Jools came up with the idea of writing a song in support of @FindMyWaggon so we did. This was knocked together in rehearsal on Thursday 22nd August. 

Take a free download on us!

Find My Waggon (live iPhone recording)

I ain't cut out for working 9 to 5

Tacho Breakdown Blues (Part 2) - Suburban Dirts

Stuck On You - Suburban Dirts

The opening track from Suburban Dirts' upcoming third album, I Want Blood. The soundtrack to a story inspired by America's First Serial Killers, The Harpe Brothers.

Charcoal drawing by Poppy Rand

The Harpe Brothers Theme

“We cut them open, carve out their guts, and fill their innards up with stones…”
 
            As opening lyrics go, the first line of Suburban Dirts’ new album is powerful, if gruesome. I Want Blood tells the story of brothers Micajah ‘Big’ Harpe and Wiley ‘Little’ Harpe: American War Of Independence mercenaries, highwaymen, river pirates, rapists, thieves, who are generally accepted to be America’s first serial killers -- their signature kill was gutting the poor devils they murdered and, as the lyric attests, filling their bodies with stones before dumping them in the river. The Harpes were so devoid of remorse or conscience that even their notoriously ruthless one-time associates, the Mason Gang, were appalled when the brothers started strapping naked, beaten victims to horses, and running them over a cliff. Just because.
            The Suburban Dirts hail not from Tennessee or Kentucky, where the Harpes made their black-hearted reputation, but Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire. The band has been playing around the UK Americana/roots scene since forming as a four-piece in 2011. Now filled out to six members -- John Wheatley (lead vocal/acoustic guitar/harmonica), Chris Varley (bass), David Austin (drums/vocals), David Moyes (guitar), Jay Seymour (keyboards), Joolz Addison (violin) -- they fit recording and playing around their day-jobs. Wheatley works in film, Varley is a gardener, and Austin is working on his philosophy PhD. “We’re massive film and literature nerds, and David's always fed bits of philosophy back to us through his studies,” Wheatley says. “It had a profound effect on the album.”
            I Want Blood is the Dirts’ third album. And it’s a game-changer. Taking the band not just into territory that their previous work seldom hinted at, but striking a new high-bar for UK Americana. “We wanted to make something epic, cinematic, and became interested in pre-cowboy America, real frontier stuff. We’re also very much into soundtracks, like Badly Drawn Boy’s About A Boy, or albums you absorb as a whole piece, like The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Themes and musical ideas drift in and out at different times, short musical interludes sit between proper songs, which all help tell the story.”
            There’s certainly a tale to be told here, and, at its heart, I Want Blood is a love story.
 
            Switching from the evil intent of opening track The Harpe Brothers Theme and its chilling first lines to the soft and gently bucolic piano ballad, Eli, it’s bold, confident, and immersed in its subject. Everything turns on the album’s middle track, The Wedding & The Uninvited, where all the promise and hope of a betrothal is violently disrupted by the arrival of the unholy Harpes. From there, the blackness of The Hunt’s southern Gothic horror flows into the grungy bloodlust of The Ballad Of Little Harpe, the country gospel redemption of Where There’s A Will, and the final, elegiac epilogue of As Long As You Are.
            You might think that I Want Blood is the soundtrack to some long-lost movie, and you wouldn't be far from the truth. As Wheatley explains, "We really did feel like we were working on a film or a novel, which helped us ground the content and the mood of each song, and the dynamic of the album as a whole. We would love to turn it into any one of these. It’s ambitious, but why not?” Why not indeed. Treat yourself to the greatest movie you’ve never seen, the best novel you’ve never read. Listen to I Want Blood. It turns expectations of what UK Americana is on its head, spins it round, then throws it off a cliff.

Eli (from I Want Blood)

Taken from 'I Want Blood' out 1st June 2018 on Old Jank Records....

