digital price of $6.66USD (perhaps there is  metal in there after all).

Dirty Kid Discount is:

Icarus: Accordion, Piano, Vocals, Lyrics. Pitch Goose: Acoustic Guitar, Washboard, Mandolin, Vocals. Jay Crash: Bass, Vocals. Jake Carpenter:Guitar, Vocals. Emily Elizondo: Vocals, Mandolin. Erin Wolf: Banjo. Jesse Cobb: Drums, Vocals.

-Tove Partington

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