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Plain and Fancy

Music gives soul to universe, wings to mind, flight to imagination, charm to sadness, and life to everything.

Plato

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Dust - Hard Attack / Dust (1971-72 us, superb hard rock pioneer metal, 2013 edition)



Bassist Kenny Aaronson was one of the finest in the entire world of rock. He went on to perform with the likes of Hall and Gates, Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, Rick Derringer and Joan Jett. Aaronson wrote the driving instrumental, "Loose Goose" and co-wrote "Learning To Die" with mes His bass weighed about as much as he did, but when it came time to plug in, he stood head and shoulders above all other performers.

Guitarist Richie Wise was my co-producer and songwriting partner. To be honest, he was quite mad. There was just no telling what he would do. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons remembers Richie for always contorting his face when he played and so, Simmons borrowed some facial expressions from the Master. When Richie was on his game, audiences would do well to stand back from the stages Often, he would launch his guitar like a rocket through his Marshall speaker cabinets just for the fuck of it. He
was wild and intense. And unpredictable.

When I first met him, he was Mare Bell and I couldn't believe that anyone could beat a drum so damn hard or fast. It was as if he were fighting for his life. There was no limit to how fast and how hard Bell could play. I always loved watching him solo because I never knew what he would come up with nexts He was explosive. Marc Bell was a group all by himself! Y'all know him as Marky Ramone nowbut to me, he's that same kid from Brooklyn-only he's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

The band went on to headline in all of the major rock cities like St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit and even opened for the legendary Alice Cooper and King Crimson. Their album blew every other rock album out of the water! Their second LP, Hard Attack with Frank Frazetta's Snow Giants for a cover, charted on Cash Box and Billboard. But the band was not on a rock label so they never became the Supergroup they were destined to become. 

As for myself, I'm really the lucky one. I got to manage Dust, co-write and co-produce their records, discover Kiss, co-produce about a dozen gold and platinum CDs and still be active in the music business 45 years later. Looking back over my incredible career, I can say with all honesty, that Kenny Aaronson, Marc Bell and Richie Wise were three of the most talented and original rock musicians I ever worked with. And now you get to hear what they were all about.

Fast. Furious. Driving. Pulsating. Like "Love Me Hard" or "Suicide" or "Stone Woman." Wild. Intense. Hammering. Violent. Like "From A Dry Camel" or "Loose Goose." That's what Dust was/is all about. So fasten your seatbelts and play this fuckin' thing loud. Or don't play it at all!
by Kenny Kerner 2013


Tracks
1. Pull Away/So Many Times - 5:02
2. Walk In The Soft Rain - 4:25
3. Thusly Spoken - 4:27
4. Learning To Die (K. Kerner, K. Aaronson) - 6:27
5. All In All - 4:06
6. I Been Thinkin' - 2:12
7. Ivory - 2:42
8. How Many Horses - 4:18
9. Suicide - 4:53
10.Entrance - 0:19
11.Stone Woman - 4:03
12.Chasin' Ladies - 3:39
13.Goin' Easy - 4:30
14.Love Me Hard - 5:30
15.From A Dry Camel - 9:52
16.Often Shadows Felt - 5:12
17.Loose Goose (Kenny Aaronson) - 3:49
All songs by Richie Wise and Kenny Kerner except where noted.

Dust
*Richie Wise - Electric, Acoustic Guitars, Vocals
*Marc Bell - Drums
*Kenny Aaronson - Bass, Pedal, Steel, Dobro, Bottleneck Guitars

Related Act
1973  Estus - Estus

Free Text

11 comments:

  1. Thanks Marios for posting this mega giant 2013 Dust release!
    This is definitively one of The best rock album ever made!
    Here is new official Dust page

    http://dustnyc.com/home.cfm

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  2. Founded in the late '60s, Dust is one of the pioneers of heavy metal in the United States. Today, it is a cult band, but known only to a few. The team worked only three years old and left behind two albums, the debut "Dust" in 1971 and released a year later, "Hard Attack". The two LPs have just been issued together as a single, 17-track CD from Sony Legacy.

    Watch the trailer below:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=U4KnOFDxW0c#at=263

    Before completely forgotten group of rescued later activities of its members. Vocalist / guitarist Richie Wise and songwriter / producer Kenny Kerner produced the first two albums Kiss ("Kiss" and "Hotter Than Hell", both released in 1974), bassist Kenny Aaronson is a session musician, collaborated with Edgar Winter, Joan Jett and Billy Idol, the most popular, however, won the drummer Marc Bell, who in 1978 joined The Ramones, adopting the name Marky Ramone.

    Dust formed in 1969, with Richie Wise (guitar, vocals), Kenny Aaronson (bass, guitars), and the aforementioned Bell (drums). The power trio format was a popular one back then, and the three members of Dust were very good musicians. In listening to these recordings, it is easy to forget that there were just three guys in the group. In addition to the bass, Aaronson is credited with playing steel, dobro, and bottleneck guitars. These additional elements provide for a very rich sound on many of the tracks.

