Jeff Dahl

Related Content

• Ian Hunter on Mott the Hoople, Ringo Starr, and Mick Ronson
  November 10, 2011
• New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain Talks Touring with Poison and Mötley Crüe, High Heels, and Happiness
  June 14, 2011
• New York Dolls @ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion
  June 16, 2011
• The New York Dolls, Dancing Backward in High Heels
  June 7, 2011
• Jeff Dahl on Stage Rust, a Possible New Album and the Volcanoes in His Backyard
  April 15, 2011

More About

• Jeff Dahl
• Mott the Hoople
• Nikki Sudden
• New York Dolls
• The Stooges (Musical Group)

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Although Dahl's the closest thing the Valley has to a punk elder statesman, the bulk of Jeff Dahl's extensive "three chords and a bad attitude" discography has always had more of a kinship with the glam precursors of punk (Mott the Hoople, the New York Dolls, the Stooges) than any of the screamo-groggo-speedo varieties of AZ punk you're used to hearing. Even so, it still comes as a surprise to find a kinder, gentler Dahl here than the one on Street Fighting Reptile, his 2005 album. For the most part, he ditches the six-string razor in favor of the F-hole and the results vary wildly, from T. Rex ("California Blues" could be a contender for The Slider if Dahl, who plays and sings everything here, could ingest helium and impersonate Flo and Eddie) to Hot Tuna (ever think you'd hear an ex-Angry Samoan sing "You got chicken, I got bread, let's make us a sandwich"? Dream no more!). Needless to say, it's an easygoing affair, with one eye on sobriety — after telling us "Ain't Drinkin' Myself to Death No More," he offers "Outta Luck," a touching farewell to Nikki Sudden, who made out like his name when he passed away last year after a Knitting Factory gig. That this sincere album is dedicated to a man who died on account of an enlarged heart seems pretty apropos.