The Dirty White

If you think you’ve heard Florence rock group The Dirty White’s sound before, you’re sort of right.

Lead vocalist Josh McDowell and exemplary bassist Bill Grant use influences from early ’90s rock bands such as Sonic Youth and Nirvana, as well as a mutual interest in New York band Liars, to create an agile yet foreboding rock that comes out swinging against local hunters and small speaker systems with a sound that owns whatever venue it happens to be in. And that includes your CD player.

Not metal, not country, not folk, then who?

The group began with a jam session between McDowell and drummer Matt Tarlton. Grant was a guitar player who McDowell convinced to play bass.

They wrote some songs, sat around to record them using software on McDowell’s computer and set up dates around South Carolina.

Strike all previous judgments about home recordings. The Dirty White’s recording sounds aren’t that bad. They do have tidbits to make some listeners go curmudgeon, but their sound is fresh, strong and loud.

The band hails from Florence, and they aren’t a Southern rock cover band, jam band, metal or singer-songwriters — something quite amazing for the area.

They’re also mighty talented and adventurous. In other words, something the Florence alternative music scene, draped mostly in jam band cover music, might be interested in.

The mighty cross-section

Together, they represent a mighty cross-section of the Pee Dee: McDowell comes from Florence, Grant is from Hartsville and Tarlton is a native of Darlington.

They’ve all paid their dues serving in past bands that have either disintegrated or faded into obscurity before joining up for The Dirty White.

The past six months, noted McDowell, have been spent editing their set list and preparing to go into the studio, as well as touring around the Carolinas and trying to work up a nice audience.

“I’d love to see us start to have a solid following. I’d also like to see us have a fall CD recorded and pressed.”

Currently, they’ve been passing out copies of their EP at shows to media and other interested parties. The four tracks on the EP are being mixed at 6+1 Studios in Florence.

“Right now, we’re at about seven tunes, four new ones,” he said.

You gotta have faith

Of course, McDowell laments, many of their shows must be played outside the Florence region as rock venues in this area are few and far between.

“The Florence scene is sadly kind of non-existent,” he said. “There’s people interested in the thing we’re doing, but it’s just a matter of having a place to play some music.”

The venues that are available, he explained, don’t exactly mesh with bands like his.

“If you happen to play, keep it down to something people can drink to. And that’s fine, but hopefully, a couple more rock venues will open up,” he said.

McDowell said the group is playing around South Carolina, but is always looking for more places in Florence to play.

“I’ve always had faith in the Florence scene. We all know people who are into the same stuff we’re into, and I’d love to see Florence catch on with the rest of the state.”

Check out The Dirty White on the Web at myspace.com/thedirtywhite. Also, see them live at Hunter Gatherer on March 27 in Columbia. - Eight Days a Week/SCnow

Who? A rock band from Florence

Sounds like? Noisy and adventurous, The Dirty White rocks like few aspiring musicians dare to these days.

The Florence-based trio isn't the type to play it safe. In a rock scene littered with paint-by-numbers pop rock or "hardcore," The Dirty White takes the road less traveled by bringing back an older, No Wave-inspired underground rock.

As punk began to shoot off in the '80s into a variety of subgenres, many bands around Seattle began slowing down the tempo and distorting their guitars for a bleaker sound. As the movement began to proliferate, Seattle journalists started using the term "grunge" to define the sound, much to the ire of those involved in the music scene.

Between the sudden marketability of "grunge" and the boom of influenced artists, the experimentation of the genre died quickly, giving way to success for bands such as Hole and Stone Temple Pilots, which excelled in the genre with bullet-point precision.

Now, more than 15 years later, The Dirty White is picking up the pieces. Despite what some of the distorted guitars might imply, this is not grunge.

While the line between The Dirty White's exploration of punk, noise and No Wave and what's considered to be "grunge" might appear much finer to more casual listeners, the band's raw charisma is enough to draw in anyone with appreciation for talented, homegrown music.

By focusing on the progression of its sound, the band executes a fast and engrossing rock the likes of which the young South Carolina rock scene has not been exposed to.

The self-titled EP displays a band still in its infancy, but bursting with potential. There is absolutely no reason for The Dirty White not to become an influential force in the region if the band continues developing its music as well as it has debuted it.

The Dirty White will play on Saturday at Ground Zero with Skye Foundation, Jeremy Ray and We, The Aquarians. The show starts at 8 p.m., and the cover charge is $5. You can test out The Dirty White's material (without vocals) as well as some videos on the band's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/thedirtywhite.

Latest release: "The Dirty White" EP

Download this: "Mighty Prehistoric," "We Don't Hunt," "OJ and the Isotoners," "Smoking Jacket"

Rocks like: "Electriclarryland" by BH Surfers, "Evol" by Sonic Youth, "Ultramega OK" by Soundgarden
- Spartanburg Herald Journal