Formed 1985, U.S.A.
Albums:
1984
Dirty Looks
1986
I Want More
1987
Inyourface
1988
Cool From The Wire
1989
Turn Of The Screw
1991
Bootlegs
1992
Five Easy Pieces
1994
Chewing On The Bit
1994
One Bad Leg
1996
Rip It Out!
1996
Slave To The Machine
2007
Gasoline
2008
Superdeluxe
History:
If ever there was proof as to whether Bon Scott was reincarnated in another
vocalist's body, one has to look no further than Henrik Ostergaard.
Dirty Looks took AC/DC's brand of no-frills rock to smoke filled bars across
America, and while they never reached the success of their mentors, managed to create
a strong cult following.
Danish born vocalist/guitarist Henrik Ostergaard formed Dirty Looks
in Erie, Pennsylvania before heading to the bright lights of San Francisco, California.
While in California, and upon their return home, the group had a revolving door membership yet managed to release
three independent (and hard to find) albums before Atlantic records came calling. For
their major label debut Dirty Looks consisted of Paul Lidel (guitar),
Jack Pyers (bass) and Gene Barnett (drums). The resulting album, Cool
From The Wire, proved to be one the greatest sleaze albums ever released and even
found its way onto the Billboard charts.
Savatage's Chris Caffery was added as a second guitarist for
the follow-up album. However conflicts between producer Beau Hill and
Ostergaard led to the original recordings for Turn Of The Screw to be
scrapped and the band re-recorded the entire album (by which time Caffery had
rejoined his former band mates). The finished album would be the group's most successful
release, but with the musical climate changing in the early 90's Dirty Looks soon
found themselves without a major label deal.
In 1990 Barnett left to join Lillian Axe, and a new rhythm
section of Brian Perry (bass) and Jim Harris (drums) were recruited for
Five Easy Pieces. The group broke up following this release, with Ostergaard
forming Rumbledog, Lidel hooking up with Dangerous Toys (and later
Broken Teeth) and Perry resurfacing in Bubble. Ostergaard
began recording under the Dirty Looks moniker again in 1994, but he was never able
to secure a stable line-up. In fact, on some of the later releases the musician's names didn't even
appear in the credits. 1996 saw the final Dirty Looks album and little
was heard from Ostergaard until he resurfaced over a decade later, Lidel in tow, to
resurrect the band with the new album Gasoline. Mere months later Pyers rejoined the band
for 2008's Superdeluxe.
Links:
The Official Dirty Looks Page
Dirty Looks Europe
The Official Paul Lidel Page
The Official Gene Barnett Page
The Official Brian Perry Page
The Official Broken Teeth Page
Buy Dirty Looks CDs:
Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at CDUniverse.com
Purchase at eBay.com
