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 “botchedâ€
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.â€
After years of work, Dahlia reveled what, at the time, Â 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.Â
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 …â€