“We cut them open, carve out their guts, and fill their innards up with stones…”

        As opening lyrics go, the first line of Suburban Dirts’ new album is powerful, if gruesome. I Want Blood tells the story of brothers Micajah ‘Big’ Harpe and Wiley ‘Little’ Harpe: American War Of Independence mercenaries, highwaymen, river pirates, rapists, thieves, who are generally accepted to be America’s first serial killers -- their signature kill was gutting the poor devils they murdered and, as the lyric attests, filling their bodies with stones before dumping them in the river. The Harpes were so devoid of remorse or conscience that even their notoriously ruthless one-time associates, the Mason Gang, were appalled when the brothers started strapping naked, beaten victims to horses, and running them over a cliff. Just because.

        The Suburban Dirts hail not from Tennessee or Kentucky, where the Harpes made their black-hearted reputation, but Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire. The band has been playing around the UK Americana/roots scene since forming as a four-piece in 2011. Now filled out to six members -- John Wheatley (lead vocal/acoustic guitar/harmonica), Chris Varley (bass), David Austin (drums/vocals), David Moyes (guitar), Jay Seymour (keyboards), Joolz Addison (violin) -- they fit recording and playing around their day-jobs. Wheatley works in film, Varley is a gardener, and Austin is working on his philosophy PhD. “We’re massive film and literature nerds, and David's always fed bits of philosophy back to us through his studies,” Wheatley says. “It had a profound effect on the album.”

        I Want Blood is the Dirts’ third album. And it’s a game-changer. Taking the band not just into territory that their previous work seldom hinted at, but striking a new high-bar for UK Americana. “We wanted to make something epic, cinematic, and became interested in pre-cowboy America, real frontier stuff. We’re also very much into soundtracks, like Badly Drawn Boy’s About A Boy, or albums you absorb as a whole piece, like The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Themes and musical ideas drift in and out at different times, short musical interludes sit between proper songs, which all help tell the story.”

        There’s certainly a tale to be told here, and, at its heart, I Want Blood is a love story.

        Switching from the evil intent of opening track The Harpe Brothers Theme and its chilling first lines to the soft and gently bucolic piano ballad, Eli, it’s bold, confident, and immersed in its subject. Everything turns on the album’s middle track, The Wedding & The Uninvited, where all the promise and hope of a betrothal is violently disrupted by the arrival of the unholy Harpes. From there, the blackness of The Hunt’s southern Gothic horror flows into the grungy bloodlust of The Ballad Of Little Harpe, the country gospel redemption of Where There’s A Will, and the final, elegiac epilogue of As Long As You Are.

        You might think that I Want Blood is the soundtrack to some long-lost movie, and you wouldn't be far from the truth. As Wheatley explains, "We really did feel like we were working on a film or a novel, which helped us ground the content and the mood of each song, and the dynamic of the album as a whole. We would love to turn it into any one of these. It’s ambitious, but why not?” Why not indeed. Treat yourself to the greatest movie you’ve never seen, the best novel you’ve never read. Listen to I Want Blood. It turns expectations of what UK Americana is on its head, spins it round, then throws it off a cliff.

Where There's A Will (from I Want Blood)

Taken from I Want Blood - out 1st June 2018 on Old Bank Records....

“We cut them open, carve out their guts, and fill their innards up with stones…”
 
