DIRTY HEADS
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. THERE WILL BE NO TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR. New Beat Fund
RDGLDGRN
Saturday, October 22 2016
7:00 PM Door | 8:00 PM Show
Upstate Concert Hall
1208 New York 146
Clifton Park, New York 12065
BIOGRAPHY
After two decades spent chiseling their unique, multi-genre infused sound, Dirty Heads have finally come into their own. Since the release of their 2008 debut Any Port in a Storm, the five-piece bandâJared Watson (vocals), Dustin âDuddy Bâ Bushnell (vocals/guitar), Jon Olazabal (percussion), Matt Ochoa (drums) and David Foral (bass)âhas consistently experimented with their sunny style, leaning heavily on reggae fused with hip-hop cornerstones and scaling back for more acoustic fare, darting between extremes. But itâs with their fifth and self-titled album that the group has felt fully confident in a body of work, ready to bring their unique style to the masses.
âItâs the most core Dirty Heads album weâve done,â explains Watson, who formed the collective with Bushnell in 1996. âOne of the most important things about this album is the reason we self-titled it. This album has all of the elements that weâve tried to play around with. We had to go through those other albums to really find out exactly who we are, where it was natural. Now, I just think our sound is better and more confident.â
Recorded in Los Angeles over a period of four months, Dirty Heads marks a stylistic heel-turn for the Huntington Beach, Calif. natives, who enlisted a diverse team of hit-makers including: Da Internz (Rihanna, Nicki Minaj), Drew Pearson (Katy Perry, Zac Brown Band), David Kahne (Lana Del Rey, The Strokes), Jimmy Harry (Madonna, Diplo), Jonas Jeberg (Demi Lovato, Fifth Harmony), and a handful of others. The record spans lively tracks like reggae-bounced âOxygenâ to the instantly catchy sing-along âToo Cruelâ and horn-blasted lead single âThatâs All I Need,â the latter of which captures the nostalgia of carefree adolescence.
Produced by Justin Gray (Mariah Carey, Joss Stone), âThatâs All I Needâ âjust has a good feel to it, kind of hanging out with your friends in the neighborhood on a Sunday in the summer back when you were growing up,â says Duddy. âEveryoneâs got that good memory, so thatâs where we started aiming for. Letâs make this feel-good summer song that people can put on in the backyard with their friends and family.â
Dirty Heads comes in the wake of their most successful release to date, 2014âs Sound of Change, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboardâs Top Alternative Albums chart. This album is marked differently than its predecessorsâ2008âs Any Port in a Storm, 2012âs Cabin by the Sea and 2013âs acoustic offering Home â Phantoms of Summer, the former of which spawned the smash single âLay Me Downâ featuring Rome of Sublime with Rome that topped the Alternative Songs chart for 11 weeks.
The bandâs prior releases set the groundwork for their latest, proving a clear indication of their artistic growth, and an ambitious one at that. For the LP, they decided to toy with sequencing, splitting the album into two partsâDay and Nightâguiding listeners through their day from start to finish. Duddy explains that it was done in response to the listening publicâs reliance on playlists, and artistically executed by color-coding each âDayâ song (red, orange, yellow) and âNightâ song (purple, green, black) to reflect the vibes of feeling positive, exuberant versus chilled out and low key.
âNowadays, itâs so easy to just listen to one song,â he says. âHave a song on your iTunes playlist, you probably donât even know who the artist is because it doesnât matter, you just like that track. So we were trying to provide the order we think you should listen to these in and get people in front of what we think.â Watson adds, âWhen you do that and youâre doing it in our original way, I feel like it makes it timeless.â
With a solid fan-base already in place, Dirty Heads are focusing their sights on something theyâve been edging towards for years: breaking the mainstream. âWe want our fans to love it, because we love what we do and we want to keep doing it,â says Watson. âBut this album for me, I cannot poke a hole in any of it. From front to back, itâs really so phenomenal. Iâm so confident in it that I want it to take Dirty Heads from the band that we are in America, worldwide.â