DIRTY RIG

"See the warning on my forehead, dude / It says 'instant asshole, just add booze.'" It's a long way from maudlin paeans to the losers and the underprivileged, but former WARRIOR SOUL frontman Kory Clarke has finally hit the gutter — and from the sounds of things, he couldn't be happier about it. Packaged in 1990 as some kind of alt-metal Bono, the man definitely has let more of his street punk side show as the years have gone on, and now that he's joined DIRTY RIG, it's basically all booze, broads, drugs, and loud, filthy rock and roll. And what's wrong with that?

DIRTY RIG don't fuck around with pleasantries — when your opening track is called "Suck It", you're not all that concerned with reining it in and keeping anyone's panties from getting in a bunch. The band play down and dirty, bone-basic rock and roll, tossing around good 'n greasy biker-rock riffs you'll swear you've heard before, but definitely don't mind hearing again. Fans of CIRCUS OF POWER, JUNKYARD, LEADFOOT and THE FOUR HORSEMEN know what I'm talking about here — not quite metal, too skuzzy to be a hair band, a little too enamored of old AEROSMITH and AC/DC to fit in with the punks.

Clarke, for his part, sounds like he's spent a few years out of the limelight drinking whiskey and chasing it with Clorox. His rough, phlegmy snarl is perfect for DIRTY RIG, though — you don't sound convincing singing about a lifetime of drinking, fucking and fighting unless you sound like you've lived it. His voice mixes with the four-on-the-floor rhythm section and the badass guitar, and the end result is combustible stuff.

The band does downshift now and then, turning in sludgy, drunken raveups like the grinding "Pennsyltucky" and "Cities, Scenes, and Thieves", a plaintive, rough-hewn rocker ballad that would have Michael Monroe crying mascara-streaked tears. It's all just different shades of the same dirty ol' Muse, though, barroom rock for the unrepentant and gleefully self-destructive. Good times.