            As opening lyrics go, the first line of Suburban Dirts’ new album is powerful, if gruesome. I Want Blood tells the story of brothers Micajah ‘Big’ Harpe and Wiley ‘Little’ Harpe: American War Of Independence mercenaries, highwaymen, river pirates, rapists, thieves, who are generally accepted to be America’s first serial killers -- their signature kill was gutting the poor devils they murdered and, as the lyric attests, filling their bodies with stones before dumping them in the river. The Harpes were so devoid of remorse or conscience that even their notoriously ruthless one-time associates, the Mason Gang, were appalled when the brothers started strapping naked, beaten victims to horses, and running them over a cliff. Just because.
            The Suburban Dirts hail not from Tennessee or Kentucky, where the Harpes made their black-hearted reputation, but Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire. The band has been playing around the UK Americana/roots scene since forming as a four-piece in 2011. Now filled out to six members -- John Wheatley (lead vocal/acoustic guitar/harmonica), Chris Varley (bass), David Austin (drums/vocals), David Moyes (guitar), Jay Seymour (keyboards), Joolz Addison (violin) -- they fit recording and playing around their day-jobs. Wheatley works in film, Varley is a gardener, and Austin is working on his philosophy PhD. “We’re massive film and literature nerds, and David's always fed bits of philosophy back to us through his studies,” Wheatley says. “It had a profound effect on the album.”
            I Want Blood is the Dirts’ third album. And it’s a game-changer. Taking the band not just into territory that their previous work seldom hinted at, but striking a new high-bar for UK Americana. “We wanted to make something epic, cinematic, and became interested in pre-cowboy America, real frontier stuff. We’re also very much into soundtracks, like Badly Drawn Boy’s About A Boy, or albums you absorb as a whole piece, like The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Themes and musical ideas drift in and out at different times, short musical interludes sit between proper songs, which all help tell the story.”
            There’s certainly a tale to be told here, and, at its heart, I Want Blood is a love story.
 
            Switching from the evil intent of opening track The Harpe Brothers Theme and its chilling first lines to the soft and gently bucolic piano ballad, Eli, it’s bold, confident, and immersed in its subject. Everything turns on the album’s middle track, The Wedding & The Uninvited, where all the promise and hope of a betrothal is violently disrupted by the arrival of the unholy Harpes. From there, the blackness of The Hunt’s southern Gothic horror flows into the grungy bloodlust of The Ballad Of Little Harpe, the country gospel redemption of Where There’s A Will, and the final, elegiac epilogue of As Long As You Are.
            You might think that I Want Blood is the soundtrack to some long-lost movie, and you wouldn't be far from the truth. As Wheatley explains, "We really did feel like we were working on a film or a novel, which helped us ground the content and the mood of each song, and the dynamic of the album as a whole. We would love to turn it into any one of these. It’s ambitious, but why not?” Why not indeed. Treat yourself to the greatest movie you’ve never seen, the best novel you’ve never read. Listen to I Want Blood. It turns expectations of what UK Americana is on its head, spins it round, then throws it off a cliff.

Lost And Losing (featuring Siobhan Parr)

Suburban Dirts are a trailer trash country blues band from Hertfordshire, UK, taking inspiration from the likes of Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, Jack White, Bruce Springsteen, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire and many more. Since our first show in April 2011 we've been lucky enough to share the bill with Alabama Shakes, Jake Bugg, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, KT Tunstall and have opened for Dodgy, Toploader, John Otway and many more. Our first album became available for download from iTunes, Amazon and Spotify back in March to take advantage of our festival appearances this Summer, including Secret Garden Party and Standon Calling. You can hear a stream of the album in full at http://soundcloud.com/violentcliche/suburban-dirts-album-mix-tape


"I Aint Cut Out For Working 9 To 5" - Suburban Dirts

Solo acoustic version of two tracks from I WANT BLOOD arranged into one pretty little medley, from Dirts' frontman John Wheatley. Recorded live for Radio Verulam.

Home/Eli (solo acoustic) Live on Radio Verulam

A live acoustic performance of I WANT BLOOD track - Lost & Losing - recorded live for Radio Verulam.

Lost & Losing (solo acoustic) Live on Radio Verulam

John's solo iPhone recording of Ryan Adams' "Oh My Sweet Carolina".

Oh My Sweet Carolina (Ryan Adams cover on iPhone)

Here's a taster from our forthcoming album; "a tiny little island in the big bad sea". Recorded in Studio A at Metropolis, mixed by Grammy nominated Ian Rossiter and mastered at Air Studios by Ray Staff (Mumford & Sons, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin etc).


Everybody's Friend

The first single from our forthcoming album; "a tiny little island in the big bad sea". Recorded in Studio A at Metropolis, mixed by Grammy nominated Ian Rossiter and mastered at Air Studios by Ray Staff (Mumford & Sons, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin etc).

iTunes

SUBURBAN DIRTS - Any Other Morning

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Suburban Dirts

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