    Their debut opens with “Stone Woman,” and the song presents a group who defied any pre-conceived notions. “Stone Woman” is your basic 4/4 rocker, in a style that used to be referred to as “boogie.” I have no idea who coined that musical term, but they should have had their rock-critic credentials pulled for it. The stylistic depiction came to define a whole sub-genre of arena rock. If you ever want to fully gorge yourself on boogie, take a listen to Humble Pie’s Eat It. The phrase “boogie ’til ya puke” was never so apt.

    “Stone Woman” is a good example of why I think Dust deserved more credit than they ever received. As my Humble Pie comment shows, I am not a fan of the boogie. Yet in the hands of Dust, and especially with Aaronson’s slide guitar, “Stone Woman” is a hot tune. “Love Me Hard” closed out side one of the vinyl LP, and it is one of the band’s finest. The proto-metal riff, much like that of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” spun my head.

    It wasn’t just Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Deep Purple who were making music like this, although one might think so, if all they heard was classic rock radio. I love discovering lesser-known bands such as Dust who were doing the same thing, but have never been acknowledged for it. Wise’s guitar solo during “Love Me Hard” is outstanding, as is the interplay between him and Bell during the break.

    The similarities to Sabbath continue on the next track, “From A Dry Camel.” This was their magnum opus, and clocks in at just under 10 minutes that blew me away. The devilish undertones are meant to evoke visions of the desert, but they also have a lot in common with the opening of the song “Black Sabbath.” Dust really get to flex their musical chops during the solos here full of great guitar riffs, based on a distinctive bass guitar recital, which may remind some also of "Dazed and Confused" Led Zeppelin. Dust closes out with a nod to Link Wray during the instrumental “Loose Goose.”

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  3. It would seem that the only people who were aware of the band’s debut album were employees of Kama Sutra Records, as it came and went without a trace. The guys tightened things up a bit for their second and final record, Hard Attack. Ten-minute epics were out, but they employed much more variety on this one than they had on Dust.

    The acoustic strums that open Hard Attack are an indicator of the more progressive sounds to come. “Pull Away”/”So Many Times” is the first cut, and it switches back and forth from acoustic interludes to a full-out attack. I am not sure if they intended it to or not, but the heavier section hearkens back to classic psych/garage rock. The Electric Prunes do not receive a songwriting credit, but I swear that the main riff could be the son of “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night).”

    I get the impression that this has to do with their beginnings more than anything else. Dust formed in 1969, two years before they went into the studio. My guess is that they were a garage band first, no matter what came later. As if to show us just how far from the garage they had traveled by 1972, check out the strings on “Thusly Spoken.” This is a very strange ballad, and it sounds like someone had accidentally put on a Moody Blues record while the band were cleaning out the bong.

    “Thusly Spoken” is one of those weird songs that even tough Brooklyn men such as Dust felt they needed in their repertoire. I guess it shows their “sensitive” side, but that was the last thing anyone wanted from these hirsute rockers. Putting it right before the heaviest track on the album, “Learning to Die” is just perverse.

    With Wise’s opening “Yeah..” I momentarily thought that the first Stooges album had slipped into my disc player. Dust do not quite keep up the “1969” level of insanity during their “All in All,” but it is a killer nonetheless. Bell’s manic drums, and Wise’s powerful guitar during the instrumental “Ivory” are even more Stooges-like. Discombobulating our expectations seems to be the order of the day here, as “How Many Horses” is basically New York country-punk-prog circa 1972. Weirdly great is about all I can say about this one. “Suicide” revamps “Summertime Blues,” and the album closes with the 19-second “Entrance.”

    Those are some of the high points, and the music confirms what I had thought all along. Nobody really gave these guys a chance. I had never even heard of them until Bell joined The Ramones, and then the whole story was that he was not an “authentic” punk. Having recorded two albums with Dust supposedly ruled him out.

    There is no getting around the fact that these albums are of their time. For the most part, Dust and Hard Attack are basic hard rock records, with some unexpected musical turns. As far as I can tell, they were completely overlooked when they were originally released. Here’s hoping that the world is ready for them now.

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  4. Two really excellent LPs. Thanks very much...

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  5. Sweet post Marios! Unfortunately the MP3 link says "Decompression Failed" after two different attempts. I guess I'll give the Flacs a try.

    Thanks,

    Matt

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  6. These two albums stay along side with "CREAM,HENDRIX,GRAND FUNK...in my collection.DUST must have aplace in every good rock collection...

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  7. Matt,
    just checked, didn't noticed any problems.
    Thank you.

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  8. Their best record, this is a killer!

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  9. Any chance this could be re-uploaded?Thanks and a Happy New Year!

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  10. 21stcenturycaveman, "Dust - Hard Attack / Dust", re-uploaded..

    ReplyDelete