The Dirtbombs

The Dirtbombs
Golden Plains Festival, Australia March 2008 Photo: Mandy Hall
Background information
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	Garage rock, rock and roll
Years active	1992–present
Labels	In the Red, In-Fidelity (Australia), various
Associated acts	The Gories, The White Stripes, ADULT., Black Lips, Kelley Stoltz, The Terrible Twos, Dan Sartain
Website	http://www.dirtbombs.net/
Members	Mick Collins Ko Melina Pat Pantano Ben Blackwell
Past members	Troy Gregory Dana Spicer (Eric S. Johnson, aka Wedgehead) Tom Lynch Chris Fachini Scott Ewolf Chandy (Chris Handyside) Joe Greenwald Jim Diamond Deanne Iovan Dion Fischer Nick Lloyd Ryan Pritts Tom Potter Patrick Keeler Andre Williams

The Dirtbombs are an American garage rock band based in Detroit, Michigan, notable for blending diverse influences such as punk rock and soul while featuring a dual bass guitar, dual drum and guitar lineup. The Dirtbombs were formed by Mick Collins (of the influential garage punk band The Gories) as a side project and started recording songs by 1995.

In the nearly two decades since its conception, The Dirtbombs has been home to many Detroit rock musicians, both in the studio and on the road. As of September 2008 the band's lineup consists of Collins on guitar, Ko Melina (formerly of Ko & The Knockouts) on a distorted “fuzz” baritone guitar and Ben Blackwell (owner of record label Cass Records) and Pat Pantano (formerly of the Come Ons) on the two drum sets.

Noted producer Jim Diamond played bass from 1997 until 2004 and during that time Diamond also recorded and co-produced the Dirtbombs output with Mick Collins at his Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit. Troy Gregory (formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam, Prong, and lead singer of The Witches and Troy Gregory & The Stepsisters) played bass from June 2004 to September 5, 2008, also constituting one of the longest runs of any Dirtbombs member: the four-year line-up of Collins, Pantano, Blackwell, Melina, and Gregory is the longest lasting Dirtbombs line-up to date. For a brief time in 2002, the band featured back-up singers Deanne Iovan (also formerly of the Come Ons) and future bass player Ko, in addition to five musicians.

Originally conceived as a “singles band”, the Dirtbombs were to record only 7” records each in a radically different style. The band's first single, "High Octane Salvation", was released in 1996. The band released two singles in 1997, and also appeared on the Ghettoblaster Volume 1 compilation. They released another two singles in 1998.