The Dwarves

The Dwarves are Young and Good Looking (1997)

John Gentile

The Dwarves are Young and Good Looking

was the second of four resurrections by the Dwarves. Although Blood,

Guts, and Pussy was an undisputable classic- 13 minutes of

combustible, violent, sex-fueled, intelligent hardcore- the follow ups,

Thank Heaven For Little Girls and

Sugarfix received little support from the band’s label.

While Blood Guts reveled in cheap, blown out production, the

successors suffered for it. White noise and screeching made “Fuck you up and

get high” that much more vicious, but those same attributes sapped newer tunes

such as “Johnny Glue” and “Anybody out there” of some of their primal power.

Following a botched death prank involving HeWhoCannotBeNamed,

it seemed that the band would come to a riotous end, remembered for their

yuk-yuk more than their recorded output (though, one must point out that maybe “botched”

isn’t the right word for the prank as it did pretty much what most pranks are

designed to do- piss people off for different reasons).

So, no one expected anything much of the Dwarves as they

went into hibernation, or even, break-up status, depending on your

interpretation. But, following a few false starts, frontman Blag Dahlia

commenced working on what he had been hinting at since the end of “Motherfucker.”

After years of work, Dahlia reveled what, at the time,  he likely considered his masterwork -

The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking. What made the record

so striking was how it both applauded convention as well as fought against it.

Gone was the shit-can production of the early days, replaced

with a slick, high powered, high fidelity sound, created with the help of producer

Eric Valentine. Of course, one of the clichés of music is that “pop” music is

cleanly produced and toothless, whereas “punk” music is raw and has a bite.

Yet, Good looking was the first, or one of the first, super-chic

hardcore records. Green Day demonstrated that punk could have a pop sound (if

you consider Green Day punk), but were they singing about becoming pimps or

punching people’s teeth out?

And this too, really was the genesis for one aspect that has

both elevated the Dwarves, and to a degree, caused them joy and grief: with

more defined vocals, people could actually hear what the band was saying. And,

no doubt, there are some nasty characters in these 13 songs. But, as the

Dwarves were wont to do since their debut as Suburban Nightmare, sometimes they

spoke as themselves and sometimes they spoke through characters, examining

street-types without passing judgment. Is “Pimp” really about Blag trying to be

someone’s pimp, or is he looking through the eyes of street hustler to gains an

understanding of that nasty fellow? Or, is he just baiting the audience? By the

late 90s, punk had once again become very socially  conscious… was Blag attacking those types, or

questioning whether art itself, and public commentary, could be hampered by

overprotective hands?

Of course, the punk community and beyond, has had trouble

understanding that not every Dwarves lyric is the band speaking for themselves,

oft labeling them as sexist, misogynist, what have you… the result being that

the band has played up this misconception with a sort of Devilish glee. Either

you get the joke or you don’t- they’re not going to explain it to you. To a

degree, opening track “Unrepentant” said as much. The band always wanted to be

famous and wealthy, but they weren’t going to bend to convention or group

thought to achieve such a goal. 

But, for all the kicking the Dwarves did at convention, they

also reaffirmed their dedication to a timeless tradition- it has always seemed

that no matter if they played punk or pop or garage or metal, the Dwarves are first and foremost

devotees of classic rock and roll. You need look no further than Blag's thoughts on

the contrasting sides of Elvis’ first single for evidence of that. So, with

that mindset, the band also released songs like “Everybody’s Girl,” which was

firmly rooted in 50s bopper tradition. It’s not hard to imagine Freddy cannon

singing over that rhythm. Though, of course, being the Dwarves, the band injects

a few barbs to make it avoid succumbing to pure poppiness.

Yet, too often, this contrast is seemingly underappreciated

by fans and anti-fans alike. The band is sometimes labeled as something akin to

GG Allin’s gutter-punk. That pure self-hatred isn’t evident here, and frankly,

there’s more intelligence than the pure nastiness of GG here. The twisting lyrics

of “The Crucifixion is now” prove that. But, on the other end, the Dwarves are

sometimes painted as pop-punkers, chiefly due to the production and care for

classic craft on these cuts. But, viewing pop-punk as a genre, there is far

more coloring outside of the lines of convention here than any other band that

would willfully assume such a term.

In a way, this was the central thesis of Young and

Good looking. The band drew from elements across the rock spectrum,

but refused to bend to any one set of rules. This of course, showed how they

could appreciate rock by purposefully breaking it apart. And of course, this

same thing may be the reason other bands got huge sacks of money thrown at them

while the Dwarves fought for every penny. Despite (in accord with?) the fact

that a nude woman with a skateboard adorns the cover here, and the fact that

these lyrics are riddled with sex and violence, this is a record fundamentally about

three things: integrity, intelligence, and being true to oneself. In a way, it's one of the most optimistic statements the band ever released… even if it

has the humanity damning line “This

Planet Earth has reached the point of no return /Now put them weenies on a

stick and watch it burn …”