Dirty Honey specialise in something that can sound deceptively simple: four people plugging in, turning up and playing rock songs with swagger.
Their influences are wonderfully transparent – Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, the Rolling Sones and the Allman Brothers all feature prominently in their musical DNA. The result is blues-based hard rock with big riffs, a gritty vocal and the loose, slightly dangerous feel of a band that would rather capture a great take than polish it into oblivion.
Guitarist John Notto has even described AC/DC and the Stones as examples of the rock tradition he most values. Start with their self-titled debut, particularly ‘When I’m Gone’. If you miss the days when rock music sounded like it was made by people having an extremely good time in a room together, Dirty Honey make a persuasive case for the form still being alive.
It’s rare these days to hear a live album that hasn’t been doctored into oblivion, but Dirty Honey proudly bucks that trend on “Mayhem and Revelry” with a raucous 16-song set that lives up to its name. Culled from the North American and European legs of their Can’t Find the Brakes tour, “Mayhem” captures the California quartet’s infectious blues-rock boogie, with Marc Labelle’s elastic vocals and John Notto’s razor-sharp guitar solos front and centre.
Notto proudly informed UCR that the band did no overdub sessions for the album, but it would be a disservice to describe “Mayhem and Revelry” as “warts and all.” That would imply flubs instead of the tasteful improvisation and ad-libbing on display here — evidence of Dirty Honey’s road-worn chemistry and seemingly inevitable path to world domination.
The Fat Angel Sings 